World Psychiatric Association

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 psychiatric ethics

In February 1983, the Soviet All-Union Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists resigned from the World Psychiatric Association. This resignation occurred as a preemptive action amid a movement to expel the Soviet body from the global organization due to political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. The Soviet body was conditionally readmitted into the World Psychiatric Association in 1989, following some improvements in human rights conditions, and an intensive debate among the association's delegates, in which the acting secretary of the Soviet delegation issued a statement conceding that "previous political conditions in the U.S.S.R. created an environment in which psychiatric abuse occurred, including for nonmedical reasons."

Danuta Wasserman is president, and Thomas G. Schulze is president-elect.

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.

Structure

the institutional members of the World Psychiatric Association are 145 national psychiatric societies in 121 countries representing more than 250,000 psychiatrists worldwide. 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.

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

References

1. "WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION in Thônex".
2. "List of 218 non-State actors in official relations with WHO reflecting decisions of the 156th session of the Executive Board, February 2025".
3. "History of the World Psychiatric Association".
4. Vera Rich, [https://www.nature.com/articles/301559a0.pdf Soviet psychiatry: pre-emptive resignation?], ''Nature'' (February 17, 1983).
5. Allan Wynn, [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(83)91514-3/abstract The Soviet Union and the World Psychiatric Association], ''The Lancet'' (February 19, 1983).
6. Masha Hamilton, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-02-mn-1416-story.html Soviets Win Praise From Amnesty International], ''Los Angeles Times'' (April 2, 1989).
7. Paul Anastasi, [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/18/world/soviets-conditionally-readmitted-to-world-psychiatric-association.html Soviets Conditionally Readmitted To World Psychiatric Association], ''New York Times'' (October 18, 1989).
8. "The Executive Committee".
9. "World Psychiatric Association Chronology".
10. Ruiz, Pedro. (November 2011). "Greetings from Pedro Ruiz, new WPA President".
11. "General Assembly 2014".
12. "17th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry "Psychiatry of the 21st Century: Context, Controversies and Commitment"".
13. "About the World Psychiatric Association".
14. (21 September 2011). "World Psychiatric Association (WPA) By-laws".
15. (21 September 2011). "World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Statutes".
16. "Archive of "World Psychiatry"". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
17. "Latest Publications".
18. "WPA News: Past Issues".
19. "Journals & Volumes Produced by WPA Sections".
20. "ANS: The Journal for Neurocognitive Research".
21. "Archives of women's mental health". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
22. "Art & Psychiatry".
23. (2016). "Child & Adolescent Psychiatry".
24. (2016). "Early Career Psychiatrists".
25. (August 2016). "Newsletter".
26. (21 September 2011). "Madrid Declaration on Ethical Standards for Psychiatric Practice".
27. (26 August 2002). "Secretary General's summary of the proceedings and conclusions of the 2002 extraordinary and ordinary general assemblies".