Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology
Angaben zur Quelle:
32,2 (2001) 125-146
Keywords:
Binswanger, Ludwig,
;
Foucault, Michel,
;
Heidegger, Martin,
;
Human body (Philosophy)
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
Abstract:
Claims that the analysis published in 1944-45 (in a Swiss journal) by the existentialist psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger, of the case of the self-starvation and eventual suicide of the Jewish woman "Ellen West", exhibited metaphysical racism. His Nazi rhetoric suggested associations with Heidegger (who had an influence on him) and raises questions about relations between Swiss and German psychiatry, which was implicated in Nazi policy during the Holocaust. Notes the failure of Foucault and others to consider the problematic aspects of Binswanger's analysis, including the association of Jewishness with death and Aryanism with spiritual existence. A response by Roger Frie and Klaus Hoffmann, "Binswanger, Heidegger, and Antisemitism" [Ibid. 33, 2 (May 2002) 221-228] defends Binswanger, noting that he had a Jewish grandfather, his sympathy with some Jewish victims of the Nazis, his criticism of Heidegger, his apoliticism, and the fact that his analysis of the case of "Ellen West" was made in pre-Hitler times, when eugenics and racist terminology were widely accepted. Bray replies [Ibid. 228-232] that most of the rejoinder was irrelevant, and stresses that Binswanger's publication was never altered and that he failed to comment on his problematic rhetoric. She finds covert (metaphysical) racism harder to oppose than overt racism, and disagrees that Binswanger was apolitical.
Description / Table of Contents:
Frie, Roger; Hoffmann, Klaus. Binswanger, Heidegger, and antisemitism; reply. Ibid. 33,2 (2002) 221-228.
Description / Table of Contents:
Bray, Abigail. A question of indifference? Reply to Frie and Hoffmann. Ibid. 228-232.
URL:
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