Chiara De Panfilis
President of the ESSPD

Dear ESSPD colleagues and friends,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our 8th ESSPD conference in Lausanne. I would like to thank our outgoing president, Michaela Swales, from the bottom of my heart for everything she has done for the ESSPD over the last two years. Her tireless energy and exceptional vision have truly “transformed the future” of our society, as was evident from the vibrant and inspiring atmosphere in Lausanne. It will be an honour to continue along the path she has laid out during my two years as president.

Looking ahead, I would like to take this opportunity to share some of our future plans. The ESSPD Board will continue to organise conferences and scientific events that promote research and education in the field of personality disorders. Our clinical workshops will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania from 3 to 5 June 2027, and our summer school will be held near Parma, Italy from 5 to 11 September 2027. Further details of these events will be available soon on our website and social media, as well as in the December newsletter. We have also already started meeting to prepare for our 2028 conference in beautiful Würzburg, Germany!

I would also like to thank all the ESSPD members whose efforts make our society such a welcoming and inclusive scientific association. This is one of the reasons why I have been a member of the ESSPD since the inception of the society. I was fascinated by its potential to embrace and respect the wide range of perspectives within the field of personality disorders. Thanks to Michaela’s efforts, as well as those of the entire ESSPD Board and others, we took an important step towards this goal at our conference this year by integrating the perspectives of people with lived and living experience into plenary discussions and research symposia. We will continue to seek effective methods through which experts by profession and experts by experience can learn from each other.

So, where do we go from here? In order to advance personality disorders research and treatment, we must respect and value diversity also in terms of the theoretical backgrounds, research interests and methodologies of professionals, the clinical presentations and unique strengths of individuals, and the different sociocultural underpinnings, geographical origins and native languages of people, to name a few. This might seem obvious or easy. It is not. Our field is still far from fully representing and acknowledging these complexities. Examples include the still limited research on non-BPD clinical presentations despite the shift in nosography towards dimensional models of personality pathology; poor knowledge of cross-cultural issues affecting the aetiology, phenomenology and course of personality disorders; and difficulties in recognising that different theoretical perspectives can meaningfully contribute to our understanding of personality disorders. Therefore, I believe that exploring and valuing differences across many levels – among individuals, cultures and theoretical orientations – requires an ongoing commitment. I look forward to continuing this journey with you in the ESSPD over the next two years, for the benefit of research and treatment in the field of personality disorders.

Warm regards
Chiara De Panfilis
President of the ESSPD