Matthias Bormuth 
Life Conduct in Modern Times 
Karl Jaspers and Psychoanalysis

We read, but we are also read by others. Interferences of these readings. Forcing someone to read himself as he is read (slavehood). Forcing the others to read me as I read myself (conquest). 1 Simone Weil Karl Jaspers was born in Oldenburg in 1883, grew up in a liberal-minded banker’s family, studied medicine and was granted a chair in philosophy at the Uni- 2 versity of Heidelberg in 1922. The decisive factor in this appointment was Jaspers’ 1919 monograph Psychology of World Views (Psychologie der Weltanschauungen), 3 which founded so-called ‘existence philosophy’. What is less known is that in 1913 Jaspers had already published an epoch-making methodological systematics, his General Psychopathology (Allgemeine Psychopathologie), which had established 4 him as an authority in the field of psychiatry in the German-speaking world. As a result of this as well as the fact that Jaspers addressed questions concerning physi- 5 sicians’ self-identity, Jaspers is now celebrated as one of the “classic figures of 6 medicine”. 1 Weil (1990), pg. 134. 2 Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) worked as a psychiatrist in Heidelberg starting in 1909, and from 1914 on he held a position as a Privatdozent for psychology in the Department of Philosophy after having completed his Habilitation. In 1920 he was granted an assistant professorship and in 1922 a chair in this department. In 1937 he was forced to retire because his wife was Jewish. In 1945 he was reinstated.

Table of Content

The Critique of Psychoanalysis 1913-1920.- Life Conduct in Modern Times.- Critique of Psychoanalysis in 1931.- Critique of Psychoanalysis in 1941.- The Founding of the Psychosomatic Clinic in Heidelberg 1946-1949.- Critique of Psychoanalytic Psychosomatics 1949-1953.- On the Critique of Psychoanalysis and Society 1950-1968.- Summary and Prospective View.