Heidegger and Freud: A comment on the paper “Truth, anxiety and the contribution of Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology to psychoanalytic conceptualization and practice” by Shoshani et al.

Abstract

ABSTRACT My comment on the interdisciplinary study of Heidegger and Freud by Shoshani et al. is focused on the semantic and conceptual differences between these thinkers concerning the meaning of truth and the role of anxiety. Heidegger emphasizes truth as a philosophical goal, whereas for Freud truth is a challenge to study the dynamic functions of the human mind by avoiding predetermined answers. The authors describe convincingly how Heidegger and Freud tread on the same phenomenological terrain. Their approaches differ, however, in their respective goals. For Heidegger, the goal is a new philosophical understanding of the sense of being defined by him as Dasein. For Freud, the goal is to understand the dynamics of the human mind in a two-person clinical relationship. This difference in their goals also implies a difference in their ontological approach. On the other hand, Shoshani et al. highlight the value of Heidegger’s view of anxiety as a trigger that calls for a search for increased understanding. According to the authors, this point is important, as it opens a shared humane way to treat people with severely disturbed mental conditions. In this respect, the understanding of the meaning of anxiety by Heidegger can also inspire clinical work and thereby open perspectives common with psychoanalysis.