We are honoured to invite you to the 22nd International Conference of ISPS in Perugia in 2021
The first regional network working with the country’s mental health services was established in January 1971 in Umbria – and Perugia more specifically. Mental institutions saw an eradication from their violent past thanks to a rise in humanity and political civility. Such was the case in Perugia, Arezzo, Trieste, Gorizia, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Turin, where the first revolutionary flowers of a renaissance in caregiving began to bloom; soon to blossom in the rest of the world.
The ISPS has significantly contributed in this expansion of humane interventions. The passion of its members, their knowledge, and competence were keys to the organisation’s development which represents an extraordinary ongoing voyage full of enthusiasm and hope.
Today after more than 50 years of experience, we ask ourselves, how has the care of psychosis changed in psychological and social terms?
What steps have we accomplished? Where did we get stuck? And, where do we still fall short?
Which methods have flourished and what were and are their limitations which continue to stunt the process of rendering psychotic experiences more humane?
What are the themes that need highlighting within the psychological, social and humane approaches to psychosis present in today’s practice? Which remain unresolved, or invisible? What new approaches are emerging?
In recent months, a questionnaire asked ISPS members what words they would choose for the title of this conference. The three words most frequently chosen were: Healing, Love, and Community.
Love and community both being present in the process of Healing.
We hope to see you in Perugia in September 2021.

Art enters places of suffering to create “Healing spaces”

50 years ago a collective improvisation of patients and artists contributed to the fall of the wall of the psychiatric hospital of Trieste, that separated the “insane” from the false ideals of a society composed only of the “sane”.

Today the international happening Healing Spaces reminds us that in 1971 for the first time in the world patient’s discharged from the asylum of Perugia were offered a complete network of services throughout the Umbrian territory.

At last the madness of the incarceration of those suffering was substituted by a humane treatment that would take place within the patient’s social context.

From 28.8 to 5.9.2021 artists, patients, families, nurses and therapists from the world over, will meet in Perugia for an happening where all will continue this “work without authors” to eliminate the walls, both external and internal, that marginalize the psychological pain inside the existential peripheries.

To share psychological suffering and the creativity of healing with the heart of a city and its citizens is one of the essential steps to treat a disease which affects social relations and can be defeated only by the therapeutic force of interpersonal relationships.