Karl Jaspers’ Phenomenology and the Potential of Interdisciplinary Research of Self-Consciousness

Abstract

The article deals with new opportunities in the study of self-consciousness provided by an interdisciplinary approach. The authors regard the approach of Karl Jaspers (a philosopher, a psychologist, and a clinician) who viewed self-consciousness as an object of phenomenology. That approach serves as the basis for future interdisciplinary studies. Applying of the phenomenological approach to the study of self-consciousness disorders can serve as a starting point for new clinical research. That research can, in its turn, produce practical results for psychological science and, at the same time, prompt new philosophic interpretation of self-consciousness.  An interdisciplinary view of the self-consciousness allows to fill methodological gaps, to find solutions of conceptual and applied problems. At the same time, the basis for interdisciplinary studies of self-consciousness should be developed by philosophers, since there is an issue of answering to worldview problems. Self-consciousness is the «core» of a Human being, so without its proper understanding, both philosophical analysis and clinical psychopathological studies would be incomplete. The authors take a view that an interdisciplinary approach allows filling the methodological gaps, particularly in psychiatric studies. Using Jaspers’ phenomenological approach the authors suggest a working model of self-consciousness, which can be pragmatically useful for specialists in the field of mental health: psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists. The model incorporates a necessary and sufficient list of specific functions of self-consciousness. Disorder of any of the functions is a sign of a psychiatric disorder that can be very useful for practicing psychiatrists and psychologists. On the other hand, this model can be useful for philosophers who employ phenomenological analysis as it can help to develop a more adequate picture of a modern human being for study and self-understanding.