Nic Waal
Encyclopedia
Nic Waal, born Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen in Kristiania, Norway
(1 January 1905 - 28 May 1960) was a Norwegian
psychiatrist
, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatric and adolescent psychiatry." She was also active in the Norwegian resistance
during World War II
, and was named as one of the Righteous among the Nations
by Yad Vashem
.
, apparently an active and curious child, but also unusually sensitive. According to her son Helge Waal, she was prone to psychosomatic illnesses as a young child; and indeed she completed her first year of gymnasium
at home, due to illness. She attended Oslo Katedralskole
starting in the fall of 1921, where her schoolmates included Trygve Bull
, Karl Evang
, and Trygve Braatøy.
She attended the University of Oslo
, became politically active as a radical socialist, and finished her medical studies in 1930. She was associated with the Mot Dag
movement and worked as an editor in the periodical Æsculap. The political convictions she developed as a student set the foundation for a life-long engagement in social causes, especially related to the needs of children, adolescents, and women.
Plagued with her own emotional problems all her life, she first underwent psychoanalysis
with Harald Schjelderup in Norway while she was a student. In 1927 she married the writer Sigurd Hoel
. She continued her psychoanalysis in Berlin
as a student under Salomea Kempner, and in 1933 and 1934 she was accepted in the German and Danish-Norwegian Psychoanalytic associations, respectively. In 1936, Sigurd Hoel and she divorced, and in 1937 she married Wessel Waal and took the last name Waal for good.
While in Berlin, Waal became associated with Wilhelm Reich
and accompanied him when he fled Nazi persecution by moving to Norway. She continued her training first under another refugee from the Nazi regime, the Austria
n Otto Fenichel
, and then with Reich until 1939, when she opened her own psychoanalytic practice and joined the staff at Gaustad psychiatric hospital, where she remained on staff until 1947.
During the German occupation
of Norway from 1940 to 1945, Waal became active in the underground resistance to the occupation. Among other activities, she was central in assuring the escape of Jewish children from Oslo
, thereby saving them from deportation
and certain death
. For this effort, she was named among the Norwegian Righteous among the Nations
. She was also active in the Norwegian clandestine intelligence service, XU
.
In the spring of 1945, she was briefly arrested and escaped to Sweden.
Waal resumed her professional activities immediately after the war. She remained on the staff at Gaustad and also at Ullevål hospital
, but also worked in Denmark
, United States
, Switzerland
, and France
, with Serge Lebovici. She was remembered by Cyrille Koupernik as "that Norwegian madwoman". In 1951, she was board certified as a psychiatrist, and in 1953, as one of the first in Norway, within pediatric and adolescent psychiatry.
Soon after her application to be the chief of staff at the newly formed Institute for Pediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry at Rikshospitalet
was turned down (supposedly because her physical presentation was messy) in 1951, she started her own institute, named Nic Waals Institutt; first in her basement in the suburb Husebygrenda and eventually to the "blue house" in Munkedamsveien near Skillebekk
.
Waal remained professionally active as the director of her institute until her death in 1960, also finding time to help juvenile offenders. She had two children with Wessel Waal, the psychiatrist Helge Waal (who also became her biographer) and the child psychologist Berit Waal Skaslien. She divorced Waal and married Alex Helju in 1951, who died in a boating accident in 1954.
When interviewed by the Norwegian radio shortly before her death, she said:
The Nic Waal Institute, though renamed for some time, now continues as a leading regional teaching and clinical institution in Oslo under the auspices of Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykhus.
, Knut Hamsun
, Sigurd Hoel
, Agnar Mykle
, and others - anniversary publication for her institute.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
(1 January 1905 - 28 May 1960) was a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatric and adolescent psychiatry." She was also active in the Norwegian resistance
Norwegian resistance movement
The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and was named as one of the Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
.
Biography
Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen (known in her childhood as Bitteba) was the youngest of four children born to Vilhelm Bernhoft Nicolaysen, an Army officer, and Anna Horn. She grew up in the section of Oslo known as HomansbyenHomansbyen
Homansbyen is a neighborhood in Frogner borough in Oslo, Norway. The area is named for the lawyer brothers Jacob and Henrik Homan .-Area:...
, apparently an active and curious child, but also unusually sensitive. According to her son Helge Waal, she was prone to psychosomatic illnesses as a young child; and indeed she completed her first year of gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
at home, due to illness. She attended Oslo Katedralskole
Oslo katedralskole
Schola Osloensis, known in Norwegian as Oslo katedralskole and more commonly as "Katta" is an upper secondary school located in Oslo, Norway. The school offers the college preparatory studiespesialisering of the Norwegian school system...
starting in the fall of 1921, where her schoolmates included Trygve Bull
Trygve Bull
Trygve Bull was a Norwegian lecturer and politician. He was a member of Mot Dag in the 1920s and 1930s, and contributed to the magazines Mot Dag, Clarté and Kontakt. During World War II he was imprisoned by the Germans, and incarcerated at the Grini and Sachsenhausen concentration camps...
, Karl Evang
Karl Evang
Karl Evang was a Norwegian physician and civil servant.He was born in Kristiania as a son of assisting secretary Jens Ingolf Evang and Anna Beate Wexelsen . He was a brother of Vilhelm Evang, and a relative of Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen, Per Kvist and Gunnar Jahn. He met physician Gerda S...
, and Trygve Braatøy.
She attended the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, became politically active as a radical socialist, and finished her medical studies in 1930. She was associated with the Mot Dag
Mot Dag
Mot Dag was a Norwegian periodical and a communist organization with the same name.It was established in 1921 under the initiative of Erling Falk, partly with origins in the debate forum in the Social Democratic student government in Oslo ; partly from a Falk-led study circle which from 1919...
movement and worked as an editor in the periodical Æsculap. The political convictions she developed as a student set the foundation for a life-long engagement in social causes, especially related to the needs of children, adolescents, and women.
Plagued with her own emotional problems all her life, she first underwent psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
with Harald Schjelderup in Norway while she was a student. In 1927 she married the writer Sigurd Hoel
Sigurd Hoel
Sigurd Hoel was a Norwegian author and publishing consultant, born in Nord-Odal. He debuted with the collection of short stories Veien vi gaar in 1922...
. She continued her psychoanalysis in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as a student under Salomea Kempner, and in 1933 and 1934 she was accepted in the German and Danish-Norwegian Psychoanalytic associations, respectively. In 1936, Sigurd Hoel and she divorced, and in 1937 she married Wessel Waal and took the last name Waal for good.
While in Berlin, Waal became associated with Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
and accompanied him when he fled Nazi persecution by moving to Norway. She continued her training first under another refugee from the Nazi regime, the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel was a psychoanalyst of the so-called "second generation".Otto Fenichel started studying medicine in 1915 in Vienna. Already as a very young man, when still in school, he was attracted by the circle of psychoanalysts around Freud...
, and then with Reich until 1939, when she opened her own psychoanalytic practice and joined the staff at Gaustad psychiatric hospital, where she remained on staff until 1947.
During the German occupation
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
of Norway from 1940 to 1945, Waal became active in the underground resistance to the occupation. Among other activities, she was central in assuring the escape of Jewish children from Oslo
Jewish Children's Home in Oslo
The Jewish Children's Home in Oslo was established in 1939 under the auspices of Nansenhjelpen, a humanitarian organization established by Odd Nansen, the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen...
, thereby saving them from deportation
Jewish deportees from Norway during World War II
During the Nazi occupation of Norway, German authorities deported about 768 individuals of Jewish background to concentration camps outside of Norway. 28 of these survived World War Two.-Deportation:The deportation schedule for the major transports was:...
and certain death
Holocaust in Norway
In the middle of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. At least 775 of these were arrested, detained, and/or deported. 742 were murdered in the camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total...
. For this effort, she was named among the Norwegian Righteous among the Nations
Norwegian Righteous among the Nations
During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, its Jewish community was subject to persecution and deported to extermination camps. Although at least 764 Jews in Norway were killed, over 1,000 were rescued with the help of non-Jewish Norwegians who risked their lives to smuggle the refugees out...
. She was also active in the Norwegian clandestine intelligence service, XU
XU
XU was a clandestine intelligence organisation working on behalf of Allied powers in occupied Norway during World War II...
.
In the spring of 1945, she was briefly arrested and escaped to Sweden.
Waal resumed her professional activities immediately after the war. She remained on the staff at Gaustad and also at Ullevål hospital
Ullevål University Hospital
Ullevaal, Oslo University Hospital was opened in 1887. From January 1, 2009, the hospital is part of the Oslo University Hospital.Ullevål has more than 8,600 employees. 940 of them are doctors and 2,400 nurses. With a total of 1,200 beds Ullevål, admits some 45,000 patients per year and its...
, but also worked in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, with Serge Lebovici. She was remembered by Cyrille Koupernik as "that Norwegian madwoman". In 1951, she was board certified as a psychiatrist, and in 1953, as one of the first in Norway, within pediatric and adolescent psychiatry.
Soon after her application to be the chief of staff at the newly formed Institute for Pediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry at Rikshospitalet
Rikshospitalet
Rikshospitalet is located in Oslo, Norway. From January 1, 2009, the hospital is part of Oslo University Hospital....
was turned down (supposedly because her physical presentation was messy) in 1951, she started her own institute, named Nic Waals Institutt; first in her basement in the suburb Husebygrenda and eventually to the "blue house" in Munkedamsveien near Skillebekk
Skillebekk
Skillebekk is a neighbourhood of Oslo, Norway. It is located near Solli plass in the West End of Oslo, and is served by the station Skillebekk on the Skøyen Line. The name origins from Skillebekken, a brook between Bymarken and Frogner Hovedgård....
.
Waal remained professionally active as the director of her institute until her death in 1960, also finding time to help juvenile offenders. She had two children with Wessel Waal, the psychiatrist Helge Waal (who also became her biographer) and the child psychologist Berit Waal Skaslien. She divorced Waal and married Alex Helju in 1951, who died in a boating accident in 1954.
Professional contributions and legacy
In spite of her personal problems, Nic Waal maintained an active and passionate professional life, integrating advocacy on public health issues, a strong interest in teaching, and clinical discipline into a broad range of issues in her field. She made lasting contributions within the areas of:- The practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, usually within the context of Wilhelm Reich's framework but independently of his views. She did pioneering research and clinical work within the field of somatic psychiatric diagnostic techniques.
- Pediatric and adolescent psychiatry as a distinct field in Norwegian mental health
- Human sexuality, particularly among children and adolescents.
- Education - her institute provided educational programs for six distinct professions, including non-medical professionals such as psychologist, social workers, and clinical educators
When interviewed by the Norwegian radio shortly before her death, she said:
The Nic Waal Institute, though renamed for some time, now continues as a leading regional teaching and clinical institution in Oslo under the auspices of Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykhus.
Literature
- a book on the medium of film and its effect on children. - a book on parenting infants. - "Personality diagnosis with the purpose of structural descriptions - a publication of her institute. - an outline of Waal's somatic diagnostic methodology. - published posthumously, but translated to several languages, on the role of parenting and sexual neuroses. - selected writings by Nic Waal. - biography authored by her son, Helge Waal. - biographical essays of Henrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul....
, Sigurd Hoel
Sigurd Hoel
Sigurd Hoel was a Norwegian author and publishing consultant, born in Nord-Odal. He debuted with the collection of short stories Veien vi gaar in 1922...
, Agnar Mykle
Agnar Mykle
Agnar Mykle was a Norwegian author. He became one of the most controversial figures in Norwegian literature in the 20th century.-Early life:...
, and others - anniversary publication for her institute.