Miles Groth - Böcker

Despite Martin Heidegger’s influence on twentieth-century philosophy, understanding his way of thinking is difficult if one relies solely on the English translations of his work. Since Gilbert Ryle misjudged his work in a 1929 review of Sein und Zeit, Heidegger’s philosophy has remained an enigma to many scholars who cannot read the original German texts. In Translating Heidegger, Groth points to mistranslations as the root cause of misunderstanding Heidegger. Translators have not achieved clarity regarding Heidegger’s fundamental words, an understanding of which is crucial to gaining access to his thought. Having been mistranslated from the ancient Greek into Latin and then into modern European languages, Heidegger’s philosophies have largely been obscured for two millennia. In this unique study, Groth examines the history of the first English translations of Heidegger’s works and reveals the elements of Heidegger’s philosophy of translation, showing it at work in Heidegger’s radical translation of Parmenides, Fragment VI.

In Resituating Humanistic Psychology, Patrick Whitehead and Miles Groth urge psychologists to return to the aims and goals of psychology as it first emerged. Illustrating how the field has veered from its initial conception, Whitehead and Groth trace its growth from the late 1800s to the humanistic revolution of the 1960s to the current period of social unrest. Whitehead and Groth touch on Wilhelm Wundt’s and William James’s vision for the field; the lasting changes made to clinical psychology, methods of investigation, and psychology of learning in the 1960s; and the effects of isolation, extreme connectivity, and social politics on psychology today. This book is recommended for scholars and students of psychology, history, and philosophy.

Medard Boss and the Promise of Psychotherapy reacquaints counselors, psychotherapists and psychiatrists practicing today with the ideas of this remarkable figure in the history of twentieth-century clinical psychology who quietly but radically deviated from the mainstream of standard thinking and practice of his time. It presents an appreciation of Boss the man as essential for understanding what psychotherapy has become and envisioning its original purpose. This study revisits certain events in Boss’s life that have not been sufficiently appreciated but deeply affected the development of his psychoanalysis without the psyche: da-seinanalysis (Daseinsanalyse). The book attempts to establish a terminology for therapy that is clear and consistent with Heidegger’s thought. It provides a rich range of materials for study—texts in translations, a glossary of key terms, and a comprehensive international bibliography—that will be of use in developing an approach to therapy as Boss envisioned it. Medard Boss and the Promise of Psychotherapy concludes with some hints at just what such therapy might look like, one that is based on the author’s own practice. It reflects what can be learned from Boss, both what he said and published and, perhaps more important, what was left unsaid. The book is written for advanced students as much as for established therapists and scholars.

Martin Heidegger’s Impact on Psychotherapy is the first comprehensive presentation in English of the background, theory and practice of Daseinsanalysis, the analysis of human existence. It is the work of the co-founding member of a radical re-envisioning of psychoanalysis initiated by the work of the Swiss psychiatrist, Medard Boss (1903-1990). Originally published in 1998, this new edition of Gion Condrau’s (1919-2006) book acquaints new generations of psychotherapists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts with an alternative to psychodynamic, humanistic and existential forms of the therapy of the word that is currently experience a renaissance of interest, especially in the United States and the UK. The volume presents the basic ideas of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) that made possible this unique approach to psychotherapy. It is arranged in sections on (1) the foundations of Daseinsanalysis in Heidegger’s thought, (2) understanding psychopathology, (3) daseinsanalytic psychotherapy in practice, (4) working with the dying person, and (5) the preparation of the professional Daseinsanalyst. Several extended cases are presented to illustrate daseinsanalytic practice at work (narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder). Since dreaming and dream life are central to Daseinsanalysis, a number of dreams are analyzed from its perspective. Daseinsanalysis originated as a form of psychoanalysis and retains a number of its features: free association, optional use of the couch, and attention to dreams. It differs from psychoanalysis by abandoning the natural science perspective which understands human experience and behavior in terms of causality. Instead, human existence is seen to be utterly different from every other kind of sentient animal life. Taking a phenomenological perspective, Daseinsanalysis is based on letting the existence of the human being in all his or her uniqueness show itself. In practice, Daseinsanalysis avoids intervening in the life of the person in favor of maximizing the conditions in which existence can come into its own with maximum freedom.

Why in the world not? aims to make daseinanalysis accessible to the English-speaking reader while retaining cross-references to the original texts, many of which were written in German. The author does not assume prior familiarity with daseinanalysis, a modality of psychotherapy based on Martin Heidegger's analysis of existence. His purpose is to fill the existing gap in knowledge of the historical and theoretical origins of the modality, its principles of practice, and curricula for the preparation of practitioners. This book is a response to the renaissance of interest in daseinanalysis during the last five years, especially the formation of the American Daseinsanalystic Institute, which takes its place among other institutes around the world. It will be of interest to graduate or post-graduate clinical psychologists and psychotherapists. It will also be an important text for readers familiar with Heidegger but perhaps not aware of his impact on psychiatry and psychotherapy. The volume includes an exhaustive review of the publications of Medard Boss which are, in effect, the written history of the genesis and development of daseinanalysis.