2023 Conference

Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture

a joint conference

Society for Psychological Anthropology

Ecologies of Mind | Practices that Harm. Practices that Heal

APRIL 27-30, SAN DIEGO, CA

For our 2023 conference, we invited attendees to draw broadly from their research, scholarship, clinical practices, and personal histories to tell a story and to present research or scholarship on practices that heal. 

The turmoil of recent years has reshaped our futures. Tiers of grief from COVID deaths and lingering illnesses still face many; COVID has robbed families of parents and grandparents, losses that reverberate across future generations.  The impacts of the climate crisis are being felt in immediate ways through hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, and floods.  Around the world, liberal democracies are under siege by populist political movements and authoritarian leaders.  89 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes last year by persecution, violence, and human rights violations.  How can our cultures help us to rise up and to rebuild? What practices can we draw upon that look beyond nostalgia for the past to help us envision a new world with possibilities?  Some in our society have reacted to these losses by using cultural identity to blame, stigmatize, or attack those outside their group. If culture can so greatly harm, how can it also heal? From our rich store of cultural, political, religious, and humanistic practices, which can best help us move forward and repair?