Citation

Marceau JC. Evol. Psychiatr. (Paris) 2002; 67(2): 367-378.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0014-3855(02)00134-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In the Ellen West case, reported in Schizofrenie, Binswanger examines the question of corporeity in psychosis from the standpoint of existensial analysis. This case involved a female patient whom the author was able to observe for a period of two and a half months at his clinic in Kreutzlingen, but who subsequently committed suicide. The clinical picture was dominated by a symptomatology expressed in the form of mental anorexia. Binswanger describes the patient's mental states, based on the contrast between the worlds of the ether and of the tomb. In comparing these descriptions with those presented in the studies of Groethuysen and Koyré on the works of Paracelcius, we show how Biswanger was able, via a philosophical appraoch to anthropology, to establish a link between bodily phenomena and this patient's perception of the world. Moerover, the comparison made by Binswanger himself and the case of Nadia described by Janet in this study on Obssessions and psychasthenia clearly emphasize the major problem of desire and its negative transformations in the development of the morbid process in these two patients. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Language: fr

Keywords

clinical feature; Corporality; Desir; dysthymia; Ellen West; Existensial analysis; existentialism; human; mental health; perception; psychosis; review; suicidal behavior