Origins
Following a proposal by Bill Fulford (UK), John Sadler (USA) and Giovanni Stanghellini (Italy), and endorsed by an open meeting of delegates at an early international conference on philosophy and mental health, INPP was launched on Heritage Day, 2002, in Cape Town, South Africa, at a conference hosted by Werdie Van Staden.
From the start, its guiding mission – reflecting its origins in South Africa – has been to embrace diversity across the many traditions of thought and practice bearing on mental health and well-being that are available from around the world.
- More Information: Programme of the launch conference
Constitution, Management and Academic Sponsors
INPP is a UK registered non-profit making NGO with charitable status (UK Charity Commission no. 1101747)
Consistently with its collegial guiding mission, INPP is co-led by its Executive Officers. Major decisions (such as forward planning of international conferences) are made through a process of democratic consensus by the Executive Officers in consultation where appropriate with the with the Founding Executive Officers and a Standing Committee
INPP’s academic sponsors are the Philosophy and Humanities Section of the WPA, the Philosophy Section of the EPA, The Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry (AAPP) and the Philosophy Group in the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
INPP has no paid officers but receives a small grant for website design and technical support
Executive Officers
Anna Bergqvist
Anna Bergqvist is Reader in Philosophy and the Arts and Humanities Doctoral College Faculty Head at Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K; and Senior Editor of the journal Philosophy Psychiatry & Psychology; she was the organiser of the 22nd International Conference of INPP (2020) in Manchester and follow-on (2022) INPP/Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Festival in Manchester, which resulted in the 2023 volume Lived Experience and Co-Production in Philosophy and Mental Health published with Cambridge University Press; she is also Secretary of the Philosophy and Humanities Section of the World Psychiatric Association, Executive Committee member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Special Interest Group in Philosophy, and Lead for the Theory Network in The Collaboration Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, UK
Werdie van Staden
Werdie van Staden is the Nelson Mandela Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry and Director of the Centre for Ethics and Philosophy of Heath Sciences, at Pretoria University, South Africa; and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Philosophy Psychiatry & Psychology; he was the organiser of the launch event of INPP (2002) and of the 10th International Conference of INPP (2007) in South Africa; he is also Co-chair of the Philosophy and Humanities Section of the World Psychiatric Association.
Peter Zachar
Peter Zachar is a Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the College of Sciences at Auburn University Montgomery. A Fellow in the Association for Psychological Science and former President of the AAPP (Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry) he has been instrumental in developing collaborative relationships between the AAPP and INPP and edits the biannual Philosophy of Psychiatry Newsletter. His research interests are centered on the history and philosophy of classification.
For more information please see: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter-Zachar-2
Founding Officers and Advisers
Bill (KWM) Fulford (UK)
Philosophy Special Interest Group, The Royal College of Psychiatrists; Founder Editor and Chair of the Advisory Board of the journal PPP ; and organiser of the 1st (with John Sadler)and 4th (with Giovanni Stanghellini and Arnaldo Ballerini) editions of the International Conferences for Philosophy and Psychiatry
John Z. Sadler (USA)
John Z. Sadler, M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Daniel W. Foster, M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Sadler is one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, as well as the International Network of Philosophy and Psychiatry.
He maintains a video archive of philosophers of psychiatry, www.psagacity.org, which offers in-depth high-definition video interviews of notable scholars in this field.
Until March 2024, he was Co-Editor and later Editor-In-Chief of the Johns Hopkins University Press journal, Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, having served the journal for over 30 years. He is a co-editor of the Oxford University Press (OUP) book series, “International Perspectives on Philosophy and Psychiatry” the latter currently spanning over 50 volumes.
Giovanni Stanghellini (Italy)
Professor of Dynamic Psychology (University of Florence); Founding Chair Scuola di Psicoterapia Fenomenologico-Dinamica (Florence); Leading Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology; Co-Editor Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry; and organiser (with Arnaldo Ballerini and Bill Fulford) of the 4th International Conference for Philosophy and Psychiatry (Florence, 2000).
https://giovannistanghelli.wixsite.com/stanghellini/biography
Website
Matthew Ellacott (UK) – Website Manager
Members
INPP has organisational members and a mailing list that includes individual members
Membership of INPP is free for any individual or organisation with relevant interests and aims.
Membership ensures you receive announcements about conferences, publications and developments in research, education and service developments. Members are also eligible for discounts on certain publications (for example a 30% discount on any book from Oxford University Press).
- More Information: INPP Members details of INPP’s membership and how to become a member of INPP
Announcements
INPP circulates Announcements to all member organizations and individual members through its email list and social media outlets.Announcements are displayed on the INPP website and then archived as a resource for the field
- More Information: Announcements
- More Information: How to Access Resources