Swedish Character in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

During the last half-century writers of various backgrounds have concerned themselves with Swedish national character. Their methods have ranged from the intuitive- impressionistic to the formalized psychiatric. Some of the early efforts are marred by strong nationalistic bias, a typical feature of national character analysis in many countries. This is less noticeable, however, in recent contributions. A major theme that runs through the descriptions of Swedish character is emotional coldness and distance together with stress on achievement and work rather than the warmth of interpersonal relationships. Though there is some consensus on this pre sumed central trait of Swedish character, it should not be re garded as established, but rather as an interesting lead to be followed up in further research.