Photo source: Soul Therapy Now
Psychology Corner starts this year with an article presenting the main Swiss contributors in the field of psychology. Carl Jung, Jean Piaget, Hermann Rorschach and Max Lüscher have changed the way we understand and approach theory, development and diagnosis in psychology.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) – Psychiatrist, founder of the analytical psychology (also known as Jungian Psychology). He proposed many original concepts, such as archetype, collective unconscious, complex and synchronicity. He collaborated with Sigmund Freud and became Chairman for Life of the International Psychoanalytical Association. However, the two psychologists finally had different views upon the unconscious, libido and religion and therefore their collaboration stopped.
Jean William Fritz Piaget (1896-1980) – French Swiss developmental psychologist, philosopher; He is best known for organizing cognitive development into a series of four stages: sensoriomotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.
Hermann Rorschach (1984 – 1922) – Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst, best known for the development of the projective “Rorschach Inkblot Test”, that has a high psychodiagnostic value.
Max Lüscher (b. 1923) – Psyhotherapist, inventor of the “Lüscher color test”, based on the idea that color preferences are subjective (perception of color is objective and universal) and that they allow the assessment of a subjective state of individuals.
Hans Zulliger (1893 – 1965) – Child Psychoanalyst, teacher; He is known for using psychoanalitical practices into the education of school children and for the invention of the projective Zulliger Z-Test, an analogue test to the Rorschach Inkblot Test.
Bärbel Inhelder (1913-1997) – Developmental psychologist, collaborator of Jean Piaget; Her most significant contribution is realted to the discovery of the formal operational stage, regarding the transition between childhood and adolescence.
Richard Meili (1900 – 1991) – Scientist (Practical Psychology, Diagnosis, Personality Development, Intelligence); Succesor of Jean Piaget and founder of the Psychological Institute of Berne University.
Klaus Scherer ( b. 1943) – Specialist in the psychology of emotions and founding editor of the American Psychological Association journal „Emotion”.
We also add to the list of famous Swiss psychologists the following: Hans-Werner Hunziker(educational psychologist, scientist and author of interactive computerbased training programs for special education), Julius Friedrich Lehmann, Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler and Théodore Flournoy (professor of psychology at the University of Geneva and author of books on spiritism and psychic phenomena).
Article by Lucia Grosaru