In March 1954, Foucault visited the psychiatric asylum of Münsterlingen (Canton Thurgau), on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. Münsterlingen was the chosen place of activity for well-known psychiatrists, including Hermann Rorschach (1910-1913), and it became famous in the history of psychiatry especially through the work of Roland Kuhn, who was active in the asylum from 1939 to 1979. Kuhn was an expert in the Rorschach psycho-diagnostic test, as well as the discoverer of the first antidepressant in the early 1950s. He was also very close to Ludwig Binswanger, whose anthropological approach to mental illness had a strong influence on his own psychiatric practice. It is precisely in order to meet Kuhn and Binswanger that the young Foucault went to Switzerland, at a time when he was interested in philosophical anthropology and “existential psychopathology”. Foucault’s visit took place during the Carnival at the asylum, when the patients leave the hospital wearing the masks that they have made up and created.
Foucault in Münsterlingen: Some Early Sources of The History of Madness
Basso E
2021-01-01
Abstract
In March 1954, Foucault visited the psychiatric asylum of Münsterlingen (Canton Thurgau), on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. Münsterlingen was the chosen place of activity for well-known psychiatrists, including Hermann Rorschach (1910-1913), and it became famous in the history of psychiatry especially through the work of Roland Kuhn, who was active in the asylum from 1939 to 1979. Kuhn was an expert in the Rorschach psycho-diagnostic test, as well as the discoverer of the first antidepressant in the early 1950s. He was also very close to Ludwig Binswanger, whose anthropological approach to mental illness had a strong influence on his own psychiatric practice. It is precisely in order to meet Kuhn and Binswanger that the young Foucault went to Switzerland, at a time when he was interested in philosophical anthropology and “existential psychopathology”. Foucault’s visit took place during the Carnival at the asylum, when the patients leave the hospital wearing the masks that they have made up and created.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
