Dr. O.N. Srivastava was born in Lucknow, India. After obtaining a B.Sc. degree from the University of Allahabad, he pursued his medical study at the King George’s Medical College, Lucknow and obtained the M.B.B.S. degree. He specialized in psychiatry at the University of Ottawa in Canada and The Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. He obtained M.D. from Bihar University.  In 1971, he was awarded the foundation membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of UK (M.R.C.Psych.). He was also awarded Fellowship of the American Psychiatric Association (FAPA).

On returning to India after his specialization in psychiatry, he joined as Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the Srinagar Medical College, Jammu & Kashmir and later the Institute of Medical Sciences, Benares Hindu University, Varanasi.

In 1967 he founded the Department of Psychiatry at the Institute of Medical Sciences at BHU. Dr. Srivastava was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry. He was able to remove the stigma pertaining to psychiatric diseases and his department attracted patients from far and wide. He has been a member of the Mental Health Advisory Committee of the Govt. of India.

In 1973, University of Leiden invited Dr. Srivastava as visiting professor. In 1974 he returned to India and since 1977 has been in Netherlands. He retired as Director of Psychiatric Training (A-Opleider), from ‘Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis Rosenburg’ (now Parnassia) in Den Haag. He has trained a large number of psychiatrists in India as well as Netherlands.

Dr. Srivastava’s special fields of interest and research are epidemiology of psychiatry, diagnostic systems of classification and biological psychiatry.

After his retirement, Dr. Srivastava established his own consulting practice and with the breadth of his background in different cultures was able to incorporate aspects of different cultures in his treatment. He has been on the panel of medical experts for the European Patent Office, European Space Agency and the International Court of Justice for Former Yugoslavia.

His present interests include Indian and Western philosophy.