# Nic Waal > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nic_Waal > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nic_Waal.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic_Waal > Source revision: 1346498524 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Infobox person |name = Nic Waal |image = Nic. Waal.jpg |caption = |birth_name = Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen |birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1905|1|1}} |birth_place = Kristiania |death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1960|5|28|1905|1|1}} |death_place = |body_discovered = |death_cause = |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = |citizenship = |other_names = Nic Hoel |known_for = Pediatric and adolescent psychiatry, psychoanalysis, Righteous Among the Nations |education = [Cand.med.](/source/Cand.med.) |alma_mater = [University of Oslo](/source/University_of_Oslo) |employer = Nic Waal Institutt |occupation = Psychiatrist |years_active = 1939-1960 |title = |height = |term = |predecessor = |successor = |party = |opponents = |boards = |spouse = [Sigurd Hoel](/source/Sigurd_Hoel)
Wessel Waal
Alex Helju |partner = |children = Helge Waal
Berit Waal |parents = Vilhelm Bernhoft Nicolaysen
Anna Horn |relations = |callsign = |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} {{Righteous Among the Nations}} '''Nic Waal''', born '''Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen''' in [Kristiania](/source/Kristiania), [Norway](/source/Norway) (1 January 1905 – 28 May 1960) was a [Norwegian](/source/Norway) [psychiatrist](/source/psychiatrist), noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatric and adolescent psychiatry." She was also active in the [Norwegian resistance](/source/Norwegian_resistance_movement) during [World War II](/source/World_War_II), and was named as one of the [Righteous among the Nations](/source/Righteous_among_the_Nations) by [Yad Vashem](/source/Yad_Vashem).{{Cite web |last=Lange |first=Jon |year=2002 |title=Nic Waal - norsk barne- og ungdomspsykiatris mor |url=http://www.tidsskriftet.no/index.php?vp_SEKS_ID=483673 |access-date=2008-10-02 |website=Tidsskrift for Nen norske Lægeforening |publisher=Legeforeningen (Norwegian Medical Association) |language=no |location=Oslo}}{{Cite web |title=Psychoanalytikerinnen. Biografisches Lexikon/Nic Waal |url=http://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de/index.html?skandinavien_biografien.html |access-date=2008-10-02 |publisher=Psychoanalytikerinnen |language=de}}{{Cite web |last=von der Lippe |first=Anna |title=Nic Waal |url=http://mediabase1.uib.no/paxlex/alfabetet/w/w02.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315115441/http://mediabase1.uib.no/paxlex/alfabetet/w/w02.html |archive-date=2012-03-15 |access-date=2008-10-02 |publisher=Pax |language=no |location=Oslo}} ==Biography== === Early years === Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen (known in her childhood as Bitteba) was the youngest of four children born to Vilhelm Bernhoft Nicolaysen, an Army officer, and Anna Horn. She grew up in the section of Oslo known as [Homansbyen](/source/Homansbyen), apparently an active and curious child, but also unusually sensitive. According to her son [Helge Waal](/source/Helge_Waal), she was prone to [psychosomatic](/source/psychosomatic) illnesses as a young child; and indeed she completed her first year of [gymnasium](/source/Gymnasium_(school)) at home, due to illness. She attended the [Oslo Cathedral School](/source/Oslo_Cathedral_School) starting in the fall of 1921, where her schoolmates included [Trygve Bull](/source/Trygve_Bull), [Karl Evang](/source/Karl_Evang), and [Trygve Braatøy](/source/Trygve_Braat%C3%B8y). She attended the [University of Oslo](/source/University_of_Oslo), became politically active as a radical socialist, and finished her medical studies in 1930. She was associated with the [Mot Dag](/source/Mot_Dag) movement and worked as an editor in the periodical [Æsculap](/source/%C3%86sculap). The political convictions she developed as a student set the foundation for a lifelong engagement in social causes, especially related to the needs of children, adolescents, and women. Plagued with her own emotional problems all her life, she first underwent [psychoanalysis](/source/psychoanalysis) with [Harald Schjelderup](/source/Harald_Schjelderup) in Norway while she was a student. In 1927 she married the writer [Sigurd Hoel](/source/Sigurd_Hoel).Characterized as a marriage consisting primarily of correspondence, it ended in divorce in 1936, but some of Waal's earlier writings were under the name "Nic Hoel." She continued her psychoanalysis in [Berlin](/source/Berlin) as a student under [Salomea Kempner](/source/Salomea_Kempner),Salomea Kempner was one of the leading psychoanalysts of her time. Apparently she ended her days in the [Warsaw Ghetto](/source/Warsaw_Ghetto), though details are unknown. and in 1933 and 1934 she was accepted in the German and Danish-Norwegian Psychoanalytic associations, respectively. In 1936, Sigurd Hoel and she divorced, and in 1937 she married [Wessel Waal](/source/Wessel_Waal) and took the last name Waal for good. While in Berlin, Waal became associated with [Wilhelm Reich](/source/Wilhelm_Reich) and accompanied him when he fled Nazi persecution by moving to Norway. She continued her training first under another refugee from the Nazi regime, the [Austria](/source/Austria)n [Otto Fenichel](/source/Otto_Fenichel), and then with Reich until 1939, when she opened her own psychoanalytic practice and joined the staff at [Gaustad psychiatric hospital](/source/Gaustad_sykehus), where she remained on staff until 1947. === World War II and Norwegian resistance === During the [German occupation](/source/Occupation_of_Norway_by_Nazi_Germany) from 1940 to 1945, Vaal was active in the [Norwegian resistance](/source/Norwegian_Resistance_Movement). She was a key figure in the successful evacuation of children from the [Jewish children from Oslo](/source/Jewish_Children's_Home_in_Oslo) when it became known that they were about to be [deportation](/source/Jewish_deportees_from_Norway_during_World_War_II) to [Auschwitz concentration camp](/source/Auschwitz_concentration_camp). On 26 October 1942 a decree was issued for the arrest of all Jewish men in Oslo. Immediately thereafter, Nick and Nina Hasvold, the head mistress of the orphanage, began working on a rescue plan. On 25 November 1942, the head of the Nansen Committee [Sigrid Lunn](/source/Lunn%2C_Sigrid_Helliessen) received a phone call from an unknown man, who warned them that "there would be another party, this time they would be collecting the smallest parcels". This meant the Nazi would start arresting children and women. Indeed, on 26 November 1942 a law was published, outlawing the residence of Jews in Norway.{{Cite web |last=Irene Levin |date=2009-01-07 |title=Det jødiske barnehjemmet og Nic Waal |url=https://psykologtidsskriftet.no/fagessay/2009/01/det-jodiske-barnehjemmet-og-nic-waal |access-date=2023-04-05 |publisher=Psykologtidsskriftet |language=no}} In the early morning of that day, 26 November 1942, Nick and Nina drove the 14 children of the orphanage, the oldest at the time 12 years old, to the villa of Waal's friend Gerde Tandberg in Ullern, a suburb of Oslo. Being a licensed doctor, Nick had a special driving permit and cards for gas. In the morning when they were getting ready, the children were told to put on two of each item of clothing, the eldest boy was instructed to hide 10,000 kronor in his boots - this money was to pay for a taxi to the Swedish border. They had to carry the boots in their hands - there was a woman who lived on the ground floor of their house who was sympathetic to the Nazis, and the children had to leave without attracting her attention. The children were carried on the floor of Nick's car - first the younger ones, then Waal went back for the older ones. On the second trip, the Germans blocked the crossing at Majorstua, but Vaal refused to stop the car and broke through the roadblock. The children were then taken one by one from the Tandberg house into homes of Vaal's relatives. For a week they stayed in hiding in the houses. During this week Sigrid Lunn helped a lot - she helped to look after the children and got ration cards so that they didn't have to starve. Seven days later all the children, hiding on the floor of a taxi, were taken to a hunting lodge near [Elverum](/source/Elverum_(town)). The next morning Resistance members helped them walk three kilometres through the forest and to cross the border with Sweden. From the hut all the way to the border, the children followed each other's steps so that possible pursuers would not count their number by their footprints in the fresh snow. Until the end of the war, the children lived in a house on the outskirts of [Gothenburg](/source/Gothenburg), funded by the Jewish community. One of the rescued children later recalled that the whole operation went very smoothly for them, as it was perfectly planned and the group was lucky. At the same time, all the children deported from Norway on the ship [SS Donau (1929)](/source/SS_Donau_(1929)) ended up in the gas chambers of [Auschwitz](/source/Auschwitz).{{Cite web |last=Av Berit Rusten |title=Kvinner i solidaritet med jøder som sto i fare for å bli deportert |url=https://marxisme.no/kvinner-i-solidaritet-med-joder-som-sto-i-fare-for-a-bli-deportert/ |access-date=2023-04-05 |publisher=Bokomtaler Nr 1 2019 |language=no}}{{Cite web |last=Levin |first=Irene |title=Oslo: The Escape from Norway |url=https://humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/oslo-the-escape-from-norway/ |publisher=Humanity in action}} === After war === Waal resumed her professional activities immediately after the war. She remained on the staff at Gaustad and also at [Ullevål hospital](/source/Ullev%C3%A5l_University_Hospital), but also worked in [Denmark](/source/Denmark), [United States](/source/United_States), [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland), and [France](/source/France), with [Serge Lebovici](/source/Serge_Lebovici). She was remembered by [Cyrille Koupernik](/source/Cyrille_Koupernik) as "that Norwegian madwoman". In 1951, she was board certified as a psychiatrist, and in 1953, as one of the first in Norway, within paediatric and adolescent psychiatry. Soon after her application to be the chief of staff at the newly formed Institute for Paediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry at [Rikshospitalet](/source/Rikshospitalet) was turned down (supposedly because her physical presentation was messy) in 1951, she started her own institute, named [Nic Waals Institutt](/source/Nic_Waals_Institutt); first in her basement in the suburb [Husebygrenda](/source/Husebygrenda) and eventually to the "blue house" in [Munkedamsveien](/source/Munkedamsveien) near [Skillebekk](/source/Skillebekk). Waal remained professionally active as the director of her institute until her death in 1960, also finding time to help juvenile offenders. She had two children with Wessel Waal, the psychiatrist [Helge Waal](/source/Helge_Waal) (who also became her biographer) and the child psychologist [Berit Waal Skaslien](/source/Berit_Waal_Skaslien). She divorced Waal and married [Alex Helju](/source/Alex_Helju) in 1951, who died in a boating accident in 1954.Apparently, she and Waal became close again after Helju died and until her own death in 1960 ==Professional contributions and legacy== In spite of her personal problems, Nic Waal maintained an active and passionate professional life, integrating advocacy on public health issues, a strong interest in teaching, and clinical discipline into a broad range of issues in her field. She made lasting contributions within the areas of: * The practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, usually within the context of Wilhelm Reich's framework but independently of his views. She did pioneering research and clinical work within the field of somatic psychiatric diagnostic techniques. * Paediatric and adolescent psychiatry as a distinct field in Norwegian mental health * Human sexuality, particularly among children and adolescents. * Education - her institute provided educational programs for six distinct professions, including non-medical professionals such as psychologist, social workers, and clinical educators When interviewed by the [Norwegian radio](/source/NRK) shortly before her death, she said: {{cquote|Many people think something with their heads and feel something different with their heart. Many close completely off their feelings when they think. This is often called being logical. But the heart also has its logic. It is said that women think with their hearts - as if this was something contemptible .... I am inclined to say that the restless and spontaneous heart behind opinions was and is the most important in opinions earlier, now, and in the future.}} The Nic Waal Institute, though renamed for some time, now continues as a leading regional teaching and clinical institution in Oslo under the auspices of [Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykhus](/source/Lovisenberg_Diakonale_Sykhus).{{Cite web |title=Nic Waals Institutt |url=http://www.lds.no/modules/module_123/proxy.asp?iDisplayType=2&iCategoryId=234&iInfoId=3094 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031165153/http://www.lds.no/modules/module_123/proxy.asp?iCategoryId=234&iInfoId=3094&iDisplayType=2 |archive-date=2007-10-31 |access-date=2008-10-03 |publisher=Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykhus |language=no |location=Oslo}} ==Literature== *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Filmen og barna |publisher=Tiden |year=1938 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - a book on the medium of film and its effect on children. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Vi og smårollingene våre i det første året |publisher=Tiden |year=1948 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - a book on parenting infants. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Personlighetsdiagnostikk med henblikk på strukturbeskrivelse : utkast til begrepssystem |last2=Bjørn Christiansen |last3=Bjørn Killingmo |publisher=Nic Waals Institutt |year=1956 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - "Personality diagnosis with the purpose of structural descriptions - a publication of her institute. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Nic Waal's metode for somatisk psykodiagnostikk : beskrivelse av undersøkelsesmetoden med utkast til begrepssystem |last2=Anne Grieg |last3=Mogens Rasmussen |publisher=Nic Waals Institutt |year=1957 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - an outline of Waal's somatic diagnostic methodology. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Er det foreldrenes skyld? |publisher=Cappelen |year=1962 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - published posthumously, but translated to several languages, on the role of parenting and sexual neuroses. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Utvalgte faglige skrifter |year=1969 |editor-last=Anne-Marie Auestad, Borger Haavardsholm |location=Oslo |language=no}} - selected writings by Nic Waal. *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Helge |title=Nic Waal : det urolige hjerte |publisher=Pax |year=1991 |isbn=82-530-1530-5 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - biography authored by her son, Helge Waal. *{{Cite book |last=Rottem |first=Øystein |title=LystLesninger : åtte essays om kjønn og identitet i norsk litteratur |publisher=Cappelen akademisk forlag |year=1996 |isbn=82-456-0034-2 |location=Oslo |language=no}} - biographical essays of [Henrik Ibsen](/source/Henrik_Ibsen), [Knut Hamsun](/source/Knut_Hamsun), [Sigurd Hoel](/source/Sigurd_Hoel), [Agnar Mykle](/source/Agnar_Mykle), and others *{{Cite book |last=Waal |first=Nic |title=Nic Waals institutt : pioner og aktør i norsk barne- og ungdomspsykiatri gjennom 50 år |last2=Einar Moe |publisher=Nic Waals Institutt |year=2003 |isbn=82-991501-9-1 |location=Oslo}} - anniversary publication for her institute. ==See also== * [Ola Raknes](/source/Ola_Raknes) ==External links== * [http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=5084220 Nic Waal] – her activity to save Jews' lives during the [Holocaust](/source/Holocaust), at [Yad Vashem](/source/Yad_Vashem) website ==References== {{Reflist|35em}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Waal, Nic}} Category:1905 births Category:1960 deaths Category:Norwegian medical researchers Category:Norwegian resistance members Category:Norwegian female resistance members Category:Norwegian psychiatrists Category:Norwegian women psychiatrists Category:Norwegian Righteous Among the Nations Category:XU Category:Mot Dag Category:University of Oslo alumni Category:People educated at Oslo Cathedral School Category:Norwegian psychology writers Category:Norwegian women non-fiction writers Category:20th-century science writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nic Waal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic_Waal) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic_Waal?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.