Professor emeritus Bjørn Killingmo, nearly 93 years old, passed away peacefully Sunday 17 November. Bjørn belonged to the first generation of clinical psychologists in Norway, trained after World War II. In the beginning of the 1950s, being one of the first psychologists to enter the famous Vinderen psychiatric clinic, led by the mighty doctor Gabriel Langfeldt, he contributed significantly in making ‘psychologist’ a respected professional role. Afterwards followed academia. As a university teacher from 1958 till his retirement in 1997 Bjørn influenced countless classes of psychologists. Through his work as a teacher, textbook writer, researcher and supervisor – also after he retired – he has had a unique position within the clinical-psychological as well as within the psychoanalytical field in Norway, and also in the other Scandinavian countries. Through many years he had supervision groups in Denmark as well as Sweden. Highly treasured, with an exceptional clarity of thought – an excellent educator and supervisor.
At the Department of psychology, University of Oslo, Bjørn was a main driving force behind the creation of so-called internal clinics as an integrated part of the professional study of psychology. He was profoundly identified with Clinic for dynamic psychotherapy, based on the psychoanalytic theory of personality development and psychopathology, which he led for many years. Innumerable psychologist have got their formative education as psychologists in this clinic, which still today is the main recruitment base for candidates seeking psychoanalytic training. Bjørn was a dearly loved teacher and supervisor.
Bjørn was early trained as a psychoanalyst, and practiced psychoanalytic therapy all his life. In the tradition from Harald Schjelderup, the first professor of psychology in Norway, he sought to anchor psychoanalysis as part of general psychological science. Advancing a double-edged epistemological stance, he maintained that psychoanalysis must be in dialogue with other scientific disciplines (e.g. developmental psychology), at the same time emphasizing that the depth psychological method is necessary for capturing unconscious aspects of the mind not accessible by other methods. Bjørn had a special gift for the depth psychological research field: His intuitive understanding of symbols and of the archaic levels of the mind made him a master of Rorschach, expressed in the main work Rorschachmetode og psykoterapi (Rorschach method and psychotherapy). At the same time, he had a sharp sense for subtle defence mechanisms as they are expressed through the form of language and character – the dynamics and structure of mind.
Bjørn’s authorship represents substantial and innovative contributions to psychoanalytic theory development. Articles from his later years – like Conflict and deficit (1989), Beyond semantics (1991), Affirmation (1995), A plea for affirmation. Relating to unmentalised affects (2006) – have significantly influenced the international psychoanalytic debate. Presenting conflict and deficit as organising dimensions for understanding the clinical material, and articulating affirmation as a type of intervention supplementing interpretation is a major theoretical-clinical contribution here. A long cooperation between Bjørn and me resulted in Underteksten. Psykoanalytisk terapi i praksis, a book presenting an integration of object-relational and structural perspectives, in a theoretical position called relational-oriented character-analysis. A foundational idea is that the patient’s ways-of-being constitute relational strategies carrying implicit messages, a ‘subtext’, indirectly present in signs beyond words and represented in the form of the dialogue – in intonation, mimics, bodily postures and ways-of-being. It was a great pleasure for Bjørn that the book – just recently – was translated to English and published (by Routledge) under the title The theory and practice of psychoanalytic therapy. Listening for the subtext.
All his life Bjørn worked as a therapist. He had an exceptional capacity for listening to and containing the suffering of the individual – the wordless losses, the vulnerable child we all carry within. His presence in the dialogue was absolute – he had a gift for a form of a conversation – Den åpnende samtalen (a gem of an article, in Norwegian) – that permitted the other person to express herself without dissimulation and sham. With great warmth and wisdom, Bjørn also had the power of direct speech, when needed. We are many who feel grateful for what Bjørn has been. He leaves a great void – a deep sadness.
Bjørn Killingmo is an institution in Scandinavian psychology and psychoanalysis.