[Herman W. Major--"father" of Norwegian psychiatry]

Herman Wedel Major (1814-54) is clearly the founding father of Norwegian psychiatry. In 1844, he submitted a proposal for an insane asylum in Norway, emphasising that insanity was a curable disease, not possession by spirits. Included with the proposal were drawings by his brother-in-law, the well-known architect Heinrich Ernst Schirmer (1815-87). The proposal was soon supported by a statement from Peter Willers Jessen (1793-1875), professor and head of Europe's first new psychiatric hospital. Gaustad Hospital was opened in 1855. In 1846, Major submitted a report on the plight of the insane in Norway, and he was the driving force in the drafting of modern legislation on insanity in Norway, the "act relating to treatment and care for the insane", passed in 1848. This was the fourth modern insanity act in Europe, following those in France (1838), Switzerland (1838) and England (1842).--A great lifetime achievement, brought to an end in 1854 when Major, then 40, and his family died in a shipwreck.