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Online view of finding aid Fonds Emil Oberholzer

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  • 1

    Fonds Emil Oberholzer

    Signatur: Rorsch EO

    Fonds Emil Oberholzer

    Oberholzer, Emil (1883-1958) [Bestandsbildner] 

    1916-1941. - 3 cm, Deutsch

    Only on inquiry

    Biographische Notiz:   Emil Oberholzer was born of Swiss parents on 24th December 1983 in Zweibrücken (Germany) where his father managed a factory. The family went back to Switzerland when Emil was still young. He grew up in Zurich and there in 1902 began his medical studies which, after intermediate semesters in Geneva and Basle, he completed in Zurich in 1908. Thereafter, for over two years, he was assistant to Eugen Bleuler at the Burghölzli in Zurich where he met his future wife Mira Gincburg (1887-1949), also an assistant. Later on both worked at the psychiatric hospital Breitenau (in Schaffhausen). In October 1911 Oberholzer joined the Group of Zurich (“Zürcher Ortsgruppe“) affiliated to the International Psychoanalytical Society, and in 1912 went to Vienna to be analysed by Sigmund Freud.   From 1916 on the couple worked at the nerve sanatorium of Dr. Brunner in Küsnacht (Canton Zurich) and in 1919 went into private practice together in Zurich. In the same year the Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society was founded and Oberholzer was elected as its first president. In 1928 he formed the Swiss Medical Society for Psychoanalysis, this action being the outcome of dissensions over lay or wild analysis. Oberholzer trained many analysts, and so did his wife, who had been with Freud in the early 1920‘s. In 1926 their son Emil Hermann was born. Worried about the growing menace from Nazi Germany – Mira was Jewess – in 1938 the couple emigrated to New York, where they worked as psychoanalysts in private practice. In 1941 Oberholzer became an honorary member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society.   According to the psychoanalyst Frederic S. Weil Oberholzer “was not a simple man. He was intense and incisive, proud and passionate and prone to stand back independently if he could not agree. He withdrew more and more, even from close friends, and more so after his wife’s death in 1949“ (From a manuscript “In memoriam Dr. Emil Oberholzer“1958, kept by the Institut für Medizingeschichte in Berne) Oberholzer died on 4th May 1958 at the age of seventy-five.   Emil Oberholzer made a number of contributions to psychiatry in various fields (heredity, sterilisation, epilepsy) and to clinical psychoanalysis. His main interest, however, was the Rorschach Test. Oberholzer and Rorschach met each other probably as early as in their student days in Zurich, but they became friends only in 1919. Oberholzer took an active part in Rorschach’s experiment. Using Rorschach's cards he conducted tests on his own clients and sent the recorded answers to Rorschach for evaluation. In 1923 he published posthumously his friend’s lecture “Zur Auswertung des Formdeutversuchs für die Psychoanalyse” (The application of the interpretation of form to psychoanalysis, 1924) which Rorschach had presented to the Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society a few weeks before he passed away. Until the end of his life Oberholzer worked on Rorschach’s test incessantly. He did extensive consultation work and was a recognised authority on the test.   Inhaltsangabe:   The fonds consists of the correspondence between E. Oberholzer and H. Rorschach in the years 1916 to 1922 and Oberholzer's correspondence with various persons, mainly with Walter Morgenthaler

    Oberholzer, Emil (1883-1958) [Erwähnte Person] 

    https://swisscollections.ch/Record/991170539044405501 (Katalogeintrag in swisscollections) 

    Akzession: Herkunft: Donated by Emil Oberholzer, Jr., Ph.D., New York (son of Dr. med. Emil Oberholzer), transmitted by Walter Morgenthaler in August 1958.   Ordnungszustand: Organised in 2 files 

    CH-002121-2-991170539044405501

  • 2

    Signatur: Rorsch EO 1

    Correspondence with Hermann Rorschach

    1916-1922. – 82 letters. - Deutsch ; Handschrift, Briefsammlung

  • 3

    Signatur: Rorsch EO 2

    Letters from and to Emil Oberholzer

    1930-1941. – 63 letters bound together. - Handschrift, Briefsammlung