In Sep 2006, the 1st World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry was held in Beijing, China. More than 300 registrants participated in the very full scientific and social program of that memorable and historic Congress.
Participants came from all over the world to recognize, celebrate and contribute to what seemed like ‘the coming of age’ of cultural psychiatry
as an academic and clinical discipline in harmony with medicine and psychiatry, the social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology and public health, philosophy and history; and most importantly, a field concerned with health beliefs and healing practices of all people, not just minorities and immigrants.
The World Association of Cultural Psychiatry ( WACP ) was launched in 2005 to encourage the growth of cultural psychiatry around the world, and in all of its clinical, research and educational dimensions. WACP determined to convene a world congress of cultural psychiatry every three years, in different regions of the world, as a means of stimulating discussion of all aspects of the field among clinicians, educators and researchers from around the world; that is, with the very people who are expanding the knowledge base and practical application of cultural psychiatry in their home countries and internationally.
The Congress venue in Orvieto, Italy, symbolizes the continuity and the transition to the presidency of WACP of Dr Goffredo Bartocci, who is one of the founding officers of WACP. Dr Bartocci’s family has lived in Umbria, where Orvieto is located, for many generations, and he has a very deep attachment to the region and its people. He and his colleagues have organized a number of cultural psychiatry conferences in Umbria over the past fifteen years, and I have been fortunate enough to have worked with him in the planning and organization of three of them, including the wonderful conference jointly sponsored with the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture. That conference, held in 1993 in the medieval Umbrian town of Narni, included a breathtaking performance in Narni’s town square by the town’s flag-throwing company on the opening night, and a medieval banquet in the just-restored Narni Castle on the closing night. I have been an admirer of the ambience of the medieval hill towns of Umbria ever since…and have been lucky enough to have become a close friend of Goffredo Bartocci. We have often discussed culture and psychiatry together since 1993, and the ways of the world…and have shared many fine meals, bottles of wine and glasses of grappa.
I mention these personal associations between Goffredo and me in order to give you a flavor of the warm reception you will experience in Umbria, and to give you some sense of the beauty and history that seems to glow in the air of Umbrian hill towns. I can assure you that Orvieto is just such a place, and the Congress venue will be one of the age and sun-mellowed historic stone palaces of Orvieto, a short walk from the imposing cathedral square with the glowing mosaic covering the façade of the cathedral.
I think the chances are high that participants in the Orvieto Congress will long preserve fond memories of Orvieto, as well as the satisfactions of the informal discussions with our colleagues from around the world, and of the scientific and social components of the Congress program.
I look forward to helping welcome you to Orvieto and to the Congress in Sep 2009. |
