Karl Jaspers

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Theodor Jaspers (23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German psychiatrist and philosopher. Jaspers contributed a lot to modern psychiatry: He was one of the first doctors who made a strict distinction between understanding and explaining. Jaspers said that there is only an indirect path to the processes of the soul.

Biography[change | change source]

Jaspers was born in Saxony. Jaspers father was a jurist and after a director of a bank. Jaspers was a "sickly child". Jaspers had from his youth low health from hereditary bronchiectasis which was diagnosed during April 1901, and is a degenerative disease. Jaspers was also diagnosed with "alleged secondary cardiac insufficiency" at some time during his youth. [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Jaspers decided to study law at university, but changed to studying medicine from 1902 and achieved a medical degree during 1908. The subject of his thesis for graduation was homesickness and crime. His entire career as a psychiatrist with patients was approximately six years, after which he quit and became a philosopher instead. [7][8]

Work[change | change source]

The most important thing Jaspers did for psychiatry was writing a book which was published during 1913 with the title General Psychopathology. [2][3]

See also[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Hans Saner "Early life and education" In: Karl Jaspers German philosopher Encyclopedia Britannica
  2. 2.0 2.1 Pivnicki, D. (1963). "Karl Jaspers: On the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday". Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal. 8: 4–11. doi:10.1177/070674376300800103. PMID 13943885. S2CID 36927169.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Thome, Johannes (2014). "Centenary of Karl Jaspers's general psychopathology: Implications for molecular psychiatry". Journal of Molecular Psychiatry. 2 (1): 3. doi:10.1186/2049-9256-2-3. PMC 4223880. PMID 25408913.

    suffered poor health throughout his youth

  4. Oyebode, Femi (2013). "Karl Jaspers: 100 years of General Psychopathology – reflection". British Journal of Psychiatry. 203 (6): 405. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.113.135202. PMID 24446530.
  5. John Donovan medically Reviewed by Minesh Khatri, MD on August 11, 2022 Bronchiectasis WebMD

    long-term (or chronic) disease that gets worse over time

  6. Steven Goldman, Ph.D. "1. Some background on Jaspers" The Psychology of Worldviews: Jaspers/Heidegger Presencing EPIS™
  7. Bachhiesl, S. M. (2009). ""Homesickness and crime"--a contribution of Karl Jaspers to criminal psychology". Archiv Fur Kriminologie. 223 (3–4): 98–107. PMID 19432088.
  8. Thome, Johannes (2014). "Centenary of Karl Jaspers's general psychopathology: Implications for molecular psychiatry". Journal of Molecular Psychiatry. 2 (1): 3. doi:10.1186/2049-9256-2-3. PMC 4223880. PMID 25408913.