Karl Theodor Jaspers (23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German psychiatrist and philosopher. Jaspers contributed a lot to modern psychiatry: He was one of the first doctors who made a strict distinction between understanding and explaining. Jaspers said that there is only an indirect path to the processes of the soul.
Jaspers was born in Saxony. Jaspers father was a jurist and after a director of a bank. Jaspers was a "sickly child". Jaspers had from his youth low health from hereditary bronchiectasis which was diagnosed during April 1901, and is a degenerative disease. Jaspers was also diagnosed with "alleged secondary cardiac insufficiency" at some time during his youth.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Jaspers decided to study law at university, but changed to studying medicine from 1902 and achieved a medical degree during 1908. The subject of his thesis for graduation was homesickness and crime. His entire career as a psychiatrist with patients was approximately six years, after which he quit and became a philosopher instead.[7][8]
The most important thing Jaspers did for psychiatry was writing a book which was published during 1913 with the title General Psychopathology.[2][3]