Psychologist, businessman, preacher? Johan Lundberg is the man who wants to spread psychology and at the same time change it. He is the one who always have a new project in mind and happily saves the world.
Prejudices about psychologists are many. Old Freud lookalikes with drab cardigans who stroke their beards, sitting on a chair next to an old chaise longue. Or why not women with colourful scarves with thousands of uncomfortable questions.
Johan Lundberg doesn’t seem to fit into any of those images. In his office at the office-hotel in Malmö, with a view over the city rooftops, the harbour and the almost frozen sea, he looks more like a successful businessman. There are only chairs to sit on and shaven Johan makes a joke about not having a beard to stroke. Music pours out of the laptop but he turns it off and makes a cup of hot chocolate. Not until he starts to speak you are reminded of what he studies. The voice is calm, soft and confidence-inspiring.
“Becoming a psychologist is a typical thing to do when you have parents who are psychologists. My dad actually was a psychologist. After graduating upper secondary school, instead of making the typical backpacking tour in Asia, I started to work as a volunteer at an orphanage in Cambodia”.
It was right after graduation that Johan Lundberg, grown up in a village outside Kristianstad, spent three months at the orphanage. It was an experience that touched him deeply. Abandoned children in overcrowded beds eating rotten rice and dying from AIDS. A life completely different from life in Sweden.
Johan Lundberg had for a long time been interested in psychology but in Cambodia he took the decision to study psychology. In some way he would do something to try to save the world.
In autumn 2008 he therefore arrived in Lund to study at university for the first time. It took about half a year getting to know the city and feel at home.
After that Johan Lundberg’s special liking of a high pace and challenges got the better of him. He got involved with Hallands Nation and with Lundapsykologerna the psychiatrists of Lund’s own student association. All of that took a halt when he got an internship in Stockholm. During his internship Johan discovered for the first time a particular field within psychology – organisational psychology –nowadays his great passion.
“To put it simple, it is organisational psychology that I’m passionate about. How groups work, and how you can get people to function together. Stepping out of the therapy room into a greater context. And maybe also psychology in different ways, with mobile phones and Internet. Psychologists are generally speaking rather wimpish. Within organisational psychology there is a greater enterprise “.
The company worked with several types of personality tests for recruitment, and this was where Johan Lundberg felt that he could contribute, do more and help more people. When he came back to Lund after half a year in the capital he was already hired and has since then worked at the same time as studying. His task: to establish the company in Scania.
“It was not that long ago that I discovered the concept ’work-life-balance’, he admits and continues: “but it was a lot of fun and I got really motivated by it “.
The job helped inspire Johan Lundberg in his studies, and strengthened his feeling that there is a lot of good psychology that can be useful to many different kinds of people.
“I’m convinced that psychology has a lot to offer society in a way that it doesn’t do todays. It almost sounds like a sermon, but in a way it actually is. “
If Johan Lundberg had done one of the personality tests himself his bank of ideas certainly would have come up. He constantly gets new ideas that he wants to try or make something of. This resulted in that despite both studies and work he also started to work on two projects in collaboration with Lund University. One leadership program together with Social Sciences Student Union and one educational program for everyone engaged in the Mentor Program at Lund University. Today is “Mentor – a Manual” (Mentor – en Handbok), written by Johan Lundberg for the Mentor Program, so popular that there are plans to distribute the book to other universities in Sweden.
The projects also got yet another company to notice the enterprising psychology student. They offered Johan a job and wanted him to continue with his projects, but working for them. “There are no limits to creative ideas and there are not limits to possibilities, there is no lack of people to help, it’s just you who set the limits”.
Johan makes the realization of life’s dreams seem very simple. In his world it even seem to be that way. Are there any limits?
With only half a year left to graduation and two jobs he has started yet another project. This time with a very special place in his heart since it involves charity in the country that changed him: Cambodia.
With the help of easy psychology, a whish to get away from the “moth-eaten and boring” part of charity work and with ten chickens, life will change for 280 families.
And more projects are in all probability on their way.
“One project that I never had time for is to write that article for Lundagård“, Johan Lundberg concludes with a laugh.
“And concerning psychology. I have about a hundred ideas about all sorts of things. It’s apps, web pages, newspaper articles, books… So if a programmer reads this and is in the mood for a charity through Smartphone he or she is welcome to contact me.
Text: Emma Andersson
Photo: Emil Fagander
Translation: Mia Söllwander
