Recurring unwanted thoughts can be the source of great suffering. Erik Andersson hopes to make effective psychological treatments more widely available. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 8 October.
Text: Karin Tideström, for KI's installation ceremony booklet 2026
Unwanted thoughts that arise without warning are a common experience, but while in many cases they quickly pass from the mind, in some people they become so intrusive as to be distressing.
Erik Andersson seeks to understand why these thoughts "get stuck" in certain people, such as in the case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma or the fear among new parents that their baby will come to harm. At the same time, he is developing new, evidence-based therapies.
"The aim is to make psychological treatment more widely available and to help people reclaim critical aspects of their lives," he says.
Internet-delivered interventions form the basis of his work. With randomised studies and repeated measurements and analyses he is able to study not only if they work, but why.
His results show that recovery often comes from changes in how people relate to their thoughts. Many of the treatments that Professor Andersson has helped to develop are now in use by the Swedish healthcare services.
About Erik Andersson
Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience as of 1 April 2026.
Erik Andersson was born in Uppsala in 1981. He took his psychology degree from Linköping University in 2009, earning his PhD at Karolinska Institutet in 2014 with a thesis on OCD. He combines the post of professor with that of clinical psychologist on the OCD programme at Psychiatry South-West, Region Stockholm.
