Message of the President Elect
I cordially welcome you on the homepage of ISAPP. Unfortunately, during the last 2 years our ambitious plans for the ISAPP-homepage could not be realised. But we - the members of the executive committee - are of good cheer to implement them now.
- In future a periodic Newsletter with information on important developments in the field of adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy shall be published.
- Interesting publications of members shall be posted on the Net
- Specific events, congresses and conferences shall be announced.
- Highlights of adolescence literature, research and psychotherapy shall be presented and discussed und Interactive debates which are also desirable
- (See ISAPP in the digital era)
Moreover, we want to encourage you to forward information on interesting and important aspects concerning adolescence, adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy and to contact us. The homepage shall be a forum for the exchange of questions on adolescence and treatment of adolescents.
As you can see on the homepage we have facilitated membership and administration. In future there will be no group memberships. If you are already member and have forgotten to pay your annual fee we will contact you directly. Please inform us if your e-mail address has changed.
By the way I want to thank Rosalie Landy (USA) and Colette Thevenin (France) for their long lasting activities as secretaries of ISAPP. Also in future there will be bureaus in the USA and Europe (see: contact us).
On the homepage you find the announcement of the next international ISAPP-congress which will take place in Berlin 17th to 21th of September 2011 (see website ISAPP2011.org). We had to postpone the date to September as the ESCAP-congress will take place in June/July 2011. The motto of our congress will be chosen within the next months. Please contact us if you have wishes, proposals and suggestions in this regard.
Annette Streeck-Fischer MD, PhD.
President's Message
The transition from adolescence to adulthood marks the junction of individual and collective destinies. Pivotal to the consolidation of one's identity, this stage in personal development also guarantees the future of society. It is the springboard whence humankind makes the leap from one generation to the next, a leap into a future sketched out like a safety net by the adults responsible for the adolescent's upbringing. These adults provide the support and orientation required by youths to take wing towards a relative freedom. It is relative because bound by numerous ties to the individual's personal, family and cultural history. Yet, this is nonetheless a period of emancipation, as some of these ties will be broken by the risks that must be taken in order to take possession of one's own life. However, other ties will remain as moorings to prevent the individual from floating adrift.
The passage is a simple walk across a balance beam for some, an acrobatic and perilous high-wire act for others. Either way, though, it can be a somewhat dizzying and solitary distance to cover. Adolescents see the safety and unconditional protection of their childhood pulled back and, what's more, they must make inevitable choices in order to close a period where everything seemed possible and give back to time and limits their reality-defining function.
There is growing interest in the transition from the world of the child to that of the adult. This is not surprising, given the stakes and issues at play and the numerous questions raised by extremely rapid contextual and scientific changes. Recent advances in the neurosciences have in fact demonstrated that physical maturity is accompanied by extensive reorganization of the neuronal circuits and of brain functioning. The sociocultural context, too, plays a major role at this time. For example, the convergence between the omnipotence characteristic of adolescence and the illusions of Western society entranced by technological progress and hopes of eternal youth make it more complicated nowadays to leave adolescence behind.
What's more, this period represents a critical stage in terms of psychopathology, as it coincides with the apparent onset of several psychiatric disorders, of which the seeds are often dormant in childhood, if not before birth. These considerations challenge the notions of early determinants, risk and protective factors, and continuity between child and adult pathologies.
Though the turbulence of adolescence is often associated with the tragedy of functional breakdowns, failure and pathology, these risks must not mask the incredible vitality of this transition marked by the creativity and freshness that each new generation brings to the previous one.
The 7th Congress of the ISAPP in Montreal 2007 brought together research and clinical psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as experts from various other fields, including sociologists, philosophers and magistrates, to focus on this topic. This multidisciplinary context has been conductive to an exploration in which the clinical sphere, while remaining the hub of exchanges, could benefit from the wealth of knowledge amassed by disciplines that it seldom has the chance to turn towards.
Patricia Garel
