Operationalizing the Whole of Psychic Life: Toward a Structured Framework for Psychopathology

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Phenomenology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Contemporary psychiatry's focus on discrete constructs fragments conceptual foundations.
• Excessive comorbidity and blurred diagnostic boundaries create a gap between empirical data and lived experience.
• The paradox of 'more data, less coherence' hinders a holistic understanding of mental life.

Purpose of the Study:

• To revisit Karl Jaspers' notion of the whole of psychic life (Ganze des Seelenlebens) as a foundational reference.
• To propose an operationalizable framework for contemporary psychiatry, statistics, and neuroscience.
• To integrate subjective experience with biological data and restore context to clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Clarifying Jaspers' methodological framework: phenomenological description, understanding (Verstehen), and causal explanation (Erklären).
• Proposing five guiding principles: relationality, historicity, subjectivity, intentionality, and indeterminacy.
• Developing practical tools to isolate patterns of experience without reification.

Main Results:

• An operationalizable conceptual framework translating classical phenomenology for modern applications.
• A method to use reductionism as a local tool rather than a global explanatory framework.
• Integration of subjective experience with biological data is facilitated.

Conclusions:

• Re-centering inquiry on the whole of psychic life restores context and integrates diverse data.
• The five principles provide a structured approach to Jaspers' legacy for education and research.
• This framework offers a coherent reference for interpreting neurobiological findings while preserving the human aspect of psychiatry.