167 Evidence based Psychiatric Care Journal of the Italian Society of Psychiatry Società Italiana di Psichiatria Petar Radoev Dimkov Evidence-based Psychiatric Care 2020;6:167-171; doi: 10.36180/2421-4469-2020-29 How to cite this article: Dimkov PR. Karl Jaspers’ boundary situations and psychopathology: alike or distinct? Evidence-based Psychiatric Care 2020;6:167-171. https://doi. org/10.36180/2421-4469-2020-29 Correspondence: Petar Radoev Dimkov petardimkov@gmail.com petardimkov@swu.bg Conflict of interest The Author declares no conflict of interest. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) license. The article can be used by giving appropriate credit and mentioning the license, but only for non-commercial purposes and only in the original version. For further information: https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en Open Access © Copyright by Pacini Editore Srl Karl Jaspers’ boundary situations and psychopathology: alike or distinct? Petar Radoev Dimkov Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Philosophical and Political Sciences, South-West University “Neofit Rilski” , Bulgaria Summary At the beginning of the XX century, Karl Jaspers introduced his conception of “boundary situations” (Grenzsituationen). They represent insurmountable difficul- ties to the individual, but at the same time, they reveal being as such as well as the potential for self-realization of Existenz. Prototypical boundary situations are death, suffering, struggle, guilt, and chance. One is predestined to founder, to fail, to sur- render in them. Jaspers introduced the methodology of “existential elucidation” and “existential communication”, the first to clarify the experience and the mean- ing of such situations, the second – to communicate a translated version of the elucidations of boundary situations to other persons with the goal of mutual self- realization of selfhood, namely Existenz. However, as boundary situations, at first glance, bear similarities to certain psychopathological conditions, it is still not clear whether, in fact, the mere boundary situations belong to psychopathology. By the means of comparative analysis between boundary situations and psychopathol- ogy, it is concluded that boundary situations can be present in psychopathological conditions, but they are not pathological as such. According to Victor Frankl, only when a psychosomatic element is added to such situations, they can become pathological. In comparison to Frankl, who envisaged a role for psychotherapy in such situations, Jaspers argued strictly that they could only be subjected to philosophical methods such as existential elucidation, which is never final as the elucidation continues throughout one’s whole life. Both Frankl and Jaspers, how- ever, agreed that boundary situations should be positioned in the sphere of the spirit and that the latter can never get ill or disordered. Thus, boundary situations and psychopathology are two distinct phenomena. An open question remains the possible medical or philosophical treatment of such situations. Key words: Karl Jaspers, boundary situations, psychopathology, comparative analysis Introduction Man’s life is often subjected to situations of intrusive and disturbing experienc- es of dialectical contents into consciousness that shake one’s life to its basis. The dialectical nature of such contents consists in the desire to overcome the situation and the insurmountable foundering in it. Such situations were defined as “boundary situations”  a (Grenzsituationen) by Karl Jaspers 1,2 . They touch upon the boundary of existence  b , which points to something transcendent and to open possibilities for realization of one’s authentic self. Boundary situations reveal the true meaning of being 3 . a Synonyms include: “ultimate situations” 4 , “marginal situations” 5 , and “limit situations”  6 . b Immanuel Kant contrasted boundaries with limits: boundaries imply that something does exist outside them, whereas limits represent end-points 7 .