Dialogues in Philosophy
Mental and Neuro Sciences
Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences
The official journal of Crossing Dialogues
Volume 9, Issue 2 (December 2016)
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
The roots of psychopathological understanding: Karl Jaspers’ Verstehen and the influence of Moritz Geiger’s empathy
Massimiliano Aragona
This paper presents the main contents of Geiger’s 1910 lecture on empathy and focuses on its possible influence on Jaspers’ General Psychopathology. In particular, some key methodological distinctions traced by Jaspers (explaining vs. understanding, static vs. genetic understanding, understandability vs. non-understandability) are compared to Geiger’s similar concepts.
Geiger’s role in shaping Jaspers’ concept of understanding (and non-understandability) is still neglected and it is time to recognize it. In particular, Geiger’s distinction between the direct empathy for the other’s expressions at one side, and the ‘reliving after the event’ of the ‘inner correlation of the psyche’ on the other side had a major role in shaping Jaspers’ similar distinction between static and genetic understanding.
Geiger’s role in shaping Jaspers’ concept of understanding (and non-understandability) is still neglected and it is time to recognize it. In particular, Geiger’s distinction between the direct empathy for the other’s expressions at one side, and the ‘reliving after the event’ of the ‘inner correlation of the psyche’ on the other side had a major role in shaping Jaspers’ similar distinction between static and genetic understanding.
Keywords:
psychopathology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, history of psychiatry, Einfühlung
Dial Phil Ment Neuro Sci 2016; 9(2): 36-42
Received on September 08, 2016
Accepted on November 22, 2016
Firstly published online on January 28, 2017