CSMHI closed on September 25, 2005

 

Vamik Volkan directed CSMHI from 1987-2002

   Lisa Aronson directed CSMHI from 2002-2005.

 

   The information on this website includes the Center’s mission, history, methodology, projects, activities, publications, faculty and staff information, and support history.

For any questions about this website, please contact Lisa Aronson at aronsonl@yahoo.com

CSMHI has moved offices within the UVA grounds.   Click here for a map or directions .

 Click here to view or to listen
to the first Annual Volkan Lecture
given by Leo Rangell, M.D.
in the Rotunda Dome Room
on November 15, 2003.

Read about Dr. Vamik Volkan's newest book:

Blind Trust:  Large Groups and their Leaders in Times of Crisis and Terror 
 Click here for more information

 Community Resilience  Severely Stressed Societies  
 Extremism   Societal Regression and Progression 
 Adolescent Passage in Severely Stressed Societies
  Human Rights and Trauma Psychology
 Terrorism Unofficial Diplomacy Psychopolitical Dialogues
 Ethnic Conflict Inter-group Conflict  Large Group Processes   Leader-Follower Relationships Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma
 Psychodynamic Psychology and Psychoanalysis  
 Understanding Traumatized Populations  Refugees

If you are interested in any of these topics, you have come to the right place.

Lisa Aronson , Ph.D., directs the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI),
School of Medicine, University of Virginia.  Vamik Volkan , M.D. is the founder of the Center.
Carroll Weinberg, M.D. is the Chair of the CSMHI Advisory Board

  WELCOME! 

We are an interdisciplinary center that practices preventive medicine in the broadest sense.
CSMHI is on the forefront of studies in large-group dynamics and applies a growing theoretical
and field-proven base of knowledge to issues such as the adolescent passage in severely stressed societies, ethnic tension, extremism, national identity, terrorism, societal trauma, leader-follower relationships, and other aspects of national and international conflict. Because no single discipline can fully illuminate these complex issues,CSMHI's faculty and board include experts in psychoanalysis, mental health, diplomacy, history, law, and political science. Their combined perspectives and experience provide analyses of political, historical, and social issues and the psychological processes that exist beneath their surface. The Center has developed and tested a methodology for reducing ethnic tension and building communities, thus promoting public health and democratic self-sufficiency. CSMHI is currently exploring the factors that lead to the development of extremism in youth and young adulthood and the factors leading to community resilience and weakness.

This website illuminates the unique nature of CSMHI's activities.