{{Short description|Swedish psychiatrist and geneticist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2025}} {{Distinguish|text=Henrik Sjögren, after whom Sjögren's syndrome is named}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Torsten Sjögren | image = | birth_name = Torsten Sjögren | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|01|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Södertälje, Sweden | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|07|27|1896|01|30|df=yes}} | death_place = Gothenburg, Sweden | fields = Psychiatry, genetics, eugenics | education = Stockholm, Lund university | known_for = ''Die Internationale der Rassiten'' (For the Betterment of the Race), Sjögren–Larsson syndrome | awards = Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | workplaces = Lund university, International Federation of Eugenic Organizations, Karolinska Institute }} '''Karl Gustaf Torsten Sjögren''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|oʊ|ɡ|r|ən}} {{respell|SHOH|grən}}, {{IPA|sv|ˈɧø̂ːɡreːn|lang}};<ref>{{cite web|title=Sjögren pronunciation|url=http://forvo.com/word/sj%C3%B6gren/|work=Forvo}}</ref> 30 January 1896 &ndash; 27 July 1974) was a Swedish psychiatrist and geneticist.

==Biography==

He was born in Södertälje and died in Gothenburg.<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|doctor|1609}}</ref> In Stockholm, he graduated as a licentiate of medicine in 1925, and in 1931 he became doctor of medicine and a docent of psychiatry at Lund university.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sjögren|first=Torsten|title=Die juvenile amaurotische Idiotie: klinische and erblichkeitsmedizinische Untersuchungen|publisher=|year=1931|isbn=|location=Lund|pages=}}</ref> Torsten Sjögren was the chairman of the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations in the late 1930s. According to Stefan Kühl in ''For the Betterment of the Race'' (originally ''Die Internationale der Rassiten'' 1997), Sjögren was submissive to the Nazi party with their increasingly controversial views on eugenics, which contributed to the disintegration of the organization in the latter half of the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kühl, Stefan.|title=For the betterment of the race : the rise and fall of the international movement for eugenics and racial hygiene|date=6 August 2013|publisher=|isbn=978-1-137-28611-6|location=New York, NY|pages=109–110|oclc=830837444}}</ref> Torsten Sjögren was professor of psychiatry at the Karolinska Institute from 1945 to 1961. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1951. Sjögren–Larsson syndrome is named after him (along with Tage Larsson) as well as Marinesco–Sjögren syndrome. <ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|1678}}</ref><ref name="Sjogren & Larsson 1957"/>

==Scientific work and reputation==

Sjögren's 1931 thesis on juvenile amaurotic idiocy (the disorder now called juvenile neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis, or Batten disease) combined pedigree analysis with post-mortem histochemistry and proposed the first Mendelian model for the disease.<ref name="Sjögren 1931"/> Throughout the 1930s he argued that many forms of intellectual disability were genetically distinct entities and should be classified by inheritance pattern rather than symptom profile. This programme culminated in 1957 with his monograph‐length paper on Sjögren-Larsson syndrome, in which he and dermatologist Tage Larsson linked congenital ichthyosis, spastic diplegia and oligophrenia to a single autosomal recessive gene—an interpretation confirmed decades later when fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase (FALDH) mutations were identified.<ref name="Larsson 1976"/>

At the Karolinska Institute (1945–1961) Sjögren established Sweden's first Department of Medical Genetics, introduced cytogenetic screening of institutionalised children, and launched a twin registry that became a cornerstone of Nordic behavioural genetics research.<ref name="Larsson 1976"/> He also co-authored the description of Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome (1962), extending the clinical spectrum of congenital ataxias.<ref name="Nordin 2010"/>

==Eugenics and later assessment==

Between 1935 and 1939 Sjögren chaired the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations, steering it toward a "heredity-centred public-health agenda". According to the historian Stefan Kühl, his willingness to accommodate German racial hygienists—while personally rejecting anti-Semitism—contributed to the federation's collapse in 1939. Swedish commentators of the 1950s regarded his eugenic advocacy as an anachronism, yet psychiatric-genetics textbooks continue to cite his early family studies as methodological benchmarks.<ref name="Nordin 2010"/>

==References== {{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Sjögren 1931">{{cite book |last=Sjögren |first=Torsten |year=1931 |title=Die juvenile amaurotische Idiotie: klinische und erblichkeitsmedizinische Untersuchungen |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |location=Lund}}</ref>

<ref name="Larsson 1976">{{cite journal |last=Larsson |first=Tage |year=1976 |title=Torsten Sjögren 1896–1974 |journal=Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=233–238 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0447.1976.tb00007.x|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }}</ref>

<ref name="Nordin 2010">{{cite journal |last=Nordin |first=Svante |year=2010 |title=Torsten Sjögren and Swedish eugenics |journal=Scandinavian Journal of History |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=223–240 |doi=10.1080/03468751003782858|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }}</ref>

<ref name="Sjogren & Larsson 1957">{{cite journal |last1=Sjogren |first1=T. |last2=Larsson |first2=T. |title=Oligophrenia in combination with congenital ichthyosis and spastic disorders; a clinical and genetic study |journal=Acta Psychiatr Neurol Scand Suppl |volume=113 |pages=1–112 |year=1957 |pmid=13457946}}</ref>

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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sjogren, Torsten}} Category:1896 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Swedish psychiatrists Category:Swedish geneticists Category:Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Category:People from Södertälje