About the Conference

The conference brought together a diverse group of leading scholars to examine the cultural, clinical and basic biological understandings of trauma-related disorders from a variety of perspectives--anthropology, history, neurobiology, and psychiatry--to facilitate interdisciplinary sharing of knowledge and methods and to encourage the formulation of new integrative models.

As a part of our PTSD conference’s opening session, Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani delivered a keynote address entitled "Leadership in Difficult Times." His address provided specific context for the importance of understanding and addressing trauma’s effects. On September 11, 2001, Mayor Giuliani brought strength and stability to the citizens of New York at a time of great trauma.

The FPR-UCLA organizing committee, composed of Drs. Barad, Braslow, Fawzy, Karno, Lance, Lemelson, Pynoos, and Tobin, specifically focused on PTSD as a point of departure based on the belief that PTSD has complex sociocultural and biological determinants that defy any single approach to understanding its genesis or caring for those who suffer from the disorder.

Recent advances in biological, clinical and sociocultural levels of analysis now allow us to consider, alternatively, how these various levels might interrelate. By supporting and advancing this work, we aim at better understanding the ways in which our biology and culture interact in the creation of illness.