IPA in the Humanitarian Field
 
 

Who we are and what we do

The IPA and Humanitarian Organisation and Migrants and Refugees committees were established in 2018 through the vision of the IPA President Virginia Ungar.

She had the foresight to realise that the ever-increasing traumas derived from natural disasters, conflicts and community violence, and the resultant displacement of populations, showed that psychoanalysts who were working within these vital areas required recognition and support, and a window where their work could be more widely disseminated to colleagues. In addition there needed to be encouragement for more psychoanalysts to get involved in these fields.

To this end she initiated the IPA Community Committees. These include the IPA and Humanitarian Organisations, IPA in Education, IPA in Health, IPA and Violence, IPA and the Law, IPA and Culture and IPA and the Environment. The IPA and Humanitarian Organisations Committee also include the Migrants and Refugees sub-committee and recently the IPA and the United Nations committee.

To maximise and further disseminate the inspiring work being carried out by our members and candidates across the globe, we have now established the website, “Open Door Review of the Humanitarian Field”. This site is based on the initiative of Professor Marianne Leuzinger Bohleber’s highly regarded “Open Door Review of Outcome and Process Studies in Psychoanalysis”.

Our colleagues are making a difference in the world using their intuition, empathy, experience and understanding of psychoanalytic ideas with communities in need and with organisations that care for vulnerable people.

An important aim of our group is to foster relationships and develop networks between psychoanalysts and humanitarian organisations. We encourage the interchange of experiences within and outside the IPA and hope to promote the development of theories related to this work.

We have sent questionnaires to the membership to enquire about their work in the humanitarian field.  A significant number of individual members and societies have developed interesting programs, within organisations, providing assistance to people in dire need.

We hope to create a global community that honours those who are doing this important work. To this end the IPA established the President’s Prize at the 2019 IPA conference in London for the best IPA applicant working in the community. The 2019 winning project of the President’s Prize was “Psicologos Contigo” or “Psychologists with you”, from Peru, a brilliant and inspiring project.

We encourage all colleagues to contribute to this fascinating and expanding area of endeavour.

Please send papers and thoughts about your work to be included on this website.

 
 

„Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.“

Mahatma Gandhi

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