Over just a few months it could be said that our world has collapsed. Haunted by contagion, many have lost a sense of their future possibilities, if not of themselves. Kevin Aho’s book, published in late 2019, sheds light on problems suffered especially during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. On the basis of a well-informed reading of many of Martin Heidegger’s texts, from the early (1924) Concept of Time to the late (1959–1971) Zollikon Seminars, Aho derives an approach that can be applied to the growing psychopathologies of our time. Along the way, he brings together resources from phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics to argue for a thorough rethinking of biomedical psychiatry in the U.S. His book is a powerful example of transdisciplinary work at its most effective, particularly when applied to urgent problems in contemporary life. The “Introduction,” on “Heidegger and Psychiatry,” sets the stage for the book by establishing a framework for bringing philosophy and psychiatry together. Aho begins by proclaiming that “Modern psychiatry is in crisis” (p. xi). To be sure, there have been significant pharmaceutical breakthroughs in the treatment of mental illness. But at the same time many Americans seem more dissatisfied than ever. As a result, according to Aho, psychiatry itself has been called into question. Questions mount up, especially regarding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which now considers over 365 disorders. For Aho, the main problem with the field is its “biologically based approach that focuses almost exclusively on the use of medications to affect changes in brain chemistry” (p. xi). By contrast, Aho argues for a Heideggerian approach to psychotherapy that brings “the whole person and their irreducible social contexts back into the therapeutic encounter” (p. xii). In order to better treat someone as a whole person, the therapist should put aside the detached, biological emphasis of common practice and value the patient’s first-person perspective.

中文翻译：

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书评：当世界崩溃时

在短短几个月内，可以说我们的世界已经崩溃。受到传染病的困扰，许多人已经失去了对未来可能性的感觉，如果不是他们自己的话。凯文·阿霍 (Kevin Aho) 的书于 2019 年末出版，阐明了在 2020 年冠状病毒大流行期间尤其遭受的问题。 基于对马丁·海德格尔 (Martin Heidegger) 从早期（1924 年）时间概念到晚期的许多文本的深入阅读(1959–1971) Zollikon Seminars，Aho 提出了一种方法，可以应用于我们这个时代日益增长的精神病理学。在此过程中，他汇集了现象学、存在主义和解释学的资源，主张彻底重新思考美国的生物医学精神病学。他的书是最有效的跨学科工作的有力例子，尤其是在应用于当代生活中的紧迫问题时。关于“海德格尔与精神病学”的“导论”通过建立将哲学和精神病学结合在一起的框架为本书奠定了基础。Aho 首先宣布“现代精神病学正处于危机之中”（第 xi 页）。可以肯定的是，在治疗精神疾病方面已经取得了重大的药物突破。但与此同时，许多美国人似乎比以往任何时候都更加不满。结果，据阿霍说，精神病学本身受到了质疑。问题越来越多，尤其是关于精神疾病诊断和统计手册 (DSM)，该手册现在考虑了超过 365 种疾病。对于 Aho 来说，该领​​域的主要问题是其“基于生物学的方法，几乎​​完全专注于使用药物来影响大脑化学变化”（第 11 页）。相比之下，阿霍主张采用海德格尔式的心理治疗方法，将“整个人及其不可还原的社会背景带回治疗遭遇”（第十二页）。为了更好地将一个人作为一个整体来对待，治疗师应该抛开通常做法的超然生物学重点，并重视患者的第一人称视角。