General Psychopathology (Vol. 1) (Volume 1) [Paperback]

Karl Jaspers (Author), J. Hoenig (Translator), Marian W. Hamilton (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 1997

In 1910, Karl Jaspers wrote a seminal essay on morbid jealousy in which he laid the foundation for the psychopathological phenomenology that through his work and the work of Hans Gruhle and Kurt Schneider, among others, would become the hallmark of the Heidelberg school of psychiatry. In General Psychopathology, his most important contribution to the Heidelberg school, Jaspers critiques the scientific aspirations of psychotherapy, arguing that in the realm of the human, the explanation of behavior through the observation of regularity and patterns in it ( Erklärende Psychologie) must be supplemented by an understanding of the "meaning-relations" experienced by human beings ( Verstehende Psychologie).

Editorial Reviews

Review

Karl Jaspers was only thirty when he amassed the data and expounded the methods and interpretations that give his Psychopathologie a place at the side of James' monumental Principles of Psychology. Like James, he later turned to philosophy. He certainly shared James' radically empirical spirit; he documented more systematically the challenge to the methodological imperialism to which psychopathology was subject in his day.

(Peter A. Bertocci Review of Metaphysics )

As long as psychiatric diagnosis and treatment rest on psychopathological investigation, the continuing improvement and sharpening of this tool of investigation must remain a prime concern to psychiatrists. This book is a guide to that technique; still irreplaceable, much of it is still as fresh as the day it was written and still a lively stimulus to others yet to come.

(E. W. Anderson, foreword to the 1963 English translation of General Psychopathology )

Book Description

In his most important contribution to the Heidelberg school, a founder of existentialism critiques the scientific aspirations of psychotherapy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 594 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (November 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801857759
• ISBN-13: 978-0801857751
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars General Psychopathology, May 24, 2008

By 

Mr. David M. Bowker (Cheshire UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: General Psychopathology (Vol. 1) (Volume 1) (Paperback)

General Psychopathology

This two volume work by Karl Jaspers, who taught psychiatry and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and philosophy at the University of Basel, used to be required reading for doctors training in psychiatry. Sadly this is no longer the case in psychiatry and it must be the rare clinical psychologist or other professional in contact with psychopathology who is familiar with these books. John Hopkins University Press is to be congratulated on continuing to make this translation available. In the absence in many instances of demonstrable physical pathology in mental illness or disorder clarity of thinking about such conditions is not achieved easily, and muddle is often evident in the presentation of psychology for the public on television and elsewhere. For example in a recent series on television which addressed the question of normality the basic issue that the concepts of abnormal and normal are not useful or suitable for classifying individuals in psychopathological terms was not addressed. Although quite hard work and requiring a real interest in the subject and a desire to master the difference between understanding and explanation in mental events, and to realise what is known and can be known by enquiry, these books remain largely relevant today.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jasper;s Psychopathology, November 9, 2006

By 

Argie Blue (St. Louis, Mo. - USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: General Psychopathology (Vol. 1) (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Still the most accurate phenomenological definitions in psychopathology.
Dense, a must for all those in the subject.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, December 12, 2007

By 

Rustin Berlow "highestself" (San Diego) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: General Psychopathology (Volume 2) (Paperback)

I am SO glad that this was reprinted, it is a monument of what psychiatric thought can produce. Jaspers presents a clear, deep and useful approach (Phenomenological) to the assessment and understanding of psychiatric patients. McHugh, himself an unappreciated giant (cf Perspectives of Psychiatry), writes an introduction that sensitively places the author and the work in the context from which it arose.