Im Offenen

The first comprehensive presentation of the life and work of Henri Maldiney. Henri Maldiney (1912-2013) is considered one of the most important French phenomenologists of the last century. One reason for the late reception of his work lies in the eclectic, sometimes elusive style of his thinking, which resembles a balancing act between explicit and implicit philosophy. In Maldiney's philosophy, the existential analysis of Heidegger meets a critical perspective on German idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel), psychoanalytic concepts from Szondi, Winnicott, and Lacan, the linguistic theory of Gustave Guillaume, and ultimately also Eastern, Taoist thought. At the center is the idea of the pathic openness of existence, which for Maldiney is inextricably linked to the possibility of going mad. From this, he develops therapeutic approaches. An important voice for psychiatric reform.