The Most Famous
PSYCHOLOGISTS from Switzerland
This page contains a list of the greatest Swiss Psychologists. The pantheon dataset contains 183 Psychologists, 7 of which were born in Switzerland. This makes Switzerland the birth place of the 7th most number of Psychologists behind France and Poland.
Top 7
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swiss Psychologists of all time. This list of famous Swiss Psychologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
With an HPI of 81.22, Carl Jung is the most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 102 different languages on wikipedia.
Carl Gustav Jung ( YUUNG; German: [kaʁl ˈjʊŋ]; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. He was a prolific author, illustrator, and correspondent, and a complex and controversial character, presumably best known through his "autobiography" Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. Jung is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history. Freud saw the younger Jung not only as the heir he had been seeking to take forward his "new science" of psychoanalysis, but as a means to legitimize his own work: Freud and other contemporary psychoanalysts were Jews facing rising antisemitism in Europe, and Jung was Christian. Freud secured Jung's appointment as president of Freud's newly founded International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult to follow his older colleague's doctrine and they parted ways. This division was painful for Jung and resulted in the establishment of Jung's analytical psychology, as a comprehensive system separate from psychoanalysis. Scholar Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi believed Jung's later antisemitic remarks may be a clue to the schism. Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements. Jung considered it to be the main task of human development. He created some of the best known psychological concepts, including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, the psychological complex, and extraversion and introversion. Jung was also an artist, craftsman, builder, and prolific writer. Many of his works were not published until after his death and some remain unpublished.
2. Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980)
With an HPI of 80.95, Jean Piaget is the 2nd most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages.
Jean William Fritz Piaget (UK: , US: , French: [ʒɑ̃ pjaʒɛ]; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology. Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As the Director of the International Bureau of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual". His theory of child development is studied in pre-service education programs. Educators continue to incorporate constructivist-based strategies. Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 while on the faculty of the University of Geneva, and directed the center until his death in 1980. The number of collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory". According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing". His ideas were widely popularized in the 1960s. This then led to the emergence of the study of development as a major sub-discipline in psychology. By the end of the 20th century, he was second only to B. F. Skinner as the most-cited psychologist.
3. Hermann Rorschach (1884 - 1922)
With an HPI of 66.49, Hermann Rorschach is the 3rd most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.
Hermann Rorschach (German: [ˈhɛːman ˈʁoːʁʃaχ]; 8 November 1884 – 2 April 1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject's personality. His method has come to be referred to as the Rorschach test, iterations of which have continued to be used over the years to help identify personality, psychotic, and neurological disorders. Rorschach continued to refine the test until his premature death at age 37.
4. Ludwig Binswanger (1881 - 1966)
With an HPI of 60.44, Ludwig Binswanger is the 4th most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Ludwig Binswanger (; German: [ˈbɪnsvaŋɐ]; 13 April 1881 – 5 February 1966) was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). Robert's German-Jewish father Ludwig "Elieser" Binswanger (1820–1880) was founder, in 1857, of the Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen. Robert's brother Otto Binswanger (1852–1929) was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Jena. Ludwig Binswanger is the most prominent phenomenological psychologist and the most influential in making the concepts of existential psychology known in Europe and the United States.
5. Édouard Claparède (1873 - 1940)
With an HPI of 57.72, Édouard Claparède is the 5th most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Édouard Claparède (24 March 1873 – 29 September 1940) was a Swiss neurologist, child psychologist, and educator.
6. Auguste Forel (1848 - 1931)
With an HPI of 55.70, Auguste Forel is the 6th most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Auguste-Henri Forel (French pronunciation: [oɡyst ɑ̃ʁi fɔʁɛl]; 1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. He is considered a co-founder of the neuron theory. Forel is also known for his early contributions to sexology and psychology. From 1978 until 2000 Forel's image appeared on the 1000 Swiss franc banknote.
7. Théodore Flournoy (1854 - 1920)
With an HPI of 46.06, Théodore Flournoy is the 7th most famous Swiss Psychologist. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Théodore Flournoy (15 August 1854 – 5 November 1920) was a Swiss professor of psychology at the University of Geneva and author of books on parapsychology and spiritism. He studied a wide variety of subjects before he devoted his life to psychology. Flournoy had an interest in a very skeptical area of psychology. He did extensive observations on a participant to investigate psychical phenomena. He was the President of the Sixth International Congress of Psychology, the Chair of Experimental Psychology at the University of Geneva in 1891 and was the first professor of psychology in Europe to become a member of the Faculty of Sciences instead of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Pantheon has 7 people classified as psychologists born between 1848 and 1896. Of these 7, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased psychologists include Carl Jung, Jean Piaget, and Hermann Rorschach. As of April 2022, 1 new psychologists have been added to Pantheon including Théodore Flournoy.
Deceased Psychologists
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Carl Jung
1875 - 1961
HPI: 81.22
Jean Piaget
1896 - 1980
HPI: 80.95
Hermann Rorschach
1884 - 1922
HPI: 66.49
Ludwig Binswanger
1881 - 1966
HPI: 60.44
Édouard Claparède
1873 - 1940
HPI: 57.72
Auguste Forel
1848 - 1931
HPI: 55.70
Théodore Flournoy
1854 - 1920
HPI: 46.06
Newly Added Psychologists (2022)
Go to all RankingsWhich Psychologists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 7 most globally memorable Psychologists since 1700.
