Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Psychopathology and the Modern Age. Karl Jaspers Reads Hölderlin

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy and Psychopathology

  • 2429 Accesses

Abstract

The nexus of psychopathology and modernity is the key to Jaspers’ study of Hölderlin. It also informs his entire pathographical oeuvre on van Gogh, Nietzsche, and Max Weber. Remarkably, this view also surfaces in his Notes on Martin Heidegger when Jaspers compares Heidegger’s famous interpretation of Hölderlin with the edition published by Hellingrath two decades earlier. Jaspers did not read the elegy “Bread and Wine” in prophetic terms as Heidegger did. Instead he saw it as an outstanding example of Hölderin’s late poetry and an unconventional demonstration of the awareness of the limits of language. The poet and his pathographer are both linked in their epistemological reservations about Kant’s critical philosophy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bormuth, M. (2002a). Lebensführung in der Moderne. Karl Jaspers und die Psychoanalyse. Stuttgart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bormuth, M. (2002b). Karl Jaspers als Pathograph. Fundamenta Psychiatrica, 16, 154–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bormuth, M. (2006). Life conduct in modern times. Karl Jaspers and Psychoanalysis. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bormuth, M. (2007). Einsicht und Willen. Karl Jaspers als Pathograph Nietzsches. In M. Bormuth, K. Podoll, & C. Spitzer (Eds.), Kunst und Krankheit. Studien zur Pathographie (pp. 11–26). Göttingen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dilthey, W. (1916). Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung. Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frühwald, W. (2012). Gedichte der Romantik. Stuttgart: Reclam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Häfner, H. (1963). Prozeß und Entwicklung als Grundbegriffe der Psychopathologie. Fortschritte der Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 31, 393–438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamburger, M. (1967). Friedrich Hölderlin. Poems and Fragments. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1944). Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1950). Holzwege. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, D. (1988). Denken im Blick auf Max Weber. In K. Jaspers & M. Weber (Eds.), Gesammelte Schriften. With an introduction by Dieter Henrich (pp. 7–31). Munich: Piper Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, D. (1992). Der Grund im Bewußtsein. Untersuchungen zu Hölderlins Denken (1794–1795). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann, P. (1995). Hellingraths dichterische Rezeption Hölderlins. In G. Kurz, et al. (Eds.), Hölderlin und die Moderne (pp. 74–104). Tübingen: Attempto Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hölderlin, F. (1916). Sämtliche Werke. Vierter Band. Gedichte 1800–1806, Ed. Norbert v. Hellingrath. Munich: Georg Müller Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janzarik, W. (1974). Themen und Tendenzen der deutschsprachigen Psychiatrie. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1926). Strindberg und van Gogh. Versuch einer pathographischen Analyse unter vergleichender Heranziehung von Swedenborg und Hölderlin (2nd ed.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1951). Unsere Zukunft und Goethe (1947). In K. Jaspers (Ed.), Rechenschaft und Ausblick (pp. 30–58). Munich: Piper Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1963). General psychopathology (2 Volumes; trans: J. Hoenig & M. W. Hamilton). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1977). Strindberg and van Gogh. An attempt of a pathographical analysis with reference to parallel cases of Swedenborg and Hölderlin (trans: O. Grunow & D. Woloshin). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1978). Notizen zu Martin Heidegger, Ed. Hans Saner. Munich: Piper Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1981). Die großen Philosophen. Nachlaß 1. Darstellungen und Fragmente, Ed. Hans Saner. Munich: Piper Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1981). Die großen Philosophen. Nachlaß 2. Fragmente, Anmerkungen, Inventar, Ed. Hans Saner. Munich: Piper Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, K. (1997). Friedrich Nietzsche. An introduction to the understanding of his philosophical activity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreuzer, J. (2010). Das geistesgeschichtliche Klima in Hölderlins Jugend. In U. Gonther & J. E. Schlimme (Eds.), Hölderlin und die Psychiatrie (pp. 18–37). Bonn: Psychiatrie-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lange, W. (1909). Hölderlin. Eine Pathographie. Stuttgart: Enke Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lombroso, C. (1887). Genie und Irrsinn: in ihren Beziehungen zum Gesetz, zur Kritik und zur Geschichte. Leipzig: Reclam Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller-Seidel, W. (1993). Nachwort. In W. Müller-Seidel (Ed.), Exzentrische Bahnen. Ein Hölderlin-Brevier (pp. 211–244). Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller-Seidel, W. (1995). Diltheys Rehabilitierung Hölderlins. In G. Kurz, et al. (Eds.), Hölderlin und die Moderne (pp.41–73.) Tübingen: Attempto Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, F. (1921). Selected letters. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, F. (1983). Untimely meditations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordau, M. (1892). Entartung (2 Volumes). Berlin: Duncker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordau, M. (1913). Degeneration (2 Volumes). London: heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oelmann, U. (2002). Norbert von Hellingrath. In J. Kreuzer (Ed.), Hölderlin-Handbuch. Leben—Werk—Wirkung (pp. 422–426). Stuttgart: Metzler.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peukert, D. (1989). Max Webers Diagnose der Moderne. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radkau, J. (2005). Max Weber. Die Leidenschaft des Denkens. Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rilke, R. M., & von Hellingrath, N. (2011). Briefe und Dokumente, Ed. K. F. Bohnenkamp. Göttingen: Georg Müller Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, J. (1963/64). Der Nachlass Norbert von Hellingraths. Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, 13, 147–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, J. (1995). Hölderlin im 20. Jahrhundert. Rezeption und Edition. In G. Kurz, et al. (Eds.), Hölderlin und die Moderne (pp. 105–125). Tübingen: Wallstein Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, J. (2003). Hölderlin: Die idealistische Sublimation des naturhaften Genius zum poetisch-philosophischen Geist. In T. Roberg & F. Hölderlin. Neue Wege der Forschung (pp. 115–139). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlimme, J. (2010) Karl Jaspers. Pathographie zwischen ‘genetischem Verstehen’ und Existenzerhellung. In U. Gonther & J. E. Schlimme (Eds.), Hölderlin und die Psychiatrie (pp. 177–193). Bonn: Psychiatrie-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Hellingrath, N. (1944). Hölderlin-Vermächtnis, Ed. Ludwig v. Pigenot. Munich: Bruckmann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society, Eds. G. Roth & C. Wittich. California: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Lucy Powell for her excellent translation. Without footnotes, however, the finer details of her work cannot be properly conveyed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Philosophy, University of Oldenburg, Postfach 2503, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Matthias Bormuth

Authors
  1. Prof. Dr. Matthias Bormuth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias Bormuth .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatric Department, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Thomas Fuchs

  2. Clinic for General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Thiemo Breyer

  3. University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Christoph Mundt

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bormuth, M. (2014). Psychopathology and the Modern Age. Karl Jaspers Reads Hölderlin. In: Fuchs, T., Breyer, T., Mundt, C. (eds) Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy and Psychopathology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8878-1_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation