Karl Jaspers And The Biographical Method In Psychology

Karl Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on psychiatry and philosophy. Many experts therefore regard him as one of the pioneers of existentialism. He is also known for being the creator of the biographical method, which has an important psychiatric application.

Jaspers was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1883. He studied medicine at the University of Oldenburg and obtained his doctorate in 1909. He immediately opened his psychiatric practice at Heidelberg University Hospital. He soon became interested in how mental illness was treated during that period.

In 1921 Karl Jaspers became professor of psychology at the University of Heidelberg. Little by little, however, this task began to take up all his time. For this reason, he decided not to work in clinical practice anymore. However, this made him very sad.

Nazism and the Second World War

Karl Jaspers’ wife was the daughter of a Jewish couple. For this reason, and with the rise of Nazism, he was relieved of his position as a professor. World War II was a difficult time for his family. He didn’t get his job back until after the war in 1946.

Since then, Karl Jaspers became an important figure during the German reconstruction. In particular, he was one of the people who was responsible for the restoration of normal education. His main goal was to exterminate all Nazis from German schools.

However, he was soon disappointed by politics in general. As a result, in 1948 he decided to work at the University of Basel. The constant disappointments and the war itself certainly influenced his existentialist perspective.

The biographical method of Karl Jaspers

One of Karl Jaspers’ most important contributions was the biographical method. This method involves asking the patient to explain in writing how he perceives his symptoms .

In other words, he is asked to record his perception of reality. Using this method, professionals were able to understand what was going on in their patients’ minds.

It is especially important because it gives value to the patient’s words, something that is uncommon in modern psychiatry.

Psychiatrists often regard their patients’ words as products of a brain disorder. However, the biographical method gives some value to this “nonsense” and uses it to understand changes in patients’ perceptions.

In addition, Karl Jaspers wrote meticulously about his patients. He also described their symptoms as accurately as possible. He looked for elements in the lives of his patients that would allow him to understand their disorders.

Other contributions

Karl Jaspers also postulated the existence of two types of delusions: primary and secondary. Primary delusions are ideas that manifest for no apparent reason. From a psychological point of view, they are therefore autonomous and incomprehensible.

Secondary delusions, on the other hand, manifest as an attempt to explain irregular experiences and are understandable from a psychological point of view.

Jaspers published his conclusions in his book General Psychopathology. This book became a classic and laid the foundation for future psychiatric developments.

Jaspers also ventured into philosophy and theology. Books like Philosophy of Existence or Man in the Modern Age really made him famous. Unfortunately, Karl Jaspers’ books are hard to find. He was a writer that you can only understand after reading his books several times.

His last years

Karl Jaspers was always interested in politics, religion and philosophy. He therefore wrote several essays on these issues during his life. One of his most interesting essays is The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man.

Many of his works show how disappointed he was in his country. As a result, he gave up his German citizenship in 1967. Then he became Swiss.

He received many awards throughout his life. The most important were the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt in 1947 and the Erasmus Prize in 1959. He also received honorary doctorates from various universities. He died in 1969 as a Swiss citizen in Basel.