Program
View the event program (pdf)
The conference began on the evening of December 12 with a keynote
address by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. On each of three
days that followed, December 13-15, we had plenary sessions from experts
on the neurobiological, clinical, and cultural dimensions of PTSD. At the
end of each day, the speakers participated in a roundtable discussion to
highlight potential areas of integration and incommensurability between the
various viewpoints. Specific information on the content of each day is given
below.
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Keynote Address: Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave a keynote address entitled "Leadership in Difficult Times" on Thursday, December 12, 2002. On September 11, 2002, Mayor Giuliani brought strength and stability to the citizens of New York at a time of great trauma.
- Day 1 opened with an overview of the phenomenological
aspects of PTSD. The first session included presentations on the
multiple effects of psychological trauma, the neurobiology and treatment of PTSD, clinical etiology, longitudinal course determinants, and current cognitive
behavioral approaches. The second session on neurobiological research included presentations on neuropsychological explanations of fear and
anxiety, the biomechanical effects of memory, and neurobiological and
neuroethological perspectives on fear and anxiety. The session on cultural
constructions of trauma included adaptive aspects of PTSD from an
anthropological viewpoint, an exploration of refugees' traumatic narratives,
conceptual and analytical lessons from the history of psychotrauma, and a
historically informed anthropological examination of current clinical
practices and assumptions in the treatment of PTSD.
- Day 2 included presentations on the interaction between
specific genetic polymorphisms and early social environments in shaping
developmental trajectories of stress responsiveness, the influence of
maternal care and gene expression on vulnerability to affective illness, and
the correlation between neonatal stress and PTSD-associated pain syndromes.
The panel on clinical issues focused on trauma's effects on the
developing self within the contexts of family and social networks;
specifically, the impact of the WTC attacks on NYC police officers, and,
more generally, the management of social trauma. The cultural session explored the role of religion and spirituality in coping with trauma, an
anthropological examination of PTSD in Cambodians following the genocidal
reign of the Khmer Rouge, as well as trauma and its relation to culture and
politics.
- Day 3 included presentations on fear extinction and other behavioral "unlearning" processes, such as counterconditioning, that might be relevant for clinical treatment; the neural circuitry of extinction; and fear
extinction as an explicit model for the treatment of anxiety disorders in general and PTSD in particular. The clinical and cultural aspects were combined in the final session and examined the personal and political dimensions of remembering and forgetting social trauma.
