The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) is a nongovernmental organization in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). It brings together 147 national psychiatric societies from 123 countries, representing more than 250,000 psychiatrists worldwide, and convenes the World Congress of Psychiatry.
History
Origin and founding The World Psychiatric Association traces its origins to the Association for the Organization of World Congresses of Psychiatry, which held its first world congress in Paris in 1950, followed by subsequent congresses in Zurich, Montreal, Madrid, Mexico City, Hawaii, Vienna, Athens, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg. Jean Delay was the first president of the Association for the Organization of World Congresses of Psychiatry when it was started in 1950. Donald Ewen Cameron became president of the World Psychiatric Association at its formal founding in 1961.
WPA and Soviet psychiatry During the 1970s, the World Psychiatric Association became increasingly involved in the controversy over the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. At its 1977 congress in Honolulu, the WPA General Assembly adopted a resolution submitted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists condemning "the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR". It also approved, by 122 votes to 66, an American Psychiatric Association proposal to establish a committee to monitor "the misuse of psychiatric skills, knowledge and facilities for the suppression of dissent wherever it occurs". Relations between the WPA and the Soviet Union subsequently deteriorated. In February 1983, the Soviet All-Union Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists (AUSNP) withdrew from the WPA while the association was considering its expulsion. The AUSNP remained outside the WPA until 1989, when it was conditionally readmitted following changes respect for human rights and extensive debate among WPA delegates. During the proceedings, the acting secretary of the Soviet delegation acknowledged that "previous political conditions in the U.S.S.R. created an environment in which psychiatric abuse occurred, including for nonmedical reasons."
Structure and governance
As of October 2023, Danuta Wasserman is president, and Thomas G. Schulze is president-elect. The societies are clustered into 18 zones and four regions: the Americas, Europe, Africa & Middle East, and Asia & Australasia. Representatives of the societies constitute the World Psychiatric Association General Assembly, the governing body of the organization. The association also has individual members and there are provisions for affiliation of other associations (e.g., those dealing with a particular topic in psychiatry). There are 66 scientific sections.
Objectives and goals Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote professional education and to set ethical, scientific and treatment standards for psychiatry.
Publications The official publication of the association is World Psychiatry. World Psychiatry and the association's official books are published by Wiley-Blackwell. WPA also self-publishes a quarterly newsletter on its website. Several WPA scientific sections have their own official journals and newsletters:
Journals Activitas Nervosa Superior (Psychiatric Electrophysiology Section) Archives of Women's Mental Health (Women's Mental Health Section) History of Psychiatry (History of Psychiatry Section) Idee in Psichiatria (Ecology, Psychiatry and Mental Health Section) International Journal of Mental Health (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Section) Journal of Affective Disorders (Affective Disorders Section) Journal of Intellectual Disability Research (Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability Section) Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics (Mental Health Economics Section) Personality and Mental Health (Personality Disorders Section) Psychiatry in General Practice (Rural Mental Health Section) Psychopathology (Classification, Diagnostic Assessment and Nomenclature Section; Clinical Psychopathology Section) Revista de Psicotrauma (Disaster Psychiatry Section) Revue Francophone du Stress et du Trauma (Disaster Psychiatry Section) Transcultural Psychiatry (Transcultural Psychiatry Section) Newsletters Art & Psychiatry Section (Section of the Psychopathology of Expression) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Early Career Psychiatrists Psyche and Spirit (Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry) Psychological Consequences of Torture and Persecutions Section Psychotherapy Section World Healer (Transcultural Psychiatry Section) WPA eReview (WPA Quarterly eNewsletter)
Activities The association has helped establish a code of professional ethics for psychiatrists. The association has also looked into charges regarding China's treatment of the Falun Gong.
References
Bibliography
External links Official website WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry WPA Transcultural Psychiatry Section