Conference Information

Conference Information

4/11/2016
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conference

International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry

19th Annual Conference

Embassy Suites by Hilton Portland Washington Square

Portland, Oregon

October 7-9, 2016

up to 21 CEUs available

Individuals Matter:

Building a Better Science for Psychology and Psychiatry

Click here for the 2016 ISEPP Conference Call for Papers

Preliminary Schedule (Click Here)   Early Registration Rates Available  (Click Here)

Conventional psychological research makes so many adjustments for the sake of standardization, quantification, and statistical analysis that actual people in their unique complexity as psycho-social beings disappear. In the late 1800's the fledgling professions of psychology and psychiatry began what would be a long history of scientific inquiry into the human mind. Gone were the days of superstitious explanations of human behavior and experiences; replaced by careful observations, hypotheses, and scientific tests. This revolution created an explosion of theories and methods of understanding the human condition, but somewhere along the way the essence of individuality was lost. The time-honored scientific method lost sight of what it means to be an individual human being. We need to bring the individual back to center stage. What matters is the meaningfulness and reality of individual lives. 

The 19th Annual Conference of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry will return to the importance of an individual life and highlight how each individual matters.   Our conference focuses on the gap between conventional psychological research and knowing and helping people as individuals. In part this entails distinguishing people as meaning-making agents separate from what ails them in terms of impersonal illnesses and diseases. Overall, the conference addresses what it means to accumulate helpful knowledge about people via disciplined study and clinical experience so that clinicians are as prepared as they can be for the unique individual at hand.

In the process of doing that, we expect to:

  1. Critique the present approach which consists mainly of subjecting large groups to standardized interventions and basing findings on statistical averages of outcomes and of studying the brain through the use of brain scans.
  2. Consider the alternative of studying the experience of individuals through case, idiopathic, longitudinal and qualitative studies.
  3. Consider the alternative of studying the minds of individuals through phenomenological and empirical approaches.

We invite proposals for workshops on the following kinds of topics:

  • The History of the Science of Psychology and Psychiatry
  • A Critique of the Current Use of Science in Psychology and Psychiatry
  • A More Useful Science of Psychology and Psychiatry: The Use of Case, Longitudinal, Empirical, Qualitative and Phenomenological Approaches to Study the Experience of Individuals
  • Withdrawal from Psychotropic Drugs
  • Helping Wounded Warriors
  • Addressing the subjective individualized meaning of “mental disorders” as distinct from objective diagnoses
  • The Study of Mind-Body Psychology and Psychiatry
  • Constructivism:  How Individuals Construct Reality
  • Research on Resiliency
  • What are some effective ways of using science to help individuals lead healthy, satisfying and productive lives and how can those approaches be developed and promoted?
  • What Kind of Science Can be Useful to Psychology and Psychiatry?