Affiliated member of the WPA – World Psychiatric Association

Munich 2011

16. World Congress of the WADP
21th – 25th March 2011 | Munich

The Interpersonal Dynamics of
Identity Research, Pathology and Treatment

 

Introduction
The conference will address the fundamental issue of identity in its interpersonal context. In times of globalization and worldwide migration, with the appurtenant societal challenges and social problems, it would seem that the successful development of an identity is facing ever-increasing difficulties. At the international level, the WPA under its president Mezzich has developed the program „Psychiatry for the Person“, which focuses on the patient as a human being, taking account of peoples needs while also fostering their inherent possibilities in treating them.

Dynamic psychiatry as developed by Günter Ammon integrates this approach to treatment since 40 years. It sees the person in his or her holistic identity, always embedded in interpersonal networks and processes of exchange. The basis on which so-called identity disorders are developed are pre-oedipal disturbances and disruptions occurring while attachments and relationships are formed. Attribution of values and assignment of importance find their way into the unconscious and thus mark a personís identity. The question is to what extent a person meets with attention – is he or she taken seriously in their needs and feelings, is the understanding conveyed that their life has a sense to it? In this sense, identity will be able to develop in a healthy, i.e. constructive way, but may also take a turn towards illness, and thus develop in a destructive or deficient manner. Identity-therapy needs to take place in an interpersonal, „social energetic“ field (Günter Ammon). Dynamic psychiatry offers a broad range of verbal and creativizing, psycho-therapeutic treatment methods that will promote and foster identity.

The congress will address the opportunities and limits for the successful development of an identity. The role that interpersonal, group dynamic, cultural, political and societal influences play in this regard will be discussed. The presentations will be informed by the most recent findings in the fields of brain sciences, as well as research into trauma disorders and the science of attachment. Likewise, research done in the field of resource science, resilience science and pharmacological science will be reflected. May this congress join its precursor conferences in enabling a fruitful exchange between scientists from the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, may it promote interdisciplinary research with sociology, philosophy, didactics and cultural anthropology and many other fields, and may it allow us all to establish a discourse of the subject that transcends the different cultures, societies and scientific fields! We wish to once again thank the international organizations WPA, WASP, World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation for their support, and extend our thanks in particular to the Ludwig-Maximilian- University of Munich for the excellent cooperation.

 

Main Topics

Aspects of Identity

  • Unconscious and conscious
  • Dimensions of anxiety
  • Aggression
  • Narcissism
  • The Ability to demarcate and integrate
  • Sexuality
  • Creativity
  • Joy

Psychopathology and Treatment

  • Methodology
  • Personality disorders
  • Psychotraumatology
  • Dissociative states
  • Addictive behavior
  • Affective disorders
  • Psychosis
  • Psychosomatics
  • Identity disorders
  • Identity conflicts
  • Inpatient and outpatient therapy
  • Group psychotherapy
  • Individual therapy
  • Expressive therapies
  • Milieu therapy
  • Demands on therapists
  • Therapeutic networks and transitional establishments
  • Psychopharmacology

Human Development

  • Attachment, Mentalization, Regulation
  • Identification models
  • Gender, roles
  • Childhood and adolescence
  • Crisis and transformation
  • Resources, resilience
  • Prophylaxis, quality of life
  • Body image, old age, death

Concepts and Theories

  • Models of personality
  • Structure and process
  • Professional, individual, and national identity
  • Interpersonal and group dynamics
  • Systemic approaches
  • Transgenerationality
  • Social energy
  • Biographical research
  • Neurobiological approaches
  • Biopsychosocial conception
  • Concept of separation and growing
  • Society, culture, ethics, and spirituality
  • Globalization, migration
  • Differentiated environmental influences
  • Multimedia society
  • Force, destruction and identity
  • Science and research
  • Religion
  • Work
  • Aspects of the future