Philipp Battermann obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cologne, with his research focusing on Helmuth Plessner’s philosophical anthropology and the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Currently, he is employed as a research assistant at the Husserl Archive in Cologne. His primary areas of research interest encompass generative phenomenology, transgenerational justice, and the philosophy of history.
Philipp.Battermann[at]uni-koeln.de
Research Project
Transgenerational trauma and the aesthetics of historical events. A phenomenological assessment of history that became nature
The doctoral project examines the phenomenology of transgenerational traumatisation in the context of psychotraumatology. It seeks to systematically analyse the ways and forms in which transgenerational traumatisation manifests in the concrete biographies and life worlds of affected individuals. In order to avoid a naturalistic deformation of subjective experience, the late phenomenology of philosopher Edmund Husserl and the subsequent sociology of Alfred Schütz are engaged in a dialogue with themes from psychotraumatology, originating from the work of Sigmund Freud.
The three methodological central concepts that are to be historically and philosophically examined in connection here are “Transcendental Aesthetics” (Husserl), “Life-world” (Schütz), and “Trauma” (Freud). The project explores their interrelatedness, both from a philosophical and historical perspective, with a particular emphasis on investigating the extent to which expressions of transgenerational traumatisation can be construed as experiences of past historical events and how they can be incorporated into or even should be incorporated into historiographical work.
Overall, this work aims to contribute to the integration of philosophical phenomenology, sociological life-world research, and the foundations of psychoanalysis into the theoretical reflection and practice of historical sciences.