The portrait of the psychiatrist as a globally minded citizen

To discuss the importance of psychopathology in psychiatric curricula.

2013 is the centennial of the first edition of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology. Several books and articles published during this year discuss the role of psychopathology for psychiatrists.

Psychiatrists need personal formation or cultivation alongside a thorough scientific education - restrictively understood as acquisition of technical knowledge and skill training. Psychopathology provides both educational resources (e.g., valid and reliable concepts and methods for establishing accurate diagnosis) and that kind of sensitivity, namely the sensitivity to what is appropriate in dealing with others, for which knowledge from general principles does not suffice. Tact, as the ability to feel an atmosphere and to attune with it in those situations that are not yet plainly and unambiguously defined, is an example of this. When evidence-based guidelines are still scarce (as is the case, for instance, with early psychoses), tact seems to be an indispensable resource for the psychiatrist.