Leibgedächtnis und Unbewusstes

Article

Abstract

[In German]

In traditional psychoanalysis the unconscious was conceived as a primary intra-psychic reality, hidden ‘below consciousness’ and only accessible to a ‘depth psychology’ based on metapsychological premises and concepts. In contrast to this vertical conception, the paper presents a phenomenological approach to the unconscious as a horizontal dimension of the lived body, lived space and intercorporeality. It manifests itself particularly in the ‘blind spots’ of a person’s performance and behaviour, in actions that she avoids or in possibilities that she hides from herself. This approach is based on a phenomenology of body memory which is defined as the totality of implicit dispositions of perception and behaviour mediated by the body and sedimented in the course of earlier experiences.