The "We-Ness": A Dasein-Analytical Approach to Group Therapy

Abstract

Beyond the language of medicine and psychology, the essence of many psychopathological experiences remains something that cannot be explained, even if it is possible to perceive it. Phenomenological language in this case must adapt itself to the heart of the lived experience. The phenomenological attitude, in particular, allows us to grasp something that happens before (a priori) the distinction between subject and object. The application of the phenomenological setting to groups of human beings in a clinical and therapeutic context allows us, in spite of its descriptive-contemplative aura, the extreme richness of potentialities, applicative and transformative, of one of the greatest intuitions of modern thought: the disappearance of the fission between the subject, the others and the world-of-life, in the evidence of meaning that the mutual experience of one's own presence (Dasein) opens up. The Mitseindoes not represent the only existential structure that makes the Daseinable to exist with others, but the relationship between the "originary temporality" of the Daseinand the other as "you." Dasein is that entity that is structurally "with" others. And it is in this dynamic relationship that the theme of Sorge unfolds. Care becomes for Heidegger the existential of existential, fundamental ontological structure, indicating the original opening of being, And in this sense, a we-ness-which-cares. This phenomenological approach to group therapy is quite different from the psychoanalytical approach. Indeed, it is based on consciousness and not on the unconscious. The phenomenologist sees the essence of phenomena, he does not use interpretation, whereas the psychoanalyst is more interested in recording the hidden meanings beyond the phenomena. The particular group atmosphere is made up of the following elements: lack of pre-selection, free accessibility into the group unrestricted by rigid rules, less structured actions, the presence of addicts, psychotics and "normal" people side by side. It is very difficult to treat this existential situation, which is characterized by patients frequently dropping out of conventional treatment, the loss of the being-in-the-world structure, boredom, emptiness, dread, anger, lack of meaning, loneliness and isolation. Dasein group analysis (an original interpretation and application of Binswanger's Daseinsanalyse) is here proposed and discussed. Unlike Dasein analysis, this approach applies phenomenology, beyond the classic pair of therapist and patient, to a group of people, in which everyone is simply a human being in the world.

Keywords: Dasein analysis; Group therapy; Intercorporeality; Mitsein; Pathic atmosphere; Phenomenology.