| Klopfer, during his youth, enjoyed sailing, mountain climbing, and skiing. His education was interrupted for a time by World War I. Later he returned to the University of Munich, where he received the Ph.D. at the age of 22; his dissertation was entitled "The psychology of
inhibition." Klopfer and his family spent 1933-1934 in Switzerland, then emigrated to the United States, where Klopfer taught at Columbia University for 13 years. During this time he established his first regular workshop in projective techniques in New York State. Later he added other workshops in California and other parts of the country. Joining the staff at UCLA. he remained there until his retirement in 1963. Klopfer started dealing with Jungian psychology as an intellectual task and gradually it became his philosophy of life. His speciality in his later years was Jungian analysis and the teaching of Jungian theory and practice. This tended to replace the Rorschach as his primary
interest. He was editor of the Journal of Personality Assessment for 36 years and developed it from an obscure newsletter into a major professional
organ. He himself was a prolific writer and a tremendous stimulant to his students and colleagues. His major work was The Rorschach technique first published in 1942 with Douglas Kelly and revised in 1962 with H. H. Davidson: it became the single most authoritative source on the Rorschach test. He received tributes from the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association, from the Society for Personality Assessment, and from the Analytical Psychology Club of New York. |
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