Culture evening - Finn Skårderud

Self portraits. Portraits of the self

Finn Skårderud (b. 1956) is a psychiatrist, author and professor. He is an internationally recognized expert on eating disorders. He runs his own psychotherapeutic practice in Oslo, as well as working as a psychiatrist with top athletes for the Norwegian Olympic Committee. As senior physician at Oslo University Hospital, he leads a treatment and research project on so-called mentalization-based treatment for eating disorders. He is associated with Lillehammer University College as professor II in health and social sciences. He is also engaged in interdisciplinary approaches to mental health, with an emphasis on reading psychopathological phenomena from both humanistic, cultural, aesthetic and medical approaches. Skårderud has long been concerned with communicating subjects through popular genres, and thus has an extensive business as a non-fiction author, writer and communicator. He has his own column in the journal Psykisk helse and writes regularly for Aftenposten's cultural editorial staff.

The self-portrait is a very interesting case. It is more than an art genre, it is a form of cognition. The self-portrait as an art form can help us see ourselves better from the outside. says Skårderud.