Fonds Hermann Rorschach  Bern UB Medizingeschichte: Rorschach-Archiv ; Fonds Hermann Rorschach

Signatur: Rorsch HR

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[between 1884 and 1922]. - ca. 11 m

Only on inquiry

Biographische Notiz:   Hermann Rorschach was born on 8th November 1884 in Zurich and spent his formative years in Schaffhausen, where his father taught art at the boys' primary and the trade schools. A year before he went to the canton school Hermann and his younger siblings lost their mother. In his last year at the canton school Hermann joined the semi-official student association Scaphusia. He passed his school leaving examinations in 1904 qualifying for university, but in the same year his father died after a long illness. This death placed the family financial difficulties but nonetheless it was made possible for him to study medicine.   After a preparatory term at the Académie de Neuchâtel and completing a course in French at the Université de Dijon he matriculated in Zurich in the autumn of 1904 as a medical student. As a twenty-two year old he decided to become a psychiatrist. During the winter term 1906/1907 he studied in Berlin, from where he travelled to Russia for the first time. Following this he registered for one semester at the University of Berne and then continued his studies in Zurich. Rorschach enjoyed keeping company with Russian students and this is how he met the Russian colleague Olga Stempelin, whom he married in 1910. In February 1909, meeting the requirements of the state examination, he concluded his medical studies.   After a stay of several months in Russia with relations of his fiancée, Rorschach commenced work in the summer of 1909 as an assistant at the Thurgovian psychiatric hospital in Münsterlingen. His doctoral dissertation "Über Reflexhalluzinationen und verwandte Erscheinungen", supervised by Eugen Bleuler, was published in 1912. In early 1913 he terminated his service in Münsterlingen and accepted for a few months a deputy position in the psychiatric clinic in Münsingen (near Berne). At the end of 1913 he travelled with his wife to Russia with the intention of establishing himself there as a psychiatrist, but he returned to Switzerland six months later and took a poorly paid position as assistant in the Psychiatric University Hospital Waldau near Berne.   In the autumn of 1915 Rorschach was appointed associate director of the asylum in Herisau and it was during his time here that his wife presented him in 1917 with first a daughter and then two years later a son. At the end of 1917 Rorschach restarted his experiments with inkblots, which he had begun in 1910 and then laid aside. This research occupied him for several years and the results were published in his book “Psychodiagnostik” in 1921. The method presented in it became world-famous as the “Rorschach Test”. Eight months later Hermann Rorschach died on the 2nd April 1922 of a belatedly diagnosed appendicitis.   Inhaltsangabe:   The fonds includes among other things the ten cards which Rorschach developed in 1918, which he used for testing purposes during the implementation of his experiment, and which served as master for their first publication in 1921. Besides these there are many further blots which he created in consideration for possible use. The fonds encompasses numerous test records, many complete with scoring and structural summary, manuscripts, innumerable excerpts from all scientific disciplines, correspondence, photos, personal mementos and drawings from his school days until the last years of his life.

https://swisscollections.ch/Record/991170538912605501 (Katalogeintrag in swisscollections) 

Akzession: Herkunft: Most of the material was donated by the children of Hermann Rorschach.   Ordnungszustand: Organised in 6 series: 1) Biographic material 2) Correspondence 3) Scientific material 4) Patients 5) Artistic material 6) Miscellaneous material  

Weitere Findmittel:   Inventory not yet completed 

CH-002121-2-991170538912605501, http://kalliope-verbund.info/CH-002121-2-991170538912605501

Modifikation: 15.12.2021

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