The 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to the
Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer because, in the words of the
judges, “through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us
fresh access to reality”. Tranströmer studied psychology at the
University of Stockholm and, after graduating in 1956, worked at
its Psychotechnological Institute. In 1960 he became the
psychologist at an institution for young offenders and for many
years after that divided his time between his writing and work
as an applied psychologist. Asked by an interviewer in 1990
whether psychology had replaced religion for him, he replied:
“Well, it’s a very complicated question. Psychology is sometimes
close to religion but it depends on the psychologist, on how he
looks at things. Psychologists of the 20th century are rather
suspicious of religion and try to explain it away. But some are
not. I mean the Jungian way of handling psychology is much more
open to religion.” In a 2001 interview in Budapest here the
nexus suggested in his cas