Mandate

Overall objectives

This new committee would be classified as one of the ‘IPA in the Community and the World Committees’. The overall strategic objective of this committee is to serve communities in crisis all around the world by drawing on IPA members and candidates who are interested in helping while employing various aspects of psychoanalytic understandings and treatment. It would primarily be a service to communities in crisis but secondarily would establish links between psychoanalysis and allied professions, governmental agencies, and the wider public. Through public service we will increase awareness of the efficacy and relevance of our profession, not only in the area of formal psychoanalysis, but also as a scholarly body of knowledge that can be applied in situations of crisis, by employing our theory and accommodating our technique to the requirements of emergency situations in the world. In this way, we will serve the general public and address our commitments to social responsibility. This committee might also develop our theoretical understandings and clinical technique through the course of the work itself. 

1)      It will offer psychoanalytically informed assistance to people in need, all around the world by establishing education and action teams that provide literature and, in some circumstances, when it is possible and NOT a risk for our members and candidates, direct service to people in crisis. These action teams would be comprised of analysts and candidates living in emergency or disaster zones.

2)      It will also introduce the general public to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed interventions in times of crisis.

Key Tasks

1. Consult with other ‘IPA in the Community and the World Committees’ and with established emergency and relief agencies outside the IPA (Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, American Psychological Association, etc.) to determine what has been done, what is useful, and what psychoanalysis and this committee have to offer in relation to world crises and emergencies.

2. Identify and consult with those psychoanalysts who have a deep understanding of the psychoanalytic theory of trauma and clinical experience with crisis intervention and emergencies related to natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, etc.) and man-made disasters (terrorism, social strife, war, political turmoil, etc.).

3. Establish a network of members in each psychoanalytic society to function as liaisons to the committee and remain in regular contact in order to respond whenever an emergency is identified somewhere in the world in which our knowledge or direct service might be of use.

4. Gather and/or write, organize, and edit psychoanalytically informed articles from various IPA regions and in different languages, on large-scale crisis interventions following floods, wars, earthquakes, political strife, etc. in order to create an archive of literature on these and related topics.

5. When the committee has generated a body of literature it will then be translated into as many languages as possible drawing on IPA members in different parts of the world to aid in culturally sensitive translation. We would expect that translations will be prepared by IPA members and candidates that volunteer for this task.

6. The literature generated will be made appropriate for three populations: IPA members and candidates, allied mental health professionals, and the general public.

7. With a body of literature generated and translated into the official IPA languages (and others, if possible), the committee will establish a section in the IPA website where all the material will be made available for anyone to download.

8. The literature generated by this committee will be available for distribution without requiring permission from the holder of the copyrights. All literature distributed by this committee will be made available to the world free of charge.

9. The committee will also monitor world problems (emergencies and crises) and make unsolicited efforts to send the appropriate literature to the link members and candidates in disaster sites, war zones, crisis situations, etc.   

10. This committee will assess world problems, propose potential courses of action, and determine strategic points for appropriate psychoanalytically informed interventions while remaining in touch with IPA members or allied health professionals in affected zones.

11. The Committee aims to expand interchanges amongst analysts interested in the activities of the Committee, and will also organize conferences and events encouraging candidates to participate in its activities.

Committee Structure

Committee Members will include one chair, one co-chair from each region and two members from each of the three official IPA regions, one member from the Asia-Pacific region, and one candidate from IPSO. One of the European region members can be based in Africa.

Consultants will be other IPA members with expertise in one area or another, who can provide additional information or assistance particularly as it pertains to previous experience, work in other countries, or volunteers offering translation service.

Liaisons to this committee will be from the individual societies.

Auxiliary members will be professionals from outside the IPA who can provide whatever information or special services might be needed. (Emergency experts, liaisons with Red Cross, or other emergency and relief services, etc.)

Ex-officio : the Executive Director (or a deputy) shall be an ex-officio (non-voting) member.

Working Relations

The committee will co-ordinate, as is appropriate, with other committees such as the IPA in the Community and the World committees (UN, Migration and Refugees, IPA in Health, Violence, Psychoanalysis and Law, IPA in Culture, Climate Committee), and the Scientific Committees (Prejudice and Discrimination, COCAP, COWAP), as well as with component societies, IPA allied centers and study groups, and individual members.

The committee will work to create international action teams, which could possibly include committee members but also IPA members living close to the disaster, who could actually go into disaster zones (if there is no personal risk to their physical integrity) to provide training and/or direct crisis intervention.