Emil Oberholzer was a psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 who was a native of Zweibrücken

Zweibrücken

Zweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.- Name :Zweibrücken appears in Latin texts as Geminus Pons and Bipontum, in French texts as Deux-Ponts. The name derives from Middle High German Zweinbrücken...

, Germany. Beginning in 1908, he received psychiatric training under Eugen Bleuler

Eugen Bleuler

Paul Eugen Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness and for coining the term "schizophrenia."-Biography:...

 (1857–1939) in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, and afterwards was an assistant at the psychiatric clinic in Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen is a city in northern Switzerland and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 34,587 ....

 from 1911 to 1916. In 1919 he opened a private practice in Zurich, and in 1938 emigrated to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he practiced psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

.

Oberholzer was an early practitioner of Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

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 Ginzburg (1887–1949) and Swiss pastor Oskar Pfister

Oskar Pfister

Oskar Pfister was a Swiss Lutheran minister and lay psychoanalyst who was native of Wiedikon. He studied theology, philosophy and psychology at the Universities of Zurich and Basel, and earned his degree in 1898 at the philosophical faculty...

 (1873–1956), he founded the Swiss Society for Psychoanalysis in 1919.

Oberholzer assisted Hermann Rorschach

Hermann Rorschach

Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing a projective test known as the Rorschach inkblot test. This test was reportedly designed to reflect unconscious parts of the personality that "project" onto the stimuli...

 (1884–1922) in the development of shape interpretation tests, and later trained American psychiatrists who subsequently introduced the Rorschach test

Rorschach test

The Rorschach test is a 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 person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning...

in the United States.