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Dr. Vamık Djemal Volkan was born to Turkish parents in Cyprus. He received his medical degree from Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey. He immigrated to the United States in 1957, where he did his internship, psychiatric residency, and psychoanalytic training. He became a faculty member at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1963 and, upon his retirement, became an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry in 2002.
While a faculty member, he served as the Medical Director of the University of Virginia's Blue Ridge Hospital for eighteen years. Blue Ridge Hospital, an inpatient facility for psychiatric disorders, physical rehabilitation, geriatrics, epilepsy, and drug and substance abuse, was an integral part of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center from 1978 to 1995. Dr. Volkan played a key role in its development. On the Blue Ridge grounds, there were outpatient facilities for adult, child, and family psychiatry. The Highlands Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Biofeedback Clinic, Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction, and the Sleep and Dream Laboratory were all segments of the Blue Ridge Hospital complex. The hospital was closed in 1996 when the clinical activities were transferred to the main campus of the University of Virginia's Health Sciences Center.
In 1987 Dr. Volkan created a center under the umbrella of the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine: "The Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI)." This center was the first of its kind. The faculty consisted of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, as well as former diplomats, political scientists, historians, and others. Dr. Volkan’s aim was to expand the concept of "preventive medicine" to include an examination of societal responses to massive aggression due to wars or war-like situations and to develop methods to "vaccinate" large-groups against violent acts. CSMHI had grants for projects in Soviet Union, Baltic Republics, Albania, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, Georgia, South Ossetia, Turkey, Greece, the USA and other locations. Dr. Volkan directed CSMHI from 1987 until his retirement in 2002.
Dr. Volkan was a founder of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). ISPP draws its membership from many disciplines: psychology, political science, sociology, psychiatry, history, and anthropology. It transcends academic and professional boundaries by serving as a meeting ground for scholars in academia and persons working in government and public post. ISPP’s Constitution was written during his tenure as President.
Starting in 1989, Dr. Volkan also served as a member of the Carter Center’s International Negotiation Network (INN) under the direction of former USA President Jimmy Carter. 1987, President Jimmy Carter founded INN a flexible, informed network of eminent persons, conflict resolution practitioners, Nobel Peace laureates and former heads of state, dedicated to resolving international conflicts through peaceful means.
DR. VOLKAN'S "FOUR LABOTARORIES":
Dr. Volkan’s "laboratory" for psychopolitical studies centered on four fields of research:
1- Observing "enemy" representatives in years-long unofficial diplomatic negotiations: Arabs-Israelis, Americans-Soviets, Russians-Estonians, Georgians-South Ossetians, Serbs-Croats, and Turks-Greeks.
  6 Years
  2 Years
  6 Years
  2 Years
  6 Years
  2 Years
2-Interviewing traumatized people: Cyprus, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Georgia, and South Ossetia.
Cyprus
Kuwait
Former Yugoslavia and Albania
Georgia and South Ossetia
3- Visiting "Hot Places": Paldiski, Estonia; Crying Father Monument, Tskinvali, South Ossetia.
4- Interacting with political and religious leaders: Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Desmond Tutu, Yasser Arafat, Rauf Denktaş, Arnold Rüütel, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jean Bertrand Aristide and others.
Jimmy Carter Mikhail Gorbachev
Desmond Tutu Yasser Arafat
Rauf R. Denktaş Arnold Rüütel
Olusegun Obasanjo Jean Bertrand Aristide
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Psychopolitical work:
● Following the opening of the Center for the Study Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) at the University of Virginia, the Soviet Duma made a contract with CSMHI allowing Dr. Volkan and his team to study the psychology of the USSR-USA relationship and to suggest efforts to take the emotional poisons out of this relationship.
● After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dr. Volkan and his team helped in the evolution of a peaceful separation between the Russian Federation and the Baltic Republics (especially Estonia.) The former President of Estonia, Arnold Rüütel, was a participant of this six-year-long work. The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, was CSMHI's partner in this project.
● Dr. Volkan with Dr. Joyce Neu from the Carter Center and Prof. Norman Itzkowitz from the Princeton University/CSMHI investigated post-Enver Hodxa Albania in order to come up with a strategy helpful for economic development in that country. This project was sponsored by the Carter Center.
● Dr. Volkan was a member of a CSMHI group headed by the former United States Ambassador to Kuwait, W. Nathaniel Howell, Jr., that examined the psychosocial conditions in Kuwait, at the request of the Kuwaiti Government, after this country was invaded by Iraq and then was liberated.
● In 1992, he visited Senegal with former President Jimmy Carter and other members of Carter Center's International Negotiation Network (INN) to meet with the representatives of many conflicted areas in Africa.
● He studied the reactivation of the "memory" of the Kosovo Battle (1389), in Serbia after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and participated in grass root dialogues among Serbians, Croats, and Bosniaks.
● As a temporary consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), he investigated conditions in Albania and Macedonia following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and assisted mental health workers who were dealing with violence in that part of the world.
● He and his CSMHI team consulted with the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning Turkish workers and their families in Europe.
● For two years he was consultant to Arbeitskreis für Intergenerationelle Folgen des Holocaust (PAKH), a group of German psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who opened a dialogue about German silence concerning Holocaust-related issues with a group of Jewish German psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. In 2007, he visited Köln, Germany, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of PAKH.
● From 1998 to 2002, he led a CSMHI team in attempting to open unofficial dialogues between Georgians and South Ossetians.
● He worked for five years at the Internally Displaced Person's (IDP) Camp at the Tbilisi Sea, Georgia, in an attempt to improve these individuals' lives.
● During 2000 and 2001 he joined high-level Turks and Greeks unofficially discussing the Turkish-Greek Relations.
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