The problem of space in Ludwig Binswanger's work

In November 1932, the Swiss Society for Psychiatry’s annual meeting was held in “Burghölzli” Psychiatric Hospital of Zurich. On that occasion, the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) gave a lecture about The problem of space in psychopathology (Das Raumproblem in der Psychopathologie). As it is well known, in his work, Binswanger tried to combine clinical psychiatry and psychotherapy with phenomenological and existential ideas. He explains existential analysis as an empirical science involving an anthropological approach to the individual essential character of the human “presence” (Dasein). On this basis, Edmund Husserl’s “life-world” (Lebenswelt) and Martin Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” (In-der-Welt-sein) are the conceptual structures in understanding the subjective experiences of the psychopathological condition. According to Binswanger, indeed, in mental diseases we face modifications in the fundamental structure and being-in-the-world structural links, and mental illness represents an alteration in the lived experience of time, space, body sense, and social relationships. In this context, my contribution aims to analyse the theme of space (and spatiality) in Binswanger’s work. The space is the core of the reflections carried out by Binswanger in his 1932 lecture, but also in others writings like Dream and Existence (Traum und Existenz, 1930), On the flight of ideas (Über Ideenflucht, 1931-32), Basic forms and realization of human existence (Grundformen und Erkenntnis menschlichen Daseins, 1942), Henrik Ibsen and the problem of self-realization in art (Henrik Ibsen und das Problem der Selbstrealisation in der Kunst, 1949), and Three forms of failed existence (Drei Formen missglückten Daseins, 1956). In 1932 lecture, the issue of the constitution of space opens original perspectives in the psychopathological and clinical field and takes philosophical importance. On Husserl’s phenomenology influence, Binswanger analyses the structure and the meaning of the space of the “natural world” as oriented space, geometric space, and physical space. In addition, he considers (on the undoubted influence of Heidegger’s thought) the specific relationship between space, mood (Stimmung) and body in terms of thymic space (gestimmter Raum). Thymic space is a particular form of space that tunes Dasein to its world, resulting from the innermost sphere of Gemüt (not the simple mind, but the disposition, the temperament, the feeling, etc. of the human presence) which is constitutive of his being. According to Binswanger, such a notion of space allows us to understand the psychopathological condition even more fully, as a specific transformation of the thymic space and its symbolic universe.