On the Emergence of Thymic Space in Ludwig Binswanger

The themes of the space is at the center of the reflections that Binswanger led in some writings from 1930 (Traum und Existenz, 1930; Über Ideenflucht, 1931-1932; Raumproblem das in der Psychopathologie, 1933; Henrik Ibsen und das Problem der Selbstrealisation in der Kunst, 1849). Here, the question of the constitution of space takes not only a philosophical undoubted importance, but it opens perspectives in the psychopathological and clinical field. If the Binswanger’s analyses related to the temporality and space of natural world (oriented space, geometric space and physical space) were affected mainly by the influences of Husserl's phenomenology, on the contrary by Heidegger's thought he deepened the relationship between space, mood (Stimmung) and body. Referring to the analyses carried out in Sein und Zeit (1927), Binswanger pointed out that the spatiality of Dasein is structured in different ways compared to the extended and measurable space of the science, being it a space full of qualities . For psychopathology it is not enough, therefore, referring to the oriented space, the core of which is formed by the body (Leib is Körper), which originates the orientation and the different directions, but the form of space must be emphasized – known as thymic space (der gestimmte Raum) – that tunes Dasein to its world, resulting from the innermost Gemüt’s sphere that is constitutive of his being. Such a notion of space also allows to understand, in terms of psychopathology, how the psychotic world is structured as metamorphosis of existence through which the patient experiences a transformation of its thymic space. Through the analyses of the experience of spatiality Binswanger has been able to show that the psychopathological investigation can take the features of an apprehension of the world of the sick as a symbolic form.