Eros, hermes, hermeneutics and depth hermeneutical interpretation .2.

Journal/Book: Anal Psychol. 1997; 28: Allschwilerstrasse 10, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland. Karger. 76-99.

Abstract: The questions raised in the <<Symposium on the Function of Interpretation in Analysis> > [Anal Psychol, vol25, 1995, No. 2] are understood as a hermeneutical problem area. In analytical interpretation understanding stands at the center of therapeutic endeavor. Thus, it seems appropriate to consult hermeneutics, a discipline which in the course of a long history going back to antiquity has reflected on the conditions of understanding and developed a <<theory of interpretation, explication and explanation> > . These questions are posed hermeneutically in that the understanding of hermeneutics is sought in the perspective of a reception which has not been divorced from the horizon of psychological enquiry. In particular Jung's Analytical Psychology, the myth of Eros and the myth of Hermes are included in this horizon. In the exploration of the depth hermeneutical dimension of interpretation various levels of hermeneutics are discerned and summarized as the hermeneutics of relationship, the hermeneutics of conversation (dialogue), the hermeneutics of application and the hermeneutics of finiteness. In terms of the hermeneutics of relationship understanding in psychotherapy is not only understanding in the sense of mutual agreement but involves establishing a common personal relationship to the meaningful occurrences in the psychotherapeutic process. For hermeneutics of conversation dialogue rather than the logic of assertion is the source of understanding. For the hermeneutics of application, what is understood is only really complete when it becomes a cognition lived in the context of the patient's real life, whereas the hermeneutics of finiteness is concerned primarily with epistemological implications. Accordingly, in the work of interpretation, because of the limitations of possibilities of cognition, understanding in psychotherapy is an unfinishable process of questions and answers. Thus, we can never reach a final understanding and are at best only shareholders, never owners of meaning in the sense of an ultimate truth.

Note: Article SchulzKlein H, Leuschnerstr 20, D-71642 Ludwigsburg, GERMANY

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