The So-Called Zollikon Seminars: Heidegger as a Psychotherapist

[The reader is referred to the abstract of the previous article by R. Chessick, “Psychoanalytic Peregrinations V: The Zollikon Lectures,” which serves to introduce the reader to the present article.]

When a European gives a lecture in the United States, he usually starts off by apologizing, for example for his bad English; an American on the other hand usually starts off his lecture with a joke. When I (H. Lang) made this comment at the beginning of a lecture at a psychiatry conference in Chile and was followed by an American, he started off by saying that he would now have to apologize for not being able to think of a joke. Speaking today we will have to apologize twice, first of course for our poor English, and second for the topic of the lecture. We know today that the role Heidegger played at the start of National Socialist rule was an ignominious one. The notorious speech given by Heidegger in 1933 on assuming the post of Rector of the University of Freiburg undoubtedly contains fascist remarks. Ten months later, after disagreements with the National Socialist Party, Heidegger resigned from this office and described his rectorship as “the most stupid thing he has done in his life.” At the same time he renounced his involvement in any political activity. Nevertheless, he never apologized for having made a mistake. The psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers said that Heidegger had given in to the political power of National Socialism because of his “yearning for power.” Chessick (1992) also suggested such a narcissistic motivation, which perhaps also resulted in Heidegger never being able to admit publicly to his mistake.

But, does a human being's work have to be commensurable with his person? Freud (1939, p. 211) places the linguistic work of an author above the author himself when he notes that, “the work turns out as it