Fonds Walter Morgenthaler  Bern UB Medizingeschichte: Rorschach-Archiv ; Fonds Walter Morgenthaler

Signatur: Rorsch WM

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1914-1959. - 3 boxes (23 cm), Deutsch

Only on inquiry

Biographische Notiz:   Walter Morgenthaler was born on 15th April 1882 as the eldest of five siblings in Kleindietwil, a village in the canton Bern. His grandparents on both sides were peasants. His father was a railway engineer and a surveyor. When Walter Morgenthaler was fifteen the family moved to Bern where in 1902 he began his medical studies. After an intermediate semester in Vienna in 1905/06 he matriculated in Zurich and there completed his studies in 1908. Immediately afterwards he turned to psychiatry and commenced work as an assistant in the Bernische Kantonale Irrenanstalt Waldau directed by Wilhelm von Speyr. In 1910 he terminated his service in Waldau and spent a few months in Munich with Kraepelin and then in Berlin with Ziehen and Oppenheim.   Thereafter he took a position in the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Friedmatt in Basle where he stayed until 1912. After a short term in the Kantonale Heil- und Pflegeanstalt in Münsingen near Bern he was engaged as a head-physician in the Heil- und Plfegeanstalt Waldau. In 1917 he qualified as university lecturer. From 1920 to 1925 he held the position of the medical superintendent of the private psychiatric hospital Münchenbuchsee near Bern. In 1925 he opened a private practice for psychotherapy and marital counselling where he remained active well into old age. Following a stroke he died on 1st April 1965.   Walter Morgenthaler rendered outstanding services to the Rorschach. It was thanks to him that Hermann Rorschach found a publisher for his test, and after Rorschach’s early death in 1922 Walter Morgenthaler threw himself into the task of publicising and institutionalising the Rorschach method. That the setting up of the “Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Psychologie” (1942) and of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Psychologie und ihre Anwendungen (1943) were successful is due in no small way to his efforts. Prompted by Morgenthaler, the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Psychologie set up in 1945 the Rorschach Commission, which was to engage itself in all aspects of instruction in and dissemination of information on research into the Rorschach method. Walter Morgenthaler became Honorary President of the International Rorschach Society founded in 1952. In 1957 the Rorschach Commission initiated the formation the Rorschach Archives administered by the University Library of Bern.   Furthermore he was a pioneer in the training of psychiatric nurses which was regularised in Switzerland in 1928, and was also one of the first to recognise the importance of art in psychiatry. His book on Adolf Wölfli „Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler“ was published in 1921 as the first volume in the series „Arbeiten zur angewandten Psychiatrie“ edited by himself.   Inhaltsangabe:   The fonds contains the correspondence between Walter Morgenthaler and Hermann Rorschach, drawing an impressive picture of the difficulties encountered during the preparation and publication of “Psychodiagnostik”, and Morgenthaler’s correspondence pertaining to his strong and lifelong commitment to the Rorschach Test. In addition there are Rorschach test protocols and papers concerning his teaching activity.

https://swisscollections.ch/Record/991170538909805501 (Katalogeintrag in swisscollections) 

Akzession: Herkunft: Transmitted by K.W. Bash in August 1973.  Ordnungszustand: Organised in 2 series: 1) Correspondence 2) Scientific activities 

Weitere Findmittel:   Detailed inventory not yet available 

CH-002121-2-991170538909805501, http://kalliope-verbund.info/CH-002121-2-991170538909805501

Modifikation: 02.07.2021

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