World Social Psychiatry – Our Journey toward a Wholesome World of Social Psychiatry

LOOKING BACK: THE BEGINNING AND WHERE WE ARE TODAY As they say, history has a tendency of repeating itself. This editorial partly borrows its title from the very first editorial of the inaugural issue of World Social Psychiatry, the official journal of the World Association of Social Psychiatry (WASP), which was titled: “Mens sana in societate sana – toward a wholesome world of social psychiatry.” While we wind up our part of the journey in nurturing this journal over the past 7 years, we look back at the meandering path with a sense of pensive reflections, recollections, resilience, and resolve. The original idea of WASP having its own professional journal was mooted in 2017 by the Executive Council of WASP, led by its then newly installed President Roy Abraham Kallivayalil. Following lengthy discussions and debates, a consensus finally emerged that the new journal – named World Social Psychiatry – could indeed contribute to and further the cause of social psychiatry across the globe. More than coincidentally perhaps, the inaugural issue was launched in October 2019 at the 23rd World Congress of Social Psychiatry, in Bucharest, Romania, the region where the founder of WASP, Joshua Bierer, came from! Since then, the journal is in continuous publication without a break, by the internationally reputed publishers Wolters Kluwer (India) Pvt. Ltd., at the frequency of three issues per year. The 2025 Volume 7 Issue 2 has been published recently and released at the World Congress of Social Psychiatry in Marrakech, Morocco, on January 15, 2026 [Figure 1]. This was a special issue commemorating the 60th Anniversary of WASP, with stellar articles from luminaries all over the world. The current issue – the last one under our editorial supervision – is by the Early Career Psychiatry (ECP) Section of WASP. Today, in the increasingly conflict-ridden, profit-driven, dehumanizing world where the quest for power and control trumps the need for safety and peaceful coexistence, we place our trust, faith, and hope in the ECP. We believe that the world, with its social psychiatry, can still live and flourish under their untarnished minds!Figure 1: Release of the 60th World Association of Social Psychiatry Anniversary Issue of World Social Psychiatry at the 25th World Congress of Social Psychiatry, Marrakech, Morocco, January 15, 2026. From L to R: Andrew Molodynski, Tom Craig, Roy Kallivayalil, Norman Sartorius, Debasish Basu, Vincenzo Di Nocola, Rakesh Chadda, Rachid Bennegadi, Driss MoussaouiThere is an active journal website (https://journals.lww.com/wpsy/pages/default.aspx) that hosts all the published articles issuewise, which are entirely free to everyone all over the world for noncommercial use. The journal (till date) does not charge any article processing fee from any contributor. Articles are peer-reviewed. It follows the standard international guidelines and regulations regarding ethical publishing. COUNTRIES AND AUTHORS Ever since its inception, World Social Psychiatry has been mindful of publishing from a global perspective. Its authors come from many countries, including almost all the continents of the world, from Canada to Brazil, from Morocco to South Africa, from Finland to Italy, from China to Sri Lanka, and from Japan to Australia and New Zealand, just to mention a few. More importantly, along with the developed countries such as the US and the UK, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) find a place of prominence in the publications. Indeed, one might even say that editors are a bit “positively biased” toward publications from LMICs such as India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Similarly, along with the Global North, the Global South is also represented to the extent possible. Finally, the authors who have contributed to this journal include global luminaries and all-time greats alongside younger, less known but dynamic individuals devoted to the cause of social psychiatry. This will be immediately apparent upon perusal of the published issues, without the necessity to invoke individual names. SPECIAL THEME ISSUES A major feature of the journal is to publish special issues on pertinent themes germane to various aspects of social psychiatry, often reflecting the ethos and the demands of the times and the circumstances. It also publishes special “commemorative issues” featuring international conferences, congresses, and events relevant to social psychiatry. Thus, the inaugural issue itself was themed around “Social psychiatry: setting the global agenda,” followed by themed issues on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and social psychiatry, a special issue on child mental health and social psychiatry, an issue on public mental health and social psychiatry, a special issue on families and family therapies, a theme issue on coercion, restraints, and seclusions in psychiatry, and the latest special issue commemorating and celebrating the first 60 years of WASP. This is the final issue (from our side), curated meticulously by the ECP Section of WASP. All these are veritable collections for the present and, hopefully, for the future too! EDITORIALS Editorials, including guest editorials, have always formed an important part of the journal, goal posting achievements, issues, barriers, challenges, and potential solutions. This is not the time to go into each of these, but these can all be freely downloaded from the journal website for your perusal. All we can say is that, as the editors and the editorialists, we have tried to highlight what we felt were issues relevant to social psychiatry on the broader canvas of life, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to loneliness, to xenophobia, to Orwellian dystopia and Eliotian anomie, among others. While doing so, we have not shied away from critiquing important geopolitical events around us, which can have grave consequences for social psychiatry. Some of these, especially the one named “Come and see the blood in the streets,” generated polarized debate. Finally, we have even criticized ourselves, in the latest “Edystorial” named “No other land… for social psychiatry.” In all these, our first commitment has been to social psychiatry, then to our conscience, and only then to political correctness or placating others. We may be criticized for this stand, but this is our stand, as free-thinking editors, as advocates of social psychiatry, and as human beings; not necessarily in that order. WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR Six or 7 years is not a very long time to boast of the success of a newly launched journal, in an area which is far less “glittery” or “sexy” compared to biological psychiatry. Indeed, the most important achievement might be the very fact that the journal, despite all odds and challenges, has continued to exist, to publish regular issues, to have been contributed to by authors from across the world, both large and small, and to be read and appreciated by many! This is no mean achievement. The publishers have been doing an efficient job despite tremendous pressure on them. The regularity of publication, other than the last couple of issues, has been with clock-like precision, maintaining the publication deadlines. The global presence, ethical aspects of publication, and free-to-all publication mode have not been easy to maintain. Finances have been a worry, but with an initial and very generous help from the then WASP President and EC, and later sponsorship by pharmaceutical companies (with adherence to ethical guidelines) and from the congresses and conferences for publishing the commemorative issues, we have been able to sail through, though it has been a tight sailing at times! LOOKING FORWARD: THE TASK AHEAD There are certain tasks for the new editor! First, indexing of the journal still remains an issue due to technical and logistical challenges. Though it is registered with the following abstracting partners: Baidu Scholar, CNKI, EBSCO Publishing’s Electronic Databases, Ex Libris – Primo Central, Google Scholar, Hinari, Infotrieve, ProQuest, TDNet, Wanfang Data, etc. we are still some ways from indexing in PubMed and similar high-end indexing agencies. Second, the quality and quantity of the articles will continue to be a challenge. This is not only the editors, but our collective responsibility, especially those serving on the Editorial and the Journal Advisory Boards. As an important aside, we feel it is also time to rejig the Advisory Board with new, experienced, and enthusiastic advisors. They should also take part actively in reviewing submitted articles. Often, it takes a very long time to get articles reviewed and re-reviewed. Finally, there will always be the need to look for a healthy, ethical, but sustainable funding mechanism. And last but not least, publishing deadlines will need to be honored. As you are aware, the publishers have agreed to reduce the publishing frequency to 2 issues per year (i.e., biannual publication: January–June and July–December) from 2026 onward, at least for now (this can be reverted later). This should give the new editor and their team a very welcome space and time to work on. In the end, let us go back to the beginning once again. As the concluding lines of the first editorial reiterated: “Let World Social Psychiatry provide a free, fearless, and exciting platform for this exploration by its three missions – analysis and dissemination of knowledge by incisive reviews and perspectives/debates/viewpoints, publication of high-quality and high-impact original research, and powerful advocacy for promoting the cause of social psychiatry in the world.” CODA: GRATITUDE AND RESOLVE We will fail in our duty if we do not gratefully acknowledge the tremendous support we have received from each and every member of the Editorial Board and also the Advisory Board members at every step of this challenging yet exciting journey so far, including the whole-hearted encouragement and engagement by everybody across the world at every step. We simply cannot thank you enough! However, a very special mention needs to be made of our dear former President, Prof. Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, who, with his characteristic and infectious enthusiasm and leadership skills, has supported, guided, advised, and hand-held us at every step. The same applies to Dr. Rachid Bennegadi, Dr. Marianne Kastrup, Dr. Fernando Lolas, Dr. Tom Craig, Dr. Driss Moussaoui, Dr. Rakesh Chadda, Dr. Andrew Molodynski, Dr. Rama Rao Gogineni, Dr. Yasser Khazaal, Late Prof. Eliot Sorel, and many others, who have been absolutely instrumental in seeing this project through. You were, and are, the anchors in the storms! There are many anticipated initial challenges with the new editors, but let us resolve to continue our efforts to make World Social Psychiatry a presence and a force to reckon at the international level. Our best wishes for the new team!

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