Contexts of Suffering: A Heideggerian Approach to Psychopathology

164 Pages·2019·1.304 MB·English

by  Kevin Aho

Contexts of Suffering
New Heidegger Research
SeriesEditors:
GregoryFried,ProfessorofPhilosophy,BostonCollege,USA
RichardPolt,ProfessorofPhilosophy,XavierUniversity,USA
TheNewHeideggerResearchseriespromotesinformedandcriticaldialoguethatbreaks
newphilosophicalgroundbytakingintoaccountthefullrangeofHeidegger’sthought,as
wellastheenduringquestionsraisedbyhiswork.
TitlesintheSeries
AfterHeidegger?
EditedbyGregoryFriedandRichardPolt
Correspondence1949–1975
MartinHeidegger,ErnstJünger,translatedbyTimothyQuinn
ExistentialMedicine
EditedbyKevinAho
HeideggerandJewishThought
EditedbyMichaBrumlikandEladLapidot
HeideggerandtheEnvironment
CaseyRentmeester
HeideggerandtheGlobalAge
EditedbyAntonioCerellaandLouizaOdysseos
HeideggerBecomingPhenomenological:PreferringDiltheytoHusserl,1916–1925
RobertC.Schaff
HeideggerinRussiaandEasternEurope
EditedbyJeffLove
Heidegger’sGods:AnEcofeministPerspective
SusanneClaxton
MakingSenseofHeidegger
ThomasSheehan
Proto-PhenomenologyandtheNatureofLanguage
LawrenceJ.Hatab
HeideggerintheIslamicateWorld
EditedbyKataMoser,UrsGöskenandJoshMichaelHayes
TimeandTrauma:ThinkingThroughHeideggerintheThirties
RichardPolt
ContextsofSuffering:AHeideggerianApproachtoPsychopathology
KevinAho
Contexts of Suffering
A Heideggerian Approach
to Psychopathology
Kevin Aho
London•NewYork
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations:WorksbyHeidegger ix
Introduction:HeideggerandPsychiatry xi
PartOne:PhenomenologicalPsychopathology
1 MedicalizingMentalHealth:AHeideggerianAlternative 3
2 Depression:DisruptionsofBody,Mood,andSelf 23
3 Anxiety:TemporalDisruptionsandtheCollapseofMeaning 37
4 MentalIllness,OntologicalDeath,andPossibilitiesforHealing 49
PartTwo:HermeneuticPsychiatry
5 SituatingMentalIllness:OntheValueofHermeneuticPsychiatry 65
6 SituatingShyness:ExtrovertPrivilegeandAmericanSelfhood 77
7 SituatingStress:NeurastheniaandMedicallyUnexplained
Syndromes 91
8 SituatingRage:Alienation,Individualism,andAmerican
Authenticity 105
Afterword 119
References 131
Index 139
v

Acknowledgments
This project could not have been completed without the support from my
colleagues at Florida Gulf Coast University, including Mo Al-Hakim, Caro-
lyn Culbertson, Julia Frank, Bob Gregerson, Miles Hentrup, Joanne Muller,
Rebecca Totaro, and Glenn Whitehouse. I am especially thankful to my
parents,JimandMargaretAho,andmy teacherCharles Guignon,whoread,
edited, and commented on the manuscript in its various stages of develop-
ment. I am indebted to Frankie Mace, Rebecca Anastasi, and the rest of the
excellenteditorialstaffatRowmanandLittlefieldInternational,andtoRich-
ard Polt and Greg Fried, series editors of the New Heidegger Research Se-
ries, for supporting this project. I would also like to express my gratitude to
the following publishers for permission to reprint portions of the following
articlesandchapters.
“Affectivity and Its Disorders,” Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological
Psychopathology, G. Stanghellini, M. Broome, P. Fusar-Poli, A. Ra-
ballo, R. Rosfort, and A. Fernandez (eds.). Oxford University Press.
doi.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803157.013.51,2018.
“Depression and Embodiment: Phenomenological Reflections on Motil-
ity, Affectivity, and Transcendence,” Medicine, Healthcare, and Phi-
losophy,vol.16(4),pp.55–63,2014.
“A Hermeneutics of the Body and Place in Health and Illness,” Place,
Space, and Hermeneutics, B. Janz (ed.). Dordrecht: Springer, pp.
115–126,2017.
“Guignon on Self-Surrender and Homelessness in Dostoevsky and Hei-
degger,” Horizons of Authenticity in Existentialism, Phenomenology,
andMoralPsychology,M.AltmanandH.Pedersen(eds.).Dordrecht:
Springer,pp.63–74,2014.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
“Heidegger, Ontological Death, and the Healing Professions,” Medicine,
Healthcare,andPhilosophy,vol.19(1),pp.751–759,2016.
“Medicalized Psychiatry and the Talking Cure: A Hermeneutic Interven-
tion,”withCharlesGuignon,HumanStudies:AJournalofPhilosophy
andtheSocialSciences,vol.34(3),pp.293–308,2011.
“MedicalizingMentalHealth:APhenomenologicalAlternative,”Journal
ofMedicalHumanities,vol.29(4),pp.243–259,2008.
“The Psychopathology of American Shyness: A Hermeneutic Reading,”
Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, vol. 40(4), pp. 190–206,
2010.
“Temporal Experience in Anxiety: Embodiment, Selfhood, and the Col-
lapse of Meaning,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,
doi.org/10.1007/s11097-018-9559-x,2018.
“Neurasthenia Revisited: On Medically Unexplained Syndromes and the
Value of Hermeneutic Medicine,” Journal of Applied Hermeneutics,
doi.org/10.11575/jah.v0i0.53334.g40666,2018.
“Notes from a Heart Attack: A Phenomenology of an Altered Body,”
Phenomenology of a Broken Body, E. Dahl, C. Falke. and E. Erikson
(eds.).London:Routledge,pp.188–201,2018.
For fruitful conversations and writings that have helped to sharpen many of
the ideas in this book, I am thankful to Havi Carel, Anthony Fernandez,
Kirsten Jacobson, Drew Leder, Mo Mandic, MaryCatherine McDonald, Ni-
colePiemonte,MatthewRatcliffe,PhilSinaikin,JennySlatman,RobertSto-
lorow,FredrikSveneaus,DylanTrigg,andKristinZeiler.Iamalsoindebted
to the faculty and students at the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the
UniversityofTexasMedicalBranch, whereI spentasabbatical as avisiting
scholar in the fall of 2014, and to Suzanne Dickerson and Roxanne Vander-
mause for inviting me to share my research at the Institute for Hermeneutic
Phenomenology at the University of Buffalo’s College of Nursing in the
summersof2018and2019.
Finally, I have an inexpressible debt of gratitude to my partner, Jane
Kayser, whose support, tenderness, and love have been unwavering. This
bookisdedicatedtoher.
Abbreviations
Works by Heidegger
“GA”indicatesthevolumeoftheGesamtausgabe(CollectedWorks).Frank-
furtamMain:VittorioKlostermann.Whereavailable,thelecture/publication
date follows the German title. Unless otherwise indicated, all references are
fromtheEnglishtranslationandpagination.
BP DieGrundproblemederPhänomenologie.1927.(GA24).The
BasicProblemsofPhenomenology.TranslatedbyAlbert
Hofstadter.Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1982.
BT SeinundZeit.1927.(GA2).BeingandTime.TranslatedbyJohn
MacquarrieandEdwardRobinson.NewYork:HarperandRow,
1978.Germanpagination.
CP BeiträgezurPhilosophie(VomEreignis).1936–1938.(GA65).
ContributionstoPhilosophy(FromEnowning).Translatedby
ParvisEmadandKennethMaly.Bloomington:Indiana
UniversityPress,1999.
CT DerBegriffderZeit.1924.(GA64).TheConceptofTime.
TranslatedbyWilliamMcNeill.Oxford:Blackwell,1992.
EG “DerSatzvomGrund.”1928.(GA9).“OntheEssenceof
Ground.”InPathmarks.TranslatedbyWilliamMcNeill.
Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1998
FCM DieGrundbegriffederMetaphysik:Welt,Endlichkeit,
Einsamkeit.1929–1930.(GA29/30).FundamentalConceptsof
Metaphysics:World,Finitude,Solitude.TranslatedbyWilliam
ix