Emil Oberholzer (December 24, 1883 – May 4, 1958) was a Swiss-American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

. He was a born in

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...

, Germany, and died in New York City. Beginning in 1908, he received psychiatric training under

Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler (; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", "schizoid", " ...

(1857–1939) in Zurich, and afterwards was an assistant at the psychiatric clinic in Schaffhausen from 1911 to 1916. In 1919 he opened a private practice in Zurich, and in 1938 emigrated to New York City, where he practiced psychoanalysis. Oberholzer was an early practitioner of

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

ian psychoanalysis and dream analysis. Beginning in June 1913 he received personal analysis from Freud, and continued to be psychoanalyzed extensively in the Freudian manner over a period of several years. With his wife, Mira Gincburg (1887–1949) and Swiss pastor Oskar Pfister (1873–1956), he founded the

Swiss Society for Psychoanalysis Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internatio ...

in 1919. Oberholzer assisted Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922) in the development of shape interpretation tests, and later trained American psychiatrists who subsequently introduced the

Rorschach test The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a pe ...

in the United States.

References

Gale Dictionary of Psychoanalysis: "Emil Oberholzer"
Swiss psychiatrists 1883 births 1958 deaths People from Zweibrücken Analysands of Sigmund Freud Swiss emigrants to the United States {{psychiatrist-stub