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WFSBP Celebrating 30 YEARS of Excellence in Biological Psychiatry

The history of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry remains to be written. However, there are already many things to be said on that leading organisation. Everything starts in 1974 when Edmond Fisher, Hungarian immigrant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, decides to organize the first international congress dedicated to Biological Psychiatry. Edmond Fisher’s vision and leadership encouraged many psychiatrists from different parts of the world to create an international organization for the promotion and development of biological psychiatry. Along the years, the flag of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry crossed innumerable countries and was reduplicated in several of them. Nowadays, psychiatrists from more than 105 countries are taken up in the Federation’s database, and societies are established in 60 countries. Initially based in some American and European areas, after societies of biological psychiatry were founded in all Latin American nations, the number of national societies has progressively kept increasing, mainly due to the enthusiastic expansion of biological psychiatry in Asia and Central Europe. From an amateurish management relying on the good will and personal dedication of its Executive members, the Federation progressed to a modern and well-structured organization, with several departments responsible for a variety of tasks, from the daily contacts with members to the complex organization of congresses. In 1997 the Federation decided to make its administration a professional matter: from the simple but important minutes taken during the meetings to a more precise description of each Executive Committee member’s tasks, to the implementation of a central secretariat able to manage and control all activities directed by the Executive Committee, to the legal registration as a not-profitable organization in Switzerland and the establishment of a specific bank account in Switzerland, to the regular audits by authorized accountants, to the full management of its congresses, etc. With so many psychiatrists and countries joining the Federation, the creation of a number of SubCommittees and Task Forces dedicated to specific topics was a need that led to numerous productions and publications. Innovatively, all members of the Sub-Committees and Task-Forces were chosen upon suggestions coming from the National Societies. This represented an additional step towards the fundamental principle that the Federation does exist based on its membership. One of the most significant demonstrations of the Federation’s new aptitudes was shown in the creation of The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry in 1998. In Sao Paulo, the Executive Committee agreed on starting to launch what would become, in a very short period of time, one of the most important publications in psychiatry. A few years ago the Constitution was modified in order to give a fair political balance to all National Societies. In the Federation arena all National Societies democratically share political power. To protect the Federation and the benefits it provides to registered members, a WFSBP Members Identification Card was recently created, allowing access to benefits, such as: reduced registration fee at congresses, restricted areas of the WFSBP web-site, participation in Committees and Task-Forces, a free copy of The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, as well the right to vote, and be voted for, at the Council Meeting and General Assembly. For being based upon National Societies representing countries all over the world and, consequently, having to incorporate psychiatrists from different cultures in all activities, the Federation aims at accepting and promoting diversity: in other words, the Federation praises diversity, understanding that progress arises from the confrontation of differences. WFSBP constitutes a unique international arena of biological psychiatry which represents and integrates the richness of so many cultures. On top of this, as the Federation also recognizes differences in terms of development, it endeavours to promote education in its highest principle, a principle that all doctors learn at school: the one who knows more has the moral obligation to transfer knowledge to the one who knows less. This goes to show that one of the major tasks that the Federation The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2005; 6(Suppl 2): 3 /4