Abstract
This chapter analyzes Ichheiser’s unpublished manuscript he wrote about his internment in a psychiatric unit from a psychotherapeutic perspective. His state of mind is related to both the clinical definition of schizophrenia and the condition of persons being persecuted and finally exiled. While we cannot go back to analyze Ichheiser’s mind per se, his manuscript and his life circumstances give much insight into a troubled person that can provide the current reader with examples of how persons migrating and losing their homes may feel in general. Ichheiser’s fate is analyzed from an existential psychotherapeutic approach.
I went away to see an old friend of mine
His sister came over; she was out of her mind
She said Jesus had a twin who knew nothing about sin
She was laughing like crazy at the trouble I’m in
Her light eyes were dancing; she is insane
Her brother says she’s just a bitch with a golden chain
She keeps coming closer saying, “I can feel it in my bones
Schizophrenia is taking me home”
Sonic Youth
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
A milestone in the understanding of “madness” and its social mechanism Michel Foucault’s Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the Age of Reason (1961/1988)
- 4.
He was first based at the Russian front until October 1916 and then was in Italy from March 1917 until July 1918.
- 5.
He did not follow Bühler, but instead he gained expertise in the upcoming and modern phenomenology (see chapter “Who Is Ichheiser?”: A Person Who Failed Himself and the World”).
- 6.
Both wanted to return to Poland, but no evidence reflects that they did.
- 7.
Actually, the marriage did not last long. They divorced 3 years later. In her autobiography, Edith Weisskopf does not even mention the marriage (see chapter ““Who is Ichheiser?”: A Person Who Failed Himself and the World”).
- 8.
He even applied for a job as a janitor. In a letter requesting a letter of reference from Wirth, Ichheiser’s bitterness is evident; “Working as janitor in the Social Science Building would not only provide me with the urgently needed income but, in addition, enable me to sign my publication as a member of the University of Chicago.” (See also chapter ““Who is Ichheiser?”: A Person Who Failed Himself and the World”, pxy.)
- 9.
Unfortunately, the hospital was torn down and no official records reporting on this involuntary institutionalization have been found so far.
- 10.
Heidegger also speaks about the “homelessness” (“Heimatlosigkeit”) of people after WWII on more philosophical grounds. See “Letter on Humanism” (1946).
- 11.
In the light of the current refugee crisis in Europe, the psychological dimensions relating to the phenomena of “uprooting” have become an even more important research area. Undoubtedly, it is not done by giving refugees only a job and a roof over their heads. Housing is only the beginning, not necessarily leading to psychological well-being (see Dietrich & Joerchel, in press).
- 12.
“One speaks of ‘appearances of symptoms of illness.’ What is meant by this are occurrences in the body that show themselves and in this self-showing ‘indicate’ as such something that does not show itself” (Heidegger, 1927/1996, p. 25).
- 13.
- 14.
“The self of everyday Dasein is the they-self which we distinguish from the authentic self, the self which has explicitly grasped itself. As the they-self, Dasein is dispersed in the they and must first find itself” (Heidegger, 1927/1996, p. 121)
- 15.
Even the relationship between an unborn baby and his mother differs in various cultures.
- 16.
Wotruba and Wotruba (2011) believe that dreams are a possibility that “may potentially help to pave their way out of the division between their Present and their Past: their current existence was too abruptly and dramatically split from their past” (p. 119).
- 17.
I was asking myself why a researcher concerns himself with a very special subject. I did not find many relevant articles about this issue in the literature. In his book From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences, George Devereux (1967) discusses this issue.
- 18.
Original: [E]in wissenschaftlich hochwertiges Werk zu schreiben und die akademische Karriere zu machen ist nicht dasselbe (oder irrt hier am Ende der Verfasser?); das wissenschaftliche Sachgebiet, das eigene Wertkriterien besitzt, bildet hier die Leistungssphäre; die akademische Karriere, der Rang, die Bezüge, das mit der Stellung verbunden Ansehen, ist die diesem Sachgebiet spezifisch zugeordnete Erfolgssphäre.
- 19.
Original: “In Berührung miteinander treten also stets nur die sozial relevanten Seiten der Persönlichkeit; die individuell relevanten bleiben im Schatten.”
- 20.
The other two types are (1) a coping type, which “will tend to keep aloof, in order to preserve the integrity of their personality,” and (2) people who “accept the word of roles as the only valid pattern of life, relinquishing any desire for a deeper self-expression” (1949c, p. 67).
- 21.
Ichheiser was quite clear about the reason why the article wasn’t published: He submitted “this certainly relevant document to a number of appropriate psychologic-psychiatric journals. It was rejected under flimsy and irrelevant pretexts, obviously because it cast very serious doubts on the professional integrity of certain groups of psychiatrist by revealing strikingly and cogently their lack of genuine objectivity and their ideological motivated bias” (1966, p. 28).
- 22.
Vorläufer (2016) asks for good reasons: “Can a diagnosis be understood as therapeutical, i.e., as one that does not insult us, but rather one which is the start of a therapy by itself?” (p. 112, own translation) [original: “Kann sich eine Diagnose auch als seine therapeutische verstehen, d.h. als eine, die uns nicht kränkt, sondern die selbst der Beginn einer Therapie ist?”].
- 23.
And that is his job. He has to limit his view to being a “good” doctor. Every doctor has to reduce the complexity and focus only on certain parts of the body.
- 24.
The original German verse reads: “Seit ein Gespräch wir sind/und hören können voneinander.” The translation of Hölderlin’s poem isn’t appropriate. As we will see, there are huge differences between a conversation and a talk. In the original, Hölderlin means “talk” instead of conversation (“Gespräch”). An appropriate translation may be: “Since a talk we are.”
- 25.
Own translation from the original: “Da wir ein Gespräch sind und einander hören. Uns macht aus, dass wir einander hören; uns macht aus, dass wir voneinander hören, was wir sind; was wir sind, erfahren wir voneinander, nämlich unser Gespräch selbst” (Nancy, p. 13).
- 26.
Original: “Jede Konversation ist eine Art von Gespräch. Aber das eigentliche Gespräch ist niemals Konversation. Diese besteht darin, daß man sich am jeweils Gesprochenen entlang schlängelt und sich auf das Ungesprochene gerade nicht einläßt” (2002, p. 182).
- 27.
Ten years after he arrived in the USA, Ichheiser (1966) wrote that “In 1951, that is at the time of my commitment to the state hospital, I was not more emotionally disturbed than, let us say, 5 or 10 years earlier” (p. 22). Thus, Ichheiser implies that he was never able to change the emotional state he was in during his escape.
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Dietrich, S. (2018). Schizophrenia Is Taking Me Home: Gustav Ichheiser’s Uprooting and His Commitment to Psychiatry. In: Joerchel, A., Benetka, G. (eds) Memories of Gustav Ichheiser. Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72508-6_11
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