Dr.med. Othmar Mäser, Psychiater Psychotherapie

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

“(a) Opposing tendencies in the psyche and the dialectic of its movement Psychic life and its contents are polarised in opposites. It is through the opposites, however, that everything is once more re-connected. Image calls forth counter-image, tendencies call forth counter-tendencies and feelings other feelings in contrast. At some point sadness turns spontaneously, or with [...]

 ”Dialectic is the form in which a basic aspect of meaningful connections becomes accessible to us, namely, that these connections are not a simple sequence of events but show a constant reciprocity, a repercussion on motivation, a progression of expanding or diminishing cycles of movement. Affect is expressed in gesture and bearing. Both these have [...]

                                              “AUTHOR´S PREFACES To the first edition (1913) This book sets out to survey the entire field of general psychopathology and the facts and viewpoints of this science. It also sets out to be a guide to the literature for all those who are interested. Instead of presenting dogmatic statements of results, it prefers to [...]

“Types reveal themselves as either fruitful or not for the comprehension of individual cases (as the particular variation of the presupposed totality of their being). Through the use of generic groups, real boundaries are established; through the use of types we only give structure to a transient manifold.”   Jaspers Karl, General Psychopathology, Volume II, [...]

                                         “ § 3. Basic Patterns of Meaning (a) Opposing tendencies in the psyche and the dialectic of its movement Psychic life and its contents are polarised in opposites. It is through the opposites, however, that everything is once more re-connected. Image calls forth counter-image, tendencies call forth counter-tendencies and feelings other feelings in contrast. [...]

 A psychiatric diagnosis is a mere idea. (->  Kant quotation A psychiatric diagnosis is a mere idea since it is based on psychopathological phenomena which them self are mere ideas and it is not possible to prove them on a physical basis. Such an idea is a psychological concept which is useful to conceive other [...]

Kant quotations in English – the other Kant quotations are not yet available in English but in German only . …………………………. Kant quotation 1 : human cognition Kant quotation 2 : highest faculty of cognition Kant quotation 3 : boudaries of knowledge Kant quotation 3a : right and wrong use of an idea Kant quotation [...]

Jaspers quotations in English – the other Jaspers quotations are not yet available in English but in German only .   Jaspers quotation : Investigation guided by ideas Japsers quotation 7a : Basic Patterns of Meaning Jaspers quotation 7b :  Dialectic – reciprocity of Life and Meaning Jaspers quotation 9 : Meaning / dialectic Jaspers quotation 10 [...]

Norman Kemp Smith translation: “If, then, it can be shown that the three transcendental ideas (the psychological, the cosmological, and the theological), a although they do not directly relate to, or determine any object corresponding to them, none the less, as rules of the empirical employment of reason, lead us to systematic unity, under the presumption [...]

A sign charaterises an object. A sign in medicine relats to a corporal object (the body) or to an object which is not of corporal nature. (compare to Kant quotation 7) A medical sign relates to the body (corpus). Signs characterise medical diseases an disorders. In medicine there are signs of corporal objects and signs [...]

A diagnosis is objective if it refers to a corporal objects which it is possible to prove on a physical basis. (->  Kant quotation 9) A diagnosis which refers to mental objects is not objective knowledge since a mental object cannot be proven on a physical basis. (Compare to Kant quotation 7) Therefore a syndromal diagnosis as e.g. [...]

A psycholocial symptom appears in a person` s mind. Therefore a psychological symptom is a psychological phenomenon. (gr. phenomenon – that which appears) Nervousnes, anxiety are examples of psychological symptoms. Abnormal psychological symptoms are also called psychoapathological phenomena. A psychological symptom cannot be proven on a physical basis and therefore is only subjectively valid. (Compare [...]

(f) Investigation guided by ideas Kant has given us his ideas magnificiently: When I want to grasp the whole, whether this be the world or the individual, the object eludes me, because what I have in mind is not something particular, enclosed and finite but an idea (the objective of unending research). What I get to [...]

“The understanding may be a faculty for the production of unity of phenomena by virtue of rules; the reason is a faculty for the production of unity of rules (of the understanding) under principles. Reason, therefore, never applies directly to experience, or to any sensuous object; its object is, on the contrary, the understanding, to [...]

Below you find links to several Questions and Answers on the subject of knowledge in medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy discussed and answerd referring to Immanuel Kant`s philosophy: ………………………………………………………………. Question 1: Is it possible to prove a psychiatric diagnosis (diagnosis of a mental disorder) on an objective level? Question 2: How do we recognize a mental disorder [...]

A psychological term is a schema to  conceive psychological phenomena in relation to this concept. For example the diagnosis: “depression” is the  schema to conceive charactristic psychological symptoms namely: low mood, low self-esteem, loss of interest or pleasure and so on in relation to this concept as it is defined in the DSM and ICD-10 classification. [...]

“In all subsumptions of an object under a conception, the representation of the object must be homogeneous with the conception; in other words, the conception must contain that which is represented in the object to be subsumed under it. For this is the meaning of the expression, An object is contained under the conception. …. [...]

 ”The Schema is, in itself, always a mere product of the imagination. …. …. In truth, it is not images of objects, but schemata, which lay at the foundation of our pure sensuous conception. No image could ever be adequate to our conception of a triangle in general. For the generalness of the conception it [...]

Norman Kemp Smith translation: “It stands quite otherwise with those principles which seek to bring the existence of appearances under rules a apriori. For since existence cannot be constructed, the principles can apply only to the relations  of existence, and can yield only regulative principles. … In philosophy analogies signify something very different from what [...]

According to the terminology of Immanuel Kant psychological terms are regulative terms (see Kant quotation 4). It makes sense to call such terms regulative terms. These terms are schemes (see Kant quotation 7) under which we conceive appearances and can communicate with each other about the ideas (information) meant by these terms. For example if someone [...]

Eugen Bleuler`s son Manfred Bleuler, a fellow psychiatrist, wrote in the “Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie” ( 14th edition, 1979) “Because of this reason the initial description “Dementia praecox” proved to be unacceptable. Therefore, in 1911, E. Bleuler replaced it with schizophrenia (“Schizophrenie=Spaltunsirresein”), because it seemed that the most basic mental disturbances are caused by a lack of [...]

“PROBABILITY – EXPLANATION OF PROBABILITY – DIFFERENCE OF PROBABILITY TO APPEARANCE – MATHEMATICAL  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL PROBABILITY  “…In probability the reason for holding a thing to be true is objectively valid, in mere appearance it is subjectively valid. … ….  Appearance is a variable of persuasion, probability is an approximation of certainty. In probability there always has to [...]

Wilhelm Griesinger (b.1817 d.1886), German neurologist, psychiatrist, and specialist for internal medicine who produced the first psychiatric nosology based on psychological phenomena, stated in the sixth chapter of his book „Pathologie und Therapie der Psychischen Krankheiten“ (Pathology and Therapy of Mental Disorders): “A classification of psychiatric diseases according to anatomical deviations in the brain is [...]

Publications and Presentations on the subject medical and psychiatric diagnostics and knowledge …………………………………………………………………………………………………. Poster 6 in PDF format Diagnosis in Psychiatry – the Role of Biological Markers – an investigation in the light of Immanuel Kant`s philosophy Poster 6 in PDF Format   handout record DGPPN – Kongress 2009,  24-27 November 2010, Berlin, Germany …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Poster [...]

In German, Immanuel Kant called an object in an absolute sense (a real physical object) “Gegenstand schlechthin“; it is an object that really exists (see Kant quotation 7). The following terms represent such real objects: a piece of metal a chair a table a word written in letters a combination  of numbers …. etc. a piece [...]

An ideal object is an object that exists in a person`s mind but does not exist physically, not even in a hypothetical sense. (-> Kant quotation 7) In German, Immanuel Kant called an ideal object “Gegenstand in der Idee“. An ideal object is a schema, which is useful for the purpose of representing other objects in [...]

Kant´s Preface to the first edition (1781) (J. M. D. Meiklejohn translation) “Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of the mind. It falls into this [...]

(J. M. D. Meiklejohn translation) ” If however, we neglect this restriction of the idea to a purely regulative influence, reason is betrayed into numerous errors. For it has then left the ground of experience, in which alone are to be found the criteria of truth, and has ventured into the region of incomprehensible and [...]