If philosophy is practice, a demand to know the manner in which its history is to be studied is entailed: a theoretical attitude toward it becomes real only in the living appropriation of its contents from the texts.

This has become known as the biographical method and now forms the mainstay of modern psychiatric practice. The post later became permanent and Jaspers never returned to clinical practice. Nietzsche gained importance for me only late as the magnificent revelation of nihilism and the task of overcoming it.

He was often viewed as a major exponent of existentialism in Germany though he did not accept this label. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system.