Did Karl Jaspers miss psychiatry or is psychiatry missing Jaspers' legacy?

摘要

The approach to modern psychiatric diagnosis originated from the work of Karl Jaspers (1). His Allgemeine Psychopathologie (General Psychopathology, GP) was first published in 1913. The first English translation appeared in 1963, but by this time, it expanded and progressed to the seventh edition (2). Arguably the English translation of the late edition provides no gateway to the panoramic view of the early 20th-century philosophical construction and deconstruction and Jaspers' original thinking (for e.g., in GP footnotes referring to Husserl's phenomenology disappeared over decades) (3). However, for many readers, only the English translation of the late edition is available. Writing one-page note on Jaspers' vast and complex work is a daunting task. Nevertheless, it is a necessary one, and this letter attempts to brief essential concepts and their place in current practice along with dramatic turns in Jaspers' life.