Karl Jaspers

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

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.

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.

Work

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

References

  1. ↑ Hans Saner "Early life and education" In: Karl Jaspers German philosopher Encyclopedia Britannica
  2. 1 2 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. 1 2 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.

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