• ABOUT ISAPP
  • Who We Are
  • Executive Committee
  • Council of Delegates
• PUBLICATIONS
  • 10 Most Recent Articles
  • Search All Articles
  • How to Get Published
• NEWSLETTER
• EVENTS
  • Upcoming Scientific Meetings
  • Past Events
• MEMBERS
  • Member Center
  • Search a Member
  • Becoming a Member
• HIGHLIGHTS
• LINKS
  • Public Mental Health
  • Scientific Societies
  • Research and Methodology
  • Congress Updating
  • Bibliographic Search
  • Journals and Reviews
  • Other Websites

President's message

The VII International Congress of the ISAPP will be held in a few weeks time, from July the 4th to July the 7th. The President Elect, Patricia Garel, the Organizing Committee, and the Scientific Committee have been hard at work creating a most interesting Congress. The preliminary Program (found on the website www.isapp2007.org) previews the participation of many important lecturers.  The theme of the Congress: “From Adolescence to Adulthood” gives us the chance to review clinical evidence of frequent and problematic psychopathology emerging during this transitional phase, and to consider such difficulties in the context of today’s changing family and society.
 
Montreal, where the Congress will be held, is a fascinating city, deservedly famous for its culture and prestigious research institutes.  Moreover, at the time of the Congress, an extraordinary event will attract fans from all over the world: the world renowned Jazz Festival, a showcase for exciting music.

Coinciding with our anticipation of the VII International Congress, the ISAPP website has returned to the Internet with new graphic design, layout and content.  The new and improved website will allow for more efficient functional exchanges among members as well as offering features of interest to all psychiatrists and psychologists interested in theoretical and clinical studies on adolescence. I do believe that the new website will greatly help us develop ISAPP.

Speaking of the growth of our Society, I would like to mention ISAPP’s first Conference in Eastern Europe, held in Bucharest in October 2006.  Thanks to the invaluable effort of Vera Sandor and her team at the Generatia Foundation, and with the co-sponsorship of the High Level Group for Rumanian Children and the International Society of Psychoanalysis, the conference was a great success.  In this Newsletter you will find some of the most important papers presented there, including those presented by Michael Kalogerakis, Maja Perret-Catipovic, Alfio Maggiolini, Kevin Browne and others. In addition to that, you will also find the papers presented in the Congress held in London in November 2005, sponsored by the ISAPP and the Brent Centre for Young People.  Members have access to the important contributions of Philippe Jeammet, Annette Streeck-Fisher, Francois Ladame, Mary Target, Maxim de Sauma and others.

I rely on the presence of the ISAPP, with scientific activities and meetings as the ones above, to keep promoting future studies and research on the psychology and the psychopathology of adolescence worldwide.

I look forward to seeing you all in our next stage in Montreal!

Enrico de Vito, M.D.

A Word from the President of the ISAPP congress in Montreal

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 will bring 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 will be conducive to an exploration in which the clinical sphere, while remaining the hub of exchanges, will benefit from the wealth of knowledge amassed by disciplines that it seldom has the chance to turn towards. The event will also afford the opportunity to compare the practices prevailing on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to the diversity of the ISAPP network, which now extends beyond Europe and North America.

The choice of this year’s venue was not fortuitous: Montreal is a multicultural city astride the old world and the new,  that invites you to this gathering to the sounds of its jazz fest.

Patricia Garel