Thorkil Vanggaard

Who was Thorkil Vanggaard?

Thorkil Vanggaard was a Danish psychiatrist and doctor.

After becoming an MD in 1938, Vanggaard obtained the higher doctorate in 1941. After the war he studied psychoanalysis in the USA and in 1960 became a senior physician at the National Hospital in Copenhagen.

Although his critics have called him arrogant and a male chauvinist, fellow psychiatrist Preben Hertoft in his memoirs described both good and bad qualities of Vanggaard.

In the 1970s, he wrote an article called "Eros and Power", which provoked an outcry from feminists who called for his removal as a senior MD.

In the 80s and 90s, he was critical of the focus on incest, which he saw as a fashion phenomena, declaring that psychologists and teachers were hypnotized by incest and seeing connections between common mental illnesses and child sexual abuse, where none existed. In the middle of a televised debate, he left the studio, declaring that the debate was frivolous.

Vanggaard introduced the concept of borderline and schizotypal disorders to Denmark.