The Centennial of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology
Special Topic Issue: Psychopathology 2013, Vol. 46, No. 5

One century ago, Karl Jaspers published the first edition of his General Psychopathology which may be considered the most comprehensive account of psychopathology with a lasting influence on the development of psychiatry to date. Methodological and clinical issues such as understanding and incomprehensibility, defining delusions, or self-awareness and its disorders are the core matter of 21st century psychopathology. The renaissance of the philosophy of psychiatry at the turn of the century has lent new strength to Jaspers’ project of founding psychiatry on psychopathology. This special issue highlights some of his central concepts from the point of view of modern research in philosophy, psychiatry, and neuroscience with a special focus on methodological questions such as multiperspectivity, understanding and empathy, the psychopathology of schizophrenia, and existential concepts of mental illness and psychotherapy. This edition is of immediate interest for psychiatrists, psychologists, and philosophers who want to know how Jaspers’ opus magnum is seen from the point of view of modern philosophy, psychiatry, and neuroscience.