For ten years and more, psychiatrist and advocate of "medical dasein-analysis" Medard Boss organized seminars in Zollikon, Switzerland, in which philosopher Martin Heidegger analyzed for psychiatrists and psychotherapists the hidden ontological foundations of their science. According to the German philosopher, the interpretation of the basic parameters of human existence and, by extension, the psychotherapeutic practice itself, are now under the control of a completely dominant natural-scientific perception. The distinctive element of this perception is the strict method, which is not just a research tool, but a specific ontology that objectifies beings and makes them mathematically predictable. However, this ontology proves completely unsuitable for the foundation of psychotherapeutic theory and practice.

The Zollikon seminars hold a special place in Heidegger's work, mainly for the following reasons: firstly, it is perhaps the only text of his that thoroughly deals with the philosophical foundation of a science; secondly, they expose the fundamental elements of his radical perception of human beings and the basic parameters of their existence (such as space and time, action and motives, language, relation to other beings and to others, etc.); thirdly, they articulate his philosophical critique of modern science and its tendency towards absolutization; fourthly, they reveal his particular understanding of history; finally, because the philosopher addresses a non-specialist audience here and uses a much simpler and more accessible language, they provide access to his reflection for interested individuals without specialized philosophical knowledge.