Olov Dahlin: 1934-2009

Olov came to psychoanalysis from psychiatry. He started his analytic training in 1973 and became a member of the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society 1979. He combined a strong humanistic and artistic interest with a profound engagement in the fundamental psychological questions and epistemological problems of psychoanalysis. One of his special interests was to apply psychoanalytic views to the understanding of group-psychological phenomena. He was also interested in understanding psychoanalysis in a social context, for example, by studying it from the perspectives of critical economic theory and sociological and philosophical theories of power, in the spirit of Foucault.

Over a number of years, Olov was active on the board of the Swedish Society, in which he, in his capacity as head of the library committee, led the work in publication of a systematic catalogue of all the Society's literature. This achievement facilitated the subsequent integration of this collection of publications in the National Psychological-Pedagogical Library at Stockholm University and in making the Society's books readily available to psychoanalysts as well as to others.

Olov made important contributions to group analysis, and published widely on this topic in Sweden as well as internationally. He was an early authority on Bion, and he promoted Bion's thinking among Swedish group analysts.

Whoever wants to study Olov Dahlin's original style can read his articles and reviews in, among other publications, the Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review at the beginning of the 1990s. Without ducking when facing challenges and with a great respect for and an interest in developing new ideas — he found pleasure in expressing his own views, even when they ran against whatever may have been a popular trend at the time — Olov demanded stringency and clarity in psychoanalytic discussions and strongly disliked cryptic theorizing and wishful thinking. He was an autonomous soul who would not back off in heated debates a