He is regarded as the father of the first Norwegian psychiatric hospital, Gaustad Hospital (Gaustad sykehus) and of the Norwegian Mental Health Act of 1848 regarding mental illness.

He was one of nine children born to Irish immigrant Robert Gonsalvo Major (1766–1839) and Benedicte Sophie Weidemann (1783–1859).

He received a grant from the Norwegian Parliament and traveled to institutions in Schleswig, Great Britain, France and Belgium to study the conditions for the mentally ill (1843-1845).

[5] [6][7] During 1845, the Norwegian Parliament allocated funds to purchase land for an intended state asylum.

In 1847, Gaustad outside Christiania (now Oslo) submitted a plan and in 1850 it was formally decided that the institution should be built there.