ABSTRACT
Karl Jaspers has been much underestimated and has contributed a large amount to existential thinking and practice (see also the section on practitioners). He was unique in being both a psychiatrist and a philosopher and so his work is particularly relevant to existential psychotherapists. Jaspers was initially trained as a doctor and psychiatrist and he had a considerable impact with his seminal book on psychopathology (Jaspers 1963), which he continued to revise and update during most of his career. His interest gradually shifted towards psychology and he became a lecturer in this field, moving eventually to a chair in philosophy. He acknowledged that his later work could also be seen as a form of theology.
