Globalization, with a growing number of migrant patients calls for better cross-cultural competence among health care workers. Hospitals and outpatient clinics have become multicultural and ethnic diversity among the staff is at present the norm. In Norway psychiatry is the medical discipline with the highest proportion of practicing International Medical Graduates (IMGs).

Interview with Professor Eugenijus Laurinaitis.

Interview with Artiom Charkavliuk.

Interview with Professor Berit Berg by Anne Kristine Bergem.

For psychiatrists, working with autistic individuals presents considerable clinical and ethical challenges - especially when mental illness and somatic conditions intertwine. Many of us have encountered patients whose symptoms defy traditional categorization. The phrase “lost in translation” resonates deeply in such cases - not only across languages, but between body and mind, behavior and intention, professional and patient. This essay explores the consequences of missed sig

In March 2025 I flew to Nuuk - the capital of Greenland - to work as a consultant for 3 weeks. President Trump had once again, in the State of Union speech, threatened to take over Greenland. The atmosphere amongst Greenlanders (Inuit) was tense in the quiet and gentle way that is so typical for the mindset of the population. But they are worried with good reason about the unpredictability of world affairs and the sudden focus of interest.

When Khmer Rouge’s terror regime in Cambodia was ended in 1979 there were no mental health psychiatrists in the country, and no mental health services. The Norwegian Council for Mental Health initiated an educational program for psychiatrists in Cambodia, which was managed by the University of Oslo in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration and the Cambodian Ministry of Health. Norwegian psychiatrists participated for six years in the training of the d

Interview with Gintautas Narmontas, MD

As psychiatrists, our words matter – they are our scalpel. As they have more potential to create harm than even the sharpest blade, we must use them wisely, and precisely. In this text, the definition of mental health is debated in classical Greek fashion to sharpen the blade. When Diogenes the Cynic enters the debate, chaos emerges – and an important lesson is learned.

The psychiatric diagnostic process is very different from diagnosis in other areas in medicine – it is a lot more difficult, since we have no biomarkers of any kind, only our translation into diagnostic categories of what we see and hear when we meet the patient. We are trying to find ways to validate our assessments with questionnaires and standardized interviews, but the difficulties remain. To make a psychiatric diagnosis is a question of very competent and empathic transl

What happens when psychological interventions travel across borders—between languages, cultures, and realities shaped by peace, trade, war, poverty, and displacement? While meaning can get lost in translation, something new can also be gained. This essay explores how mental health tools rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can evolve through adaptation and become more relevant in radically different settings. Drawing from fieldwork in Norway, Lebanon...

Interview with Armando Baez, specialist in psychiatry.