Ludwig Binswanger, the Inspiring Force

Abstract

Ludwig Binswanger, Swiss psychiatrist and deviser of Daseinsanalyse, a project of phenomenological anthropology for the most part inspired by Husserl’s philosophy and applied to psychopathology and psychiatry, was born into a family of eminent doctors and psychiatrists on April 13, 1881 in Kreuzlingen, on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance. His grandfather, likewise called Ludwig, had founded the Bellevue Clinic at Kreuzlingen, which later came to be headed by Binswanger’s father, Robert. The young Ludwig dedicated his university studies to medicine, eventually graduating from the University of Zurich. He also spent semesters at Lausanne and Heidelberg and showed a pronounced interest for the study of the humanities and music. He began work as a voluntary assistant at Burgolzli Hospital, where he attended the lectures of Eugen Bleuler and made the acquaintance of Carl Jung and, somewhat later, Sigmund Freud. Following a period of professional commitment at Jena as an assistant to his uncle Otto, the director of a neuropsychiatric clinic, Binswanger returned to Kreuzlingen where, in January 1911, he succeeded his father at Belleview Clinic, which under his guidance increased its international fame. He continued his activities as an alienist and scholar at Kreuzlingen for 45 years, and in 1956 resigned in favor of his son Wolfgang, in order to dedicate himself fully to the studies that had made him famous throughout the world.