The paper to which I direct readers below was published by Modum Bad, a remarkable healing community and psychiatric hospital whose campus is nestled among forest and fields typical of southern Norway, just above the beautiful inland lake of Turifjord and the village of Vikersund, little more than an hour's drive north of Oslo.
I completed the paper in May 2007, after my wife Leigh and I had returned to our home in Dedham, Massachusetts, having completed two visits, each of several months, at Modum Bad as guest psychologists. Most of the research upon which the paper is based was completed on those visits, and early drafts were shared with members of Modum Bad's clinical staff, whose responses were generous and enormously valuable.
Leigh and I knew that we would return to Modum Bad, she as director of its Research Institute, I as lecturer and consultant to staff and patients. That next stage of our Modum Bad life was cut short by the illness that was to take Leigh's life in 2012. That is another story, one that someday I may be able to write, but for the time being, I'll simply add that my own relationship with Modum Bad continues, with a moving memorial service after Leigh's death, and occasional editorial work on papers written by Modum Bad staff.
My high regard for Modum Bad has only grown with time. The admiration and promise that weave through the 2007 paper continue, and I would not change my overall assessment. At the same time, I need to be clear that while the spirit of Modum Bad lives on, much of the specific content of the paper is dated. Many papers of Modum Bad staff continue to be published in prominent English-language journals. I am hopeful that my friend Ole Johan Sandvand, who retired last year as Modum Bad's director, will undertake a more current assessment of Modum Bad's life in the years since 1957. It remains an important international source of accomplishment and continuing innovation in mental health and human development and deserves the international attention of psychological and psychiatric practitioners and students worldwide.
Modum Bad: A Resource for Healing and Renewal