The heart of the Archives' holdings is the Hermann Rorschach fonds. It includes the ten cards, developed by Rorschach in 1918, which he used for testing purposes during the implementation of his perception diagnostic experiment, and which served as masters for their first publication in 1921 for publisher Ernst Bircher. There is also a large number of inkblot pictures the purpose of which is not known. The archival material also encompasses numerous test records compiled by Rorschach, complete with scoring, manuscripts on his "Perception Diagnostic Experiment" (form interpretation test), lecture notes, innumerable excerpts from all scientific disciplines, correspondence, photos, personal mementos and many drawings spanning the time from his schooldays until the last years of his life.
Hermann Rorschach Inventory Fonds (PDF, 339KB)
In 1919, the German psychiatrist Georg A. Roemer (1892-1972) was working as a volunteer in the Herisau convalescent and nursing home. This is where he found out about Rorschach's experiment and started creating his own inkblot pictures. Once back in Germany, he started his own test with inkblot pictures and started using Rorschach's test in a way that increasingly disconcerted the latter. The extensive archival material comprises his extended correspondence with Rorschach between 1919 and 1922. Roemer, having experimented for decades investigating new techniques for the preparation of inkblot pictures, left an immense number of sheets which are interesting for their aesthetic and artistic value. The letters received and sent by Roemer as well as other papers and non-published literature of the time are an important source of knowledge on the history of psychotherapy during the Nazi rule in Germany.
Georg A. Roemer Inventory Fonds (PDF, 188KB)
Rorschach’s colleague and friend Emil Oberholzer (1883-1958) headed a private practice in Zurich as a psychoanalyst and played an active part in Rorschach’s inkblot experiments from the very beginning. The fonds consists of the correspondence between himself and Rorschach in the years 1916 to 1922. This exchange of letters is interesting not only in relation to the origin and development of Rorschach's test procedure but also with regard to the psychoanalytical movement in Switzerland. As members of the executive committee of the Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society (Oberholzer as president, Rorschach as vice president) they discussed, alongside organizational questions, general issues concerning the institutional development of psychoanalysis.
Emil Oberholzer Inventory Fonds (PDF, 78KB)
The psychiatrist Walter Morgenthaler (1882-1965) played an important role in finding a publisher for Rorschach’s inkblot experiment. After Rorschach's death he was unremittingly committed to popularizing and institutionalizing the Rorschach method. He was Honorary President of the International Rorschach Society founded in 1952 and played an instrumental part in initiating the Rorschach Archives. The fund contains the correspondence with Rorschach, drawing an impressive picture of the difficulties encountered during the publication of “Psychodiagnostics”, and Morgenthaler’s correspondence pertaining to his lifelong commitment to the Rorschach Test. In addition there are Rorschach test protocols and papers concerning his teaching activity.
Walter Morgenthaler Inventory Fonds (PDF, 98KB)
In 1919, Hans Behn-Eschenburg (1893-1934) worked as a voluntary doctor in the Herisau convalescent and nursing home. He examined school children using Rorschach's test method in his dissertation. As it seemed unlikely that Rorschach's cards would soon be printed, a new test series was created specifically for this purpose under the aegis of Rorschach. In 1920 he joined the Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society and, after training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, opened a private practice in 1924 in Zurich. In addition to manuscripts and papers on psychoanalytic topics, the fonds contain correspondence and other documents pertaining to his dissertation, which was published a few weeks after Rorschach's "Psychodiagnostics" in 1921 under the title "Psychological Schoolchildren Tests with the Form Interpretation Test".
Hans Behn-Eschenburg Invenory Fonds (PDF, 117KB)
Gertrud Behn-Eschenburg (1896–1977) was the wife of Hans Behn-Eschenburg (1893-1934), himself an early collaborator and colleague of Hermann Rorschach. Gertrud Behn-Eschenburg was a psychanalyst herself. Between the wars she was engaged in bridging between the fields of psychanalysis, pedagogy and social work. After her husband’s death in 1934 she subsequently retired from scientific work.
The fonds includes mostly scientific material and correspondence by and to Gertrud Behn-Eschenburgt, which is not directly related to Hermann Rorschach and his Formdeutversuch.
Inventory Fonds Gertrud Behn-Eschenberg (PDF, 47KB)
Arnold Weber (1894-1976) played an important role for Hermann Rorschach inasmuch as he provided him in 1921 and 1922 with test protocols of musicians and other talented persons for “blind diagnosis”. Later, alongside his teaching at the university, he worked as a psychoanalyst in private practice, where he made full use of the Rorschach Test. The fonds contain the aforementioned test protocols including Rorschach’s elaborate evaluations. There are also numerous test protocols and papers on his teaching as well as his correspondence with Rorschach’s widow Olga Rorschach.
Arnold Weber Inventory Fonds (PDF, 92KB)
Emil Lüthy (1890-1966), a nephew of Emil Oberholzer, was a painter and one of the first members of the Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society. In his capacity as a painter he was consulted by Rorschach in matters of art psychology. The fonds contain among other things correspondence with Rorschach and drawings relating to Rorschach's test methods.
Emil Lüthy Inventory Fonds (PDF, 88KB)
The psychiatrist Max Müller (1894-1980) became acquainted with Rorschach in 1921. Familiar with the Rorschach method and together with Emil Oberholzer, he began, in 1933, a research program with the intention of assembling as many results as possible using the Rorschach method applied to the average healthy population in order to determine standard scores. The fonds contain several hundred protocols bearing personal characterizations of those tested.
Marguerite Loosli-Usteri (1893-1958), a distinguished expert on the Rorschach Test and the first to make an attempt at systematic instruction in the use of the Rorschach method, was the first President of the International Rorschach Society. The fonds consist of numerous test protocols, correspondence and manuscripts relating to her research activities, teaching and writing and her work in the International Rorschach Society.
Marguerite Loosli-Usteri Inventory Fonds (PDF, 112KB)
The psychiatrist Kenower W. Bash (1913-1986), an authority on Jungian psychology and the Rorschach method, was President of the International Rorschach Society from 1981 to 1986. The fonds consist of test protocols, manuscripts relating to Bash's research activities, teaching and writing related to the Rorschach Test and to his commitment in the International Rorschach Society.
Kenower W. Bash Inventory Fonds (PDF, 120KB)
Psychiatrist and psychologist Adolf Friedemann (1902-1981) was the long-term Head of the Institute for Psychohygiene in Biel and totally familiar with the Rorschach Test. He was Chairman of the Rorschach Commission of the Swiss Psychological Association from 1960 to 1975. In 1960, he also became President of the International Rorschach Society, an office he held until 1981. The fonds comprise test results obtained through a test developed by a certain Theo Lüdi and with Zulliger's Z-Test.
Russian-born Olga Štempelin (1878-1961) married Hermann Rorschach in 1910. She herself a physician, she had to support their two children Elisabeth and Wadim when her husband died in 1922. The fonds consist of photos and personal records, correspondence and some lecture notes.
Olga Rorschach Inventory Fonds (PDF, 95KB)
Elisabeth Rorschach (1917-2006), daughter of Olga and Hermann Rorschach, remained unmarried and without offspring. Her excellent knowledge of English made her an important addressee for inquiries concerning her father and his estate from anglophone countries. The fonds include photos and other biographical documents, correspondence and a CV of her father's sister.
Elisabeth Rorschach Inventory Fonds (PDF, 88KB)
Wadim Rorschach Fonds
Wadim Rorschach (1919-2010), son of Olga and Hermann Rorschach and like his father a psychiatrist, had no offspring. After the death of his mother and together with his sister Elisabeth, he kept their father’s papers which they successively donated to the Rorschach Archives from 1998 onward. Among other things, the fonds contain biographical items and correspondence.
Wadim Rorschach Inventory Fonds (PDF, 73KB)
Wolfgang Schwarz Fonds
Wolfgang Schwarz (1926-2011) studied psychology at New York University and later worked as a psychologist. Since 1959 his aim had been to write a biography about Hermann Rorschach and he collected various material (mainly copies of the sources form the Rorschach Archives) for this project, met family members, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances of Hermann Rorschach and made interviews with them.
The collection mainly contains manuscripts and draft texts written by Wolfgang Schwarz for his unfinished biographical study about Hermann Rorschach. Noteworthy are the detailed notes and protocols of interviews he conducted in Switzerland with people, who had known Hermann Rorschach personally. The fond also includes a large collection of letters. Most of them are copies form the Rorschach Archives. Wolfgang Schwarz translated many of them into English. Part of the fond is also a large collection of photographic material collected by Wolfgang Schwarz to illustrate his book. Besides the documents about Hermann Rorschach, the fond includes a collection of 168 test protocols, taken from school children around 1912 by Hans Behn-Eschenburg (1864–1838).
Inventory Fonds Wolfgang Schwarz (PDF, 185KB)
