The Kindergarten of Democracy

Breakfast at 0715 for a 0800 start – on a Sunday! – but absolutely worth the effort.

The first session was presented by two extremely articulate and erudite Austrian psychiatrists, on the long-term consequences of war. Not only was their methodology presented to us in a way that made complex research easily understandable, but their humanity and compassion shone through. They also showed their  political understanding when talking about how core funding for NGOs makes coordinated action almost impossible, and the lack of leadership leads to a miasma of fragmented services.

A very interesting clinical point was about how ‘low intensity warfare’ could lead to a more complex form of PTSD, or personality change, suggesting the mechanism was not unlike that of childhood trauma and abuse: while still mentally recovering from one adversity, another happens and has a complex interaction with it. They also spoke movingly about how children and families being ‘repatriated’ from Germany to Kosovo showed very high rates of disturbance, and how the family disturbance would probably be passed onto the next generation. The terrible consequences of public policy on mental health – thorough adjustment, loss and emotional insecurity.

An odd random thought came across me during this: ‘we must do an RCT of greencare in Afghanistan’. Based on Steve’s methodology, and the vast disparity between the capacity of a single greencare TC and the unmet need there. Yousuf was soon interested in the idea, and we started thinking about the practicalities of genuine randomisation – and partnership with a respectable academic institution in the UK.

The second session – about the psychological aspects of the Arab Spring - was even more passionate and rousing. We learned how the Arab Spring, started by a single suicide, was sprung by years of pent-up and severe emotional disturbance simply being tolerated no more. We learned of Ghaddaffi’s longstanding severe disturbance and mental health treatment, following hospitalisation in 1971, and how it included the rape of many thousands of under-age virgins: sometimes five per day. And how Burgita of Tunisia was hospitalised in Geneva and later assessed by two psychiatrists, who were under duress themselves, to be found unfit to rule for reason of insanity. 

The exciting headlines, perhaps relevant for the future of the world, were:

·       “We are in the kindergarten of democracy” – which is never a fully attained goal, only ever a process and direction of travel (much as we say in TC practice)
·       Citizens – in a socially-networked world – can no longer be considered as ‘owned’ by single country or organisation. The fear of ‘them’ has disappeared. Again, like a TC?
·        ‘The cancer of multinational corporations’ with the dominance they have from their immense power and financial resources, can only be balanced by the power of the population – talking to each other. Just like they do in groups.

The closing ceremony was just four serious men in suits on the stage – and an interesting presentation of an elegant glass award to the young psychiatrist who asked the best questions and had the best discussions in the ’meet the experts’ sessions throughout the congress. We were also treated to a travel agent’s advert of all the wonderful forthcoming locations you could go to with the next year or so’s meetings of the WPA: Bucharest, Istanbul, Vienna, Melbourne, Ljubljana.

A final bit of wheeling and dealing to be done: Yousuf already knew him, but the rest of us introduced ourselves to the WPA Secretary-General to tell of our ideas for skills training, our links to IMH in Nottingham and the work we will do to work across the WPA sections - maybe for the Istanbul congress. He encouraged us to get information published on the website, promised us his wholehearted support, and would arrange meeting rooms for us. Watch this space…

Post Script. We started the process with two snag-ridden journeys; we had another on the way back. After we had gone through to the gate, Andrea noticed her mobile was missing: desolation and panic. But we phoned it, and, amazingly, it was answered by somebody who understood English – our mini-bus driver. After a complicated sequence of coordinating phone calls, he arrived back at the airport with it to meet Olivia (who had a later flight, and who had not gone through passport control). 600CKr (~£20) later, and with a handover in the back streets of Liverpool tomorrow, it will be back in Andrea’s possession. Hallaelluja!

Windsor tomorrow.