Karl Jaspers. Modes of existence. All life is a borderline situation
Karl Jaspers was born in 1883. In 1901, after graduating from a classical gymnasium, he entered the Heidelberg University Faculty of Law, but after a year and a half he transferred to the medical faculty. His interest in medicine was due, among other reasons, to a severe congenital bronchial disease that caused attacks of heart failure. Such a disease usually kills no later than 30 years of age, but a conscious attitude to this “borderline situation” allowed Jaspers to live a full life and, in a sense, “defeat death”. In 1908, Jaspers graduated from the university, receiving the profession of a psychiatrist, in 1909 he became a doctor of medicine and went to work in the psychiatric and neurological clinic at Heidelberg University. In 1910, he married Gertrud Mayer, who became his friend and companion for life. She was seriously interested in philosophy, as was her brother, Ernst Mayer, a close friend of Jaspers. Largely under their influence, Jaspers moved from medicine as a natural science discipline first to psychology, and then to philosophy. The stages of this path are marked by his major works: 1913 – “General Psychopathology”; 1919 – “Psychology of Worldviews”. From this time on, his friendship with Heidegger begins.