Olof Billingberg (1929-1990)

Olof Billingberg, a former president of the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society, died in Stockholm on 2 February 1990, after about one year of malignant cancer, a few days before his 61st birthday.

This untimely death is a severe blow to the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society and the Psychology Department of the University of Stockholm. The loss is felt by many societies in Europe and America as well as by his many friends all over the world, his students and patients.

Olof Billingberg had been a full member of the New York Freudian Society (IPA) since 1989.

He fought a heroic battle against his fatal illness, enduring merciless stabbing pain without complaint. He continued his analytic work and University lecturing until the last few weeks of his life. The disease inexorably turned to the worse and sealed his fate.

Early in his Psychology career, Olof Billingberg became interested in the clinical part of the University Psychology program. During the 1960's, he and I held positions as chief psychologists at the two mental hospitals in Stockholm. With combined effort, we were able to plan and successfully accomplish a clinical training program for the students in the Psychology Department of the University of Stockholm.

Towards the last half of the 1960's, Olof Billingberg abandoned his promising research within the field of neuro-psychology of schizophrenia and started his psychoanalytic training at the Swedish Psychoanalytic Institute.

After finishing his training, Olof Billingberg was active in the Institute as a teacher, training analyst and supervisor. Besides this, he has held office in several posts on the board of the Swedish Society, even as President and Chairman of the Institute. He took an active part in the reorganisation of the Institute and the educational program at the end of the 1970's and participated in the planning of the first Consulting Visit (1982).

Alongside his psychoanalytic practice, Olof Billingberg worked as a psychologist at a special psyc