Phenomenology, intentionality, and mental experiences: Edmund Husserl's Logische Untersuchungen and the first edition of Karl Jaspers's Allgemeine Psychopathologie

History of Psychiatry

Volumn 6, Issue 22, 1995, Pages 209-224

  Langenbach, Michael ^a  

^a HEINRICH HEINE UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; GERMANY; HISTORY; HISTORY OF MEDICINE; HUMAN; MENTAL DISEASE; PHILOSOPHY; PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY;

GERMANY; HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 19TH CENT.; HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 20TH CENT.; HUMAN; PHILOSOPHY; PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY; PSYCHOPATHOLOGY;

EID: 0029317638     PISSN: 0957154X     EISSN: 17402360     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0957154X9500602206     Document Type: Article

References (167)

1. Karl Jaspers, Allgemeine Psychopathologie (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1913).
2. Manfred Spitzer, ‘Why philosophy?’ In M. Spitzer and B. A. Maher (eds), Philosophy and Psychopathology (New York: Springer, 1990), 3–18.
3. Chris Wllker, ‘Philosophical concepts and practice: the legacy of Karl Jaspers' psychopathology’, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, i (1988), 624–629.
4. Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement. A Historical Introduction. 3rd edition (The Hague/ Boston/ London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982), xxi.
5. Edmund Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen (1st edition 1900/1901 and 2nd edition 1913/21), Volume I, Husserliana xviii (1975). Volume II, Part 1, Husserliana xix/1 (1984) and Part 2, xix/2 (1984) (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers). (In the following the first edition will be cited by the grammalogue A, with the concordant pages of the complete Husserl edition Husserliana cited by the grammalogue Hua.)
6. Oswald Bumke, ‘Ziele, Wege und Grenzen der psychiatrischen Forschung’. In Bumke (ed.), Handbuch der Geisteskrankheiten, I (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928), 1–10, 6.
7. Kurt Schneider, ‘25 Jahre “Allgemeine Psychopathologie” von Karl Jaspers’. Der Nervenarzt, xi (1938), 281–283.
8. Kurt Schneider, ‘Die phanomenologische Richtung in der Psychiatrie’. Philosophischer Anzeiger, i (1926), 382–404. Schneider himself prefers the phenomenological concepts of his philosophical teachers at Cologne, Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann.
9. Ludwig Binswanger, ‘Karl Jaspers und die Psychaatrie’. Schweizer Archiv fur Neurologie und Psychiatrie, li (1943), 1–13.
10. German E. Berrios, ‘Descriptive psychopathology: conceptual and historical aspects’. Psychological Medicine, xiv (1984), 303–313.
11. German E. Berrios, ‘What is phenomenology? A review’. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, lxxxii (1989), 425–428.
12. German E. Berrios, ‘Phenomenology, psychopathology and Jaspers: a conceptual history’. History of Psychiatry, iii (1992), 303–327.
13. F. A. Uehlein and G. Oepen (eds), Psychopathology and Philosophy (Berlin: Springer, 1988), 3–18.
14. Manfred Spitzer, ‘Why Philosophy?’ In M. Spitzer and B. A. Maher (eds), Philosophy and Psychopathology (New York: Springer, 1990), 3–18.
15. Manfred Spitzer, ‘Psychiatry, philosophy and the problem of description’, In M. Spitzer, F. A. Uehlein and G. Oepen (eds), Psychopathology and Philosophy (Berlin: Springer, 1988), 3–18.
16. Gerd Huber, Psychiatrie. Systematischer Lehrtext für Studenten und Arzte, 4th edition (Stuttgart: Schattauer, 1987), 4.
17. Klaus Conrad, ‘Das Unbewuβte als phanomenologisches Problem’. Fortschrztte der Neurologie, Psychiatrie und ihrer Grenzgebiete, xxv (1957), 56–73.
18. Hans Heimann, ‘Der Einfluβ von Karl Jaspers auf die Psychopathologie’. Monatsschrift fur Psychiatrie und Neurologie, cxx (1950), 1–20.
19. Jeanne Hersch, Karl Jaspers (Lausanne: Editions L'Age d'Homme SA, 1978).
20. Wolfram Schmttt, ‘Karl Jaspers und die Methodenfrage in der Psychattrie’. In W.Janzarik (ed.), Psychopathologie als Grundlagenwsssenschaft (Stuttgart: Enke, 1979), 74–82.
21. Michael Shepherd, ‘Karl Jaspers: General Psychopathology’. British Journal of Psychiatry, cxli (1982), 310–312.
22. Wolfram Schmttt, ‘Karl Jaspers als Psychiater und sein Einfluβ auf die Psychaatrie’. In Joachim-Felix Leonhard (ed.), Karl Jaspers in seiner Heidelberger Zeit (Heidelberg: Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt, Heidelberger Bibliotheksschriften 8, 1983), 23–82.
23. Achim Thorn and K. Weise, ‘Der Beitrag von Karl Jaspers zur Entwicklung der Psychiatrie’. In Hans-Dietrich Gerlach and S. Mocek (eds), Karl Jaspers (1883–1969).
24. Eine marxistischleninistische Auseinandersetzung mit Jaspers'philosophischem, politischem und medizinischem Werk (Halle/Saale: Kongreβ- und Tagungsberichte der Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, 1984), 185–194.
25. Wolfgang Blankenburg, ‘Unausgeschopftes in der Psychopathologie von Karl Jaspers’. In Jeanne Hersch, J. M. Lochman and R. Wiehl (eds), Karl Jaspers. Philosoph, Arzt, politischer Denker (Munchen: Piper, 1986), 127–60. Interestingly, he reproaches Jaspers for his dismissal of Husserl's ‘eidetic phenomenology’.
26. Johann Glatzel, ‘Die Psychopathologie Karl Jaspers' in der Kiitik’. In Jeanne Hersch, J. M. Lochman and R. Wiehl (eds), Karl Jaspers. Phzlosoph, Arzt, politischer Denker (Munchen: Piper, 1986), 161–178.
27. Werner Janzarik, ‘Jaspers, Kurt Schneider und die Heidelberger Psychopathologie’. In Jeanne Hersch, J. M. Lochman and R. Wiehl (eds), Karl Jaspers. Philosoph, Arzt, politischer Denker (Munchen: Piper, 1986), 112–126.
28. German E. Berrios, ‘Phenomenology, psychopathology and Jaspers: a conceptual history’. History of Psychiatry, iii (1992), 303–327.
29. Karl Jaspers, Allgemeine Psychopathologie, 4th edition (Berlin: Springer, 1946), preface to fourth edition.
30. German E. Berrios, ‘Phenomenllogy, psychopathology and Jaspers: a conceptual history’. History of Psychiatry, iii (1992), 303–327.
31. Hans Saner, Karl Jaspers mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten (Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1991), 32.
32. The earliest quote appears in: Karl Jaspers, ‘Die Methoden der Intelligenzprufung und der Begriff der Demenz. Kritisches Referat’, Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatnie, Referate und Ergebnisse, i (1910), 401–452
33. (published again in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 142–190.
34. In ‘Zur Analyse der Trugwahrnehmungen (Leibhaftigkeit und Realitatsurteil).’, Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Originalien, vi (1911), 460–535
35. (published again in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 191–251)
36. By mentioning important distinctions, Jaspers refers to Husserl's fifth phenomenological analysis in volume II of LU, as indicated in a footnote. The last Husserl quote in this article of 1911 is the most extensive. Jaspers discusses the controversial opinions of Husserl and Mssser whether ‘corporeality’ of perception and ‘pictoriality’ of imagination are founded in the mental act or in the material of perception/imagination. Jaspers agrees with Hssserl's view that the difference of perception and imagination is based on different acts, and quotes a long passage of Husserl's fifth investigation with the core statement: ‘I believe I can prove without doubt that the act characters of both are different, and that an essentially new mode of intention is experienced in pictoriality’ (LU1, A364, Hua xix/1, 399
37. Two further papers of Jaspers quote Husserl as a reference. In his article about the phenomenological approach of 1912 ( ‘Die phanomenologische Forschungsrichtung in der Psychopathologie’, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Originalien, ix (1912), 391–408
38. (republished in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 314–328.
39. English translation: ‘The phenomenological approach in psychopathology’, British Journal of Psychiatry, cxiv (1968), 1313–23)
40. The last Jaspers paper to quote Husserl is his publication on causal and understandable connections in schizophrenia (‘Kausale und “verstandliche” Zusammenhange zwischen Schicksal und Psychose bei der Dementia praecox (Schizophrenic)’, Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Originalien, xiv (1913), 158–263
41. republished in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 329–412.
42. English translation (extracts): ‘Causal and “meaningful” connexions between life history and psychosis’, in: Steven R. Hirsch and M. Shepherd (eds), Themes and Variations in European Psychiatry. An Anthology (Bristol: Wright 1974), 81–93).
43. Karl Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographic Erwiiterte Neuausgabe (Munchen: Piper, 1977), 22 f.
44. Furthermore, there is some evidence that Jaspers stopped reading Husserl in detail after reading his paper ‘Philosophy as a strict science’ (Edmund Husserl, ‘Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft’, Logos, i (1911), 289–341
45. republished in Hssserliana, xxv, 3–62) with which he disagreed, before 1913
46. K. Jaspers, Nachwort (1955) zu meiner Philosophie (1931). Philosophie I. Philosophische Weltorientierung, 3rd edition (Berlin: Springer, 1956)).
47. Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, 23.
48. Karl Jaspers, Nachwort (1955) zu meiner Philosophie (1931). Philosophie I. Philosophische Weltorientierung, 3rd edition (Berlin: Springer, 1956).
49. Karl Jaspers, Allgemeine Psychopathologie, 4th edition, 47, and Karl Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, 23. Husserl proceeded in his later writings to develop his method as a procedure of ‘eidetic analysis' indicating that he pursued research into the pure essential structures of consciousness (Elisabeth Stroker and Paul Janssen, ‘Phanomenologische Philosophie (Freiburg/ Munchen: Alber, 1989), 83 ff.). In his search for pure logic, real experiences had only the role of an exemplary basis of getting to know the essence of the structure of consciousness. Jaspers used the phenomenological method strictly empirically.
50. There is a faint similarity regarding distancing himself from formerly important influences in the development of Jaspers's relationship to Heinrich Rickert. In his beginnings as psychopathologist he studied Rickert as exponent of the South West German Neokantian school (along with Max Weber). He quoted Rickert's ‘teleological concept of development’ in his study on delusional jealousy, and used this notion for shaping his dichotomy between ‘development’ (‘Entwicklung’) and ‘process' (’Prozefl’), Karl Jaspers, ‘Eifersuchtswahn. Ein Beitrag zur Frage: “Entwicklung einer Personlichkeit” oder “Prozefi”?’, Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Originalien, i (1910), 567–637
51. republished in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 85–141, 115 f.).
52. In later years, he became more and more opposed to Rickert, both for personal and philosophical reasons (Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, 35 ff.).
53. Franz Brentano, Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt (1874) (Leipzig: Miiner, 1924).
54. Stroker and Janssen, Phanomenologische Philosophie, 36 ff.
55. Husserl, LUl, A473, Hua xix/2, 537.
56. Jaspers, API, 1.
57. Jaspers, API, 3.
58. Jaspers, API, 4.
59. Husserl, LUl, A4, Hua xix/1, 6 f.
60. He describes his self doubts about the status of LU as compendium of descriptive psychological research or pure, a priori, philosophy in a draft preface to the second edition of LU which was not published until after his death (by his pupil Eugen Fink): ‘Entwurf einer “Vorrede” zu den “Logischen Untersuchungen” (1913)’, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, i (1939), 106–33 and 319–39.
61. Republished in English: E. Huserrl, Introduction to the Logical Investigations. A Draft of the Preface to the Logical Investigations (1913). Ed. E.Fink. Translated with introductions by B. Bossert and A. Peters (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1975). There was also critique by others who urged Husserl to revise his concept of phenomenology as descriptive psychology, e.g. by Max Scheler in a letter of 1908, quoted by the editor of Hua xix/1 on page xxiii.
62. Huserrl, LU2, Bl 7 fff., Hua xix/1, 23 f.
63. Huserrl, LUl, A16, Hua x1x/1, 21.
64. Jaspers, API, 1.
65. Stroker and Janssen, Phdnomenologische Philosophie, 36 ff.
66. Huserrl, LUl, A7, Hua xix/1, 10.
67. Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, 22 f.
68. Jaspers, APX, 11.
69. Jaspers, API, 4.
70. Husserl, LUX, A4, Hua xix/1, 6 f.; A9 fff., Hua xix/1, 24 ff. This claim is reminiscent of postulates of the philosopher Ernst Mach (Ernst Mach, Beitrage zur Analyse der Empfindungen. 1886.
71. Republished as: Die Analyse der Empfindungen und das Verhaltnis des Physischen zum Psychischen, 9th edition (Jena: Fischer, 1922)), who, by the way, called his own method ‘phenomenological approach’ in an ‘attempt … to remove all metaphysical elements' from physics
72. Jaspers, API, 8 ff.
73. Jaspers, API, 25.
74. Karl Jaspers, ‘Die Trugwahrnehmungen. Kritisches Referat.’ Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Referate und Ergebnisse, iv (1912), 289–354
75. republished in: Karl Jaspers, Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologae (Berlin: Springer, 1963), 252–313, 253.
76. Huseerl, LUX, A 18 f., Hua xix/1, 23 f
77. Huseerl, LU\, A4, Hua xix/1, 7; A18, Hua xix/1, 23.
78. Husserl, LUX, A18, Hua xix/1, 24.
79. Husserl, LUX, A19, Hua xix/1, 24.
80. Husserl, LUX, A22, Hua xix/1, 28 f.
81. Husserl, LUX, A11, Hua xix/1, 16.
82. Husserl, LUX, A4, Hua xix/1, 7.
83. Husserl, LUX, A9, Hua xix/1, 12.
84. Huserrl, LUX, A10, Hua xix/1, 14.
85. Husserl, LUX, A11, Hua xix/1, 15.
86. Husserl, LUX, A12, Hua xix/1, 16.
87. Huseerl, LI/1, A19, Hua xix/1, 25.
88. Husserl, LUX, A22, Hua xix/1, 29.
89. Jaspers, API, 22.
90. Jaspers, APX, 13.
91. Jaspers, APX, 14.
92. Jaspers, APX, 21.
93. Jaspers, APX, 13 f.
94. Jaspers, APX, 90.
95. Jaspers, APX, 13.
96. Jaspers, APX, 45.
97. Huserrl, LUX, A329 ff., Hua xix/1, 361 ff.
98. Jaspers, API, 14. Jaspers's dichotomous approach of phenomenological analysis and ‘genetic understanding’ of subjective experiences on the one hand, and of'causal explanation’ (APX, 189) on the other, also finds a model in Husserl's LU (apart from the obvious connection to Dilthey's distinction between ‘understanding’ and ‘explaining’).
99. Not deciding, ‘whether and how psychological and physical things are distinctive side by side as mtterial units with equal rights’, Husserl differentiates between the ‘phenomenllogical P with ‘a stock of experiences developing from moment to moment’ and the ‘I’ as a ‘thing’ approachable by ‘causal reflection’ (LUX, A 332, Hua xix/1, 364).
100. Jaspers,‘Die phanomenologische Forschungsrichtung in der Psychopathologie’, 325.
101. Jaspers, APX, 147. Here, in the dicussion of ‘verstehende Psychologie’
102. Huserrl, LU1, A439, Hua 1i1/1, 489.
103. Jaspers,AP1, 153.
104. Jaspers, AP1, 21.
105. Husserl, LU1, A19, Hua 1i1/1, 24.
106. Husserl's statement is revealing about this affinity: ‘Only descriptive differrnces. are relevant for the critic of cognition, and not any obscure and hypothetically assumed processes within the unconscious depth of the psyche, or within the sphere of physiological processes’, A363, Hua 1i1/1, 398 f.
107. Jaspers, ‘Die phanomenologische Forschungsrichtung in der Psychopathologie’, 319.
108. For e1ample, Edmund Husserl, Cartesianische Meditationen. 1929. In Husserliana, I (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973).
109. Husserl, LU1, A322, Hua 1i1/1, 352 ff.
110. Husserl, LU1, A323, Hua 1i1/1, 353.
111. Husserl, LU1, A32 fff., Hua 1i1/1, 355 ff.
112. Jaspers, AP1, 25. A corresponding passage in LU1 is, for e1ample, A 348, Hua 1i1/1, 381.
113. Jaspers, AP1, 26.
114. Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, 23.
115. Huserrl, LU1, A326 ff., Hua 1i1/1, 356 ff.
116. Huserrl, LU1, A 328, Hua 1i1/1, 360 ff.
117. Jaspers, AP1, 25 ff.
118. Jaspers, AP1, 31 ff.
119. Jaspers, AP1, 25 f.
120. Jaspers, AP1, 26.
121. Husserl spoke of ‘beseelende Bedeutung’ (‘the meaning which breathes life into something’) in the conte1t of act analysis, LU1, A12, Hua 1i1/1, 17
122. similarly LU1, A363, Hua 1i1/1, 399.
123. Jaspers, AP1, 25.
124. Jaspers, AP1, 26.
125. Husserl, LU1, A364, Hua 1i1/1, 399.
126. Huseerl, LU1, A363 f., Hua 1i1/1, 399 f.
127. Huseerl, LU1, A715, Hua 1i1/2, 774.
128. See also LU1, A327, Hua 1i1/1, 358.
129. Jaspers, AP1, 31.
130. Jaspers, AP1, 26.
131. Jaspers, AP1, 45.
132. Jaspers, AP1, 46.
133. Jaspers, AP1, 47.
134. Jaspers, AP1, 48 f.
135. Jaspers, AP1, 49.
136. Huserrl, LU1, A34 fff., Hua 1i1/1, 377 ff., A35 ff., Hua 1i1/1, 387 f.
137. Jaspers, AP1, 46.
138. Jaspers, AP1, 46 f.
139. Jaspers, AP1, 47 f. In his phenomenological description of delusional perception, Jaspers reveals his affinity to Husserl's act theory. Considering that every perception is accompanied by a consciousness of meaning, Jaspers states uiat we are not e1pressly conscious of such meanings, but still they are there (AP1, 47). This is the typical feature of Husserl's ‘real act contents’.
140. Jaspers characterizes the element of sensory perception in delusional perception as ‘completely normal and unchanged’, AP1, 48.
141. Kurt Schneider, ‘Eine Schwierigkeit im Wahnproblem’, Der Nervenarzt, 1i (1938), 461–465.
142. Schneider's notion is acknowledged in AP4, 83.
143. Jaspers, AP1, 12.
144. Husserl, LU1, A336, Hua 1i1/1, 369.
145. Husserl, LU1, A356, Hua 1i1/1, 390.
146. Jaspers, AP1, 25 ff.
147. Jaspers, AP1, 56 ff.
148. In AP4, Jaspers uses ‘ego-consciousness' (’Ichbewuβtsein’) instead of ‘consciousness of the personllity’ which he obviously choose to avoid equivocations with ‘ego-consciousness' which is subsumed under ‘consciousness of the personllity’ and used as the opposition of other human beings (APA, 101 ff.).
149. In addition, delusion is now dealt with in a special chapter entitled ‘consciousness of reality and the ideas of delusion’ (APA, 78 ff.).
150. Jaspers, AP1, 56. 100.
151. cf. Husserl, LU1, A342, Hua 1i1/1, 374.
152. cf. Husserl, LU1, A336, Hua 1i1/1, 369.
153. Jaspers, AP1, 57.
154. Jaspers, AP1, 62.
155. Jaspers, API, 64.
156. Berrios, ‘Phenomenology, psychopathology and Jaspers: a conceptual history’, 321.
157. Huserrl, LU1, A339, Hua 1i1/1, 371.
158. Jaspers, ‘Die phanomenologische Forschungsrichtung in der Psychopathologie’, 315.
159. For discussion see, for e1ample, Simon Evnine, Donald Davidson (Cambridge: Polity Press, 199), 7 ff.
160. Jaspers hints at this problem himself without corning to any conclusions: Jaspers, API, 21
161. Jaspers, ‘Die phanomenologische Forschungsrichtung in der Psychopathologie’, 320.
162. He does not discuss ‘the question of the genesis of evident understanding’ as he feels it is ‘not of interest for us in the methodological conte1t’ (‘Die Frage der Genese des evidenten Verstehens … interessiert uns im methodologischen Zusammenhang … nicht’), Jaspers, ‘Kausale und “verstandliche” Zusammenhange zwischen Schicksal und Psychose bei der Dementia praeco1 (Schizophrenic)’, 331. However, just the genesis and nature of understanding are highly problematic. Jaspers's analysis of the case ‘Moritz Klink’ is revealing in this respect [op.cil., 345 ff.
163. Jaspers, ‘Kausale und “verstandliche” Zusammenhange zwischen Schicksal und Psychose bei der Dementia praeco1 (Schizophrenic)’, 367.
164. Berrios, ‘Phenomenology, psychopathology and Jaspers: a conceptual history’, 321.
165. Spitzer, ‘Why Philosophy?’, 1 fff.
166. Blankenburg, ‘Unausgeschopftes in der Psychopathologie von Karl Jaspers’, 142.
167. Georges Devereu1, From An1iety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences (Paris: Mouton, 1967).