Harald Krabbe Schjelderup (21 May 1895 – 19 August 1974) was a Norwegian physicist, philosopher and psychologist. He worked with all three subjects on university level, but is best remembered as Norway's first professor of psychology.

He was born in Dypvåg

Dypvåg

Dypvåg is a former municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is currently located within the municipality of Tvedestrand in the traditional region of Sørlandet about east of the village of Tvedestrand.-Name:...

 as a son of bishop Kristian Schjelderup

Kristian Vilhelm Koren Schjelderup, Sr.

Kristian Vilhelm Koren Schjelderup was a Norwegian bishop.-Personal life:Schjelderup was born in Ullensaker, the son of Peter Vilhelm Schjelderup and Dorothea Marie Lysholm. He had two brothers and one sister....

 (1853–1913) og Hendy Hassel (1855–1922). He was a brother of Kristian Schjelderup, Jr

Kristian Vilhelm Koren Schjelderup, Jr.

Kristian Vilhelm Koren Schjelderup was a Norwegian Lutheran theologian, author, and bishop of the Diocese of Hamar in the Church of Norway from 1947 to 1964. He was noted as a controversial, liberal theologian.-Personal life:...

, he too a bishop. He finished

Examen artium

Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...

 his secondary education at Kristiansand Cathedral School in 1912, and graduated in physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 from the Royal Frederick University

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

. Here he also worked as research assistant of Lars Vegard

Lars Vegard

Lars Vegard was a Norwegian physicist, especially known as an aurora borealis researcher.He was born in Vegårshei as a son of farmer Nils Gundersen Grasaasen og Anne Grundesdatter Espeland . He attended middle school in Risør and took the examen artium in Kristiania in 1899...

. He also worked with anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

, microscopy

Microscopy

Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view samples and objects that cannot be seen with the unaided eye...

 and philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. He released the paper Hovedlinjer i filosofiens utvikling fra midten av det 19. århundre til nutiden in 1916, and was hired as a research fellow

Research fellow

The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...

 in philosophy in 1917. In line with the tendency of the day, his philosophy was positivist

Positivism

Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

 and crossed into psychology. He studied experimental psychology

Experimental psychology

Experimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...

 in Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

 and Göttingen, and took the dr.philos. degree in 1919 with the thesis Til sansefornæmmelsernes psykofysiologi. He then studied in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

, and was appointed as a professor in 1922. After six years as a professor of philosophy, he became Norway's first professor of psychology in 1928. He worked at the Royal Frederick University (from 1939: the University of Oslo).

Among other things, Schjelderup learned psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

. He helped persons like Otto Fenichel

Otto Fenichel

Otto Fenichel was a psychoanalyst of the so-called "second generation".Otto Fenichel started studying medicine in 1915 in Vienna. Already as a very young man, when still in school, he was attracted by the circle of psychoanalysts around Freud...

 and Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...

 to migrate from Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 to Norway. Then, after Nazi Germany invaded Norway

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

 in 1940, Schjelderup became leader of the university's Aksjonsutvalget, a resistance

Norwegian resistance movement

The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...

 committee. Open protests ensued when the Nazi authorities were about to change the rules for admission to the university in autumn 1943. In retaliation, the authorities arrested 11 staff, 60 male students and 10 female students. The staff Johannes Andenæs

Johannes Andenæs

Johannes Bratt Andenæs, often shortened to Johs. Andenæs was a Norwegian jurist. He was a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Oslo from 1945 to 1982, and served as rector from 1970 to 1972....

, Bjørn Føyn

Bjørn Føyn

Bjørn Føyn was a Norwegian zoologist, especially known for researching the genetics of algae.He was born in Trondhjem as a son of educator and major Anton Christian Føyn and Olga Barth Nielsen...

, Johan Christian Schreiner, Eiliv Skard

Eiliv Skard

Eiliv Skard was a Norwegian classical philologist.-Personal life:He was born in Levanger as a son of educators Matias Skard and Gyda Christensen . The family moved to Kristiansand in 1901...

, Anatol Heintz

Anatol Heintz

Anatol Heintz was a Norwegian palaeontologist.He was born in Petrograd to the geophysicist Yevgeniy Alfredovich Heintz and Olga Fyodorovna Hoffmann . He had two older siblings. In 1919 the family fled to Norway...

, Odd Hassel

Odd Hassel

Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.-Biography:Born in Kristiania, his parents were Ernst Hassel, a gynaecologist, and Mathilde Klaveness. In 1915, he entered the University of Oslo where he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry, and graduated in 1920...

, Ragnar Frisch, Carl Jacob Arnholm

Carl Jacob Arnholm

Carl Jacob Arnholm was a Norwegian jurist.He was born in Oslo as a son of civil servant Carsten Johannes Andersen and Gunvor Henriksen . He finished his secondary education in Kristiania in 1917, and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1921. After one year as deputy judge he worked as a junior...

, Endre Berner

Endre Berner

Endre Qvie Berner was a Norwegian chemist.He was born in Stavanger as a son of businessperson Endre Qvie Berner, Sr. and his wife Anna Marie Gjemre...

 and Harald K. Schjelderup were sent to Grini concentration camp. Schjelderup was first incarcerated at Bredtveit from 15 October to 22 November, then at Berg

Berg concentration camp

Berg was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway.-Establishment:...

 until 8 December, then at Grini until 5 May 1945. He also spent time at Victoria Terrasse

Victoria Terrasse

Victoria Terrasse is a building complex in central Oslo, Norway.Built in the 1880s, it was taken over the by Norwegian government in 1913 and put to use by the police and various political departments....

 under interrogation.

After the war Schjelderup returned as professor, and helped build and consolidate the university's psychology studies. He became professor emeritus in 1965. Important books include Psykologi (1927), Über drei Haupttypen der religiösen Erlebnisformen (1932, written with his brother), Innføring i psykologi (1957) and Det skjulte menneske (1961). He was a board member of the International Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

 (1922) and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters

The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 as a Finnish-language counterpart of the Swedish-language Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, which had existed since 1838.- Members :The academy has a total of 328 seats for Finnish members...

, and was decorated as a Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav (1961). He was married twice, and died in August 1974 in Oslo. A building at the University of Oslo, Harald Schjelderups hus, bears his name.