2013 sees the centenary of Jaspers' foundation of psychopathology as a science in its own right. In 1913 Karl Jaspers published his psychiatric opus magnum - the Allgemeine Psychopathologie (General Psychopathology). Jaspers was working at a time much like our own - with rapid expansion in the neurosciences, and responding to the philosophical challenges that this raised. The idea inspiring his book was very simple: to bring order into the chaos of abnormal psychic phenomena by rigorous description, definition and classification, and to empower psychiatry with a valid and reliable method to assess and make sense of abnormal human subjectivity. After almost one century, many of the concepts challenged by Jaspers are still at issue, and Jaspers' investigation is even now the ground for analyses and discussions. With a new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) imminent, many of the issues concerning methodology and diagnosis are still the subject of much discussion and debate. This volume brings together leading psychiatrists and philosophers to discuss and evaluate the impact of this volume, its relevance today, and the legacy it left. "Jaspers' General Psychopathology is not an easy text to read. Especially nowadays, in the Internet era, it may appear in several parts obscure, convoluted, or repetitive. This is why the present volume has the potential to be not only attractive to scholars, but also extremely useful for young psychiatrists and busy clinicians. It may represent for them a 'guide' to the reading of that ponderous text, helping them to extract the key messages that are likely to resonate with, and at the same time enrich, their clinical practice and theoretical reflection." - From the Introduction by Mario Maj

About the Author
Giovanni Stanghellini, MD and MD honoris causa, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, is full professor of Dynamic Psychology and Psychopathology at "G. d'Annunzio" University in Chieti (Italy). He is founding chair of the European Psychiatric Association section "Philosophy and Psychiatry " and of the World Psychiatric Association section "Psychiatry and the Humanities". He also founded, with Bill Fulford and John Sadler, the International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry. He is co-editor of the OUP series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry. He has written extensively on the philosophical foundations of psychiatry. Among his books published by OUP are Nature and Narrative (with KWM Fulford, K. Morris and JZ Sadler, Eds.), Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies, Emotions and Personhood, (with R. Rosfort), and the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (with KWM Fulford et al, Eds.). Thomas Fuchs, MD, PhD, psychiatrist, psychotherapist and philosopher, is Karl Jaspers-Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg. He heads the phenomenology section at the Psychiatric Department, University of Heidelberg, and the philosophy section of the German Psychiatric Association (DGPPN). He is co-ordinator of the interdisciplinary European Research Project "TESIS" on Embodied Intersubjectivity (2011-2015, www.tesis.rtn-eu

Reviews
This is an excellent and thought-provoking book on the most important influence on modern psychiatry. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in making sense of psychopathology. * Doody's Notes *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199609253
Author Giovanni Stanghellini
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 514g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 166mm * 19mm