When Morton Prince founded the Harvard Psychological Clinic in 1927, it was made part of Harvard Arts and Sciences school rather than the medical school. Prince intended the clinic to foster psychology as a separate discipline rather than as an offshoot of psychiatry. He also wanted the clinic to strengthen the relationship between clinical and experimental psychology (even then there was a significant gulf between the branches). With Henry Murray as his assistant, Prince made the clinic into a major focus for psychological research by the time of his death in 1929.
While Christiana Morgan threw herself into her work at the Clinic, her own status there was uncertain at first. Since she had no academic credentials (she scorned academic degrees as being meaningless), all that Murray could offer her was a position as a research assistant. The fact that her affair with Murray was widely known worked against her although there was no question that Christiana was brilliant in her own right. It was also through her influence that the Clinic became extremely women-friendly and attracted serious female researchers from across the country.
Unfortunately, the presence of other women at the clinic led to Henry becoming romantically linked to several of them over the years. As the "other woman" in Henry's life (he was still married to a long-suffering Josephine), Christiana had reason to be upset and even suffered a nervous breakdown at one point. He always returned to her in the end although episodes of depression recurred for the rest of her life. It was during this period when Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray first began developing the Thematic Apperception Test.
While the idea was originally Henry Murray's, it was Christiana Morgan who designed the actual test format and developed most of the picture cards that were eventually used. As a Jungian psychoanalysis (with her own private practice), Christiana incorporated many of her own ideas on human emotion and personality into the test cards. During the time she was working on the test, her life was rocked by two tragedies in her life. Both of her parents died within months of each other and, only a year later, her husband died. William Morgan had never been the same after the war due to tuberculosis and shell shock but the emotional turmoil of his odd marriage to Christiana took a further toll.Though Christiana grieved for her parents and her husband, it quickly became clear that there would be no change in her relationship with Henry as a result.
Professionally, things became slightly better when Christiana was made a research associate at Radcliffe College in 1935 and the paper introducing the TAT listed her as senior author (the test was first known as the Morgan-Murray TAT as a result). Despite concerns about the test's validity, the TAT went on to become one of the most widely used psychological tests in the world. In the decades that followed, clinicians used the test to assess dreaming, psychotic thinking, vocational screening, and forensic assessments. Christiana was also instrumental in developing a children's version of the TAT and introducing new uses for the test. She also remained busy with her own research and psychotherapy practice until World War II brought changes to both her and Henry.
While Henry Murray took time away from the clinic to work with the OSS, Christiana's health worsened dramatically. Her high blood pressure became life-threatening and she was forced to undergo a radical sympathectomy to stabilize her condition (there were no blood pressure medications at the time). Although the surgery saved her life, the long-term consequences were severe (part of her sympathetic nervous system was destroyed as a result). Although she eventually returned to her work, things would never be the same.
When the 1943 revision of the TAT was published by Harvard University Press, there was one notable change. Christiana's name had been dropped and Henry Murray was listed as the primary author. Murray himself would later state that Christiana had asked that her name be removed given her health problems and the demands that being primary author placed on her although others have disputed this. Whatever the reason, Christiana continued working on the TAT for the rest of her life despite the changes that the war had brought to the Clinic. Women scholars tended not to have the same support of their male colleagues that they did before the war
and Christiana became more isolated as a result.
Although she would develop alcohol problems later in life, Christiana still cultivated a brilliant circle of friends including Alfred North Whitehead and Lewis Mumford. Her relationship with Murray was still volatile and his affairs with other women continued (along with his marriage to Josephine). Even after his wife's death in 1962, Murray continue to be ambivalent about marrying Christiana and their marriage plans never seemed to materialize. When Murray became involved with a younger woman, Christiana's mental health went downhill. The cause of her death on March 14, 1967 while she was in the Virgin Islands with Murray is still unclear. Henry Murray later provided conflicting versions of what happened but whether she died accidentally or deliberately drowned herself remains a mystery.
The memorial service for Christiana was carefully stage managed by Henry Murray which antagonized many of her friends (Lewis Mumford refused to attend and Christiana's son only agreed to go at the last minute). Her obituary glossed over her many contributions to psychology and mainly described her association with the Harvard Psychological Clinic. Henry Murray married Caroline Chandler two years after Christiana died and had a prominent career in psychology until his death in 1988.
While Christiana Morgan is still largely remembered through her association with Murray, there seems to be a growing interest in her life and work. A biography titled Translate This Darkness: The Life of Christiana Morgan was published in 1993 and online resources detailing her life and work are being developed.
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