[Psychiatry as cultural science: considerations following Max Weber]

Psychiatry can be seen as a natural and cultural science. According to this the postulate of freedom is its strong value judgment. Since the times of enlightenment it has been described metaphorically by the myth of the expulsion from Paradise. Following Max Weber and Wilhelm Dilthey, Karl Jaspers has introduced this perspective into psychiatry. His strict dichotomy between explaining and understanding has later been critically revised by Werner Janzarik and Hans Heimann. Their concepts of structure dynamic, of pathography and of anthropology are closer to Max Weber who connected natural and cultural sciences in a much stronger way. Especially the pathographic example of Nietzsche allows to demonstrate the differences between Jaspers and the later psychopathologists of the Heidelberg and Tübingen schools.