Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

Chapter 6
Role of Responsibility in
Daseinsanalysis and Buddhism
Belinda Siew Luan Khong
Introduction
Daseinsanalysis (commonly referred to as existential analysis in America) and
Buddhism represent two systems of thought that are seemingly disparate.
Daseinsanalysis as developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Medard Boss is a twentiethcentury
Western form of psychotherapy. Buddhism, more popularly understood as
a religion and a spiritual pursuit, was promulgated by the Buddha around the sixth
century BC. Despite these radically different geographical, historical, and cultural
roots, the philosophy and the psychology of Buddhism (as opposed to the religion)
and daseinsanalysis can enrich each other and psychology as a whole.
The term daseinsanalysis used by Boss for his psychotherapeutic work is
grounded on the philosophy of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Boss’s
(1965) lifelong quest was to learn more about the nature of the human being. He
was dissatisfied with the natural scientific model of the person, and he looked to
Heidegger’s ideas to help him gain a better understanding. Boss’s (1979) intention
was to take the human being out of the realm of the natural sciences into the
existential one. In this respect, Boss was much taken with Heidegger’s ideas and
he collaborated closely with him for twenty-five years.
According to Boss (1963), daseinsanalysis is an approach or a way of thinking
that encourages therapists to understand phenomena as they are immediately
perceived and experienced by clients rather than through theoretical explanations
and hypotheses. So, daseinsanalysts would not ask what the phenomenon
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