Vamık D. Volkan, MD, 2015
/Dr. Volkan’s work and research has focused on a new vision of global diplomacy—the application of psychoanalytic thinking between countries and cultures, individual and societal mourning, transgenerational transmissions of trauma and the therapeutic approach to primitive mental states. He studied the political and historical issues that feed social conflicts as well as their psychological underpinnings. He founded the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) at the School of Medicine, University of Virginia, and brought interdisciplinary teams of experts to traumatized regions in the Middle East, the Soviet Union, the Baltic Republics, The Republic of Georgia, Albania, Kuwait, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, and the United States. He developed unofficial diplomacy's "Tree Model," described "Linking Objects" and "Linking Phenomena" of perennial mourners, observed "Chosen Traumas" and "Chosen Glories" of societies and theorized the evolution of "Infantile Psychotic Self" in persons whose mental functions remain undeveloped. A five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr. Volkan has devoted more than 40 years to bringing enemy groups together for dialogue in traumatized areas of the world. He has written and/or contributed to more than fifty psychoanalytic and psycho-political books, many translated into several languages