[About physicians as characters in Norwegian literature].

A journey has been made through Norwegian literature of the last century for the purpose of presenting to the readers of this journal what is to be found of literature describing doctors. The purpose was also to find literary interpretations of the historical evolution of the doctor's role. A characteristic common to all the doctors in the study is that they all suffer from various personal problems such as neuroses, drug abuse, overindulgence in alcohol, family problems, loneliness, maltreatment of children, suicide or murder. A closer study of the description of six local doctors shows small changes in work structure and social relations during the century, but more popular behaviour is found in the portrayal of more modern characters. Good and rich portraits of doctors in Norwegian literature are rare. Those that are found have been created to describe personal or social problems rather than to tell especially what it is like to be a doctor.