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57 EINBLICKE 21
This question later prompted me to look into the suicidal
thoughts of Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachman and Jean Améry.
In this sort of research you necessarily move between philo-
sophy, psychiatry, sociology and literary studies. On a path
between disciplines like this, it is particularly important to
maintain an exchange of ideas with specialists.
EINBLICKE: So the historian of ideas is also a networker?
BORMUTH: Yes, conversations and letters almost automati-
cally turn into personal connections and not infrequently de-
velop into closer acquaintances and friendships that in turn
create new connections. You take on the integrating role of
the “university dilettante”, who is loosely woven into the net
of experts and who, of course, also needs pointers from fel-
low academics who are accustomed to forging meaningful
links between the various perspectives of scholarship. My
meetings with American „intellectual historians“ were extre-
mely helpful in this respect.
EINBLICKE: How did you discover Jaspers?
BORMUTH: What clinched it was that after I had started rea-
ding Jaspers, I went to Basel to visit his last assistant, Hans
Saner, and there he was, surrounded by the books of his te-
acher. At the time I never could have imagined that, twenty
years later, I would have the great privilege of working with
this library every day in Oldenburg as a researcher. It has a
very special meaning for my own path between medicine
and philosophy.
EINBLICKE: In what way?
BORMUTH: Hannah Arendt, who studied philosophy under
Jaspers, poses the question in an essay about what happens
when we think, and where we are when we are thinking. The
library can suggest this imaginary space, and materialise it
at the same time, especially when the rooms are as lovely as
these. Jaspers saw himself in dialogue with the great philo-
sophers and their ideas, from Plato and St. Augustine to Kant
and Hegel. He saw himself as a thinker who had an impact
on his time, but who did not belong exclusively to it. And yet
his library shows how much Jaspers valued current truths,
which he observed in a broad spectrum of empirical scienti-
fic fields. To “communicate” across time with the great philo-
sophers and yet be in dialogue with the sciences, those were
his maxims as creative reader.
EINBLICKE: To be in dialogue with the sciences, that is also
one of the aims of the Jaspers Gesellschaft. Do you – as a
former physician – already have plans to work together with
the new young medical students at the University?
BORMUTH: This invitation came from Jaspers himself, who
wrote a number of philosophical essays for physicians. My
experience in Tübingen taught me how important it is for
medical students to familiarise themselves with humanities
texts. Seminars and workshops can stimulate them to pur-
sue their own path of thinking, as was Kant‘s wish for every
mature individual. And physicians, more than most, move in
sensitive political, cultural and ethical problem areas which
often also demand powers of judgment schooled by philo-
sophy.
EINBLICKE: Are there any beginnings or examples of this yet?
BORMUTH: As one would expect considering my clinical
background, I have kept up a dialogue with psychiatrists
and psychotherapists over many years. We work together
organising symposiums and continuing-education semi-
nars. This coming autumn, for the centenary of Jaspers‘
“General Psychopathology”, we have invited leading names
in German psychiatry to come to Oldenburg and Bremen.
The conference will examine Jaspers‘ relevance for psychi-
atry today.
EINBLICKE: How would you sum up Jaspers‘ legacy?
BORMUTH: As with every thinker, Jasper had certain thoughts
which have not stood the test of time. But also theories that
continue to challenge us and keep us thinking. I am parti-
cularly fascinated by his
Kantian concept of free-
dom, which is about im-
plementing freedom in the best way possible. This is evident
in the way he dealt with his own lung disease, which preven-
ted him from doing practical work. Jaspers concentrated on
the “inner activities” of the philosopher and wrested a long
Questions between disciplines
„In Liebe und ein bisschen Angst“: Widmung von Hannah Arendt für Karl Jaspers in
ihrem Buch „Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft“.
“With love and a little fear”: A dedication by Hannah Arendt for Karl Jaspers in her
book “The Origins of Totalitarianism”.