General Psychopathology

No book called General Psychopathology can escape comparison with Karl Jaspers’ major contribution to modern psychiatry, first published under that title in 1913. The most immediately accessible section of Jaspers’ volume is devoted to a detailed, descriptive account of the clinical phenomena of mental disorders, a task which he regarded as constituting one of the scientific foundations of the discipline. Professor Scharfetter’s introductory text is very much in the spirit of this tradition. In it he concentrates on the phenomenological basis of psychiatry, drawing also on contributions from psychology, psychoanalysis and philosophy where relevant. How successful he has been in compressing a great deal of information and experience into a relatively small compass may be gleaned from the range of his extensive bibliography.
Half a century was to elapse before Jaspers’ book appeared in English. If Professor Scharfetter has had to wait only three years this is attributable not only to the quality of his detailed and concentrated text but also to its relevance to the recent and growing interest in psychiatric diagnosis and classification among anglophonic psychiatrists. An accurate and readable translation should help ensure its place in the reading-list of clinical and non-clinical students of psychological medicine.
 
Michael Shepherd, Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry, London

Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-22812-3)