Medard Boss (October 4, 1903,

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

– December 21, 1990,

Zollikon Zollikon is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland known for being one of Switzerland's most exclusive districts. Besides the main settlement of Zollikon, which lies on the shore of Lake Zürich, the municip ...

) was a Swiss

psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...

psychiatrist who developed a form of psychotherapy known as

Daseinsanalysis Daseinsanalysis (German: ''Daseinsanalyse)'' is an existentialist approach to psychoanalysis. It was first developed by Ludwig Binswanger in the 1920s under the concept of "phenomenological anthropology". After the publication of "Basic Forms and P ...

, which united the psychotherapeutic practice of psychoanalysis with the existential phenomenological philosophy of friend and mentor

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...

Work

During his medical studies in Vienna, he initiated his psychoanalytic training by undergoing some psychoanalytic sessions with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

, an analysis he later continued at length in Zurich with Swiss psychoanalyst Hans Behn Eschenburg. Also upon his return to Zurich, he trained at Burghölzli Hospital under the supervision of the psychiatrist

Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler (; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", "schizoid", ...

. He then went on to formal psychoanalytic training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute where his supervisory analyst was Karen Horney. While at BPI he studied with Hanns Sachs, Otto Fenichel,

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian doctor of medicine and a psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several influential books, most ...

, and

Kurt Goldstein Kurt Goldstein (November 6, 1878 – September 19, 1965) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who created a holistic theory of the organism. Educated in medicine, Goldstein studied under Carl Wernicke and Ludwig Edinger where he focused on ne ...

. He later went to London, where he worked closely with

Ernest Jones Alfred Ernest Jones (1 January 1879 – 11 February 1958) was a Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst. A lifelong friend and colleague of Sigmund Freud from their first meeting in 1908, he became his official biographer. Jones was the first En ...

for six months at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Back in Zurich he was invited by

Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

to join a workshop with other medical doctors to study analytical psychology, an experience that lasted nearly ten years and helped Boss to see that psychoanalysis need not be limited to Freudian interpretations. It was during the 1930s that Boss also became acquainted with

Ludwig Binswanger Ludwig Binswanger (; ; 13 April 1881 – 5 February 1966) was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). Robert's Ger ...

, who introduced Boss to the works of philosopher

. During World War II, while serving in the Swiss Army, Boss began studying Heidegger's ''Being and Time'' and, upon the conclusion of the war, Boss contacted Heidegger, initiating a 25-year mentoring friendship. Through his study with Heidegger, Boss came to believe that modern medicine and psychology, premised on Cartesian philosophy and

Newtonian physics Classical mechanics is a physical theory describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, and astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. For objects governed by classical mec ...

, made incorrect assumptions about human beings and what it means to be human. He addressed an existential foundation for medicine and psychology two classic texts: ''Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis'' (English version, 1963) and ''Existential Foundations of Medicine and Psychology'' (English translation, 1979). Whereas Boss's older colleague Ludwig Binswanger, is recognized as the founder of the first systematic existential approach to psychiatry and psychopathology, Boss is regarded as having founded the first systematic approach to existential psychotherapy. Other significant contributions Boss made to the literature in

existential psychotherapy Existential psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy based on the model of human nature and experience developed by the existential tradition of European philosophy. It focuses on concepts that are universally applicable to human existence inclu ...

include ''The Meaning and Content of Sexual Perversions'' (English Translation, 1949), ''The Analysis of Dreams'' (English Translation, 1958), and ''A Psychiatrist Discovers India'' (English translation, 1965). Boss saw dreams as coming from a person’s life as a whole, not from a separate “dream state”. He also did not see the “unconscious” as a place where the denied impulses were kept, which was the way Freud presented it.

Select bibliography

* Zollikon Seminars: Protocols, Conversations, Letters (editor; Martin Heidegger, author) (2001). F. Mayr, trans.

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticism ...

. *Existential Foundations of Medicine and Psychology (1979). S. Conway and A. Cleaves, trans. Northvale, NJ:

Jason Aronson Jason Aronson was an American publisher of books in the field of psychotherapy. Topics dealt with in these books include child therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, object relations therapy, play therapy, depression, eating disorders, pe ...

. *Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis (1963). L. E. Lefebre, trans. New York: Basic Books. *A Psychiatrist Discovers India (1965). Wolff. *I Dreamt Last Night... (1977). S. Conway, trans. New York: Gardner Press. *The Analysis of Dreams (1957). J. Pomerans, trans. New York: Philosophical Library. *The Meaning and Content of Sexual Perversions (1949). L. L. Abell, trans. New York: Grune and Stratton. *Psychotherapy for Freedom: The Daseinsanalytic Way in Psychology and Psychoanalysis. E. Craig (ed.). A Special Issue of ''The Humanistic Psychologist'', Volume 16, Spring, 1988.

External links

Brent Dean Robbins' Medard Boss Page
* Zollikon Seminars (at Wikipedia). Martin Heidegger and Medard Boss (seminars, letters, discussions). {{DEFAULTSORT:Boss, Medard 1903 births 1990 deaths Swiss psychologists 20th-century Swiss people Daseinsanalysis Existential therapists Analysands of Sigmund Freud 20th-century psychologists