This volume allows English-speaking readers to take part in an encounter between the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger and the Swiss psychiatrist Medard Boss. A product of their long friendship, this book chronicles their exchange of ideas. Heidegger sought to transcend the bounds of philosophy while Boss and his colleagues in the scientific community sought an enduring intellectual foundation for better understanding their patients and their world. The work affords a unique opportunity to see how Hiedegger clarified and elaborated his central themes for an audience beyond the confines of philosophy - and to see how this audience inspired him to pursue new ideas and new directions. During World War II, Boss came upon Heidegger's ''Being and Time''. Intrigued by both author and book, yet conscious of the damning characterization of Heidegger as a Nazi sympathizer, Boss the physician nonetheless approached Heidegger the philosopher asking for help in reflective on the nature of
