World Psychiatric Association

Last updated
World Psychiatric Association
Association Mondiale de Psychiatrie (French)
AbbreviationWPA
PredecessorAssociation for the Organization of World Congresses of Psychiatry
Formation1961;64 years ago (1961)
Type NGO
CHE-114.143.652 [1]
Legal status Swiss association
HeadquartersWPA Secretariat
Location
  • Psychiatric Hospital, 2, ch. du Petit-Bel-Air, Chêne-Bourg, Geneva, Switzerland
Coordinates 46°12′22″N6°12′32″E / 46.2061°N 6.2089°E / 46.2061; 6.2089
Fields Psychiatry
Official language
English (working language)
Secretary General
Saul Levin
President
 Danuta Wasserman
President-Elect
Thomas G. Schulze
Main organ
WPA General Assembly
Publication
 World Psychiatry
Website wpanet.org
[2] [3] [4]
World Psychiatric Association regional congress 2014 World Psychiatric Association regional congress 2014A.jpg
World Psychiatric Association regional congress 2014

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) is a nongovernmental organization in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). [5] [6] It brings together 135 national psychiatric societies from 177 countries, representing more than 200,000 psychiatrists worldwide, and convenes the World Congress of Psychiatry. [7]

Contents

History

Origin and founding

Logo used for the 1950 Congres International de Psychiatrie in Paris. 1950 International Congress of Psychiatry logo.svg
Logo used for the 1950 CongrèsInternational de Psychiatrie in Paris.

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. [8]

Jean Delay was the first president of the Association for the Organization of World Congresses of Psychiatry when it was started in 1950. [2] Donald Ewen Cameron became president of the World Psychiatric Association at its formal founding in 1961. [2] [9]

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. [10] [11] The Soviet body was conditionally readmitted into the World Psychiatric Association in 1989, following some improvements in human rights conditions, [12] 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." [13]

As of October 2023, Danuta Wasserman is president, and Thomas G. Schulze is president-elect. [4]

World Congress locations and WPA leadership [9]
YearWorld CongressPresidentSecretary General
NameCountryNameCountry
1950Paris, France Jean Delay FranceHenry EyFrance
1957Zurich, Switzerland
1961Montreal, Canada D. Ewen Cameron Canada
1966Madrid, Spain Juan J. López-Ibor SpainDenis LeighU.K.
1972Mexico City, Mexico Howard Rome USA
1977Hawaii, USA Pierre Pichot FrancePeter BernerAustria
1983Vienna, Austria Costas Stefanis GreeceFini SchulsingerDenmark
1989Athens, Greece Jorge A. Costa e Silva Brazil Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr. Spain
1993Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Felice Lieh-Mak Hong Kong
1996Madrid, Spain Norman Sartorius Switzerland Juan Mezzich USA
1999Hamburg, Germany Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr. Spain
2002Yokohama, Japan Ahmed Okasha Egypt John Cox U.K.
2005Cairo, Egypt Juan Mezzich USA
2008Prague, Czech Republic Mario Maj ItalyLevent KueyTurkey
2011Buenos Aires, ArgentinaPedro Ruiz [14] USA
2014Madrid, Spain [15] Dinesh Bhugra [4] U.K.Roy Abraham Kallivayalil [4] India
2017Berlin, Germany [16] Helen Herrman [4] AustraliaRoy Abraham Kallivayalil [4] India
2018Mexico City, Mexico
2020Virtual Afzal Javed [4] UKPetr Morozov (until 2022) [4] Russia
2023Vienna, Austria Danuta Wasserman [4] SwedenSaul Levin [4] USA
2024Mexico City, Mexico
2025Prague, Czech Republic

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. [17]

Structure

As of 2016, the institutional members of the World Psychiatric Association are 145 national psychiatric societies in 121 countries representing more than 250,000 psychiatrists worldwide. [3] The societies are clustered into 18 zones and four regions: the Americas, Europe, Africa & Middle East, and Asia & Australasia. [18] Representatives of the societies constitute the World Psychiatric Association General Assembly, the governing body of the organization. [18] [19] 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). [18] [19] There are 66 scientific sections. [3]

Publications

The official publication of the association is World Psychiatry. [20] World Psychiatry and the association's official books are published by Wiley-Blackwell. [21] WPA also self-publishes a quarterly newsletter on its website. [22]

Several WPA scientific sections have their own official journals and newsletters:

Journals [23]
Activitas Nervosa Superior (Psychiatric Electrophysiology Section) [24]
Archives of Women's Mental Health (Women's Mental Health Section) [21] [25]
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) [23] [26]
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry [27]
Early Career Psychiatrists [28]
Psyche and Spirit (Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry) [29]
Psychological Consequences of Torture and Persecutions Section [23]
Psychotherapy Section [23]
World Healer (Transcultural Psychiatry Section) [23] [30]
WPA eReview (WPA Quarterly eNewsletter)

Activities

The association has helped establish a code of professional ethics for psychiatrists. [3] [31] The association has also looked into charges regarding China's treatment of the Falun Gong. [32]

References

  1. ↑ "WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION in Thônex". Moneyhouse. Retrieved 2025-11-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "History of the World Psychiatric Association". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "About the World Psychiatric Association". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "The Executive Committee". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Von Kelley & Fang 2013, p. 445.
  6. ↑ "List of 218 non-State actors in official relations with WHO reflecting decisions of the 156th session of the Executive Board, February 2025" (PDF). p. 12.
  7. ↑ Saxena et al. 2019, p. 483.
  8. ↑ Kupersanin 2002, p. 30.
  9. 1 2 "World Psychiatric Association Chronology". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  10. ↑ Vera Rich, Soviet psychiatry: pre-emptive resignation?, Nature (February 17, 1983).
  11. ↑ Allan Wynn, The Soviet Union and the World Psychiatric Association, The Lancet (February 19, 1983).
  12. ↑ Masha Hamilton, Soviets Win Praise From Amnesty International, Los Angeles Times (April 2, 1989).
  13. ↑ Paul Anastasi, Soviets Conditionally Readmitted To World Psychiatric Association, New York Times (October 18, 1989).
  14. ↑ Ruiz, Pedro (November 2011). "Greetings from Pedro Ruiz, new WPA President". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  15. ↑ "General Assembly 2014". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "17th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry "Psychiatry of the 21st Century: Context, Controversies and Commitment"". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  17. ↑ Eaton & Fallin 2019, p. 528.
  18. 1 2 3 "World Psychiatric Association (WPA) By-laws" (PDF). World Psychiatric Association. 21 September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  19. 1 2 "World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Statutes" (PDF). World Psychiatric Association. 21 September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  20. ↑ "Archive of "World Psychiatry"". PubMed Central. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Archived from the original on January 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
  21. 1 2 "Latest Publications". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  22. ↑ "WPA News: Past Issues". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 "Journals & Volumes Produced by WPA Sections". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  24. ↑ "ANS: The Journal for Neurocognitive Research". Activitas Nervosa Superior. Archived from the original on 24 August 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  25. ↑ "Archives of women's mental health". NLM Catalog. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  26. ↑ "Art & Psychiatry". World Psychiatric Association. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  27. ↑ "Child & Adolescent Psychiatry". World Psychiatric Association. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-12-27. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  28. ↑ "Early Career Psychiatrists". World Psychiatric Association. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-12-27. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  29. ↑ "Newsletter". World Psychiatric Association: Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry. August 2016.
  30. ↑ "World Healer". World Psychiatric Association - Transcultural Psychiatry Section. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  31. ↑ "Madrid Declaration on Ethical Standards for Psychiatric Practice". World Psychiatric Association. 21 September 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  32. ↑ "Secretary General's summary of the proceedings and conclusions of the 2002 extraordinary and ordinary general assemblies". World Psychiatric Association. 26 August 2002. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.