News
02/03/2010
To the Members and Friends of ISSPD,
We are facing the beginning of a new year, and I would like to wish you all a Happy, Productive and Peaceful year 2010.
Looking back at the past year, 2009, we can see milestones and encouragements. The XIth ISSPD Congress in New York integrated research in genetics and neurobiology with interpersonal and psychodynamic psychology. The organizers Drs. Harold Koenigsberg and Larry Siever are to be complemented and thanked for their hard work and most successful accomplishment. The Congress attracted close to 250 attendees from 17 countries representing all 4 of ISSPD’s Regions. Recipient of the Young Researcher’s Award was Erik Fertuck, USA. Marijn Distel from the Netherlands received the runner-up Young Researcher’s Award.
The ISSPD membership voiced most valuable ideas and constructive critique in response to the Membership Survey 2009. The results are featured on the ISSPD Website. Of high priority and resulting in immediate action was the request for better communication and information, both between ISSPD leadership and the members, and among the members. The ISSPD Web Site is presently undergoing major expansions and improvements to better serve and meet these requests and support our members’ needs for community identity, exchange and updated information. A second request concerned membership influence, and regional and national affiliation and representation, and discussions and revisions of organizational changes are in progress.
Facing the 22 th year of ISSPD’s activities there are several important and exciting things in the forefront. Upcoming meetings include the combined First International Congress on BPD and the IXth European ISSPD Congress to be held in Berlin on July 1-3, 2010. The next upcoming ISSPD International Congress will be in Australia in the spring of 2011. Dr. Andrew Chanen and his Australian colleagues are organizing this meeting which is yet another milestone in ISSPD’s international efforts. An European Educational conference is planned for September 2011, to be held in Belgrade Serbia. The XIIIth International ISSPD Congress will be in Copenhagen commemorating the site of the founding and the first Congress of ISSPD held in 1988. Erik Simonsen is organizing this 25th anniversary Congress.
A very important initiative and work in progress is the plan of an upcoming World Conference on Personality and Individual Differences in 2013, proposed by the Association for Research in Personality (ARP) and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID). Dr. Boele De Raad from the Netherlands is in charge of the planning process. By now, there are several significant organizations focusing on personality functioning, individual differences, assessment etc. The collaborative coordination of these various approaches to the studies of personality opens very essential and inspiring opportunities for new perspectives and projects.
In general, we are seeing a rapid development in the field of personality disorders. Studies and treatment advances especially over the past 5 – 8 years have challenged many previous views and presumption on disordered personality functioning. Today we know about their changeability, their longitudinal course and remission, their receptiveness to treatment, and what treatments that have proved to be effective. The ongoing work on revising the personality disorders section in DSM-V will hopefully result in a system that is both empirically anchored and clinically useful.
Our field is expanding. ISSPD is facing expectations and demands from an international membership that request a foundation for connection and exchange.This requires ISSPD to implement new and more effective means for information and education, and for leadership guidance and network. ISSPD is also facing the task of influencing, not only the academic, medical and research community, but also the media and societies’ policymakers. Our collaboration with organizations like TARA and the National Education Alliance for BPD is essential.
We need to reach, inform and communicate with our members and provide a better support and sense of community and belongingness among the members and friends of ISSPD. We also need to attract and interest new membership and be ready to meet their request and expectations of service and technology. The Journal of Personality Disorders and the Website are major tools for organizational communication, as is the WPA ISSPD Educational Program on Personality Disorders. However, the foundation for an organization is it’s individual members, and it is my hope for the new year that ISSPD can build a better and more efficient membership community and attract new members. All your views and initiatives are important building blocks in this process.
The President’s Letter January, 2010
We are facing the beginning of a new year, and I would like to wish you all a Happy, Productive and Peaceful year 2010.
Looking back at the past year, 2009, we can see milestones and encouragements. The XIth ISSPD Congress in New York integrated research in genetics and neurobiology with interpersonal and psychodynamic psychology. The organizers Drs. Harold Koenigsberg and Larry Siever are to be complemented and thanked for their hard work and most successful accomplishment. The Congress attracted close to 250 attendees from 17 countries representing all 4 of ISSPD’s Regions. Recipient of the Young Researcher’s Award was Erik Fertuck, USA. Marijn Distel from the Netherlands received the runner-up Young Researcher’s Award.
The ISSPD membership voiced most valuable ideas and constructive critique in response to the Membership Survey 2009. The results are featured on the ISSPD Website. Of high priority and resulting in immediate action was the request for better communication and information, both between ISSPD leadership and the members, and among the members. The ISSPD Web Site is presently undergoing major expansions and improvements to better serve and meet these requests and support our members’ needs for community identity, exchange and updated information. A second request concerned membership influence, and regional and national affiliation and representation, and discussions and revisions of organizational changes are in progress.
Facing the 22 th year of ISSPD’s activities there are several important and exciting things in the forefront. Upcoming meetings include the combined First International Congress on BPD and the IXth European ISSPD Congress to be held in Berlin on July 1-3, 2010. The next upcoming ISSPD International Congress will be in Australia in the spring of 2011. Dr. Andrew Chanen and his Australian colleagues are organizing this meeting which is yet another milestone in ISSPD’s international efforts. An European Educational conference is planned for September 2011, to be held in Belgrade Serbia. The XIIIth International ISSPD Congress will be in Copenhagen commemorating the site of the founding and the first Congress of ISSPD held in 1988. Erik Simonsen is organizing this 25th anniversary Congress.
A very important initiative and work in progress is the plan of an upcoming World Conference on Personality and Individual Differences in 2013, proposed by the Association for Research in Personality (ARP) and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID). Dr. Boele De Raad from the Netherlands is in charge of the planning process. By now, there are several significant organizations focusing on personality functioning, individual differences, assessment etc. The collaborative coordination of these various approaches to the studies of personality opens very essential and inspiring opportunities for new perspectives and projects.
In general, we are seeing a rapid development in the field of personality disorders. Studies and treatment advances especially over the past 5 – 8 years have challenged many previous views and presumption on disordered personality functioning. Today we know about their changeability, their longitudinal course and remission, their receptiveness to treatment, and what treatments that have proved to be effective. The ongoing work on revising the personality disorders section in DSM-V will hopefully result in a system that is both empirically anchored and clinically useful.
Our field is expanding. ISSPD is facing expectations and demands from an international membership that request a foundation for connection and exchange.This requires ISSPD to implement new and more effective means for information and education, and for leadership guidance and network. ISSPD is also facing the task of influencing, not only the academic, medical and research community, but also the media and societies’ policymakers. Our collaboration with organizations like TARA and the National Education Alliance for BPD is essential.
We need to reach, inform and communicate with our members and provide a better support and sense of community and belongingness among the members and friends of ISSPD. We also need to attract and interest new membership and be ready to meet their request and expectations of service and technology. The Journal of Personality Disorders and the Website are major tools for organizational communication, as is the WPA ISSPD Educational Program on Personality Disorders. However, the foundation for an organization is it’s individual members, and it is my hope for the new year that ISSPD can build a better and more efficient membership community and attract new members. All your views and initiatives are important building blocks in this process.