The Cultural Ambiance of Contemporary Psychoanalysis: A View from Heidegger's Study of Hölderlin's Hymn, “The Ister”

Abstract

This article introduces the reader to an alternative method of gathering the truth about the ambiance of our contemporary world, the surround in which both the patient and psychoanalyst are immersed. It introduces the method of Heidegger and illustrates it by his published work on Hölderlin's poem "The Ister." This method, which Heidegger calls "poetizing" will be unfamiliar to most scientists but it has achieved great influence in continental philosophy, psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis. It reveals the mode of Being that we are all currently immersed in, the spirit of technicity. Psychoanalysts must become aware of the immersion in this spirit of technicity both of themselves and their patients, as well as the immersion of their contemporary culture in it, and of the effect this has on both the psychotherapist's countertransference and the patient's and psychotherapist's notion of what constitutes mental health and the goals of psychoanalysis. Emphasis is placed on the value of intuition, reverie, and the arts as sources of knowledge about the patient in the psychoanalytic consulting room that is not obtained by empirical science.