Following in the footsteps of Karl Jaspers and Kurt Schneider, Werner Janzarik, as a leading figure of the Heidelberg school of psychiatry, developed a psychopathological approach that methodologically built on Nietzsche's theory of Verstehen or understanding. This structurally dynamic approach also drew on Nietzsche's philosophy of will, the foundations of which had been laid by Arthur Schopenhauer. As an alternative to psychiatric and psychoanalytic models, Janzarik developed a cultural science perspective that integrates empirical and speculative elements and works with subjective value premises. Nietzsche's pathography highlighted the tension between ascetic and expansive aspects in the formation of will (Wille), which, according to Janzarik, is the counterpart of vital volition (Wollen). To demonstrate the heuristic validity of structurally dynamic thinking, he chiefly discussed forensic case studies and ultimately considered literary instantiations as well. In this vein, late in his career Janzarik delved into the work of Goethe, whose artistic and scientific creativity he saw as exhibiting structural parallels. At the theoretical level, the structurally dynamic approach navigates a multitude of scientific and philosophical claims, which Janzarik interweaves in his anthropology in interdisciplinary and synthetic fashion. His texts tend to shroud subjective value premises in an abstract and complex language This mask of objectivity leads, in line with Nietzsche, to a sober pathos that, implicitly aligning with Max Weber, indicates a thought process imbued with personal pathos. Yet, at the same time, the late Janzarik is able to objectify self-observations with sober-minded lucidity.
