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Mission The Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) promotes stability and security in severely stressed societies. Our interdisciplinary network conducts case based research diagnosing the social-psychological dynamics that produce or maintain societal regression and those that contribute to resilience. CSMHI goes on to develop strategies aimed at promoting societal progression and models applicable to severely stressed societies. CSMHI's research network is led by mental health scholars and practitioners trained to understand the movement from illness to health by fostering adaptive change. Academicians and practitioners from the fields of social welfare, history, political science, diplomacy, anthropology, environmental planning and sociology are added to our team when their skills are required. History CSMHI's original work understanding and addressing societies in conflict began in 1987 when its founder, psychoanalyst Dr. Vamik Volkan - with colleagues Harold Saunders, Demetrios Julius, Joseph Montville, and Rita Rogers - facilitated a series of unofficial meetings (sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association) between high ranking Arabs and Israelis. This spawned a cross-disciplinary methodology for unofficial diplomacy to reduce conflict and promote ethnic cooperation and the reconstruction of civil society. CSMHI further developed its understandings of large group psychology and the intervention tool of psychopolitical dialogues during a 5 year initiative in conjunction with The Carter Center in Estonia following the break-up of the Soviet Union. CSMHI subsequently continued its work in Kuwait after the 1991 war with Iraq, Croatia, Albania, Turkey, Greece and the Republic of Georgia understanding and assisting traumatized societies. Under the directorship of Lisa Aronson since 2002, CSMHI is continuing its legacy in understanding and assisting traumatized societies through research, training and program development. |
Mission and History