Recherches en Psychanalyse – Research in Psychoanalysis 18│2014

18│2014 – Psychoanalysis and Interdisciplinarity – II

Psychanalyse et interdisciplinarité – II

Ludwig Binswanger’s “Path Towards Freud” through

Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry and Philosophy
À travers psychanalyse, psychiatrie et philosophie : le « chemin vers Freud » de Ludwig
Binswanger
[Online] Dec. 26, 2014

Thomas Lepoutre

Abstract:
This article goes back to the dialogue between Ludwig Binswanger and Sigmund Freud in order to
examine the complex relationships between psychoanalysis, psychiatry and philosophy. Studying
Binswanger’s “path” takes us back to an original conflict, even a fundamental misunderstanding, that is
at work between these three disciplines that are of such vital concern to psychopathology. Both the
specific originality of Binswanger’s work, which was in constant dialogue with psychoanalysis, and its
reception by Freud, lead us to call into question the surprising “kinship” between psychoanalysis and
phenomenological psychiatry.

Résumé :
On propose ici de faire retour sur le dialogue de Ludwig Binswanger avec Freud pour réinterroger les
rapports complexes de la psychanalyse, de la psychiatrie et de la philosophie. L’étude du « chemin »
binswangerien a en effet pour intérêt de revenir aux sources d’un conflit originaire, sinon d’un
malentendu fondamental, œuvrant entre ces trois discours intéressant la psychopathologie. Aussi bien
l’originalité propre de l’œuvre de Binswanger, en permanence en dialogue avec la psychanalyse, que sa
réception dans le regard de Freud, conduit à mettre en question l’étonnant « cousinage » de la
psychanalyse et de la psychiatrie phénoménologique.

Keywords: Binswanger, phenomenology, phenomenological psychiatry, epistemology, naturalism,

history of psychoanalysis, resistance, interdisciplinarity
Mots-clefs : Binswanger, phénoménologie, psychiatrie phénoménologique, épistémologie,
naturalisme, histoire de la psychanalyse résistance interdisciplinarité

Plan :
Binswanger Between Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry and Philosophy
The Freudian Binswanger
The First Years: With Freud
The Epistemological Critique: Against, and Totally Against, Freud
The Phenomenological Reform: Beyond Freud
Conclusion

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By examining the threefold conjunction between captured, to be seized upon, by any one of the
“psychoanalysis, psychiatry and philosophy,”1 three discourses that concern us and that
we are reproducing a major examination that remain exterior to him. At most, these
animated Ludwig Binswanger's entire life’s discourses draw him to the side of one influence
work. or another.
Indeed, Binswanger pointed out that he worked Now, the first significant fact in this regard is
precisely at the “crossroads,”2 to use his own that it needs to be said that the man, if not the
word, of these three types of discourse that are oeuvre itself, was split apart very early on.
of concern to psychopathology. This is what Depending on the type of discourse with which
makes Binswanger an overdetermined figure he was invested, people have always tended to
when it comes to examining, on the one hand, take an interest in a particular brand of
the complex relationships between psychoanalysis Binswanger. Thus, there have been three
and psychiatry, and, on the other, between Binswangers: one Binswanger who was Freud’s
psychoanalysis and phenomenology: indeed, pupil, grappling with the defense of
Binswanger represents that moment in the psychoanalysis, laboring away to keep
history of psychopathology when these three philosophy and psychiatry informed of the
fields found themselves close together, as earth-shaking impact of Freudianism, but going
would rarely be the case thereafter, in a astray in the definition of his own project – this
proximity that defines the very epistemic is the Binswanger of the psychoanalysts; on the
identity of Binswanger’s project. other side, there is a Binswanger who was
occupied with clinical tasks and firmly rooted in
Binswanger Between Psychoanalysis, the historical context of German psychiatry at
Psychiatry and Philosophy the start of the 19th century, in dialogue with
Kraepelin, Jaspers, Kretschmer, Hoche and
What is the nature of this project? And how is Bleuler, among others, and letting Freud know
the identity of Binswanger’s research to be that institutional clinical practice was turning its
defined? This is a question that needs to be back on psychoanalysis – this is the Binswanger
posed in all its abrupt clarity as we stand poised of the psychiatrists; and finally, there is a
to approach Binswanger’s text, a text that Husserlian Binswanger, and then a Heideggerian
seems to be endlessly fanning out across several Binswanger, who reached maturity freed from
different fields of competence in its realization, his initial Freudian whims, promoting
to the extent that one sometimes experiences Daseinsanalysis as the reform that would finally
some difficulty in identifying it – as though it and definitively remove psychiatry from the
were refusing to allow itself to be spontaneously criteria of scientificity of the natural sciences –
inspected by an official discourse. this is the Binswanger of the philosophers.3
This “epistemic identity” is exceedingly hard to This triple vision that has affected our reception
assign because the text works between several of Binswanger, the impossibility of forming a
different discourses, but not within any single grasp of him in any comprehensive manner (an
recognized discourse. We need, therefore, to ambition that is itself Binswagerian!) already
indicate here a series of its distinctive signs. illustrates, in a sense, the difficulties of
By this we mean that, without necessarily articulating the analytical, psychiatric and
producing the exhaustive inventory of all the philosophical fields – by forming a symptom
references that Binswanger draws on in the therein. Whereas his oeuvre interests us
psychoanalytical, psychiatric and philosophical precisely for the knotting that it brings about
heritage, we need at least to underline its between the discourses, when taken for what it
eclecticism and to designate the knot that it is, it ultimately appeared to be scattered across
forms. Binswanger does not allow himself to be the three fields of competence – analytical,

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psychiatric and philosophical. Everything There is a further point that it is all the more
depends on which of these fields one grasps it important to underline, in order to elucidate the
from. later meaning of Binswanger’s confrontation
Likewise, this threefold iconography, which can with psychoanalysis: namely, that the distance
lead one to fail to recognize what forms a between Binswanger and Freud would never be
pathway along his intellectual journey, already interpreted as dissidence. At the most, his
tells us something about the relationships “pathway” consisted rather in co-existing
between philosophy, psychiatry and analysis. alongside Freud, more than simply following
him or taking his distance from him.
The Freudian Binswanger Indeed, it turns out that Binswanger held a far
more privileged place with respect to Freud
It is at this point that one is forced to take a given that he is the only person with whom
position by opting in some sense for one’s Freud maintained an ongoing correspondence
Binswanger of choice. As it happens, for our throughout his whole life. They wrote to each
present purposes, we are about to examine the other over a period of some thirty years, from
Freudian Binswanger – which amounts to their first meeting in 1907 right up until Freud’s
examining as much the Binswanger’s Freud as death.
Freud’s Binswanger . Their relationship become much stronger on the
By virtue of the points of clivage mentioned basis of a very particular context: at the turn of
above, nowadays we often forget that the century, Freud felt that he was in “splendid”
Binswanger conducted a reading of Freud prior scientific isolation while psychoanalysis was
to those of Husserl and Heidegger, and that the being kept on the fringes of academic
latter do not efface everything. Of course, by psychiatry; to Freud’s institutional marginality
minimizing the importance of psychoanalysis in there then corresponded the hypercentrality of
Binswanger’s professional formation, in favor of the Binswanger dynasty: three generations of
his own innovation, one devalues what he psychiatrists who from father to son ran a
inherited in order to better clarify the psychiatric clinic of great renown, the Bellevue
foundation. But this is why today we need to Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. At the
restore Freud’s destiny in Binswanger’s writing, time of their first meeting, Freud was already
without presupposing that there is nothing acquainted with Ludwig’s uncle, Otto
more than a disavowal of Freud and that Freud Binswanger, who was professor of psychiatry at
only features therein as an youthful error. the University of Jena, which he defined without
hesitation as a “fortress of orthodoxy.” One can
Once psychoanalysis has held one in its understand that Freud spontaneously turned
grip, it never lets go again; depending on
predisposition, one surrenders to it
the young Binswanger into a sort of
practically or theoretically, unable to deny ambassador, much as he had done with Jung at
4
that it has become one’s life work. the Burghölzli hospital, by tasking him with
being nothing less than a “connecting link with
Here, in Binswanger’s own words, is an original orthodox psychiatry, whose obduracy none of
motivation that no explicative attitude would us indeed wishes to reinforce.”6
ever be able to disavow and that deserves to be But then we come up against the following:
carefully evaluated in order to situate Freud in when one casts a synoptic eye over the whole of
his rightful place in Binswanger’s horizons. This Binswanger’s oeuvre, one nevertheless notices
amounts to decreeing, as it has been remarkably fairly quickly that to the “fight against orthodox
well-expressed by Caroline Gros, that at the psychiatry” on the part of a Binswanger, who
start of the Binswangerian problematic, the had supposedly been invested by Freud with a
impulse “is a Freudian one.”5 diplomatic mission for psychoanalysis, there

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actually corresponds the “fight” of the psychiatrist The second stage, the stage during which the
Binswanger against the psychoanalysis of Freud, Freudian knowledge was put into practice,
which he was only to take on board by utterly aimed to experiment so as to evaluate whether,
transforming it., once it became a matter of in Binswanger’s terms, “Freud was right.” His
annexing it to an “anthropological” recasting of initial practice is thus described as a “technical
psychiatry. Therefore, the question needs to be verification” that sought to ascertain whether
asked: What does Freud make of Binswanger, the Freudian view had a “true aim.” And
and what does Binswanger make of Freud? Binswanger did in fact award Freud with a
This supposes precisely that we follow the glowing grade, since at that time his initial
Freudian reference as it wends its way through skepticism increasingly gave way to analytic
Freud’s life and work. In order to do so, the “conviction.”8 As testimony to this test, both the
short lecture entitled Erinnerungen an Freud first case reports from Binswanger (which,
[Memories of Sigmund Freud], delivered in 1956 moreover, were published in the Jahrbuch; that
for the centenary of Freud’s birth, can serve as a is to say, they were addressed to analysts), and
legitimate guide – since it constitutes the the series of first theoretical texts sought to
autobiographical fragment in which Binswanger place Freud’s work at the cutting edge of
shares with us his official relationship with epistemology compared with the chaos of
psychoanalysis and makes an explicit return to reflections from psychiatry on scientificity.9 In all
his “Freudian career.” of this, Binswanger set about “paving the way
At the very same time, he proclaims in this text for psychoanalysis in medical practice”10 (to
his unswerving admiration for Freud’s gesture state the terms of Freud’s mission as dictated to
and reintroduces Freud by situating him in his him) even though here and there he “might also
own phenomenological reform. Therefore, this have wished that [Binswanger’s] support […]
is a key text for assessing both his constantly could have been expressed now and again in
reaffirmed loyalty and the freedom this brought more forceful and less diplomatic terms.”11 (This
him, through which he reappropriates himself is a formula that of course already calls into
and finds a completely novel motivation for question our own “diplomatic” position when
Freud’s discovery. What is the pathway set out today we work at the interface between
in this text? And what are its themes that have psychoanalysis and psychiatry.)
to be borne carefully in mind at this moment of But it is with the third step that Binswanger’s
restoring the relationships between psychoanalysis true originality comes to the fore and the
and phenomenology? properly Binswangian path gets under way: his
Binswanger himself isolates five stages in his reverential reception of Freud’s work gave way
dialogue with psychoanalysis, which he to his critical ambition, with Binswanger
thematizes at the very start when he is declaring showing, if I may say so, his true colors.
his program, as a “half-century’s battle” with The declared point of departure is a lecture that
“the research style, the research results and the Binswanger attended in 1911 on “The Influence
figure of the research who was Freud.”7 of Wernicke on Classical Psychiatry” – which
gives him the idea of putting Freud face to face
The First Years: With Freud with Wernicke by proposing in turn “The
Influence of Freud on Classical Psychiatry.”
We may perform a rapid overview of the first In order to form a comprehensive
two stages of this “clash:” first of all there was understanding of what was at stake during this
the Bildungsroman, the enchanted captivation period, we need to mention the
of the first meeting with Freud and the “textual” historiographical necessity of embedding
discovery of the analytic doctrine (Binswanger Binswanger’s project in the historical context of
never went through his own analysis). psychiatry at the start of the 20th century –

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which the work of Elisabetta Basso has Gordian knot. In modern psychiatry, it goes
accomplished remarkably well.12 We mean that as follows: considering […] the psychical
processes as “higher” cerebro-physiological
it is necessary to exhume the vestiges of the processes. It is as carefree as the knight
first work, a “Binswanger before Binswanger,” from Lake Constance in the legend in the
15
just as there is a “Freud before Freud” – even if way it leaps over this metaphysical abyss.
this should entail coming across a relatively
According to Binswanger, in contradistinction to
unknown first Binswanger, or even one that has
this approach, psychoanalysis, by finding its
been effaced once and for all by the second
foundation in the concept of the drive, “a
Binswanger (who has become Binswanger
concept on the borderline between the mental
proper) by making the figure of the
and the physical,” promotes a methodology that
epistemologist emerge from behind the face of
articulates the biological and psychological aims
the “Heideggerian psychiatrist.”
by weaving them together in keeping with the
For this first Binswanger, the general idea at
point of view of what he calls a “science of life.”
that time was to call upon psychoanalysis in
This is an eloquent epistemological promotion if
order to address philosophy and psychiatry, as is
ever there were. First and foremost it is eloquent
attested in exemplary fashion by the text from
in as much as one absolutely cannot recognize
1920, which is utterly essential for our purposes:
Freud in it, since Freud thought of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychiatry.13
in apparently much more modest terms as a
In appearance, Binswanger calls upon
science of nature [Naturwissenschaft].16
psychoanalysis in this text as a critical operator
Furthermore, far from being the last word on
with respect to psychiatric scientificity. Here,
the subject of scientificity, this turn to the
psychoanalysis plays the role of a “goad” in the
Freudian contribution in reality finds itself being
sustained examination that he addresses to this
referred back to a premetaphysical condition:
psychiatric scientificity. This amounts to
“In Freud’s drive there lies concealed this
discerning the place of psychoanalysis as a third
metaphysical imp that in psychiatry wreaks its
party in the head-to-head between philosophy
havoc in the cortex.”17 In the guise of this
and psychiatry.
“metaphysical imp,” it is quite clearly the return
The confrontation between psychoanalysis of philosophy that takes its revenge on
and clinical psychiatry is, in our eyes, psychoanalysis and psychiatry. Psychoanalysis
allowing the dilemma that psychiatry
currently faces to emerge in all its clarity. It
finds that it is not spared any more than
needs to decide whether it simply wants to psychiatry is by Binswanger’s philosophizing
remain an applied science, a conglomeration consciousness: thus we are able to understand
of psychopathology, neurology and biology, in extremis why it is that the epistemological
kept together simply by its practical tasks, promise should tend “in the direction of the
or whether it wants to become a unitary
14 phenomenological research stemming from
psychiatric science.
Husserl, a current from which psychoanalysis
This is a position that is rigorously identical to the too can only hope for a welcome revision of its
one that oversaw the Freudian program, for which conceptual foundations.”18 In this breakaway
psychoanalysis had been summoned to “make a towards phenomenology we can see the first
scientific psychiatry of the future possible.” true reproach against Freud coming to light.
Indeed, what might be termed the “critical
virtue” of psychoanalysis allows Binswanger to The Epistemological Critique: Against,
point out that and Totally Against, Freud
[…] psychiatry has been assigned a
research method that has settled the If one looks closely, however, it is even his own
metaphysical problem of body and soul in response to Freud that is being organized in this
much the same way as slicing through the third stage. We may indeed recall that it was

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during his second visit to Vienna, in January ceaselessly put off until later, if not put off sine
1910, that Binswanger was struck by the “low die.
level of metaphysical exigency in Freud.”19 This This was both the ambition and the symptom of
surprises Binswanger to the point of Binswanger’s research during the years from
incomprehension: “One might have thought that 1910 to 1920: not being able to present
the finest connoisseur of the unconscious would psychoanalysis “on the basis of itself,” Binswanger
have also formed a metaphysical idea of it […]. intended to situate it “from outside”22 within
But there is nothing of the sort.”20 the perspective of “general psychological
We see Binswanger during these years, having problems”23 with a highly particular research
gone down the pathof this surprise, taking an methodology:
interest, through metonymy, no longer in Should you agree that I am trying to reach
analytic technique itself, but in an “examination in a conceptual way the same goal that you
of the instrument of this technique.” It was as have approached so closely along the
though he wanted to rectify this “low level of empirical path, namely laying the foundations
for a psychological interpretation of man,
metaphysical exigency” on the part of Freud and then I should be very glad indeed. It goes
to break a heavy silence that was weighing without saying that the empiricist must
down upon the epistemology that was implicit pave the way, but I should be glad if you in
in the Freudian discovery. So, from that point particular appreciated […] that ‘work on the
forth, Binswanger set about producing “a concept’ is important even for empirical
24
research.
theoretical and scientific table of psychoanalysis,
to pay it its rightful homage,” by engaging Aside from the fact that Binswanger seems
himself resolutely not in analytic research but in therefore to be working right where Freud was
an endless enquiry into its “presuppositions.”21 expecting him to, the psychoanalyst can seriously
The Binswangerian intention is thus duplicated have the impression that Binswanger is now
by a kind of “epistemological mission” for effectively setting about observing the instrument
psychoanalysis that aims to set it up on solid – something like the analytic microscope – in
conceptual ground by making it aware of where order to understand its construction and its
it comes from and where it is going. functioning, but to the extent that he forgets to
Thus, far from being interested in psychoanalysis look through the eyepiece!
by conducting analyses, Binswanger opens up At the time we can read Binswanger necessarily
the worksite of a “grand project” for the proto- and endlessly excusing himself to Freud because
refoundation of psychoanalysis, side by side his work is not advancing: it is that, on his side,
with a fresh assigning of the true references of running after the unprecedented aspect of
its origin. This is what he calls “probably his life's Freud’s work that he never manages to grasp
work, his “great work on psychoanalysis:” now, because he has set off from sources that are
this work with and against Freud constitutes the completely foreign to Freud, Binswanger does
most striking aspect of this third step towards not bring his gaze to bear on the thing itself but
Freud since – as he recognizes himself – he was on its presuppositions – thereby opening up a
never to get to the end of it. This research on “path to Freud” that is perhaps more
the “foundations” of psychoanalysis, which demonstrative in its errors than in what it
sought to produce a genealogy, might well have effectively accomplished.
kept him busy for over ten years, but it sank In Binswanger’s oeuvre, the project of returning
ever deeper inter the examination of the to the supposed sources of the variety of
elementary concepts of psychology and their Freudian a priori does not bring him any closer
signification: such that the contribution to to Freud himself: quite the contrary, this return
psychoanalysis that was announced at the leads to a detour that temporarily makes him
outset, and of which Freud was so hopeful, was lose sight of the Freudian unconscious.

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Freud picks this out in dramatic fashion when, in modes and structures of being in the
26
response to the preparatory documents to the world.
book that Binswanger has sent him, he writes: This is a moment of truth in which we can
What are you proposing to do about the categorically identify the Binswanger that we
unconscious, or rather, how will you know, the Binswanger of Daseinanalysis – but it
manage without the unconscious? Has the is at this moment that we lose sight of Freud, in
philosophical devil finally got you in his so far as by “broadening” and “deepening” the
25
clutches? Reassure me.
unconscious, in a word, by transforming it,
Truth be told, this is a warning whose necessity “Freud’s conception” finds itself abruptly
is quite striking given that Freud is addressing dissolved and its vestiges are put down to
someone who means to found nothing less than “phenomenologically demonstrable […] structures
the epistemological base of psychoanalysis! of being in the world.”
Here then is an epistemologist and an ambassador
of psychoanalysis who has forgotten the The Phenomenological Reform: Beyond
unconscious! Freud
The following fact speaks volumes: the crucial
reply from Binswanger, who had been backed In 1922, when the time came to publish his
into a corner by Freud and summoned to take a initial work, Binswanger was nevertheless
position with respect to Freud’s uneasy maintaining that the impulse was a Freudian
questioning as to the absolute limit of belonging one:
to the analytic discourse, has since been lost. I tried to express in the preface that the
Thus we find ourselves being referred back to a scientific stimulation that the pupil receives
response articulated after the fact when from the master goes far beyond the latter’s
Binswanger was looking back on his pathway research domain, and constitutes a general
27
from the perspective of his preoccupations in scientific stimulation for his work.
1956. And with this distance, the response can But this is the whole problem: the “stimulation”
strike one as a disappointing one in that it re- that Freud gave seems to have been carried to
channels, or so it seems to us, the fundamental such lengths that it turns Binswanger far away
misunderstanding by refusing to slice the from the realm of psychoanalysis.
Gordian knot that unites psychoanalysis and the This is the meaning of the confession from
phenomenological project: Binswanger, who recognizes that his project was
Needless to say, I have never “managed leading him
without the unconscious,” either in […] ever further into the problems of
psychotherapeutic practice, which is indeed general psychology and occupied me to
impossible without using Freud’s concept of such an extent that in 1922 I was able to
the unconscious, or in “theory.” But after I publish a large book, the Einführung in die
turned to phenomenology and existential probleme der allgemeinen psychologie
analysis, I conceived the unconscious in a [Introduction to the Problems of General
different way. The problems it presented Psychology], which was supposed to be
became broader and deeper, as it became followed by a second volume that would
less defined as merely the opposite of the have tackled and worked over the problems
“conscious,” whereas in psychoanalysis it is of psychoanalysis itself.
28
still seen largely in terms of this simple
opposition. Heidegger’s existential analysis There is further cause for surprise here: while
[…] takes as its point of departure not Binswanger is working on psychoanalysis – or
consciousness, but existence conceived as
rather, is being worked on by it – for some ten
being in the world; accordingly, the
opposition in question recedes into the years it keeps being pushed back to a later work,
background in favor of a description of the for fear of actually having to engage with it. This
various phenomenologically demonstrable is a case of epistemic procrastination, which
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shows us that Binswanger’s effective grasp of He does not insist on it any the less: in his
the determining aspects of Freudism is being constant epistemological preoccupation, not to
constantly sidelined. mention his epistemological anxiety, he insists
But there was worse to come, at the very least as absolutely on keeping Freud informed “from
far as Binswanger’s psychoanalytic orthodoxy was outside” of what he is, and on warning
concerned: in reality, the “epistemological psychoanalysis that it is firmly linked to
mission” that he had taken on by wanting to offer something that precedes it, so that “it should
a fresh grounding and legitimization for Freud, know that it is merely a wave in an historical
certainly swept him “ever further” into the current that is never immobile […]. Psychoanalysis
problems of psychology, but it also swept him does not have the right, any more than any
“ever further” from the analytic experience itself. other science, to abstract itself from the course
Indeed, there is something striking when one of the history of the human mind.”30
casts an eye over Binswanger’s preoccupations But in the dialogue that he pursues with Freud
at this time – that he did not manage to publish, in order to warn him of the wealth of what lies
but that he did not manage to forget either, before psychoanalysis, which the latter does no
since he insists on testifying in his “Path to more than extend, the most interesting thing is
Freud” text: it is that all the problematics that have Freud’s response. He admits when he finally
to so with “the essence of man,” “the definition receives the book that he had been expecting
of the psyche in Freud,” its “signification” for for so long, not only his lack of interest in what
the problem of the “edification of the person,” is said in it, but above all his disappointment
speak about Freud but not with Freud, even to with regard to what is not said in it:
the extent that Freud does not recognize
Your book has impressed me greatly – but
himself, or does not feel concerned. Binswanger has, admittedly, also been a disappointment
sees this quite clearly: during their brief for it is not what you have repeatedly led
meetings, Freud listens to him politely, but me to expect in correspondence. I anticipated
“would surely have preferred to hear him speak that you would be building a bridge between
about analyses.” clinical psychiatry and psychoanalysis which
31
you would then cross in a second volume.
What is at stake here is quite straightforward: it
is that Binswanger is raising a whole set of Instead of this, far from having played the role
philosophical questions that mobilize Freud but of emissary that he was supposed to be taking up
which are not Freudian questions. The proof of in the “Freudian battle,” Binswanger put himself
this is that Freud declines to reply, simply in the position of having to reply with a vigorous
indicating that it seems to him “that it is not disavowal of an acerbic suspicion of Freud’s:
useful to evoke the deeper problems” – as “nothing was further from my mind than a
though the analyst were arguing that philosophy ‘philosophical neutralization’ of psychoanalysis.”32
is chronically lacking in use when it comes to We may rapidly skip over the details of the
tackling analytical problems, or that it were not questions raised yet never resolved during this
up to psychoanalysis to draw the consequences stage, of which there is an account in the only
from this, whatever their “philosophical text that bears the mark of this period,
signification” might be.29 published in 1926: Erfahren, Verstehen, Deuten
In so doing we notice that Binswanger intends in der Psychoanalyse [“Learning by Experience,
to invest a place that is supposedly vacant in the Understanding and Interpreting in Psycho-
analytic discourse. He conscientiously takes on a analysis”]. What is essentially at stake in this
task that Freud refuses, almost disdainfully, to text for Binswanger is to identify Freudian
acknowledge as pertinent: but it is perhaps the interpretation with a hermeneutic procedure by
case that analysis has no need of such a thing to in some sense inspecting the Freudian discourse
be carried out. by calling upon it to explain itself: “I believe that

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psychoanalytic interpretation and understanding examining a problem, simply presented episte-

are, in principle and historically, highly mological programs for the treatment of
significant extensions and reinforcements of so- scientific questions: “Does reading menus fill
called hermeneutic interpretation and exegesis your stomach?”35 Indeed, as we know, Freud
as practiced and investigated at length, especially placidly refused all the different forms of
by Schleiermacher and Dilthey.”33 “methodologizing” passions, firmly condemning
This new stage consists therefore in installing all “methodological evasions:”
psychoanalysis within a “hermeneuticizing” Those critics who limit their studies to
project as though it had to be recycled into a methodological investigations remind me of
theory of meaning: people who are always polishing their
glasses instead of putting them on and
I have always wondered on what seeing with them.
36
“capacity” or intellectual faculty you think
that this type of “understanding” is really One does effectively get the feeling that
based. The reply: “on the unconscious Binswanger’s methodological preoccupation with
itself,” would be circular and no real
answer. You have to postulate a uniform
offering a foundation for Freud turns him away
intellectual disposition, equal in all people, from the unprecedented dimension of Freud’s
and assume that, provided this disposition work.
functions without personal strains (affective This is precisely the meaning of Freud's
inhibitions), understanding will come about reiterated reminder to Binswanger with respect
by itself. Now it is precisely in this ‘by itself’
that my problem lies. Far more interesting
to the significance of his gesture, during their
to me than making a successful interpretation fourth meeting on the Semmering, in 1927:
and learning something new about someone “Indeed, humanity knew that it is endowed with
else’s unconscious is the problem of what it a main; I had to show it that there exist drives as
is that enables me to make the well.”37 This is a remark that is as vital for
34
interpretation in the first place.
psychoanalysis as it is simplistic: but precisely its
Now, here is the astounding part: here we can ingenious and almost dissonant character when
see, in Binswanger, the epistemological passion compared with the usual level of their
getting the better of the desire to know exchanges only reveals its astonishing necessity.
something about the unconscious. “Far more From where does the need stem that Freud feels
interesting to me than making a successful to remind precisely this to someone who is
interpretation and learning something new supposed to know it very well from elsewhere –
about someone else’s unconscious is the if not from the fact that he has a presentiment
problem of what it is that enables me to make of the fact that Binswanger’s path is tending to
the interpretation in the first place:” this is surely make him once again fail to recognize this truth
a position that is well-founded philosophically that is constantly threatened with effacement?
speaking, but diametrically opposed, so to It is a fact that by intensifying the hermeneutic
speak, to the position of Freud, who willingly project of psychoanalysis, by accentuating its
dispenses with such a preoccupation, this being procedure of interpretation and by minimizing
a question that is not really a question for the his explicative ambition, Binswanger’s text from
analyst. This is just one step away from saying 1926 had, in fact, the effect of fortifying the
that the “question” puts itself in the service of a discourse of meaning, in order to overestimate
resistance. Whether or not one takes this step the discourse of force: but it was precisely the
(we shall leave this interpretative question to reference of the drive that thus found itself
the reader, since in this register one reaches a vanishing in the hermeneutic examination.
conclusion in accordance with one’s desire), It was “message received” on Binswanger’s part,
either way this falls in line with the famous reply who concludes for the fourth step of his
that Freud gave to those who, instead of pathway by completely re-orienting his

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Recherches en Psychanalyse – Research in Psychoanalysis 18│2014

epistemological critique: by following Freud to First of all, we may conclude that we find, firmly
the letter with respect to the scope of the drive, thematized in the correspondence, if not a
it is then his “drive-based mechanicism” that disinterest on Freud’s part for the questions of
becomes the target of Binswanger’s attack: method, then at the very least a refusal addressed
“that which links Freud’s scientific procedure to to Binswanger’s epistemological anxiety. But on
the scientific procedure of clinical psychiatry is the other hand, we find that this silence about the
precisely that both of them ‘reduce’ the essence negative criticism of psychoanalysis is coupled
of man to a naturalist schema.”38 Referring with a second form of mutism that touches on the
Freud back to the model of the homo natura,39 positive project: Freud was never to make use of,
Binswanger was able to conclude that nor even comment on, the “phenomenological
path” opened up by Binswanger.41
[…] contrary to Freud’s conception, being
a man does not mean simply being a
In order to explain this, one can doubtless argue
creature thrown into life who dies in life, that Binswanger did not dare to carry out this
and who is tossed around by it back and work under the eye of the master, and that he
forth, in harmony and discord; it also means carefully held his tongue about his work in this
being a determined being, with one’s own field: indeed, their correspondence testifies to
state, or being established by oneself:
autonomous!
40 the fact that Binswanger was much more likely
to let Freud know about his texts towards Freud
So it is that Binswanger accomplishes his path than to speak about the texts in which he was
towards Freud only to remind him, at the end of becoming himself.
the day, of his naturalist origins, which are But there is more: without replying to
supposed to have been ignored or even Binswanger explicitly, not even inviting him to
repressed – which would give him legitimacy in join his own path, as though he could not see
“interpreting” its fault lines: hence, from this any point to it on the plane of his experience,
point forth, Binswanger’s discourse of suspicion Freud seems to be telling us that he does not
vis-à-vis psychoanalysis, suspecting it of being know what to do with it, analytically speaking.42
secretly complicit with naturalism. This is due to the fact that, whether he denies it
We may pass over the fifth stage, somewhat or not, Binswanger’s enterprise has this effect
artificial, that aims at a “return to Freud” of a de facto: to relativize the “significance” of the
particular type, since after having accused him libido, to put the drive in its place, certainly
of a crude naturalism, it is now a matter of acknowledging it as an active entity but
“saving” Freud – via a philosophy of nature restricting it to its place, and “autonomizing,” to
inspired by Goethe – by recalling Freud’s own use his own word, the existential issue of the
message on the mythology of the drives. This question of the drive.
stage is less interesting because it does not Now, this is precisely what Freud cannot accept,
displace Freud and Binswanger in their relation as is attested in his appreciative response to the
to one another. Binswanger’s axial critique, which he formulates
after Binswanger sends him his “frank avowal of
Conclusion our points of agreement and of difference.”43 The
response is all the more crucial for our enquiry in
Therefore, this is a singular “path towards that it is both unique and definitive: it announces,
Freud” in that it steers Binswanger away from in its cutting dimension, Freud’s refusal to
the Freudian thing much more than bringing participate in the phenomenological “monument”:
him closer to it. Indeed, we are often astonished Of course, I still do not believe you. I have
never ventured beyond the ground floor and
by the extent to which this pathway towards basement of the building. – You maintain
describes the trajectory of a distancing from. that if one changes one’s point of view one
What are we to conclude from such a route? can also see a higher floor, in which there

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Journal of Psychoanalytic Studies.
Hosted by the Department of Psychoanalytic Studies, Paris Diderot at Sorbonne Paris Cité University.
Recherches en Psychanalyse – Research in Psychoanalysis 18│2014

live such distinguished guests as religion, At this point of – secular – disaccord between
art, etc. You are not alone in this; most psychoanalysis and phenomenology, this stands
cultivated specimens of homo natura think
likewise. You see the conservative in this
as the last word, therefore, by which the founder
respect, and I the revolutionary. If I still had of psychoanalysis means to sum up the meaning
a lifetime of work ahead of me, I should of the fundamental misunderstanding that pits
dare to assign a home in my lowly little the respectability of the anthropological edifice
house to those highborn personages. I have against the “basement” of the drive in psycho-
already done so for religion since coming
across the category ‘neurosis of mankind.’
analysis: this is one way of embellishing an
But we are probably speaking at cross image of the fairly unilateral “dialogue”
purposes and it will take centuries before between the “philosophical devil” and the
44
our differences are settled. “metapsychological sorcerer.”

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1
Analyse existentielle et psychanalyse freudienne. Discours, This paper was presented at the colloquium
parcours et Freud. (Lewinter, R. transl.). Paris: Gallimard. “Psychanalyse, psychiatrie, philosophie” that was held at
Binswanger, L. (1957). Sigmund Freud: Reminiscences of a the University Paris Diderot on October 19th 2013
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Friendship (1956b). (Guterman, N. transl.). New York: Binswanger (1920), p. 148.
3
Grune and Stratton. A fine example of this is the recent exegesis by Veysset
Freud, S. & Binswanger, L. (1995). Correspondance 1908- (2013) who considerably “autonomizes” the philosophical
1938. (Menahem, R. & Strauss, M. into French transl.). ambition of Binswanger by dissociating it from his
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. psychiatric practice.

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4
Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to Binswanger, L. (2003). The Sigmund Freud – Ludwig
Sigmund Freud, August 27, 1924” in Freud, S. & Binswanger Correspondence, 1908-1938, Op. cit., p. 182.
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Binswanger, L. (2003). The Sigmund Freud – Ludwig Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
Binswanger Correspondence, 1908-1938, translated by A. Sigmund Freud, November 21, 1921” in Freud, S. &
J. Pomerans, edited by G. Fichter, London: Open Gate Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p.°157-158.
24
Press / New York: The Other Press, p. 172. Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
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Gros, C. (2009). Ludwig Binswanger. Paris: Les éditions de Sigmund Freud, November 21, 1921” in Freud, S., &
la transparence, p. 14. Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 157-158.
6 25
Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig
Binswanger, September 10, 1911” in Freud, S. & Binswanger, August 20, 1917” in Freud, S., & Binswanger,
Binswanger, L. (2003). The Sigmund Freud – Ludwig L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 139.
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Binswanger Correspondence, 1908-1938, Op. cit., p. 73. Binswanger, L. (1957). Reminiscences of a Friendship,
7
Binswanger (1956a), Translated into French by R. Op. cit., p. 64. Translation amended for quotation in
Lewinter as “Mon chemin vers Freud”, in Analyse footnote 2 to Freud, S., “Letter from Sigmund Freud to
existentielle et psychanalyse freudienne. Discours, Ludwig Binswanger, August 20, 1917” in Freud, S., &
parcours et Freud: Gallimard, coll. Tel, 1970, p. 241. Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 139.
8 27
Ibid., p. 242. Freud, S. & Binswanger, L. (1995). Correspondance 1908-
9
Binswanger, L. (1914). “Psychologische Tagesfragen 1938, Op. cit., p. 227.
28
innerhalb der klinischen Psychiatrie”, in Zeitschrift für die Binswanger, L. (1956a). “Mon chemin vers Freud”,
gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Issue 26, p. 574-599. Op. cit., p. 243.
10 29
Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig On this subject, see Assoun, P. L. (2009). Freud, la
Binswanger, January 1, 1911” in Freud, S. & Binswanger, philosophie et les philosophes, Paris: PUF, coll. Quadrige.
30
L., (2003). The Sigmund Freud – Ludwig Binswanger Binswanger, L. (1956a). “Mon chemin vers Freud”,
Correspondence, 1908-1938, Op. cit., p. 55. Op. cit., p. 252.
11 31
Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig
Binswanger, December 3, 1909” in ibid., p. 26. Binswanger, February 7, 1923” in Freud, S., & Binswanger,
12
See Basso, E. (2010). “Le rêve comme argument”, in L., (2003). The Sigmund Freud – Ludwig Binswanger
Archives de Philosophie, Vol. 73 No. 4, p. 655-686 and Correspondence, 1908-1938, Op. cit., p. 162-163.
32
Basso, E. (2012). “From the Problem of the Nature of Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
Psychosis to the Phenomenological Reform of Psychiatry. Sigmund Freud, January 3, 1924” in Freud, S. &
Historical and Epistemological Remarks on Ludwig Binswanger, L., (2003). Op. cit., p. 170.
33
Binswanger’s Psychiatric Project”, in Medicine Studies, Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
Vol. 3 issue 4, p. 215-232. Sigmund Freud, February 15, 1925” in Freud, S. &
13
Binswanger, L. (1920). “Psychanalyse et psychiatrie Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 176.
34
clinique” in Analyse existentielle et psychanalyse Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
freudienne. Discours, parcours et Freud, translated by R. Sigmund Freud, February 15, 1925” in Freud, S. &
Lewinter, Paris: Gallimard, coll. Tel, 1970. Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 176.
14 35
Ibid., p. 152-153. Reik, T. (1940). From Thirty Years With Freud, translated
15
Ibid., p. 140. by R. Winston, New York: Quinn & Boden Co., p. 14.
16 36
On this subject see Assoun, P. L. (1981). Introduction à Ibid., p. 138.
37
l’épistémologie freudienne. Paris: Payot. Binswanger, L. (1956a). “Mon chemin vers Freud”,
17
Binswanger, L. (1920). “Psychanalyse et psychiatrie Op. cit., p. 252.
38
clinique”, Op. cit., p. 140. Binswanger, L. (1956a). “Mon chemin vers Freud”,
18
Ibid., p. 153-154. Op. cit., p. 252.
19 39
Freud, S. & Binswanger, L. (1995). Correspondance 1908- See in particular Binswanger, L. (1936a). “Freud’s
1938, translated into French by. R. Menahem & M. Conception of Man in the Light of Anthroplogy” in Being
Strauss, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, p. 87. in the World: Selected Papers of Ludwing Binswanger,
20
Freud, S. & Binswanger, L. (1995). Correspondance 1908- translated by J. Needleman, New York: Basic Books /
1938, translated into French by. R. Menahem & M. Harper & Row, Torchbook edition, 1963, p 149-181.
40
Strauss, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, p. 87. Binswanger, L. (1936b). “La constitution de la psychiatrie
21
Binswanger, L. (1956a), “Mon chemin vers Freud”, clinique”, in Analyse existentielle et psychanalyse
Op. cit., p. 243. freudienne. Discours, parcours et Freud, translated into
22
Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to French by R.Lewinter, Paris: Gallimard, coll. Tel, 1970,
Sigmund Freud, October 7, 1926” in Freud, S. & p. 200.

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41
One might be inclined to set this indifference as to the phenomenology will always be suspected of being nothing
origin of psychoanalysis in tension with the debates that but an attempt, if not to “philosophically neutralize”
resurfaced one generation after Freud, between Merleau psychoanalysis, then at least to “find a way out without
Ponty and Lacan. On this subject, see Putois, O. (2013). the unconscious.”
43
“Vision et Narcissisme. La théorie de la vision du dernier Binswanger, L. “Letter from Ludwig Binswanger to
Merleau-Ponty au prisme du miroir lacanien”, Recherches Sigmund Freud, October 1st, 1936” in Freud, S. &
en Psychanalyse, Issue 15(1), p. 60-70. Binswanger, L. (2003). Op. cit., p. 211.
42 44
This invites us to gauge more radically than do Naudin et Freud, S. “Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig
al (2010) why the strictly Freudian position cannot help Binswanger, October 8, 1936” in Freud, S. & Binswanger,
but hold phenomenology in suspicion: for psychoanalysis, L. (2003). phenomoenology 211-212.

The author: Electronic reference:

Thomas Lepoutre Thomas Lepoutre, “Ludwig Binswanger’s “Path
Clinical Psychologist. ATER (University Sorbonne Towards Freud” through Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry
Paris Cité, Paris Diderot), EA 3522, CRPMS and Philosophy”, Research of Psychoanalysis
[Online], 18|2014 published Dec. 26, 2014.
Université Paris VII Diderot.
Campus Paris Rive Gauche This article is a translation of À travers
Bâtiment Olympe de Gouges psychanalyse, psychiatrie et philosophie : le
11, rue Jean Antoine de Baïf « chemin vers Freud » de Ludwig Binswanger.
75013 Paris
France Full text

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