This series of seminars started on 8 September 1959, with a lecture by Heidegger at the University of Zurich. Medard Boss, who would become a close friend of Heidegger, organized them in 1959, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1969. They usually took place at his house. What makes them especially interesting is that the participants were students of medicine and psychiatry. They give the reader a glimpse of Heidegger at work. The main topics of the seminars are care and affect, being and time, the origin of science, and being-there and medicine. This is one of the few texts in which Heidegger addresses the problem of “embodiment” or the bodying forth of human existence.
This book also contains Boss’ notes on his conversations with Heidegger and a large part of their correspondence.