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In this small volume Dr. Boss, Professor of the University of Zurich, does not put Daseinsanalytik in opposition to psychoanalysis, but discusses both directions side by side, pointing out their differences, similarities, and common roots. He tries to prove that Freud's practice of psychoanalysis was based from the very beginning on his intuitive grasp of the very nature of human being and his ability to relate himself to his patient, thus enabling the sick individual to reveal himself as a free, open, and enlightened being. Boss is one of the few interpreters of German existentialism who manages to bring Heidegger down to earth, penetrating through his armor of difficult, idiomatic language.
In the opening chapter of the book the author discusses Freud's psychoanalytic practice and attempts to separate it from Freud's theories which, in his opinion, lag far behind the immediate reality of the actual therapeutic experience. In no way, however, does Boss try to detract from Freud's greatness. On the contrary, Freud emerges as the genius who, by intuitive means, understood many fundamental human processes even if much was left unsaid or distorted by subsequent theoretical “superstructures.” Freud's basic concepts and tools are discussed and evaluated in a special section starting with a brief historical review of the development of psychoanalysis. Boss discusses Freud's discovery of resistance and transference, of free-association technique, dream interpretation, concept of the unconscious, the technique and advice given to his colleagues. The author deplores Freud's tendency “to reduce his fine clinical observations to barren theory with creation of new concepts behind our perception of the directly given qualities of the object to be investigated.”
Boss rejects two of Freud's fundamental hypotheses: 1) That the psychic apparatus is pictured in terms of spatial extension, a sort of telescope or microscope, and 2) Freud's assumption that the acts of consciousness are de