Vedat Şar (born 1955) is a Turkish

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and professor who specialises in

psychological trauma Psychological trauma (also known as mental trauma, psychiatric trauma, emotional damage, or psychotrauma) is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events, such as Major trauma, bodily injury, Sexual assault, sexual violence, or ot ...

and

dissociative disorder Dissociative disorders (DDs) are a range of conditions characterized by significant disruptions or fragmentation "in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior. ...

s. His work is particularly concerned with childhood trauma, the

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

of dissociative disorders, complex

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...

borderline personality disorder Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, an acute fear of Abandonment (emotional), abandonment, and intense emotiona ...

, and treatment with EMDR. Şar was president of the

International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) is a controversial nonprofit professional organization of health professionals and individuals who are interested in advancing the scientific and societal understandings o ...

from 2007 to 2008, and president of the ''European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies'' from 2013 to 2015. Currently, he is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and chair of department of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

at the

Koç University Koç University () is a private non-profit research university in Istanbul, Turkey. It started education in temporary buildings in İstinye in 1993, and moved to its current Rumelifeneri campus near Sarıyer in 2000. Koç University is ranked hi ...

's School of Medicine. Previously, he served as a professor of psychiatry at Istanbul University for more than two decades. In early 1990s he founded the ''Clinical Psychotherapy Unit and Dissociative Disorders Program'' in Istanbul University, a clinical research center specialized in dissociation and complex trauma. The Program contributed to the psychotraumatology studies from a cross-cultural perspective and altered the pre-dominant conception of dissociative identity disorder as a phenomenon isolated to Western world. He has served as an international advisor to the American Psychiatric Association's

DSM-5 The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the '' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiat ...

Workgroup on Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, Post-Traumatic, and Dissociative Disorders. In recognition for his work in the study of dissociation he received various awards including the

Lifetime Achievement Award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...

by International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation in 2015. He and co-author Erdinç Öztürk coined the term ''sociological self'', in the context of the "functional dissociation of the self" model. In 2013 he was involved with the diagnosis and treatment of a highly publicized "

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

" case in Turkey, which became the subject of an article that was published in the journal of ''Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics''. He frequently provides commentary to the media and participates as a speaker in cross-disciplinary panels about the psychological and sociological dynamics of trauma. As of January 2017, he was one of the 150 most influential Turkish scientists in terms of

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field. The Impact Factor of a journa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Şar, Vedat Living people Turkish psychiatrists 1955 births