Svein Haugsgjerd

He is influenced by the Kleinian tradition in psychoanalysis and by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, on whom Haugsgjerd wrote a book-length introduction in 1986.

He has published extensively on the field of psychodynamic psychiatry in Norwegian. Several of his books, including textbooks, have been translated into other Nordic languages.

Career

Haugsgjerd was employed at Gaustad Hospital, a large psychiatric hospital in Oslo, from 1973 to 2012. He was chief physician from 1988 to 1992.

In 1975 Haugsgjerd chose Donald Meltzer, a psychoanalyst who made important contributions to the Kleinian tradition in psychoanalysis, as his mentor.

In 1977 Haugsgjerd and colleagues established the experimental treatment unit Kastanjebakken at Gaustad Hospital, which drew on Kleinian and neo-Kleinian ideas about treatment. Haugsgjerd took a leading role from 1977 to 1982. The unit offered younger patients (age < 40) diagnosed with schizophrenia, with a duration of illness ≥ 3 years, a combination of long-term individual psychotherapy and milieu therapy. A follow-up study of the 27 first participants concluded that one-third of the patients had good outcomes.

Besides treating patients, Haugsgjerd was responsible for supervision and teaching at Gaustad Hospital. From 2000 to 2010 he taught and supervised colleagues at Stavropol Regional Psychoanalytical Association in Russia. In 2003 he was appointed as a professor II (adjunct professor) at the Centre for Practical Knowledge, Nord University, in Bodø.