Pehr Granqvist, the sixth Eneroth Professor of Psychology since 1937
The origin of the Department of Psychology is to be found in the inauguration of the Olof Eneroth professorship at Stockholm University College in 1937. In 2024, Professor Pehr Granqvist was appointed the sixth holder of this title. Below is his informal inaugural address, where he is also announcing the Eneroth Lectures.
Professor Pehr Granqvist receiving the William James Award in 2023. Photo: Ward Davis
As the Eneroth professor of psychology I will honor the Eneroth donation by continuing to actively pursue research and theory development in line with the intent of the donation.
As a botanist, Mr. Eneroth was fascinated by how nature-nurture interactions guide the development of plants, flowers, and other organic materials. To prosper, they require a certain genetic makeup (nature), enabled by natural selection and selective breeding, etc. But their prospering is also conditional upon the nurture required for this genetic material to reach functional form, including nourishing soil, water, and oxygen.
With his donation, Mr. Eneorth sought to enable research on the nature-nurture interactions that also guide human development, with a particular focus on health, including what he called spiritual health.
Despite the proclivity of most research programs in psychology to take either matters of nature or nurture as their designated points of departure, my colleagues and I have consistently worked within a nature-nurture interaction framework, usually in the form of attachment theory.
This theory postulates that via evolutionary selection pressures (nature), many animal species, primates in particular, have evolved an attachment system designed to keep offspring protected from dangers. This is accomplished by their development of attachment relationships to their expectably protective caregivers. The care provided (nurture) in turn contributes to how the offspring’s attachment behaviors are organized as well as to the offspring’s development more generally.
In line with Mr. Eneroth’s focus on spiritual health, my colleagues and I have also explored how attachment dynamics are involved in the varieties of religious and spiritual development. In the years ahead, we will complement this research program with a focus on how the ingestion of organic materials in the form of psychedelic substances (such as mushrooms and plants) may contribute to attachment, spirituality, and health among humans.
Finally, beyond our scholarly work, we will set up a novel series of lectures, the Eneroth lectures, in which key researchers from across the globe will give public lectures on matters pertinent to the Eneroth donation.
Pehr Granqvist, Eneroth Professor of Psychology
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Last updated: 2026-01-22
Source: Department of Psychology