'JA, GEISTIGKEIT IST (HIER) ALLES!': DIALETTICA DELL'UMANO ED EPISTEMOLOGIA TRA SIGMUND FREUD E LUDWIG BINSWANGER

In September 1927, Sigmund Freud tells Binswanger “Ja, Geistigkeit ist (hier) alles!” after realising the failure of their treatmet on their patient. With this sentence Freud seems to recognize the need to design a “spiritual” component (a kind of transcendental subjectivity) in the dynamics of psychoanalytic insight. Based on this observation, our work is a study of the historical and epistemological relations between classical Psychoanalysis and Psychiatric Phenomenology (Daseinsanalyse). The analysis focuses mainly on their foundational areas, the respective visions of man and in particular of mental illness. The thesis is divided into two parts and includes the first complete Italian translation of the Freud and Binswanger correspondence. The first chapter is about an historical and critical analysis of the epistemological foundations of classical Psychoanalysis (psychical apparatus, naturalist determinism of instinct/drive theory, the dreams theory and the relationship between art and sexuality). The aim of the chapter is to demonstrate the substantial biologism or naturalism of classical Psychoanalysis. The second chapter is about an analysis of Binswangerian psychiatric epistemology in his relationship with the Freudian thought: after an introduction dedicated to the foundational aspects of Daseinsanalyse, one can identify the point of maximum contrast in the opposition between Freudian “homo natura” and Binswangerian “homo exsistentia”. Then there is some consideration relating to the inability of an “anthropological refoundation” of classical Psychoanalysis. The third chapter looks for a possible “mediation” between Psychoanalysis and Daseinanalyse based on the idea of Geistigkeit (“the Spirit”, “the Spiritual”). This chapter is the most original part of the whole thesis. Starting from the Freudian problem of consciousness the chapter comes to an epistemological critique (based on the philosophical category of “dualism”) of classical Psychoanalysis is that the psychiatric Phenomenology. The attempt to mediate between Psychoanalysis and Daseinanalyse develops from the idea of Geistigkeit and Geist: the mediation seems, however, destined to fail because of the impossibility in changing the theoretical basis of the two approaches. With regards to this, Jung and his assumption of the complementary opposites Geist-Trieb pair could be a possible and effective alternative way. The second part of the thesis (chapter four) consists of a detailed analysis of the Freud and Binswanger correspondence. From this it appears that the failure of the reconciliation of the two theories is replaced by a strong equilibrium in real life: the theme of death, family and personal lives of emerging in the correspondence show that existence and friendship are capable of overcoming the theoretical difference.