Max Weber's influence on the concept of comprehension in psychiatry

The early Heidelberg school of psychiatry, Karl Jaspers in particular, had at its centre the question of how to integrate the concept of understanding human motivations, intentions, and psychopathological symptoms into the co rpus of scientific psychiatric knowledge. In addition to the theories of Wi lhelm Dilthey and Edmund Husserl, the sociological investigations of Max We ber were highly influential for the development of the phenomenological sch ool of psychiatry. It is often overlooked, however, that the thoughts of Ma x Weber contain not only some of the most important roots of Jaspersian psy chopathology but also important early criticisms. This is relevant, in part icular, for the 'Jaspers theorema' of the non-understandability of the psyc hoses.