Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society

On February 10th. 1919 a circular letter was sent to a number of persons by the Rev. Dr. Oskar Pfister, Mrs. Mira Oberholzer, M.D., and Dr. Emil Oberholzer in Zürich, inviting them to a meeting in Zürich on February 21st. The object of this meeting was the foundation of a Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society embracing all those adherents of Psycho-Analysis who had not accepted the theories of Adler and Jung. The Swiss Psycho-Analytical Society was then to apply to the International Psycho-Analytical Association for affiliation. Its meetings were to be held not only in Zürich but from time to time in some centrally situated place which would make it easy for all members to attend.

Of the fifty persons invited twenty-one (among these twelve medical men, three of them psychiatrists in public asylums) promised to be present at the meeting or to join as members after the forming of the Society. A number of others hesitated to declare their membership though they regarded the project favourably; some of these asked to be received as guests of the Society. Three of the members were from French Switzerland.

Inaugural meeting on March 21st. 1919.

In the course of the discussion on the rules of the society it was resolved that each member be obliged to adhere strictly to the state medical regulations concerning the treatment of patients by non-medical men. In view of "wild analysis" it was resolved that those analysts who are not medical men should work in cooperation with a doctor to avoid diagnostic errors.

In the discussion about the terms of admission it was resolved to draw up the rules free from all sense of illiberality and intolerance but to exclude all those applying for membership whose personality would render a misuse of the psycho-analytic technique not improbable. The officers of the Society were then duly elected. Practical reasons made it necessary for the President Dr. Emil Oberholzer, living in Zürich, to accept at the same time the offices of Treasurer, Secr