Religion and Psychiatry: Beyond Boundaries

Peter J. Verhagen is a graduate of the School of Medicine (1983) and the School of Theology (1988) of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. In 1988 he was registered as a psychiatrist. He is a practicing psychiatrist and theologian, group psychotherapist and supervisor (2002) of the Dutch Association for Group Dynamics and Group Psychotherapy. He is Director of the Program for the Treatment of Personality Disorders, Meerkanten GGz Ermelo/Harderwijk. He is also co-founder and present chair of the WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry, founded in 2003, and Secretary of the Dutch Foundation for Psychiatry and Religion. He is lead editor of the Dutch journal, 'Psyche & Geloof' (Psyche & Faith).  

Herman M. van Praag is Professor Emeritus of the Dutch Universities of Groningen, Utrecht, Maastricht, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA. He established the first department of biological psychiatry in Europe (Groningen) and became the first European Professor of Biological Psychiatry in 1968. He is well known for his extensive research on the biological determinants of depression and depressive symptoms for which he was decorated many times. He chaired the WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry.

 Juan J. López-Ibor, Jr is Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry and Director of the Institute for Psychiatry and Mental Health of the San Carlos Hospital of the Complutense University in Madrid. He is also Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health, Spain, and Fellow of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain, Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Zaragoza, and Honorary Fellow of the Spanish Medical Chirurgical Academy. He has been Secretary General, President-Elect and President of the World Psychiatric Association. He is author, alone or in collaboration, of 53 books and of 219 chapters in monographs by other authors. He has published more than 330 papers in scientific journals and has presented more than 1,500 papers and communications in scientific meetings.

John L. Cox is Professor Emeritus at Keele University and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, London.  During his period as President and Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, he encouraged greater emphasis on international mental health, and the bridging of arts and science. He is the Immediate Past Secretary General of the World Psychiatric Association. He has a longstanding interest in the relationship between religion, spirituality and mental health, and was the lead editor of a book based on the work of Paul Tournier. He co-authored Modern Management of Perinatal Mental Disorder, and has published widely in perinatal mental health and transcultural psychiatry.

 Driss Moussaoui is the Founder and the Chairman of the Ibn Rushd University Psychiatric Centre in Casablanca, Morocco, a WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health since 1992. He is the President-Elect of the World Association of Social Psychiatry and a member of the French Academy of Medicine. He is the Vice-Chair of the World Psychiatric Association Section on Spirituality, Religion and Psychiatry. Driss Moussaoui has published (or edited) 10 books and hundreds of papers in international journals.