Antoni Ignacy Tadeusz Kępiński (16 November 1918 – 8 June 1972) was a Polish psychiatrist and philosopher. In his youth he was influenced by Carl Jung's approach. He is known as the originator of concepts like information metabolism (IM) and axiological psychiatry.

Biography

Kępiński was born in Dolina, which at that time was part of Poland (now southwestern Ukraine). During the childhood years, he resided in Nowy Sącz where his father held the position of starosta. He attended the élite Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School in Kraków. In 1936, Kępiński entered the Medical Faculty of the Jagiellonian University. In 1939, he interrupted his studies before graduation and volunteered for the Polish Army to defend his country from the impending Invasion of Poland. After the simultaneous Invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Kępiński was captured and imprisoned in Hungary, to where he had fled. In 1940, he managed to escape imprisonment and headed to France, then Spain, where he was imprisoned in Miranda de Ebro.

As a concentration camp inmate himself, Kępiński took part in a rehabilitation programme for survivors from the Auschwitz concentration camp. The idea of such research originated in the mind of Kępiński's colleague Stanisław Kłodziński. Together with fellow researchers from the Psychiatric Clinic of the Medical Academy in Cracow they examined large number of Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors and mapped out the clinical picture of the concentration camp syndrome which they called the KZ-Syndrome. As noted by psychiatrist Krzysztof Rutkowski, the same syndrome was later investigated in other countries (for example in the United States after the Vietnam War in the 1970s), and is currently known as the post-traumatic stress disorder.

The specificity of psychiatric examination

Co-workers and biographers of Kępiński emphasize that the key characteristic of his professional activity was his unique approach to the patient, inspired by the philosophy of dialogue. Part of his writings is devoted to peculiarities and subtleties of the psychiatric examination. In his view, diagnosis and therapy should not be based solely on logical analysis, as the inclusion of the emotional dimension is indispensable in psychology. Therefore, the therapist should form an emotional relationship with the patient, based on empathy and trust. According to Kępiński, the problem of value is of the greatest importance in psychiatry. It has two dimensions. Firstly, there are certain ethical values which should guide the doctors in their medical practice. Secondly, the therapeutic process in psychiatry should lead to reorganization or rebuilding of the hierarchy of values in the patient.

Kępiński's bioethics were derived directly from The Hippocratic Oath. He restated the widely held view, that the main goal of the psychiatrist is to bring relief to patients. Being a physician is a type of mission or calling rather than an ordinary paid occupation. A key value to be upheld is hope. Without it, the actions undertaken by the doctors can become meaningless. Moreover, patients can sometimes recognise perplexity in the face of their physician. Hence whether improvement is realistic should always guide the medical profession. The most detailed description of information metabolism concept was given by Kępiński in his book Melancholy (1974). In this model, the living organism is considered an open system as understood by von Bertalanffy. Living beings are characterized by ability to increase and maintain their own negentropy - an idea popularized in Schrödinger's book What is life?.

In his books, Kępiński explained various mental conditions as disorders and imbalances of the information metabolism in general and its inherent value structure in particular. The work upon it was interrupted by his illness and death.

Kępiński as philosopher

As a young medic, Kępiński was drawn to the works of Carl Jung and subjected the more "mystical" aspects to a critique which inspired him to launch on his own clinical and philosophical quest. Despite being essentially of a scientific turn of mind, Kępiński's works invoked great interest among Polish philosophers, most notably Józef Tischner, who greatly appreciated his anthropological insights. Kępiński argued that human ethics are not socially-constructed but rooted in biology and their prerequisites can be found in the animal world. He strongly rejected every form of ideology and extensively commented on the destructive impact of ideologies on human history.

Kępiński maintained a good relationship with phenomenologist, Roman Ingarden, a prominent disciple of Edmund Husserl. The influence of phenomenology is apparent in his approach to human psychology.

See also

  • Entropy and life
  • Information metabolism
  • Aušra Augustinavičiūtė

References

  • Life Circle, Time and the Self in Antoni Kępiński's Conception of Information Metabolism