Sentidos

.ENOMENOLOGÍA DEL AMOR Y PSICOPATOLOGÍA
Otto Dörr-Zegers*

SUMMARY
The question posed by this author is how the universal human
phenomenon of love is disturbed in the leading psychopathological
syndromes. With a view to answering this question, he proceeds
first to make a phenomenology of love, for which he will analyze
its spatiality and its temporality. The following step will be toshow the way that these anthropological dimensions appear
deformed both in schizophrenia and in melancholia.
Spatiality of human love
In daily life the space of dimensions remains rather hidden, and
thus the “above” means “on the roof ” and the “below” is
understood as “on the floor”. Every “where” is discovered through
the relationship with things and is not determined by spatialmeasurements. The geometrical space, the artistic or the religious,
etc. are possible because the human being is already spatial from
his/her structure itself as “being-in-the-world”. Now, the human
spatiality has, according to Heidegger, two fundamental
characteristics: das Ent-fernen, which could be translated as “removing”, that is to say, the human being tendency to make
disappear the distances, anddas Einräumen, which has, in its turn,
two meanings: clearing or cleaning, and conceding or giving. The
first corresponds to the “principle of vital space”, origin of
aggressiveness and competence, about which K. Jaspers affirms:
“Every position I conquer excludes some other by claiming for
me part of the limited available space”. Love represents the extreme case of the second meaning: toconcede or to give space.
“Only where you are, a place for me is born”, tells us the poet R.
M. Rilke. In love not only there is no displacement of the other,
but also there is creation of a new space, “our” space, whose most
perfect realization is the embracement. It does not enclose the
danger of fusion and loss of freedom because, as Rilke goes on to
say, “no one can damage the other bylimiting him/her; on the
contrary, lovers constantly give each other space, breadth and
freedom”.
The spatiality of love in schizophrenia and melancholia
The schizophrenic lives in relation to the other with a great fear
of closeness. The other is maintained at a distance through
delusion, inadequate behaviors, eccentric plans or autism. In loving
relationships the closeness of the otherbecomes unbearable for
them and they frequently react in a paranoid way, which is

exacerbated by their difficulty to correctly interpret messages
from the other. The limitation of the loving capacity resulting
from the failure to create the common space, is also revealed to us
in typical triggering situations: love declaration, engagement (the
Verlobunskatatonie from the classic Germanauthors), homosexual
seduction, entry into group organizations, etc., all situations having
in common the fact that the other passes the limits they need to
impose in order to maintain their fragile structure. .inally, it
would be necessary to add that the loss of the ability to meet with
the other in love also means that the world goes from being a
home, a dwelling place, to an abstract geography,a place
threatened by anonymous voices and enemies, where there are no
walls keeping out the alien. Here the very basis of interhuman
encounter itself –the fact of being unique, free and personal- has
been lost.
In melancholia space acquires characteristics to a certain extent
polarly opposite to schizophrenia. It is warm and ordered; it is a
space, where the kept objects retain the pastand avoid change.
The limits between the proper and the foreign are here very
precise, as are too as the ranks governing human relationships.
During the depressive phase this space loses color and perspective
and, although the boundary between the familiar and the strange
does not disappear, the space is reduced, because of a sort of
“inflation” affecting the body, which begins to invade the...