Heidegger and the Zollikon Seminars: The therapeutic possibilities of Dasein (the case of stress)

Abstract

This article presents a series of considerations in favor of the understanding of the therapeutic possibilities of Dasein, taking as a guide the dialogue that Martin Heidegger had with scientists, physicians and psychiatrists during the famous Zollikon Seminars. First, we will review the different reasons and circumstances for which the German thinker, already since the 1920s, shows a marked interest in the field of psychology (especially psychiatry). We will then see the need to redirect the understanding of man's being from modern subjectivity towards the open character of Dasein. Then, it will be shown that this entity possesses the ontological structure of care, whose relationship with the world, the other and oneself becomes crucial to reconfigure the role of the "doctor-patient" or the "analyst-analyzed". Finally, the case of stress (and its link with time) is briefly addressed in order to understand the way in which the therapeutic possibilities of Dasein can be thought of.