Herbert Aschwanden

Herbert Aschwanden (born September 25, 1933 in Wängi ) is a Swiss doctor , non-fiction author and humanitarian aid worker .

Life

After his apprenticeship as a film printer (screen printing), Aschwanden completed a medical degree and received his doctorate in 1961 in Zurich. In the same year he also married his wife Rita Aschwanden, with whom he has 5 children.

Aschwanden and his wife stayed in South Africa from 1963 to 1965 . Due to political differences with the apartheid regime , the couple emigrated to Southern Rhodesia , today's Zimbabwe , which was then under British colonial administration . Aschwanden worked there as a doctor for six years at the Musiso-Missionsspital of the SMB (Swiss Mission Society Bethlehem ). This was followed by an eighteen-year stay in Stein am Rhein , where he ran a practice while his children were in school. In 1989 the couple returned to Zimbabwe and Aschwanden worked at the Matibi and Muvonde Hospital until 2013. Aschwanden has been living in Switzerland again with his wife since 2013.

Activity as an author

While working as a doctor in Zimbabwe, Aschwanden carried out ethnological studies on the symbolism of the Karanga, a subgroup of the Shona . With the help of the local nurses, he analyzed the oral traditions and rituals of his patients. He processed the knowledge gained from this in a trilogy consisting of the books "Symbols of Life", "Symbols of Death" and "Karanga Mythology".

Walter Hirschberg wrote about Aschwanden's work in 1977: “There is no doubt that the present representations of the doctor and his nurses may at times be a thorn in the side of anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and psychoanalysts of western style, but they offer so many suggestions to the ethnologist that he gladly accepts some ambiguities in the application of religious-historical terms and unnecessary repetitions. "

The analysis of the Karanga symbolism led him to a new theory of the unconscious, which distances itself strongly from classical depth psychology and places consciousness more in the foreground. He summarized his psychological studies with an ethnological background in his books "In der Fall des Seins" and "The Consciousness: The Roots of the Unconscious in a 'Primitive' Ethnicity".

Help for Zimbabwe

The donation-based association "Aid for Zimbabwe", founded in 1992 to support Aschwanden, focuses on supporting Aschwanden's Muvonde hospital and the associated care for orphans. In a catchment area of ​​over 200,000 people, the association tries to guarantee basic medical care, train staff and secure the food supply, as most of the infrastructure of the country plagued by poverty, hunger and disease has collapsed. In the first 25 years of existence, 65,000 patients were hospitalized, 330,000 outpatients and 3270 orphans received basic care.

Publications

• Consciousness - The uprooting of the unconscious in the analysis of consciousness of a "primitive" ethnic group . Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag (DWV), 2020, ISBN 978-3-86888-157-8 .
• Of the life and death of consciousness. Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag (DWV) , 2016, ISBN 978-3-86888-117-2 .
• In the trap of being - the symbolic world of man and creation. Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag (DWV) , 2019, ISBN 978-3-86888-141-7 .
• The shadow of man - On the nonsense of the unconscious Reinhold Liebig Verlag, Frauenfeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-95234179-7 .
• The original structure of creation. Reinhold Liebig Verlag, Frauenfeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-95233071-5 .
• Black and white / curse or blessing? Reinhold Liebig Verlag, Frauenfeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-95233637-3 .
• Symbols of life - consciousness analysis of an African people. Atlantis Verlag (Hürlimann) , Zurich 1976, ISBN 978-3-76110484-2 .
• Symbols of life: an analysis of the consciousness of the Karanga. Mambo Press, Gweru (Zimbabwe) 1982, ISBN 978-0-86922172-3 .
• Symbols of death: an analysis of the consciousness of the Karanga. Mambo Press, Gweru (Zimbabwe) 1987, ISBN 978-0-86922390-1 .
• Karanga Mythology. Mambo Press, Zimbabwe, 1979, ISBN 978-0-86922450-2 .

Awards

• 1994: Schaffhauser Prize for Development Cooperation
• 1999: The Zimbabwe Medical Association - MERIT AWARD

Web links

• Help for Zimbabwe website
• Herbert Aschwanden: The consciousness, the unconscious and the symbolism of the human being: Of the non-sense of the unconscious

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} The consciousness, the unconscious and the symbolism of the human being: On the nonsense of the unconscious. Retrieved September 16, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Circular 66 of the Switzerland-Zimbabwe Association. November 2015, accessed September 17, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hüt im Gschpröch: Sarah Keller and Dr. Herbert Aschwanden. Schaffhauser Fernsehen , accessed on September 16, 2018 (Swiss German). 
4. ↑ Mark Schiesser: The search goes on tirelessly. October 25, 2013, accessed September 16, 2018 . 
5. ↑ T. Shoko: Analysis of the Karanga trilogy by Herbert Aschwanden. Michigan State University, accessed September 16, 2018 . 
6. ^ Walter Hirschberg in: Anthropological Society in Vienna , Vol. CVII, 1977
7. ↑ Herbert Aschwanden: "From the life and death of consciousness", Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, November 2016, ISBN 978-3868881172
8. ↑ A heart for children - Muvonde. Retrieved September 16, 2018 . 
9. ^ Homepage of "Help for Zimbabwe". Retrieved September 16, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Jeffrey Moyo: Zimbabwe: Economic Crisis Exacerbates Hunger in Cities - UN Millennium Development Goals are a long way off. December 17, 2014, accessed September 16, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Margrith Pfister-Kübler: Building on humanity. Steiner Anzeiger, February 14, 2017, accessed on September 16, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Prize for development cooperation . Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 28, 1996, accessed on September 14, 2018 .