Welcome to the website for the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis - US Chapter (ISPS-US)'s 2026 Conference, Psychosis and the Social Link
The event will take place from November 6-8th, 2026, at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and hybrid online via Zoom.
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Psychosis is overwhelmingly understood by dominant mental health systems as a problem of the individual: a disease, deficit, or disorder, to be treated by medication and, less frequently, psychotherapy. An enhanced way of approaching psychosis is not merely to conceptualize it as something that exists solely within a person, but as something that emerges in relationship with the social link.
In the aftermath of World War II, a group of French psychiatrists reconceptualized psychosis (or “madness”) as most importantly a social phenomenon, rooted in experiences of intensive social alienation. This movement considered psychotherapeutic treatment to be, foremost, a process of “disalienation”: the undoing of profound social disconnection through community and social engagement. Individual treatment was thus integrated with social treatment, aimed at healing both the individuals within a therapeutic community and the community itself.
ISPS-US’s landmark 25th Annual Conference seeks to re-engage with this thinking as we face a resurgence of policies and practices that further entrench states of alienation, including the expansion of civil psychiatric commitment, and a broader social context in which many, particularly those most affected by racial and economic inequities, displacement, or homelessness, are pushed further to the margins. Appreciation of the social determinants of psychological suffering leads us to an essential question: Rather than being incomprehensible, is psychosis, in fact, an expression of society’s fractures?
New York City serves as a powerful setting for grappling with these questions. As a city of over 8 million people with immense diversity, New York is paradoxically a very social place, and also one of potentially profound social isolation. Many come because their “home” was untenable due to war, disaster, oppression, or simply not fitting in. Therefore, to be a New Yorker is often to be an outsider, bound with other New Yorkers by difference and the attempt to find one’s footing in community. In this way, New York serves as a metaphor for understanding psychosis and the social link – not only as an individual experience, but as something that unfolds within the tensions of connection, disconnection, and the search for belonging.
Conference sessions will span themes including:
- Systemic Alternatives: Examinations of mental health diversion, community care beyond traditional policing, harm reduction, and the impacts of involuntary outpatient commitment.
- Structural Violence: Intersectional dialogues analyzing how structural racism shapes neighborhood risk, how clinical documentation can undermine individual testimony, and the ways systemic violence incubates trauma.
- Relational Frameworks: Psychoanalytic perspectives on the social link, family-inclusive psychiatry, emancipatory models for community liberation, and integrating lived experience into traditional health systems.
- Creative Healing: Groundbreaking workshops exploring collaborative music-making, therapeutic creative writing, theater, and the expressive arts as tools for breaking isolation and fostering belonging.
Full session program coming soon.
Registration now open!
See you in New York City in November 2026!
Presenting Sponsor
Attestation: John Jay College educates fierce advocates for justice, a calling that demands robust debate, rigorous inquiry, and respectful dissent. Consistent with this commitment, we support academic freedom and convene conversations reflecting multiple perspectives. The views expressed at events held at John Jay belong to the speaker(s) and do not represent the opinion of the college.
