Siri Gullestad, PhD, 2019
/Siri Gullestad’s work has profoundly impacted the evolution and acceptance of psychoanalysis as a scientific discipline in Norway. A researcher, theoretician, educator and a powerful public voice, Gullestad developed a highly innovative psychoanalytic theory that was applied to both university training and clinical treatment. A well-respected spokesperson for psychoanalysis, she is skillful at communicating the relevance of unconscious conflict and fantasy to the general public
During a time in Norway when psychoanalysis was under great threat, Gullestad’s work as a teacher, researcher and public advocate was vital to preserving and ultimately growing the profession. At the University of Oslo, Dr. Gullestad directed the Department of Psychology and the Clinic for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Working with Bjørn Killingmo, she produced a significant body of work focused on psychoanalytic training, extensively adopted in university teaching. Gullestad’s theoretical work, The Theory and Practice of Psychoanalytic Therapy: Listening for the Subtext, co-authored with Killingmo, is an innovative integration of object relational and structural perspectives in a theoretical position called “relational-oriented character-analysis.” The success of the university training program has translated into a major contribution to psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis’ development in China, where her work has attracted great interest.