Dear ISPS-US Community,

We are excited to invite you to submit a proposal for ISPS-US 2026, our landmark 25th Annual Conference, taking place November 6–8 in New York City at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and hybrid online via Zoom.

This year’s theme, Psychosis and the Social Link, calls us to explore psychosis not only as an individual experience, but as something shaped through relationships, communities, and the broader social world. In that spirit, we are eager to bring together a wide range of voices and perspectives, including people with lived experience, family members, clinicians, peer supporters, researchers, and advocates.

We invite you to read below, reflect, and consider contributing your voice. The Call for Proposals is now open through June 1, 2026.

2026 Conference Theme 

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.

ISPS-US seeks papers from service providers, researchers, people with lived experience, family members, and advocates broadly connected to the theme of psychosis and the social, including:

• Peer support as social connection
• Psychoanalytic perspectives on psychosis and the social link
• Supported employment, education, and meaningful occupation
• Art, creativity, and community
• Lived experience perspectives on psychosis
• Alternatives to hospitalization
• Stigma and alienation
• The family system and psychosis
• History and the intergenerational transmission of trauma
• Socio-cultural dimensions
• Structural oppression and violence as incubators of ongoing intergenerational distress
• Any other topics inspired by the conference theme

The conference will be hybrid; you may attend and present either online or in person. However, there are limited virtual spaces. Scholarships will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for those without the means to attend otherwise.

Please pass this email on to your networks and encourage your colleagues and connections to apply. We greatly look forward to marking our landmark 25th Annual Conference with as many of you as possible.

See you in New York City in November 2026,

ISPS-US

Become a Sponsor for ISPS-US 2026

You are invited to be a sponsor or exhibitor for our upcoming conference, Psychosis & The Social Link, taking place from November 6-8th, 2026, in New York City and hybrid online.

Over the years, organizations and individuals have leveraged this opportunity to:

• Spotlight their clinical or supportive services
• Promote upcoming events or courses
• Showcase and recruit for research projects
• Promote and sell their authored books
• Demonstrate their commitment to equity by contributing scholarship donations

By joining us as a sponsor, you'll enjoy:

• Name and Brand Recognition
• Exhibitor Booths: Connect with attendees, both in-person and online.
• Complimentary Registration
• Marketing Opportunities: Through our extensive marketing channels, including our mailing list (6,500+ subscribers), YouTube channel (4,700+ subscribers, 40,000 views per year), and website (2,500+ visitors per month).

We look forward to collaborating with you!

 

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