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Psychoanalysis has throughout its history in Norway had strong connections with both the psychiatric health-care system and with academic psychiatry and psychology.

In 1905, Ragnar Vogt, who was to become the first professor of psychiatry in Norway, referred to the "psychocathartic" method of Freud in his psychiatric textbook, Psykiatriens grundtreok (An outline of psychiatry). Freud (1914d) referred to this as the first textbook of psychiatry to refer to psychoanalysis. It was not until the 1920s, however, that psychoanalysis was practiced in Norway, first and foremost under the leadership of Harald Schjelderup, who was from 1928 professor in psychology at the University of Oslo.

Schjelderup and several others went to central Europe for training, and psychoanalysis was established as a clinical discipline over the course of the 1930s, although there were intense debates and at times heavy opposition from the medical and clerical establishments. In the cultural field psychoanalysis was discussed both theoretically (the Freud-Marx debate) and on the practical and political level in the struggle for a healthier attitude toward sexuality. The latter was spear-headed by the journal Sexual Information, published by Karl Evang, later the surgeon general in Norway.

On August 22, 1931, a group of Scandinavian psychoanalysts gathered in Stockholm to establish a study-circle of psychoanalysts, with the aim of seeking an affiliation with the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). In 1933 a Nordic psychoanalytic society was formed with Alfhild Tamm from Sweden as president and Schjelderup as vice-president. At the Luzern congress in 1934, it was decided to establish a Danish-Norwegian and a Finnish-Swedish society, following a heated debate on the subject of unscientific analysis. This debate stemmed an part from the fact that Wilhelm Reich came to Oslo in 1934 at the invitation of Harald Schjelderup. Ernest Jones, the president of IPA, set the condition that Wilhelm Reich was not to be member of the Danish-Norwegian society. This was unacceptable as a condition, but Reich was nevertheless rejected for membership by society vote. The Danish-Norwegian society (soon altered to Norwegian-Danish because of the limited participation from Denmark) was then established, with Harald Schjelderup as president and Otto Fenichel as secretary. Fenichel had arrived in Oslo in 1933 and stayed until 1935. The first years of organized psychoanalysis in Norway were then marked by the struggle between the forceful personalities of Fenichel and Reich. This created a split in the milieu. The battle, which also engaged the medical establishment and the public, was centered on Reich's development of character-analysis, "vegetotherapy," and his quasi-scientific discoveries of the energy of life. Reich was ordered to leave Norway in 1939. His work on character-analysis has, however influenced psychoanalysis and psychiatry, and especially child-psychiatry through the work of Nic Waal.

When Germany occupied Norway, it was decided to temporarily dissolve the psychoanalytic society, to avoid being seen in Germany as interfering with the Nazi regime. Most of the members of the society participated in the resistance movement or in other defensive activities. Harald Schjelderup, as leader of the resistance at the university, was sent to the Grini concentration camp, near Oslo, and several others were forced to flee. Landmark died in violence in northern Norway, and P. Bernstein died in a concentration camp in Germany.

The temporary dissolution during wartime was not intended as a resignation from the IPA, but was treated as such by IPA authorities. The pioneers Schjelderup, Braatøy, and Simonsen re-established the Norwegian-Danish society in 1947, and it continued until 1953 when the Danes started their own organization. They were accepted as a component society in 1957 but it was not until 1975 that the Norwegian society received this status. The reason for the exclusion after wartime has not been established, and there is no official documentation that such an exclusion occurred. It was, however, obvious that the shadow of Wilhelm Reich's influence was a disadvantage for membership. An application made at the XVIII congress in London in 1953 was turned down with the argument that there were some members of the group who did not practice psychoanalysis, obviously referring to people seen as followers of Reich. The Norwegians argued that it was impossible to break with colleagues with whom one had resisted during the war. There followed a long struggle for recognition, with applications made at different congresses. One problem was the limited practice of Schjelderup, who maintained few sessions a week in training analysis, with the express purpose of increasing the educational capacity (he also claimed good results). In 1971 the Norwegian society was given status as a study group, and it finally regained status as component society in 1975 (Alnæs, 1994).

The Norwegian Psychoanalytic Institute had already been established in 1967 under the leadership of Peter Andreas Holter and the formal recognition by IPA gave impetus to an expansion of its activities, with a responsibility for psychoanalytic education being at the center. In later years other activities have seen increased focus, including research, teaching, and lecturing. The institute publishes the Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review in collaboration with the other Scandinavian societies.

The modern Society has more than fifty members and still more candidates. There is an active child-analytic group and a group working with psychoanalytic research. The main trend is a broad object-relational approach with emphasis on analysis of character, along with some inspiration from ego-psychology.

The most significant figures in Norwegian psychoanalysis have contributed in a variety of capacities. Harald Krabbe Schjelderup (1895-1974) was the main pioneer of psychoanalysis in Norway. His numerous publications on psychoanalysis include, Neurosis and the Neurotic Character (1940) and "Lasting Effects of Psychoanalytic Treatment" (1957). Trygve Braatøy (1904-53) trained in Berlin. He worked at the Menninger clinic, 1949-1951, and was clinical director of a psychiatric hospital in Oslo. His publications include Foundation of Psychoanalytic Technique (1954). Hjørdis Simonsen (1899-1980), perhaps the most important figure in the 1930s and after the war, was trained in Berlin, and later worked as a training analyst. Nic Waal (1905-1960), trained in Berlin and became a child psychiatrist. Finn Hansen (b. 1918), trained in Berlin and worked as training analyst. Peter Andreas Holter (b. 1927), a training analyst, was the first leader of the institute.

SVERRE VARVIN