Emil Oberholzer, a Swiss doctor who specialized in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, was born December 24, 1883, in Zweibrücken, and died May 4, 1958, in New York. He studied medicine and received his training in psychiatry from Eugen Bleuler in Zürich, beginning May 6, 1908. From February 1, 1911, to October 1, 1916, he was an assistant physician at the psychiatric clinic at Breitenau-Schaffhouse, then a physician at Dr. Brunner's sanatorium (Küsnacht, in the canton of Zürich). In 1919 he began working as a private practitioner in Zürich.

Oberholzer became friends with Hermann Rorschach and helped in developing the shape interpretation test; he continued work on the test and was considered one of its best interpreters. Most of his writing was devoted to the Rorschach test and its interpretation. As a member of the Zürich group, which was part of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), he gave a presentation on...