Keynote Addresses
In addition to the usual collection of high quality peer-reviewed presentations scheduled in the program, ISTSS is excited to offer four keynote addresses.
Wednesday, November 2
6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
We Couldn’t Have Done it Without Them: Four Pioneers Discuss the Social Bonds that Shaped the Field of Traumatic Stress
Sandra
Bloom, MD, Drexel University School of
Public Health, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Christine Courtois, PhD,
Courtois & Associates PC, Washington, D.C., USA
Charles
Figley, PhD, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Matthew Friedman, MD, PhD, National Center for PTSD,
Dartmouth Medical School, White River Junction, Vermont, USA
The specialized field of traumatic stress exists today thanks to the work of many individuals over the last several decades. This panel features four individuals who have played key roles in the creation and evolution of contemporary traumatic stress studies, in deepening our theoretical understanding of trauma and its effects, and in developing and disseminating effective approaches to healing. Without the contributions of these individuals, the trauma field would look very different. Similarly, the contributions of these and other pioneers would not have been possible if not for the people in their lives. Each of the four panelists will talk about the personal, professional and/or clinical relationships that led them to new insights or facilitated their major contributions to the field.
Thursday, November 3
9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
The Interrupters: A Conversation on the Cycle of Urban Violence and the Potential for Social Connections to Stop it
Alex Kotlowitz, Author of
There Are No Children Here; Producer, The Interrupters
Eddie Bocanegra, Violence Interrupter,
CeaseFire
In this presentation, Alex Kotlowitz and Eddie Bocanegra, producer and subject of the acclaimed documentary, The Interrupters, will share their thoughts about the ways in which trauma shapes the lives of individuals caught up in urban violence, and how social connections may be key in preventing shootings. Kotlowitz will discuss his experiences over the past twenty years reporting and writing on the stubborn persistence of urban violence in America, where shootings in concentrated areas are so pervasive that gun violence forms its own culture, creating its own language, signage and rituals. He will then be joined by Eddie Bocanegra, who works for a Chicago public health program, CeaseFire, and who is a subject of Kotlowitz’s new film, The Interrupters. The movie, a collaboration with Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams), spends a year with Eddie and two colleagues as they grapple with the violence in their neighborhoods and in their own lives. Together, Kotlowitz and Bocanegra will talk with the effects of the violence on the spirit of both individuals and communities, our tendency to underestimate those effects and the need for solutions that incorporate an understanding and cultivation of the social fabric of affected communities, our tendency to underestimate those effects and the need for solutions that incorporate an understanding and cultivation of the social fabric of affected communities.
A screening of the The Interrupters for ISTSS conference attendees will be held on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 2011.
Friday, November 4
9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Throwing Off the Burden of Shame: Social Bonds and Recovery from the Traumas of Gender-Based Violence
Judith Lewis Herman, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing denounced violence against women as a worldwide obstacle to equality and peace, stating that “in all societies…women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture,” and called on all member states to put an end to this, the most common form of human rights violation. The fact that such a conference could take place was a testament to the development of a worldwide movement for women’s liberation. In the U.S., since the 1970s, feminist mental health professionals have been active in the movement to raise awareness of both the scope of gender-based violence and the profound psychological effects. This lecture will review the epidemiology of this violence and the social context of shame, isolation and secrecy in which it occurs. The concept of complex PTSD, which grew out of clinical work with survivors, will be discussed. Finally, the lecture will focus on pathways to recovery, with special attention to the role of groups in alleviating shame and creating a bridge to new community.
Saturday, November 5
9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Epigenetic Consequences of Adverse Early Social Experiences in Primates
Stephen Suomi, PhD, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Early social experiences can have lasting effects on primate bio-behavioral development, especially in the context of subsequent social stress. For example, rhesus monkeys raised in the absence of their biological mother (but with access to peers) or raised by neglectful mothers show relatively normal bio-behavioral development when subsequently maintained in benign social environments, but under socially stressful circumstances (e.g., social separation) they typically exhibit excessive fearfulness and/or aggression, heightened hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) activity and reduced serotonin metabolism into adulthood.
Moreover, they differ from monkeys not experiencing such early social adversity in both brain structure and function. Some of these characteristics appear to be transmitted to their offspring via non-genetic (most likely epigenetic) mechanisms. Recent technological advances in genomics have made it possible to examine genome-wide expression, and preliminary analyses suggest that such adverse early experiences affect approximately one fifth of the entire rhesus monkey genome (more than 4,400 individual genes), both in the brain and in white blood cells. Given that many of the behavioral and biological consequences of adverse early social experience are largely reversible following targeted environmental interventions, the question of whether the patterns of gene expression in these monkeys are also reversible is under intense current investigation.