Psychopathology and psychotherapy in Jaspers' work and today's perspectives on psychotherapy in psychiatry

Sabine C. Herpertz

pp. 179-185

in: Thomas Fuchs, Thiemo Breyer, Christoph Mundt (eds), Karl Jaspers' philosophy and psychopathology, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

Karl Jaspers looks upon psychotherapy as psychic communication, with the personality of the psychotherapist being the main factor for effectiveness. According to Jaspers, psychotherapy is a process of clarification that helps the individual to become himself. The psychotherapist needs to have insight into the methodological confinement of the psychotherapeutic approach and should continuously reflect on the method he applies. The careful reflection of methodological sources may inspire current perspectives on psychotherapy and the diagnostic process that is closely interwoven with it. In particular, observations have to be differentiated from interpretations. The more meaningful connections can be brought together with facts, respectively, subjective experiences together with objective data, the more one can assume the reality of such a connection. On this background, Jaspers criticized psychoanalysis for confusing observing and understanding and regarded a lack of careful differentiation as the source of a tendency in the 1950s to attribute more and more the character of a faith to psychoanalysis.

Cited authors

Jaspers Karl