Henrik Sjöbring and the concept of individual psychology in psychiatry

Abstract

In 1913 Henrik Sjöbring presented his thesis, ‘Den individualpsykologiska frågeställningen inom psykiatrien’ [‘The question of individual psychology in psychiatry’] in Upsala Läkareförenings Förhandlingar (1), the principal aim of which was to construct a system for characterizing the various dimensions of personality. The system presupposed that it is possible to distinguish different fundamental characteristics, or factors, in our innate psychic constitution and that combinations in different degrees of these fundamental characteristics could produce an infinite number of personality variations. Extreme positions, above and below the median, could result in mental illness. At that time this stance was new, but it corresponds well with contemporary beliefs.