Being a Daseinsanalyst – Questions to a Path of Life
Ladies and Gentlemen,
it is with a great honour and pleasure for me, to speak at the 9th Forum of Daseinsanalysis here in Athens. It is my first time ever in this impressive city. I am so happy to be here, feeling the roots of European culture and also the spirit of profound philosophising, which speaks to me out of the past.
This philosophical spirit occurs maybe first in a certain kind of being open, being in the world with the things and the people, feeling the necessity to get to the origin and the essence of all which shows to us. This all comes out of the longing of Dasein for truth. So this city of Athens is really a special place to describe and think over my being-in-the-world as a Daseinsanalyst. What does it mean to me?
Daseinsanalysis is not only a philosophical approach to the world or to my clients in the psychotherapeutic practice. It is far more, it is a tune, a way to live, it is a path.
I will look at the topic from four different perspectives. The first one is characterised trough a personal aspect. How does Daseinsanalysis influence my life, my Dasein? How is my trainee analysis connected with this influence? Is there a kind of personal daseinsanalytical way to be in the world?
The second will describe the working as a Daseinsanalyst with my clients and the third shows the way I feel close to Daseinsanalysis in my working and living as an artist, in my understanding of art and creativity.
Finally I want to say something about the impact Martin Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, especially his anti-Semitic utterings, have on my estimation of his person and his philosophy. I have no answers to this last point yet, but I would like to start the conversation about his deeply inhuman and, I have to say, stupid anti-Semitic utterings, that continued even after the Holocaust. This has a considerable influence not only on me but I am sure also on our community of Daseinsanalysts and we have to deal with it.
Daseinsanalysis is a part of my life, a path of being. It is a special way to be in the world with the daseinsanalytical, the phenomenological view. This view enables me to be open for the experience of the essence of everything, that shows itself to me. This means also making a step backwards to open a space and give the possibility, that things can come to show themselves as they are. As Heidegger wrote in "Being and Time": "To let what shows itself be seen from itself, just as it shows itself"[1] („Das was sich zeigt, so wie es sich von ihm selbst her zeigt, von ihm selbst her sehen lassen”[2]). The Daseinsanalysis helped me to be more aware of that and to become attentive to the being of the beings. If I never got in contact with Daseinsanalysis, my life would be totally different, it would be another life.
My self-concept as a Daseinsanalyst is of course strongly influenced of my long lasting, so called trainee analysis. My identity has been formed during this process. I changed a lot, from a shy, more or less neurotic person to a much more free and vital human being. So to me Daseinsanalysis means liberation, getting more authentic, living out of the ground of my being and in this coming to the world. This can be seen as a process of birth, where in a certain kind of way we get encouraged to free our unique possibilities of being and we become visible as we are. Out of this there also follows a special awareness and respect towards life, people and all the phenomenons occurring on the way.
During the process of my trainee analysis, I have been enabled to let go and let everything come, which appears in my mind. I learned not to censor it and found gradually out, what is characteristic of my existing, of my being in the world. Daseinsanalysis helped me get stronger and at the same time more open to the world, towards people, and to being as it is. I experienced more encouragement to do what I feel, that it is right, and not to listen to the expectations of others.
I learned to make mistakes, and face my errors. Furthermore I realised that I need to accept my failings in order to find my own path. After a while I felt that there is a good ground under my feet, the ground of being myself. I can rely on this ground and it makes my existing strong enough to face difficulties, worries and the profound abyss of being. The strong and trustful relationship to my analyst helped me out of the trap I had been imprisoned since my childhood. This living out of my origin is new and unique every day and it stays a challenge. I experience the breathing movement of the soul, giving and taking, coming in and going out, breathing in and breathing out; out of being towards being. To be touched and carried by being is indeed a happening (Ereignis). You can't gather a better standing, a better stance. I consider my trainee analysis as a kind of new birth. Like a small famished flower I ascended and started to bloom.
And what about the so called bad days and bad feelings? Aren’t they important for a vital life? It is necessary to face this moods as well, they belong to a fully prospering life. And I am deeply aware, that for instance my "Angst" is an indicator of nearness towards freedom. Likewise in a lot of situations sadness is the adequate feeling, it is good to allow, feel and go trough it. To play the whole register of moods or attunements (Stimmungen) means to be fully alive. And there is as many moods as there are colours, they are uncountable.
The studying of Heidegger’s thinking has influenced how I see and view the world and myself as a part of it; it opened my eyes. Now I continue to see and understand the phenomenons around me in a more regardful and attentive way.
I feel the richness of life and I am a part of this richness, I belong to it. I am in, I am the clearing.
Another important aspect of my life as a Daseinsanalyst is the examination of dreams, not only the client’s, but also my own. It enriched my life, finding the ability to understand my dreams more properly with the help of the daseinsanalytical dream interpretation. It opened a window into my being, and it provides another point of view, a kind of foresight to upcoming possibilities and, at the same time, an authentic sight of the present condition of my Dasein. The integration of dreams into the experience of one's self is a deep source of understanding or - which is also good - to come to new questions.
Especially through my dreams I understood a lot about my special way to be in the world and I take very seriously what they are telling me. I love to dream. It is like walking trough deepest lands of my soul and seeing more clearly in the same moment.
But also questioning is elementary. The Mäeutik of Sokrates is a prominent example for this never-ending interest in all, which shows in such. The tune of questioning, it is an original way to be in the world, to look at the world. To ask questions is a part of the conditio humana. The Dasein is open to the world and it is longing for truth, it is here to find into it’s own truth, the authenticity (die Eigentlichkeit). The eternal questions „Who am I“? „Why am I“? stick to the human existence. The Socratic maieutics (die Mäeutik des Sokrates) were a way to break trough, to liberate oneself from false assumptions, prejudices, and from an inadequate and deceiving perception of the self and the world. Daring to ask and face certain questions is a sign of maturity. It needs strength to look into the uncanny abyss of Dasein.
As psychotherapists we went trough a path of confrontation with ourselves, we learned to experience, to explore ourselves. We should be connected to our essential ground, the base of Dasein. To be as mature and free as possible are important conditions to accompany our clients while they find out, who they are, what they want to do, discovering their own and unique way of being. In the psychotherapeutic relationship, the client recuperates. During the process of growing from the ground, the client gains an authentic perspective on his or her own Dasein and the strength to live out of this perspective. This can be seen as a kind of a second birth. So the term „maieutic“ in it’s original meaning fits perfectly to this process and the psychotherapist can in this concern be seen as a midwife, who supports the process to come to the world, to find into a new life.
The relation to the therapist enables the client to gather up courage and to make more and more steps towards his own liberation. The development of the client's personality is possible, because the psychotherapist is open, interested and attentive and he is able to provide a sustainable relationship. The therapist opens a space, that helps the client to come to himself or herself, to find out, who he or she is. Medard Boss speaks of the "psychotherapeutic Eros", which is characterised by unselfishness, self-discipline and deep respect for the unique being of the client. The firmness and the permanence of this stance over the client is not depending on what ever behaviour he or she may display towards the therapist[3]. To provide this, the therapist has to be deeply rooted in life. I think, that does not mean, one has to be always in a so called positive mood, it just means, that he has to be authentic and present. The ability to find the right questions is good, but often it is not necessary to ask them, because the client finds the way to questions himself.
The therapist doesn’t react only out of his knowledge, he reacts out of authenticity, vitality and his being involved and united with the same cause as the client. It is a matter of intuition and loving care. Love is in this matter understood as, I quote out of the Letter on Humanism: "To embrace a thing or a person in their essence [...] Thought in a more original way such favouring means the bestowal of their essence as a gift"[4]. („Sich einer Sache oder einer Person in ihrem Wesen annehmen [...] Dieses Mögen bedeutet, ursprünglicher gedacht: das Wesen schenken"[5]) This all is not an easy walk, it can be painful and exhausting in certain periods.
Being a therapist means to me to face a big responsibility towards my own existence. I owe that not only to myself, but also to my clients.
Being Daseinsanalyst is actually a way to live, to understand and to ask. This openness and sensitivity, which needs always to be kept alive and is important base of my being in the world as an artist. To be addressed (Angesprochensein) is a kind of nutrition for the artistic process. Daseinsanalysis has made me more aware of what happens, when I am putting something into work. It also helped me to get strong and free enough to follow that call of art.
Writing and acting, actually reciting of Franz Kafka’s stories are my artistic ways to express what appears to me. The process of creation is like breathing, like the movement of life. To be addressed and to answer (angesprochensein und entsprechen) in my unique way, means being alive. Like the sea on the beach, it comes in and it goes out, an eternal movement. Being an artist is not only self-fulfilment, it is also a serious possibility to bring truth into occurrence, it means to maintain in the center of the struggle between concealing and unconcealing. I believe, that art can change the world. It brings up a new perspective on certain contexts, and the view of the world is put into question. The unknown, the uncanny is breaking up. In such moments it is possible to become aware of the abyss of Dasein, this can be life-changing. The process of creatio itself is of course deeply fulfilling, if it is possible to succeed and to put the appeal of being into a piece of work.
Writing for me means making plenty of small perceptions every day: looking at the old lady in the subway, her whole life seems to occur in her wrinkled, open face, her eyes are living and she laughs without moving her mouth. If she gave you her hand, you would be astonished about the smoothness of her skin. Or you look at the small kid, walking hundred steps by the hand of it’s mother, who is on her Iphone talking to somebody, not noticing the running, almost stumbling child at her hand. If you are open, you can discover all this. To keep it and to bring it to language, to write it down in a proper way, is profoundly satisfying.
Acting (in my case reciting) is different, it vanishes almost at the same moment as it has occurred. You feel the text is coming up and wants to be spoken in a way only you can provide it. The experience is like being carried, like riding on the text and being rode on. The text or the person you incorporate is showing up and you give your existence as the clearance where what you play can appear. In acting you forget, even abandon yourself, but in a very clear and present way. This is one of the experiences I make, which give me the feeling and the awareness of being on top of my unrivalled possibilities. This means to me to be authentic (eigentlich sein).
Being an artist implies to be very perceptive, aware and awake, it makes me open to the undeceivable power of being. This kind of being in the world I cannot switch off, it is an inseparable part of my personality. And it is very close to the therapeutic view, which is also characterised trough a special way to be open, sensitive and aware.
The African writer, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Ian McCallum impressed me a lot with his powerful poems. He is strongly aware of the vivid, deep-going strength which is the base of our Dasein. I want to read a single line out of his poem "The Rising": "One day your soul will call to you with a holy rage"[6]. I love this simple sentence, because it hits me in the center of my being. I think, Dasein will call for us in this way, when we don’t heed the call of our own being. "One day your soul will call to you with a holy rage". I consider this words also as a description of the psychological symptoms: This is a special way, how the call of conscience is calling, how it is appealing to us. "Our soul will call to us with a holy rage", if we overstay to listen, what being is telling us in it’s silent way.
A Daseinsanalyst knows about the call of conscience, about it’s silence, about the self-loving awareness and the ability to centre, to stay close to one's self. This is the responsibility we have towards life. I don’t think you have to be a Daseinsanalyst to have a true life. But it can be helpful to understand, to see, that it’s about something very simple, that we need no complicated theories, no so called realism which demands, that the world is separated in subjects and objects. Of course, we all are beings as well, but our phenomenological sight enables us to differentiate and to ask for the being of the beings, because it is open, attentive, careful and it tries to overcome prejudices and false presumptions. It is an asking stance; asking understood in the meaning of openness. We just have to listen to the silent call of conscience.
The call of conscience is maybe a good transition to my last question. This again is a question, I just want to ask, and I am not sure about the answer yet. The so called Black Notebooks of Martin Heidegger pose a big challenge for me. I admit, that I don’t know the whole text, but what I know repels me. I would like to ask You, the international community of Daseinsanalysts, how we should deal with it? I think, that we have to deal with it and take the stance. We should be open to discuss it in our own circles and with the broad public. Further I wish to experience the phenomenological view also regarding this concern, looking at the subject without prejudice. In my case, at this present moment this is just a wish, because I am deeply disgusted about the anti-Semitic utterings of Heidegger in those private notebooks, which continue even after 1945. We, the Germans and also the Austrians, the so called offender-following-societies, have a responsibility to never forget and see to it, that anything like this never ever happens again. I have to admit, and I speak only for myself in this moment, that I lost indeed my trust in Heidegger as a person, but not as a philosopher. I don’t dare to overview or even judge his philosophy, but maybe one day I will come to the point of realisation, that also his thinking might be silently contaminated of those misleadings, which made him think about the Jews as he apparently did. As I said before, the international community, but especially the German and Austrian Daseinsanalysts should in my opinion get deeply involved with this topic, discussing it, exploring it and finding a clear position. What is our answer, if our clients and Daseinsanalysis candidates ask for the Black Notebooks? Only very few are interested at the moment, but they exist and come up with questions. To argument, that the Daseinsanalysis mostly bases on the so called early Heidegger of "Being and Time" might be true, but in the ÖDAI in Vienna the late Heidegger, the thinking of "Ereignis" is also important and influences very much our research and our work with the clients. Further I think the argument with "Being and Time" does not help to get rid of the bad taste the Black Notebooks spread all over his oeuvre and especially over him as a person. I hope very much, that we can find into an open and fearless discussion about the Black Notebooks and that we will manage to take position clearly, without idealising Heidegger, but also without judging him too overhastily.
Thank you for Your patience!
Fußnoten
[1] Martin Heidegger: Being and Time, 30
[2] Martin Heidegger: Sein und Zeit, 34
[3] Medard Boss: Lebensangst, 59
[4] Martin Heidegger: Letter on Humanism, 241
[5] Martin Heidegger: Über den Humanismus, 8
[6] Ian McCallum: Untamed, 30
Literature:
Boss, Medard: Lebensangst, Schuldgefühle und psychotherapeutische Befreiung. Verlag Hans Huber, Bern Stuttgart, 1961
Heidegger, Martin: Being and Time. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. State University of New York Press, 1996
Heidegger, Martin: Letter on Humanism. Translated by Frank A. Capuzzi.
Downloaded Document, URL: http://pacificinstitute.org/pdf/Letter_on_%20Humanism.pdf
McCallum, Ian: Untamed. Poems from the Wild. Private Edition. Contact Information:
soitgoes@iafrica.com or www.untamedexhibition. co.za
Heidegger, Martin: Sein und Zeit. Tübigen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1993
Heidegger Martin: Über den Humanismus. Einzelausgabe, 10. Aufl., Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt a.M., 2000
Charlotte Aigner (vormals Spitzer) Vortrag an der Universität Athen im Rahmen des IFDA Forums 2015, publiziert im Jahrbuch Daseinsanalyse 2015