Herman Wedel Major

Herman Wedel Major (23 February 1814 – 26 September 1854) was a Norwegian psychiatrist. He is regarded as the father of the first Norwegian psychiatric hospital, Gaustad Hospital (Gaustad sykehus) and of the Norwegian Mental Health Act of 1848 regarding mental illness.[1][2] [3]

Herman Wedel Major
Born(1814-02-23)23 February 1814
Kristiansand, Norway
Died26 September 1854(1854-09-26) (aged 40)
NationalityNorwegian
OccupationPsychiatrist

Major was born at the Kristiansand borough of Oddernes in Vest-Agder, Norway. He was one of nine children born to Irish immigrant Robert Gonsalvo Major (1766–1839) and Benedicte Sophie Weidemann (1783–1859). His father had left Ireland in the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.[4]

Major became a medical student in 1832 and was licensed as a physician in November 1842. He received a grant from the Norwegian Parliament and traveled to institutions in Schleswig, Great Britain, France and Belgium to study the conditions for the mentally ill (1843-1845). Major was for several years a doctor at the Oslo Hospital and was authorized as manager there from 1851.[5] [6][7]

During 1845, the Norwegian Parliament allocated funds to purchase land for an intended state asylum. In 1847, Gaustad outside Christiania (now Oslo) submitted a plan and in 1850 it was formally decided that the institution should be built there. Gaustad Hospital was not completed until 1855, after the death of Herman Wedel Major.[8]

In 1850, Major married Ida Cathrine Grüning (1821-1854). They had two daughters. He and his family all died in the ship collision between the American Paddle steamer SS Arctic and the French steamship SS Vesta on 26 September 1854 off the coast of Newfoundland.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Herman W. Major – "far" til norsk psykiatri". Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening. 30 November 2000. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  2. Svein Atle Skålevåg. "Gaustad sykehus". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  3. Norwegian Mental Health Act adopted by the Storting on 30 July 1848 (Webmedscape.com). Retrieved August 1, 2016
  4. "The 1798 Irish Rebellion". BBC. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  5. "Oslo Hospital". lokalhistoriewiki.no. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  6. Retterstøl N (30 November 2000). "Herman W. Major--"father" of Norwegian psychiatry". Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 120: 3562–3. PMID 11188385.
  7. "Herman Wedel Major". lokalhistoriewiki.no. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  8. "Herman Wedel Major". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  9. Retterstøl, Nils. "Herman Wedel Major". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 19 February 2011.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.