Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:15:26.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

General Psychopathology: Karl Jaspers

A Trainee's View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul J. Harrison
Paul J. Harrison*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There is an apocryphal saying that in order to pass the membership examination of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Jaspers' name should be invoked at some stage, preferably being followed by a comment as to the great significance of his General Psychopathology (Jaspers, 1963) and of how much is lost in translation. Underlying these sentiments is the suggestion that Jaspers is held by trainees in a mixture of esteem and uncertainty. Undoubtedly, although its importance is often stressed, the content of General Psychopathology is less widely known, with the length, complexity and discursiveness of the book making it an intimidating work to read and to understand. However, its position as the undisputed bible of phenomenology and psychopathology means it cannot be ignored. Shepherd (1982) reconsidered General Psychopathology in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and other articles testify to the continuing interest which the book arouses among eminent philosopher/psychiatrists (e.g. Spitzer, 1988; Walker, 1988). In contrast, this paper gives a trainee's perspective on Jaspers' work and is intended to be of interest to others who may be reluctant to approach it.

Type
Columns
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 159 , Issue 2 , August 1991 , pp. 300 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berrios, G. E. (1984) Descriptive psychopathology: conceptual and historical aspects. Psychological Medicine, 14, 303–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berrios, G. E. (1989) What is phenomenology? A review. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 82, 425–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Churchland, P. M. (1984) Matter and Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass.: Bradford.Google Scholar
Churchland, P. S. (1986) Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, Mass.: Bradford.Google Scholar
Fish, F. (1967) Clinical Psychopathology. Bristol: John Wright.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. J. (1991) Are mental states a useful concept? Neurophilosophical influences on phenomenology and psychopathology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 309–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hundert, E. (1989) Philosophy, Psychiatry and Neuroscience: Three Approaches to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1963) General Psychopathology (trans. Hoenig, J. & Hamilton, M. W.). Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1968) The phenomenological approach in psychopathology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1313–1323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraupl Taylor, F. (1967) The role of phenomenology in psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 765–770.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraupl Taylor, F. (1979) Psychopathology (2nd edn). Sunbury-on-Thames: Quartermain House.Google Scholar
McHugh, P. R. & Slavney, P. R. (1983) The Perspectives of Psychiatry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Scharfetter, C. (1980) General Psychopathology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M. A. & Wiggins, O. P. (1987) Typifications: the first step for clinical diagnosis in psychiatry. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 65–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, M. A. & Wiggins, O. P. (1988) Perspectivism and the methods of psychiatry. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 29, 237–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shepherd, M. (1982) Karl Jaspers: General Psychopathology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 310–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, A. C. P. (1987) Symptoms in the Mind. London: Bailliere Tindall.Google Scholar
Spitzer, M. (1988) Psychiatry, philosophy and the problem of description. In Psychopathology and Philosophy (eds Spitzer, M., Jehlein, F. A., & Oepen, G.), pp. 3–18. Berlin: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thines, G. (1987) Phenomenology. In Oxford Companion to the Mind (ed. Gregory, R. L.), pp. 614–616. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, C. (1988) Philosophical concepts and practice: the legacy of Karl Jaspers' psychopathology. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 1, 624–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.