Ludwig Binswanger Biography
A Swiss Psychiatrist by the name of Ludwig Binswanger was born on April 5, 1881. He later died on February 7, 1966 in his hometown Kreuzlingen, Thurgau, Switzerland. Binswanger brought a great deal of compassion to the world of Psychology. Dissimilar to prominent philosophers of his day, Binswanger did not find the significance of utilizing the three schools of thought. Instead, he established an approach that assimilated Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Psychoanalysis. Ludwig Binswanger came from a family of well-known Psychiatrists. His grandfather, also named Ludwig Binswanger, in 1857 founded the Sanatorium of Bellevue in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Also, his uncle, Otto Binswanger was a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Jena. Ludwig Binswanger studied at the Universities of Lausanne, Heidelberg, and Zurich. He established his Medical Degree from the University of Zurich in 1907. After receiving his Medical Degree, he trained at Burghlzli Hospital in Zurich. Binswanger later became the medical director of Clinical Psychology at Belluvue Sanatorium in 1910, handed down from his grandfather. In 1907, Binswanger developed a thirty year friendship with Sigmund Freud until Freud’s death. It was recognized that Freud had a arduous time befriending individuals whom did not share similar beliefs and attitudes of his own. Although Binswanger and Freud had diverse opinions about Psychoanalysis, they maintained an extended friendship. According to International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2005), “Binswanger sought to fight for the acceptance of a new theory under Freud’s paternal control” (p.1). After Freud’s death, Binswanger dedicated his first book, Introduction to the problems of General Psychology, to Sigmund Freud. Perhaps the most significant contribution of Binswanger was to systematically emphasize the importance of finding out what a patient means by a symptom, or any other aspect of their expression of themselves. The psychotherapist is never allowed to interpret anything in accordance with a pre-established system of meaning that is of the therapist’s invention. In good phenomenological tradition it is the underlying specific meaning that