Medard Boss Quotes

A collection of quotes by Medard Boss.

Medard Boss (1903-1990) was a Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher renowned for his work in existential psychology and psychoanalysis. He gained international recognition for his innovative understanding and application of existential principles to psychotherapy, heavily influenced by the works of Martin Heidegger. Boss served as a pupil and assistant to Carl Jung for several years, contributing to the development of Jungian psychoanalysis. His seminal book "Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis" remains a significant contribution to the field, emphasizing understanding human existence within the context of lived experience. N/A

The prevailing attunement is at any given time the condition

The prevailing attunement is at any given time the condition of our openness for perceiving and dealing with what we encounter; the pitch at which our existence is vibrating. What we call moods, feelings, affects, emotions, and states are the concrete modes in which the possibilities for being open are fulfilled. They are at the same time the modes in which this perceptive openness can be narrowed, distorted, or closed off.

The borders of my bodyhood coincide with those of my opennes

The borders of my bodyhood coincide with those of my openness to the world. They are in fact at any given time identical, though they are always changing with the fluid expansion and contraction of my relationships to the world.

A watch can only tell us how much time it is, how much time

A watch can only tell us how much time it is, how much time has passed, or how much time must still pass before something will occur. These statements are related not to time itself but only to its measurement or calculation.

Death is an unsurpassable limit of human existence...We disc

Death is an unsurpassable limit of human existence...We discover the relationship which is the basis for all feelings of reverance, fear, awe, wonder, sorrow, and deference in the face of something greater and more powerful...Only such a being-unto-death can guarantee the precondition that the Dasein be able to free itself from its absorption in, its submission and surrender of itself to the things and relationships of everyday living and to return to itself.

When we visualize something, we establish a relationship to

When we visualize something, we establish a relationship to the thing itself, not to some mere subjective representation of it inside us.

Whether he is aware of it or not, every human being dwells i

Whether he is aware of it or not, every human being dwells in tradition and history. Human memory is this constant dwelling in tradition. It constitutes that fundamental human characteristic of historicity.

A new vision and understanding of something demands a new wa

A new vision and understanding of something demands a new way of talking about it, for the old terminology gets in the way of this effort. Stubbornly entrenched behind the words coined by a particular conceptual orientation are its secrete prejudices. Any attempt to open out an adequately human vista onto the phenomena of undisturbed existence must include a critique of the most important idea of traditional biology, physiology, and psychology.

If man did not exist as a world-spanning receptive realm of

If man did not exist as a world-spanning receptive realm of perception, if he were not engaged in this capacity, nothing at all could exist. 'Being,' in its traditional usage, means 'presence' and 'persistence.' To achieve presence, and thereby being, an entity requires some sort of open realm in which presence and persistence can take place. Thus an open realm of perception like that of human existence is the one being that makes being possible.