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COLLECTION Identifier: H MS c70

Christiana Morgan papers

Overview

The Christiana Morgan papers, 1925-1974, document the life of Christiana Drummond Morgan, a lay (non-credentialed) analyst at the Harvard Psychological Unit, who co-authored the Thematic Apperception Test with Henry Murray. Diaries, writings, and correspondence describe her work and relationship with Murray.

Dates

  • Creation: 1925-1974.

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Access requires advance notice. Consult Public Services for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Harvard Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in the collection. Researchers are responsible for identifying and contacting any third-party copyright holders for permission to reproduce or publish. For more information on the Center's use, publication, and reproduction policies, view our Reproductions and Use Policy.

Extent

3.4 cubic feet (3 record cartons, 1 legal document box)

The Christiana Morgan papers (1925-1974) consist of writings, diaries, and correspondence generated by Christiana Morgan (1897-1967) during her career as a lay (non-credentialed) psychoanalyst and her relationship with Henry Murray (1893-1988). Collection includes diaries and notebooks that Morgan created while she was a patient of Carl Jung (1875-1961) in the 1920s. The diaries record analytic methods during this period. The papers also include correspondence, book reviews, writings about Jung’s Vision Seminars, and chapters of an uncompleted and untitled book.

Biography

Christiana Drummond Morgan (1897-1967) was a lay (non-credentialed) psychoanalyst and researcher at the Harvard Psychological Unit, Boston, Massachusetts. She was a psychoanalytic patient of Carl Jung (1875-1961) and the longtime professional collaborator and romantic partner of Henry Murray (1893-1988), with whom she developed the thematic apperception test, a personality test that is still used in the 21st century.

Christiana Drummond Morgan was born Christiana Drummond Councilman in Boston, Massachusetts on October 6, 1897, the daughter of Isabella Coolidge Councilman (1835-1923) and William Thomas Councilman (1854-1933), Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Morgan attended The Winsor School in Boston from 1908 to 1914, and then, for one year, a finishing school for girls, located in Farmington, Connecticut. In the spring of 1917 she met William Morgan, who was a student at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and one of the first of the class of 1918 to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces. William left for duty in September of 1917, and they married after his return from service in April 1919. After marrying, they lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The couple had one son together, Peter Councilman Morgan (born 1920). While William served in the war, Christiana enrolled in a nurse’s aide course in New York City, New York. After finishing the course, she went home to care for her sick father and began volunteering at a hospital in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. During the influenza epidemic of 1918, the Red Cross drafted Christiana for emergency duty. She was assigned to hospitals in Methuen, Massachusetts and worked for Colonel Brooks, the Head of the Medical Department of the Massachusetts State Guard.

In 1924, William enrolled at Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom, to pursue a graduate degree in biochemistry, and Christiana accompanied him to England. While there, she began a forty-year romantic relationship with future psychoanalyst Henry Murray. Her relationship with Murray has been written about extensively in two books: Translate This Darkness, by Claire Douglas (1993) and Love’s Story Told: A Life of Henry A. Murray, by Forrest G. Robinson (1992). In June 1926, Christiana went to Zurich, Switzerland to be analyzed by Carl Jung, and William followed two months later. From June until October of 1926, Christiana was a patient of Jung. By the mid 1920s, Jung’s theories and techniques had become popular among artists and intellectuals who often traveled to Zurich to consult or train with him. During this time, Jung used active imagination or trancing as a therapy tool. Jung later used material from Morgan’s analytic sessions for his Vision Seminars in Zurich during the 1930s. In November of 1926, Morgan returned to Boston and began working at the Harvard Psychological Unit, Boston. The clinic was established by Morton Prince (1854-1929), who endowed the clinic and served as its first director. From the beginning, the clinic lacked funds, so Prince employed mainly part-time or self-supporting therapists. Prince also staffed the clinic with lay analysts with limited psychiatric training, and he accepted both Morgan and Murray because of their informal training with Jung. In addition to her work as a lay analyst, Morgan was also a research associate at the clinic. When Prince died in the summer of 1929, Murray took over as head of the clinic. After William died of tuberculosis in 1934, Christiana continued working at the clinic and maintained a professional, personal and spiritual relationship with Murray. In 1937, Morgan and Murray decided to add a tower to Morgan’s single room summer house in Newburyport, Massachusetts which she had purchased in 1927. They designed the tower, using Jung’s Tower in Bolligen, Switzerland as inspiration. Along with a three-story tower, they added a kitchen, enclosed porch and woodshed and started calling the property “Tower on the Marsh.” Morgan and Murray used the tower as a sanctuary or retreat, and it became a frequent topic in Morgan’s writings. In the 1930s Morgan and Murray developed the thematic apperception test, a personality test based on interpreting images, which they published in 1934. It was widely used in clinical psychology throughout the 20th century, and it is still used in the 21st century. Morgan’s contributions and her name were later removed from the test. In 1945, Morgan and Murray published a small monograph on personality called A Clinical Study of Sentiments.

Morgan maintained a presence at the Harvard Psychological Unit until the 1960s. By the 1960s, however, she had few patients, and her lack of academic psychoanalytic qualifications was no longer considered acceptable. After a period of declining health due to alcoholism, Morgan died in 1967, possibly by suicide.

Arrangement

Original order was retained when possible to create five series. Oversize folders listed in Series IV are housed in box 4.

Series and Subseries Arrangement

  1. Series I. Diaries and Notebooks, 1925-1966
  2. Series II. Writings by Christiana Morgan and Henry A. Murray, 1927-1954
  3. Series III. Vision Seminars, 1926-1974
  4. ___ Subseries A. Interpretation of Dreams, 1930
  5. ___ Subseries B. Writings about Vision Seminars, 1930s, 1967-1974
  6. ___ Subseries C. Trance Writings, 1926-1928
  7. Series IV. Untitled Book, undated
  8. Series V. Other Correspondence, Writings, and Notes, 1938-1968

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Christiana Morgan papers were acquired by the Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

Processing Information

Processed by Anne Woodrum, March 2002

Charlotte Lellman updated the Biographical Note and the Scope and Content Note in September 2020 to bring it into compliance with the Center for the History of Medicine’s Guidelines for Inclusive and Conscientious Description (2020). In particular, Lellman made stylistic updates and removed subjective claims. The previous version of the finding aid is being maintained for transparency around the descriptive process.

Title
Morgan, Christiana. Papers, 1925-1974: A Finding Aid.
Author
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.
Language of description
und
EAD ID
med00010

Repository Details

Part of the Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) Repository

The Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is one of the world's leading resources for the study of the history of health and medicine. Our mission is to enable the history of medicine and public health to inform healthcare, the health sciences, and the societies in which they are embedded.

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