Svein Haugsgjerd (born August 3, 1942) is a Norwegian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.^[1] He is notable for using psychodynamic psychotherapy to treat patients with schizophrenia.^[2]

He is influenced by the Kleinian tradition^[3] in psychoanalysis and by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, on whom Haugsgjerd wrote a book-length introduction in 1986.^[4]

He has published extensively on the field of psychodynamic psychiatry in Norwegian.^[5] Several of his books, including textbooks, have been translated into other Nordic languages.

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.^[6][7]

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.^[2][8]

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.^[9] In 2003 he was appointed as a professor II (adjunct professor) at the Centre for Practical Knowledge, Nord University, in Bodø.

• 1987 "Toward a theory for milieu treatment of hospitalized borderline patients", in: The Borderline Patient: Emerging Concepts in Diagnosis, Psychodynamics, and Treatment, Vol. II (eds. Grotstein James S., Solomon Marion F., Lang Joan A.). Hillsdale, N.J.: Analytic Press, pp. 211–226.
• 1993 "Mental geography in psychotic states", in: Crossing the Borders: psychotherapy of schizophrenia (editor Jens Bolvig Hansen). Ludvika: Dualis Förlag, pp. 29–40.
• 1994 "Can psychoanalytic theory contribute to the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia?", Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 90(suppl 384):153–6.
• 2006 "Donald Meltzer's Concept «The Aesthetic Conflict»", in: Estetikk: sansing, erkjennelse og verk (editor Bente Larsen). Oslo: Unipub, pp. 131–143.
• 2013 (with Per Anthi). "A note on the history of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society from 1933 to 1945", International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 94(4):715–24.
• 2016 "Listening and the voice", Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review, 39(1):80–83.

• Publications by Svein Haugsgjerd (National Library of Norway)