Welcome

 

Dear members of the WACP,

Dear colleagues interested in Cultural Psychiatry,

We had a newsletter for many years, whose publication was interrupted several years ago.  We would like to relaunch this initiative since it increases our communication so that it’s the first of the new series of newsletter

The first official newsletter of new series of our newsletter.

A lot happens within our community, we are thriving (!), and it is about time that we inform each other about what is going on. With this new initiative, a newsletter, we want to come closer to each other, and, to be better informed about our cherished field of cultural psychiatry. We also want to increase our members, so please send this newsletter to at least one other colleague of yours who you think might be interested.

As Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo told me, we had a newsletter before. Due to unclear reasons it did not continue but it should. Informing each other is very important for our field. As President of the WACP I want to devote a lot of attention to these kind of communication. Ideas are more than welcome (mario.braakman@outlook.com).

 

 

Mario H. Braakman, President WACP

 

News

 

Update website

Our website https://waculturalpsy.org/ needs an update. We allocated funds to redesign our main website and we let you know the launch date. We asked young experts from Pakistan to assist us. It is still in the preliminary phase.

Special Interest Groups (SIG’s)

Our past-president Roberto Lewis-Fernández was willing to coordinate and stimulate SIG-activities. However since we want to share efforts among more people than just Roberto we are asking our Board of Directors to take care of one of the SIG’s.

Renato D. Alarcón

In our try-out edition of prominent members and former WACP Officers we informed you that Prof. Dr. Renato Alarcon, emeritus professor of Psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was  treasurer of the WACP, however Sergio Villasenor Bayardo informed me that he was the secretary and not the treasurer. Sorry for this.  

International conference

We as WACP decided to introduce a new initiative: the International Conference. In between our large congresses, these are 3 years apart from each other, we thought it would be a good idea to have an additional scientific gathering, smaller but as inspiring as the large congress. The first one was planned in Shanghai, China but very unfortunately, due to COVID, we had to cancel it. However, now we just finished our international conference in Paris, and the theme was CULTURAL PSYCHIATRY & ART. Alberto Velasco and his SIG was very active in organizing this and he planned also online seminars in preparation for that event.

To inform you what happened is the program:

 International Conference « Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry »

Simultaneous translation provided

 Thursday, September 19, 2024

 MC : Federico Ossola, former President of The Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health

13h30-14h00 : Welcome of participants

14h-14h15 : Introduction

Jean Luc Roelandt, former Director of the WHO Coordination Center, Medical Consultant at CCOMS, in charge of international actions

Prof. Dr. Mario H. Braakman, President of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP)

14h15-15h45 : Theme 1 

History and Institutional Links Between Hospitals, Patients, and Museums

Chair : Pr Philip Gorwood, Head of the CMME Department at GHU Paris, President of the International Relations Commission of GHU Paris

Moderator : Claire Lécole, Cultural Mediator at GHU Paris, graduate in art history and public art, working at GHU since 2021

• From “Art of the Mad” to Contemporary Art: The Example of the Museum of Art and History at Sainte Anne Hospital

Anne Marie Dubois, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Scientific Director of MAHHSA – France

• Visits for People with Psychological Disabilities: Activities and Research at the Musée d’Orsay

Yannick Le Pape, Engineer of Cultural Services and Heritage, Research Officer at the Musée d’Orsay

Dr Bérangère Thirioux Clinical Research Unit Pierre Deniker, Henri Laborit Hospital Center (Poitiers) – France

• Cultural Rights of Patients

Isabelle Rouls, Isabelle Rouls, Director of Audiences, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Musée du Quai Branly – France

• Victor Hugo Meets Lucienne Forest: Interplay of Gazes and Legitimacy Stakes

Inga Walc-Bezombes, Historian, Director of Public Services at the Maison de Victor Hugo, PhD student at the Department of Slavic Studies, Sorbonne University – France

15H45-16h00 : Break

 16h00-17h30 : Theme 2

Use of Art as Therapy and as a Tool in Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Chair : Dr Martin Reca, President of the Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health, member of COFALP

Moderator : Julie Laurenge, Project Manager for the Development of the Contemporary Art Fund Frontière$, EPSM Lille Métropole, 59G21.

 Introduction to Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Camille Hamon, Psychologist specializing in neuropsychology, expert in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) and learning disabilities in children from 6 years old

Chloé Lunel, Psychologist specializing in neuropsychology, evaluating and supporting patients in their psychosocial rehabilitation projects

Isabelle Amado, Hospital Practitioner, Head of c3rp, National Resource Center for Cognitive Remediation and Psychosocial Rehabilitation – France

• Fostering Resilience: Japan’s Challenge in Psychotherapy Arts

Rieko Shioji, Psychiatrist, Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Kanako Shimizu, Psychiatrist, Rokubancho Psychiatric Clinic

Naoko Miyaji, Psychiatrist, Professor of Cultural Psychiatry and Medical Anthropology, Hitotsubashi University

Yuichiro Abe, Psychiatrist, Ishiki Hospital – Japan

Creation Process and Therapeutic Relationship: Art in Art Therapies

Paula Martinez Takegami and François Trably, Artistic Mediation Therapy Unit of CMME, GHU Paris – France

• Icarus: The Takeoff Process. Working with Clay

Antonio Diaz Quiroz, Coordinator of the Therapeutic Support Center (CAT)

Galilea Carranza Monreal, Artist

Emma Cerecer, Workshop Supervisor

Rubi Muñoz, Head of the Art Workshop at CAT Monterrey Nuevo Leon – Mexico

17h30-17h35 :

Testimonial Resonating with the Work: Alice Vinçon-Leite

 Friday, September 20, 2024

MC : Federico Ossola, former President of the The Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health

 8h30-9h00 : Welcoming of participants

 9h00-9h15 : Introduction

Guillaume Couillard, Director of GHU Paris

9h15-10h45 : Theme 3

Conceiving Art as a Creative Methodology of Investigation and as an Institutional Tool

Chair : Emmanuelle Remond, President of UNAFAM France

Moderator : Dr Hans Rohlof, Psychiatrist, former Treasurer and Board Member of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP)

 • CHiMEs Collective: “Using Artistic Methodologies in Mental Health Research”

Harsimran Sansoy, ATTUNE, Project Manager of the CHiMEs Collective, University of Oxford United Kingdom

• Noah’s Ark: Painting and Allegory, Joint Creation of Care in an Outpatient Medical-Psychological Center

Brigitte Gadeyne, Hospital Practitioner Psychiatrist responsible for outpatient care units, Pole 16, GHU Paris, member of the Higher Medical Council, Ministry of Health – France

• The Artist and Their Work: “Lessons for a Research Methodology in Mental Health and Social Links”

Julia Martin, Director General of Mental Health in Berazategui, Professor and Researcher at the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Vice-President of the Argentine Section – Argentina

The Oath of Opera

Myriam Mazouzi, Director of the Paris National Opera Academy

Alberto Velasco, Head of Service S4 of Pole 5/6/7 at GHU Paris, Board Member of WACP, Secretary of COFALP

Antoine Puybareau, Psychomotor Therapist participating in the GHU Paris workshop – France

 10h45-11h15 : Break

 11h15-12h45 : Theme 4

Thinking of Art as a Means and Mediation Through Various Devices

Chair : Dr Michel Triantafyllou, Head of Pole 5/6/7 at GHU Paris, President of the Syndicate of Public Practice Psychiatrists

Moderator : Ana Gómez-Carrillo, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University, Psychiatrist for Inuit Children and Adolescents in Nunavik, Quebec – Canada

 • From Child Psychiatry to an Art Space: An Original Liaison Work in Perinatal Care and Adolescent Psychiatry

Nina Franzoni, Assistant Child Psychiatrist shared between CH Despinoy in Martinique and Paris, Maison de Solenn in Professor Marie-Rose Moro’s department France

• An Architecture Workshop with Children Followed in Child Psychiatry, A Creative Experience

Ramon Menendez, Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Member of the Franco-Colombian Association of Psychiatry (COFALP) – France/ Colombia

• Pathography in Japan: A Salutography Perspective

Shinichiro Tanaka, Psychiatrist, Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts

Itsuo Asai, Psychiatrist, President of the Joint PRCP & WACP 2025 Congress in Tokyo

Yuichiro Abe, Psychiatrist, Ishiki Hospital – Japan

• The Imaginary Sea Journey: A Season of Museum-Trunk Mediation at GHU

Mathias Gorog, Child Psychiatrist, Head of Service of the Infanto-Juvenile Sector, Pole 14, GHU Paris, co-design with the Carmignac Foundation (production, design) – France

12h30-14h00 : Lunch Break (on-site or free)

 MC : Murielle Duranton, Vice President of the Franco-Cuban Association of Psychiatry and Psychology

14h-15h30 : Theme 5 

The Role of Art as Support for Families, for Illiterate Patients, and in Therapeutic Support

Chair : Professeur Itsuo Asai, President of the World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) in Tokyo in September 2025

Moderator : Aurélien Troisoeufs, Health Anthropologist at the Mental Health Research Laboratory, Humanities and Social Sciences, GHU Paris

• Art by and About the Family

Emmanuelle Remond, President of UNAFAM France

Sybille Dequero, Architect, Writer and Volunteer at UNAFAM – France

• Views and Sounds of Psychosis: Healing Narratives with Art Photography

Byamah B. Mutamba, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Butabika National Mental Hospital, Kampala, Technical Director at YouBelong – Uganda

• Cultural Perspectives Based on Art Leading to Useful Narratives for Self-Management of Mental Health

Muhammad Irfan, Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Department of Mental Health, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Sciences at Peshawar Medical College, Public Health Professor, President-elect of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) – Pakistan

• Helping Alice Exit Wonderland: Art as a Healing Principle

Juan Manuel Rodriguez Penagos, Psychoanalyst, PhD in Fundamental Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis from Paris-7 University, Therapeutic Companion, Secretary of the Franco-Mexican Association of Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists Mexico

15h30-15h45 : Break

 15h45-17h00 : Theme 6

Including Art as a Means of Fighting Forgetting, as in Psychotrauma and as a Language of War

Chair : Catherine Doyen, Head of Pole 16 at GHU Paris, President of the CME of the Sainte Anne site

Moderator : Maida Chavak, Artist, Scenographer, Graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris

 • Documentary Photography and Social Support

Pablo Farías, Retired Psychiatrist working with Bats’i Lab, a collaborative group in Chiapas promoting the use of photographic resources in communities affected by violence and displacement – Mexico

• Weaving Connections with Art

Ana Gómez-Carrillo, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University, Psychiatrist for Inuit Children and Adolescents in Nunavik, Quebec – Canada

• Art in Times of War

Lyudmyla Snovyda, Psychiatrist, Medical Director of the Psycho-Neurological Hospital of Ternopil – Ukraine

17h00-17h45 : Art and Mental Health: Participatory Research from Webinars and Joint Declaration

Coordinator : Alberto Velasco

Lexical Analysis of Webinar Corpus

Alice Vinçon-Leite, Psychiatrist, Doctor in Neuroscience, and herself on the autism spectrum

Emmanuelle Jouet, Director of the Lab-SM-SCH at GHU Paris

Thematic Analysis of the Discussions

Aurélien Troisoeufs, Health Anthropologist at the Mental Health Research Laboratory, Humanities and Social Sciences, GHU Paris

Toward a Joint Declaration

Alberto Velasco, Head of Service S4 at Pole 5/6/7 of GHU Paris, Board Member of the WACP, Secretary of COFALP

 Testimonial in Resonance with the Work: Alice Vinçon-Leite

17h45 : Conclusions

Béatrice Aubriot, President of the CME at GHU Paris

Dominique Wintrebert, President of France Coordination for Latin America – COFALP

“Art in wartime”: a virtual exhibition of works by Ukrainian patients will take place in the lobby of the GHU’s Grand Amphithéâtre throughout the conference.

7th  World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry    

 

Our colleague and member of our Board of Directors, Dr Itsuo Asai (and his team) is almost done with the preparations of our next World Congress. Save the date: we will meet in Tokyo in the last week of September 2025. The Pacific Rim Psychiatrists (https://www.prcp.org/) will join us and we will organize the congress together.

Our Highlight: What is COFALP?

By: Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo

 

On January 13, 2016, the Franco-Mexican association of psychiatry held the 12th Franco-Mexican colloquium at the Sainte Anne hospital. The next night, Alberto Velasco prepared a delicious “mole” accompanied by some “margaritas” at his house. There we spoke with professors Jean Garrabé and Yves Thoret about the creation of a Franco-Latin American association. Dr. Thoret, presciently, gave us a bottle of whiskey, seeming to say to us: Allez, marchez! This message livened up the night by talking about the past, present and future of Franco-Latin American psychiatry exchanges.

 Shortly after, Alberto and I, proposed the idea to Federico Ossola who told us that the Franco-Argentine Association was precisely reflecting on this possibility: After a meeting with Bernard Odier, Federico Ossola, Dominique Wintrebert and Alberto Velasco the project was confirmed. Martin Reca contacted Anette Thevenot, then president of the Franco-Cuban association, who accepted in principle. Thus, with that already perceptible confidence, the trio of binational associations (Latin American group of transcultural studies,GLADET, include) was ready to embark on a common adventure. The debates in each association were arduous, we know. But reason ended up winning.

 The great activity carried out throughout the first half of 2016 to produce a convention that unites us reflected our heart and soul in this great challenge. As Dominique said, referring to a quote from Lacan, “she is born like a poor woman”, I would say yes, but not like an ugly woman… because it is desirable. The France-Latin America coordination (COFALP) was born filled with enthusiasm and with the strength and vigor of all its members.

 It is with this tone that the statutes were drafted and signed by the 7 participating associations. The Franco-Mexican association, GLADET, the Franco-Argentine Association and the Franco-Cuban association laid the cornerstone of the COFALP to which the French Federation of Psychiatry with its president Bernard Odier and the association of Psychiatrists in Latin America with Rodrigo Nel Córdoba as president quickly associated themselves with our initiative that culminated in the signing of an agreement in which the Sainte Anne hospital agreed to be the headquarters and the first event of our Coordination was held on September 9, 2016 with the presentation of my book: Vers une ethnopsychiatrie mexicaine awarded in 2017 by the society of L’Évolution psychiatrique.

 

The COFALP objectives that were established:

– The exchange of knowledge in the specialty and associated disciplines.

– Mutual support and joint participation in conferences, seminars, congresses, meetings, and all types of cultural and/or scientific events, which contribute to strengthening the ties of friendship and scientific collaboration between French and Latin American mental health professionals.

– The exchange of scholarship holders, interns, residents and other forms of participation in training and continuous professional development.

– Promoting the development of joint tasks in the field of research.

 – The promotion and dissemination of specialized magazines published in France and Latin American countries.

 – The development of the acquisition of linguistic skills in Spanish and French for professionals from Latin America and France in order to facilitate the integration of interns and promote transnational dialogue.

 – Promote any initiative that supports the principles that form the basis of the agreement.

  Cofalp takes an international turn two months later as it responds to the request of the association of directors of mental health establishments (EDESM), proposing a forum with 6 testimonies from countries on the topic of psychiatric containment.

 In Cuba in November 2016, the 11th: Rencontres Franco-Cubaines de psychiatrie et psychologie took place, there Alberto Velasco on behalf of the Franco Mexican Association and Cofalp spoke about the device: “Consultation Information advice and orientation for women enceintes suivies en psychiatrie”.

 Shortly afterwards, on October 5 and 6, 2017, to celebrate the 150 years of Sainte Anne hospital, COFALP proposed organizing our first international conference on therapeutic support. << Pratiques actuelles de la psychiatrie, soigner, accompagner, contenir>> the event was a success, both in this place and in the auditorium of the French ministry of health.

 The fruitful activity led us to participate with the World Psychiatry Association (WPA), which had a regional congress in Mexico in September 2018. Cofalp was represented by Federico Ossola, Bernard Odier and Ignacio Cuaranta. Additionally, I participated in a symposium on traditional medicine.

 Afterwards, COFALP organized, during the 5th  congress of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP), a symposium composed of six tables with the theme: “translating suffering” in New York from October 10 to 13, 2018. 20 colleagues from 6 different countries participated.

 The same month, in Brasilia from the 17th to the 20th during the XXX Congress of the Latin American Psychiatric Association (APAL) and the 26th Brazilian Congress of Psychiatry we had a large participation. We organized an interesting debate between colleagues from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, France and Argentina. Participated: Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo, Juan Manuel Rodríguez, Marcos de Noronha, Gustavo Rossi, Thames Borges, Daniel Delanoë, Alberto Velasco and Elisa Coelho-Medeiros. Furthermore, Alberto was raising concerns in a plenary session with the conference: “from temptation to diabolical possession.”

 The same year in Havana, the Association Franco-Cubaine de psychiatrie et de psychologie (AFCPP) organized its 12th mental health meeting, from November 24 to December 7 in Cuba. The theme: <<migrations, cultures and mental health>>, a comparative study in Cuba and in France. There they paid heartfelt tribute to Dr Jean-Pierre Thévenot.

 The COFALP was also present at the LXXIII Chilean Congress of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery and 2nd Congress of the Association Mondiale de Psychiatrie Sociale (WASP) that took place in Pucón (Chile) from November 8 to 10, 2018. There I spoke about: “A model of mental health intervention for indigenous migrants in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara” and on “Tonantzin-Guadalupe: a founding myth.”

 In August 2019, we were in Lisbon representing COFALP during the WPA congress working together with the Literature and Psychiatry section.

 At the end of 2018, the first France-Mexico Cooperation Program in Mental Health was also signed between the Sainte Anne hospital, now Grupo Hospitalario Universitario, and the university hospital (HUNL) in Monterrey with the support of the embassies and ministries in both countries.

 In November 2019, at the Sainte Anne hospital, we held our 2nd international conference with the theme: “the involvement of the family in psychiatric care” and we paid tribute to our beloved teacher, Dr. Jean Garrabé, tireless promoter of exchanges Franco-Latin Americans.

 And then the COVID pandemic arrived and COFALP’s activities became complicated and became virtual. One was in Guadalajara, Jalisco, during the 6th GLADET international congress entitled: “Neurosciences and Humanities: a new paradigm in psychiatry” which was a great tribute to the teachers Jean Garrabé and Yves Thoret.

 Prof. Carlos Rojas, president of GLADET, wrote about it: “The symposium presented by colleagues from the Franco-Latin American Coordination of Psychiatry (cofalp) should be mentioned, because in some way they express the European opinion on the central theme of the event. On the one hand, the COFALP Symposium, “Between neurosciences and humanities: the transcended word”, with subtopics such as “Parasitic language”, “Poetic language in transcultural psychopathology” and “Art, cultural and therapeutic language”, presented by the distinguished colleagues Dominique Wintrebert, Martín Reca and Alberto Velasco. The French colleagues, rather than a synthesis, prefer to see a binomial between humanities and neurosciences, among other reasons, because the epistemology for studying the body is very different and “other” than that used to study the unconscious and language. Without a doubt, Lacanian psychoanalytic training presents questions and rigors that are difficult to link to the findings of neuroscience.”

 In July 2022, we met again in person, again thanks to the auspices of GLADET with its 7th international conference entitled: “From classical to avant-garde psychiatry in the global village.” On this occasion, in addition to the group of Henry Ey followers, doctors Dominique Wintrebert, Alberto Velasco, Martín Reca, Juan Carlos Stagnaro, Julia Martín, Cristian Gil, Daniel Delanoë and Carlos Rojas participated, representing COFALP, whose texts were published in the book of the same title of the congress.

 In addition to the events organized by COFALP member societies in 2002, we ended the year in Havana, Cuba, with our 3rd international conference entitled: “Care in psychiatry: history, evolution, current events.” The works presented there were published in the French magazine: L’information psychiatrique.

 This year, 2024, COFALP will have two joint events with APAL (Association of Psychiatrists of Latin America), one in June in Santo Domingo, called: “Franco-Latin American Exchange, uniting perspectives on contemporary psychiatry: from pathology to treatment.” and another in November in Buenos Aires, “Mental health and social equity.”

 The WACP and COFALP celebrate this year, in Paris on September 19 and 20, the “International Conference of Art’s benefits on Mental Health and Psychiatry” organized by Dr. Alberto Velasco. Member of the WACP bureau and general secretary of the COFALP.

 We proudly continue to grow at a steady pace, managing to link academia, humanism and psychiatric clinics between Latin America and France.

 Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo.

President of COFALP for Latin America.


Proud to introduce to you

 

In each issue we would like to highlight a special person who devotes a lot of time to our association. Dedicated people who are essential for a flourishing association.

This time we like to introduce to you: Martina Kabenge

Dr. Martina Kabenge is a former resident at Makerere University who has just completed her speciality training in Psychiatry. Her academic journey has been marked by a profound dedication to understanding and addressing mental health challenges, particularly among young adults. Her interest in psychiatry was sparked early in her medical training, leading her to pursue specialised education and clinical practice in this field.

During her time at Makerere University, Dr. Kabenge focused her research on the prevalence and risk factors of substance use disorders among young adults at the University. Her work has highlighted the urgent need for targeted interventions and support systems to address the unique challenges faced by this population.

Dr. Kabenge’s commitment to mental health extends beyond her academic pursuits. She has actively participated in community outreach programs aimed at raising awareness about substance use and promoting mental well-being among young adults. Through seminars and public speaking engagements, she has educated both peers and the general public about the importance of early intervention and comprehensive care in managing substance use disorders.

Dr. Kabenge is dedicated to continuing her work in psychiatry, focusing on developing innovative treatment approaches and expanding access to mental health services for young adults. She is passionate about making a meaningful impact in the field and is committed to improving the lives of individuals struggling with substance use and mental health issues.

 

The President’s Choice

Each issue I want to highlight a special and very recent intellectual advancement in our field of cultural psychiatry. This time:

Silvius, Linda, Katrina V. Antezana J, and Samrad Ghane. “Symptom vs context: lessons learned from a large-scale implementation of the Cultural Formulation Interview.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 15 (2024): 1410865.

DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1410865

 

 

A major concern regarding CFI is its feasibility in daily clinical practice.

This article aims to fill this knowledge gap by presenting two studies that investigated (a) how CFI has been implemented within the largest mental health provider in the Netherlands, (b) how CFI is perceived by different staff and stakeholders, and (c) what factors are associated with the appropriate use of CFI during routine diagnostic examinations. This paper highlights the challenges associated with the integration of CFI into large-scale mental health services. Barriers to implementation were related to clinicians’ limited familiarity with the interview and its purpose in routine and its purpose in routine clinical assessment. In addition organizational barriers, such as a lack of consistent commitment to implementing the CFI and competing institutional priorities. Attitudes towards the CFI varied between clinicians and administrators.

administrators, and differed somewhat from the APA recommendations, which emphasize implementation for all patients and which emphasize implementation for all patients and in all settings. The findings highlight important challenges in implementation of CFI in routine clinical practice. Compared with the results of the DSM-5 field trials, this paper shows lower fidelity of the CFI during the intake interview, and more negative perceptions of the interview among practitioners.

Their findings suggest a relationship between cultural competence of staff and their ability to administer and documenting the CFI.

 

Paris Declaration on Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry

Paris, September 2024

 

This joint declaration follows the webinars and the International Conference on the subject, co-organized by GHU Paris psychiatry & neuroscience (GHU Paris), the France Latin America Coordination of Psychiatry (COFALP), and the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP). In a constructivist approach, these three organizations brought together “experts”  from eleven countries, six Parisian centers, the Mental Health, Humanities, and Social Sciences Laboratory of GHU Paris, UNAFAM , the Academy of the National Opera of Paris, the Museum of Art and History of Sainte Anne Hospital, the Victor Hugo House Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée du Quai Branly.

This community of experts worked in webinars to explore two fundamental aspects:

1.         To describe systems that use art as a medium in mental health and psychiatry.

2.         To describe commonalities, the invariants shared across different cultures and care settings.

The proposals were presented at the International Conference on “Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry” on September 19 and 20, 2024, at GHU Paris.

This declaration synthesizes the multiple, cross-checked, and conclusive responses from the webinars. Its general objective is to highlight the mediation of art in its social and therapeutic roles.

Art addresses everyone, without exception. It can be unsettling, but it can also provide a social outlet for transgressive pleasure, thus provoking a regulatory effect. Human societies recognize in their own way, and with diversity, their artistic values. They designate specific places to preserve and pass on millennia-old artistic testimonies to future generations. When creation is recognized, society protects and preserves it in museums that we visit like secular altars, seeking well-being and dialogue.

Our meetings between professionals and patients allowed us to hear the similarities and differences in the use of artistic tools. We chose not to distinguish between the museum professional, the artist, the caregiver, and the patient, in a proposition that ranges from innovative experience to established practice. This approach guarantees richness and the crossing of perspectives. We observed the differences and common points of the systems. We collected experiences from various settings, equally diverse: one established with young Inuit in northern Canada, the revival of traditional stories in Pakistan to work with illiterate patients and families, the use of art in a Therapeutic Accompaniment Center in Mexico, photography accompanied by storytelling with  people living with psychosis in Uganda, individual or institutional support guided by psychoanalysis in Latin America and Europe, the traditions of Japanese Masters, committed photography as a receptacle of history and identity of an indigenous population in Chiapas, and art used as a weapon in times of war in Ukraine.

Closer to old Europe, we mentioned the use of art in research, cognitive remediation, contributing to the dialectic of family life, its practice acting as therapy, or various ways to bring art into the hospital. We also recall the sustained creativity in children and the therapeutic strategies in partnership with cultural actors rooted in the city, a factor in reclaiming citizenship, social inclusion, and restored dignity.

Although notions such as art and mental health are difficult to define, the analysis of lexical and thematic occurrences in the work made it clear that art is a common good, despite the wide variety of practices studied. Depending on the period or culture, they have not always been articulated in the same way, shifting from “the art of the mad” to remediation; from the therapeutic workshop to outsider art.

The experience of facing a work of art is always subjective and personal. It produces noticeable changes in the individual, although sometimes indescribable. The beneficial impact of the work of art is both direct on the observer and can also produce social bonds or even communion between members of a society. Whether we try to explain its positive action by emphasizing the attraction to the art object or the sublimation of unconscious desire, the result is clear.

Art is performative. It disrupts those it connects. Museums have understood this: a form of socialization or even democratization is therefore possible, and they are working to develop it, including for people living with mental disorders. Psychiatric institutions must, in turn, establish bridges with major cultural actors in their localities. This contributes to the destigmatization of mental illness.

Therefore, the signatories declare that it is highly desirable to translate these conclusions into concrete actions:

•          Adoption of art as a therapeutic mediation in the servicesof public institutions.

•          The recognition of this medium on an organizational and financial level.

•          The right to access art as part of the care provided.

•          The establishment of local agreements with cultural and artistic actors.

Sign this petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/d%C3%A9claration-de-paris-sur-l-art-et-ses-b%C3%A9n%C3%A9fices-en-sant%C3%A9-mentale-et-en-psychiatrie?source_location=search

Next issue

 

·         All about Tokyo 2025

·         Proud to introduce to you: the social media experts: Aya and Gulunu!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear members of the WACP,
Dear colleagues interested in Cultural Psychiatry,
This is the first of its kind: A newsletter of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry.
A lot happens within our community, we are thriving (1), and it is about time that we inform each other about what is going on. With this new initiative, a newsletter, we want to come closer to each other, and, to be better informed about our cherished field of cultural psychiatry.
We also want to increase our members, so please send this newsletter to at least one other colleague of yours who you think might be interested.
This is a pilot edition of our newsletter. It is a complete edition intended as a test/teaser, before publication really starts with our official first issue planned for January next year. We will ask our social media group to have a look at this newsletter and improve it if needed. Please feel free to send me any comment or any news you want to share with us or anything else you would like to add to this cultural psychiatric newsletter. Ideas are more than welcome (mario.braakman@outlook.com).

Mario H Braakman, President WACP

News

 

Update website
Our website https://waculturalpsy.org/ needs an update. We allocated funds to redesign our main website and we let you know the launch date a.s.a.p.

Transcultural psychiatry
After 32 years of active service as Editor-in-Chief of ‘our’ top-journal Transcultural Psychiatry, Laurence Kirmayer (till recently one of our board members) stepped down. He contributed immensely to ‘building the foundation for a culturally responsive psychiatry’. We are deeply grateful for his dedication. We wish his successor Dr. G. Eric Jarvis all the best in his new role.

Special Interest Groups (SIG’s)
We were happy that our past-president Roberto Lewis-Fernandez was willing tocoordinate and stimulate SIG-activities. SIG’s are our Special Interest Groups and we will introduce them to you in the next newsletters. We purchased a ZOOM- account in order to enable the SIG’s to organize webinars. In the recurring SIG-section of the newsletter you will find information, updates and plans for webinars etc. of our SIG’s.

Renato D. Alarcón
One of our prominent members and former WACP Officer and treasurer, Prof. Dr. Renato Alarcon, emeritus professor of Psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, will deliver
the prestigious Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture by Presidential invitation during the next annual APA-meeting in New York, May 4-8, 2024.
 
There is much more to say but we don’t want to overload you with news in this pilot-issue.


International conference
We as WACP decided to introduce a new initiative: the International Conference. In between our large congresses, these are 3 years apart from each other, we thought it
would be a good idea to have an additional scientific gathering, smaller but as inspiring as the large congress.The first one was planned in Shanghai, China but very unfortunately, due to COVID, we had to cancel it. However, now we are heading towards the next international conference and it will be planned in the second part of 2024. It will happen in Paris, and the theme will be CULTURAL PSYCHIATRY & ART. Alberto Velasco and his SIG is very active in organizing this and he is planning online seminars in preparation for that event.
In our first official newsletter in January we will inform you about all the details. Please join us and also come to Paris for this very special conference. Alberto Velasco is cooperating with colleagues from two other organizations: GHU Paris psychiatry and neurosciences (GHU Paris) and France Latin America Coordination of Psychiatry (COFALP).

 

 

7th World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry
Our colleague and member of our Board of Directors, Dr Itsuo Asai (and his team) is very busy with the preparations of our next World Congress. We will pay much more attention to this big event in the near future. For now save the date: we will meet in Tokyo in the last week of September 2025. The Pacific Rim Psychiatrists (https://www.prcp.org/ will join us and we will organize the congress together.

 

 

 

Our Highlight: Iraqi Psychiatric Association

Each issue we focus on a special event, gathering, meeting or the like in our field. This time we asked our BoD-member Riyadh Al-Baldawi to comment on the 4th Iraqi Psychiatric Association International conference recently held in Baghdad, Iraq and supported by the WACP.

Here is my report on my participation at the 4th Iraqi Psychiatric Association International conference, representing the WAC, held in Baghdad – Iraq November 23rd to 24th of 2023.
I participated at the 4th Iraqi psychiatric Association International conference which was held in Baghdad – Iraq, November 23-24, 2023.
The WACP was actively involved in planning this conference. The WAC was one of the three international organizations participating at the conference, the other two being the Arab federation of Psychiatry and the Royal College Psch. UK.
The conference was held more than 15 years later than the previous conference. During these years Iraq as a country faced a huge number of challenges following the sectoral war, the war against ISIS and many more. The conference could now be organized due to the past four years of relative political stability in the country, which has had a positive effect on social aspects in general and the country’s medical situation in particular.

 

 

The conference was supported by the government and in particular the health ministry. The Minister of Health personally, Dr. Saleh Al Hasnaui (Psychiatrist), participated in the opening ceremony and gave a welcoming speech to all participants. All medical faculties at Iraqi universities from different parts of Iraq were actively represented at the conference. Many colleagues from the Kurdistan region were actively involved and participated at the conference. This was very positive and key in keeping the association between Iraqi psychiatrists.

The conference was held at one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad, more than 200 participants attended the conference in person and some of colleagues virtually. The conference offered a good opportunity for Iraqi colleagues from different generations to interact and share experiences of working within and outside the country, as well as to exchange clinical experiences and research with the guests from other countries such as the UK, Canada, USA, Italy, Sweden and Australia.
Iraq as a country has a huge heritage of different civilizations and cultures as well as different ethnicities and religions, which makes this country very interesting in our field of cultural Psychiatry.
I was impressed by how well this conference was organized and the positive warm collegial atmosphere that was created. The organizers did all necessary to make the participants feel comfortable and welcome.
At the conference I was involved personally as a member of the organizing committee and international speaker in different activities during the planning phase of the conference. Our WACP logo was presented on all official documents at the conference. I tried to make contact with many distinguished decision makers within the Iraqi association and the Iraqi Ministry of Health. I informed them about the aims of our organization and invited colleagues to be active in our organization. During my speech I invited the participants to our future events in particular our upcoming WACP world congress in Japan and invited some colleagues to participate at different WACP SIG groups.
In general, I was very happy to participate at this conference in my birthplace Baghdad which is recovering rapidly from tougher periods of war and destruction.
The health care system generally and the psychiatric medical care still has a huge number of challenges to face. It has come to my understanding that the stigma around psychiatric disability still is one of the big issues our colleagues in Iraq face when dealing with patients and their families. Many patients usually seek traditional healers and other questionable sources of aid before visiting a psychiatrist. The stigma is more common in peripheral colleagues from two other organizations: GHU Paris psychiatry and neurosciences (GHU Paris) in drug- and alcohol problems in the bigger cities. I also learnt that as a result of many years of war there is a huge need for specialist centers to treat people suffering from severe or chronic PTSD. Another major issue to be addressed is the rising numbers of cases of depression, anxiety, OCD and other psychiatric problems. There are many thousands of people still displaced from their villages and towns after the internal war and in need of help and support. The internal migration and forced displacement is still one of the big challenges the country has to deal with. There is a rising awareness regarding early detection of children with neuropsychiatric disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD etc. The country is still in need of more professional competence to cover these kinds of problem areas and situations presented above.
Despite the difficulties the country faces today I found that there is a strong will amongst colleagues working within public or private health care to better the situation. My hope is that political stability by itself will solve many of them.
I hope that we as an international organization can pay more of our attention to developing countries by supporting our colleagues, inviting them to our conferences and events and thereby exchanging knowledge and perhaps offering new ideas.
Finally, I was very happy to visit my birth country once again after so many years and meet with enthusiastic colleagues from all over the World, willing to deepen their relations with each other and our WACP.

Best regards
Riyadh Al-Baldawi
BoD member WACP
Stockholm 2023-111-30

 

 

 

 

 Proud to introduce to you

 
In each issue we would like to highlight a special person who devotes a lot of time to our association. Dedicated people who are essential for a flourishing association.
This time we like to introduce to you: Daina Crafa, our Editor-in-chief of our journal, WCPRR.

 

 

 



 
Daina Crafa (above to the left) presenting herself at the General Members Meeting during the 6th WCCP inRotterdam, the Netherlands.

Daina Crafa is a Tenured Assistant Professor in the Clinical, Neuro- & Developmental Psychology Department at VU Amsterdam. She combines multidisciplinary approaches to study how psychiatric patient groups respond during dynamic, real-time social interactions and how contexts may influence these responses. Her core interest is in social adaptability and challenges. She has a M.Sc. in Neuroscience (University of Osnabrock, Germany) and aM.Sc. in Transcultural Mental Health (Queen Mary University of London, UK). She completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience (McGill University, Canada), where she worked closely with the Transcultural Psychiatry unit. Between completing her Ph.D. and starting her currentposition, she worked an Adjunct Professor at the Interacting Mind Centre at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is the new editor-in-chief for the WCPRR. Daina volunteered as an EditorialAssistant from the WCPRR starting in 2012. Daina also started the Student Section of the WACP and acted as its first section president. Daina is an Italian-American (dual citizen)who grew up in Florida. She enjoys exploring new places via kayak.

 

The World Cultural Psychiatric Research Review (WCPRR) is the official journal of the World Association for Cultural Psychiatry (WACP). It is a quarterly international peer-reviewed psychiatric journal that covers all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on sociocultural context. The WCPRR promotes equity in academic publishing practices and provides cost-free, open access publishing to authors globally.
Preparations for the next issue are currently underway and we would love for you to be a part of it!
Have a look: 
https://www.worldculturalpsychiatry.org/
 
The President’s Choice
Each quarter I want to highlight intellectual advancements in our field of cultural psychiatry. This time, our pilot issue, I take the liberty to focus on publications that appeared in 2023. I could focus on a lot of publications since we have members as well as non-members who are very active in publishing great papers. However, this time, focusing on 2023, I was pleasantly amazed by the publication of three innovative scientific articles published by Ana Gómez-Carillo. Her main co-authors Laurence Kirmayer and one of the papers, published in the Lancet Psychiatry, was written with the help of a lot of colleagues of our association. All three publications are about the development of an alternative approach to counteract the present day neurobiological reductionism and it is coined the cultural-ecosocial systemic approach. It is an approach based on a multilevel explanation of a clinical case. There are an abundant number of attractive statements in these papers, like:
* … someone’s postcode can be a better predictor of health outcomes than the genetic code …’, Or
* . [understanding; MB] the brain as situated in the social world and as part of larger, self-reflexive systems or
*. the missing person in personalized medicine …•

Central concepts are: embodiment and enactment, compositional as well as causal hierarchies, circular rather than linear causation and self-explanation by the patient. This work is a clear and concrete example of how to apply complex systems dynamics within our field of psychiatry and putting the human brain in a sociocultural context in such a way that illness can no longer be reduced to a problem of an individual, it is a social problem as well. By using this model a useful
interacting clinical case can be formulated and widens the scope of the clinician as well as the perspective of the patient. These three papers are a culmination of interests that Laurence Kirmayer (but also others!) talked and wrote about for a few decades: neuroscience, culture, socioecological and anthropological systems and the self that culminated in a ecosocial model in which the dichotomy of Dilthey between “Erklären’ (explaining) and “Verstehen” (understanding) are finally integrated. Also the different levels in which a patient is entangled are combined into a synthesis that is worthwhile reading. The fact that the first author is NOT Kirmayer but a young gifted scholar is very promising for the future and sustainability of our subdiscipline called cultural psychiatry. It is even and foremost an example of what cultural psychiatry has to offer to psychiatry and medicine in general.


References:
Gómez-Carrillo, A., Kirmayer, L. J., Aggarwal, N. K., Bhui, K S., Fung, K. P. L., Kohrt, B. A. _. & Lewis-Fernandez, R. (2023). Integrating neuroscience in psychiatry: a cultural-ecosocial systemic approach. The Lancet Psychiatry, 10(4), 296-304,
Gómez-Carrillo, A., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2023). A cultural-ecosocial systems view for psychiatry.
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 486.

Gómez-Carrillo, A., Paquin, V., Dumas, G., & Kirmayer, L.. J. (2023). Restoring the missing person to personalized medicine and precision psychiatry. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17.


Important dates
7th WCCP: our 7th World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry last week of September 2025, Tokyo
(exact dates will follow soon)
Cultural psychiatry and Art second half of September 2024 Paris *

Next issue
All-embracing information by Alberto Velasco on our next WACP international conference in Paris and the webinars.
Proud to introduce to you: Claire Kwagala, psychiatrist from Uganda.

 

 


Please send this newsletter to at least one other colleague of yours who is not (yet) a WACP and might be interested

 

 

Three members of the Special Interest Group on COVID-19 have edited a Volume of the Frontiers in Psychiatry Edition with 8 articles on this subject in 2024

See:

Mao-Sheng Ran, Yunyu Xiao, Hans Rohlof (2024). Editorial: The impact of COVID-19 on internet addiction, suicidal behavior, and study behavior in adolescents in various cultural contexts. Frontiers in Psychiatry. Section Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry, Volume 15. https://bit.ly/42xuxdn

This webinar, from the Special Interest Group on Culture and Sexuality, was held on the 29th of July, 2022. The topic is Culture and the Prevention of Sexual Violence. It was presented by prof. Vasudeo Paralikar from KEM Hospital Research Centre, Puna, India, and his collaborators.

SAVE THE DATE – SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2022

FAMILY & CULTURE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Co-Chairs: Vincenzo Di Nicola and Riyadh Al-Baldawi

 

“Insider/Outsider Perspectives on Religious/Spiritual Beliefs

on Therapeutic Process”

Exploring therapeutic intersections with families whose spiritual/religious lived experiences

are at odds with professional formulations

 

Presenter: Anjali Joseph

Family Therapist, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Discussant: Charlotte Clous

Medical Anthropologist, The Netherlands

 There will be a short presentation to frame the issues, followed by a town hall discussion

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2022

11:00 AM-12:30 PM ET (New York time) – 17:00-18:30 PM CET  

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MqJkLpLRQBSe6L145YJN9g

Contact: secretary@waculturalpsy.org, vincenzodinicola@gmail.com, r.baldawi@orienthalsan.se

Saturday, September 17, 2022 @15:00, Rotterdam, World Trade Center

  1. Roberto Lewis-Fernández received the Wen-Shing Tseng Lifetime Award, in recognition of outstanding leadership and professional achievement in cultural psychiatry (introduced and awarded by Mario Braakman)
  2. Meryam Schouler-Ocak received the Pioneering Working in Cultural Psychiatry Award, in recognition of ground-breaking contributions to cultural psychiatry (introduced and awarded by Muthoni Mathai)
  3. Hans Rohlof received the Seva Award, in recognition of selfless, exemplary service to WACP and contributions to cultural psychiatry (introduced and awarded by Vittorio De Luca)
  4. Roberto Lewis-Fernández, on behalf of Pablo Farias, received the Seva Award, in recognition of selfless, exemplary service to WACP and contributions to cultural psychiatry (introduced by Roberto Lewis-Fernández himself)
  5. Hans Rohlof, on behalf of Nikolai Bokhan, received the Pioneering Working in Cultural Psychiatry Award, in recognition of ground-breaking contributions to cultural psychiatry (introduced by Vittorio De Luca) and pronounced a speech on behalf of N. Bokhan.
  6. Hans Rohlof, on behalf of Jie Li, received the 2022 Book Award, in recognition of outstanding scientific and literary competency expressed in publications on Cultural Psychiatry (introduced by Vittorio De Luca) and pronounced a speech on behalf of Jie Li.
  7. Muthoni Mathai received the Creative Education in Cultural Psychiatry Award, in recognition of innovative training and dissemination efforts in Cultural Psychiatry (introduced by Lisa Anderman).
  8. Vincenzo Di Nicola received the Creative Education in Cultural Psychiatry Award, in recognition of innovative training and dissemination efforts in Cultural Psychiatry (introduced by Lisa Anderman).
  9. Samrad Ghane, on behalf of Sushrut Jadhav & Roland Littlewood, received the Goffredo Bartocci Special Award In recognition of exceptional achievements in Cultural Psychiatry (introduced by Vittorio De Luca).
  10. Kamaldeep Bhui, on behalf of Dinesh Bhugra, received the Kamaldeep Bhui Academic Award, in recognition of outstanding academic accomplishments in Cultural Psychiatry (introduced by Vittorio De Luca).
  11. Vera Mohwinkel received from Kamaldeep Bhui, chair of the Poster Award Committee, the 2022 Poster Award Winner, in recognition of impact, clarity and scientific significance for Cultural Psychiatry” for her poster ‘Findings from a German clinical study: Refugees’ Pathways to Mental Health Care’.

 

2022 WACP Awards Committee

Lisa Andermann

Vittorio De Luca (chair)

Muthoni Mathai(except for nr.7)

Xudong Zhao

Recently, a new Board of Directors of the WACP was chosen. We will therefore soon change the website.

As preliminary news, here are already the names:

Officers:

Mario Braakman, The Netherlands, President. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/mario-braakman/..

Byamah Mutamba, Uganda, Secretary. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/byamah-brian-mutamba/

Pablo Farias, Mexico, Treasurer. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/pablo-j-farias/

Muhammad Irfan, Pakistan, President-Elect. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/muhammad-irfan/

Roberto Lewis-Fernández, USA,  Past President. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/roberto-lewis-fernandez/

Rest of the Board of Directors:

Itsuo Asai, Japan. He will organise the next WACP-conference in 2025 in Tokyo.

Xudong Zhao, China.https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/xudong-zhao/

Carlos Zubaran, Australia.https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/carlos-zubaran/

Vincenzo Di Nicola, Canada.

Kenneth Fung, Canada.https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/kenneth-fung/

Lisa Andermann, Canada.https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/lisa-andermann/

Alberto Velasco, France.https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/alberto-velasco/

Riyadh Al-Baldawi, Sweden/ Iraq.

Meryam Schouler-Ocak, Germany. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/meryam-schouler-ocak/

Irina Kupyanova, Russia. She will be appointed as Advisor to the Board. https://waculturalpsy.org/portfolio-item/irina-kupriyanova/

 

 

 

The videos of our Travel Award Winners of the 2022 WACP conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands are available on YouTube.

Have a look, and have a preview of the lectures they will give on the conference:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZrawaGUzsEe9kzHSRA-51g 

Registration at the conference, from the 14th till the 17th of September, 2022,  is still possible: https://www.wacp2022.org/

WACP FREE WEBINAR

FRIDAY, 29TH JULY 2022
7:30 PM IST – 2 PM UTC – 10 AM EDT 

Organized by Special Interest Group on Culture and Sexuality
Chair: Dr. Vasudeo Paralikar



Topics and Presenters:

  • Introduction to sexuality in Indian context – Dr Ujjwal Nene, Clinical Psychologist; Sexual Health Consultant
  • Role of Socio-cultural Assessments in Prevention of Sexual Violence – Ms Ankita Deshmukh, Clinical Psychologist
  • Indian program for the primary prevention of sexual violence against children – Dr Suchita Agrawal, Psychiatrist
  • Participant comments and discussion


Registration and Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpcO2trTstGtcWqHRyjyfmXPt50mI-2106