The interrupted dialectic

an analysis of biography as a central category in Karl Jaspers' psychopathology

Resumo

The international movement to renew the mental health paradigm is greatly inspired by the psychopathological work of German psychiatrist-philosopher Karl Jaspers. From the vastness of this work, a central notion for a new understanding of psychopathology stands out: the longitudinal study of the adult personality, identified by Jaspers as biography. I tried to show how Jaspers organised his concept of biography based on a dialogue with the work of Emil Kraepelin. I investigate the points at which the two authors move apart and come closer together, in terms of the ways of capturing the progression of the personality over time. I emphasise the dialectical relationship that Jaspers had with Kraepelin's heritage, retaining some of its intellectual elements, but above all seeking to overcome it from an existentialist point of view. I conclude by identifying what I call Jaspers' interrupted dialectic. This is a paradoxical move by Jaspers in the construction of his concept of biography, the consequences of which I briefly examine.