Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, M.D., who along with his copilot were the first to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in a hot-air balloon, will present the William C. Menninger Lecture at this year’s Convocation of Fellows on Monday, May 15, at 7:30 p.m. at APA’s annual meeting in Chicago.

Piccard has long been by fascinated by human behavior and the effects of extreme atmospheres on levels of consciousness. To improve his knowledge of the human inner world, he studied medicine, specializing in psychotherapy. He is also qualified in hypnosis and has his own clinic.

The balloon in which Piccard and his copilot rode was launched on March 1, 1999. Just over 19 days later, after many anxious moments, the two men landed the balloon at 8 a.m. local time north of the village of Mut in southeast Egypt. They broke three world records: distance, duration, and time.

Piccard, who has undertaken a variety of dangerous but exciting challenges in his lifetime, said in a lecture he gave in 1998, "I have used these experiences in my psychiatry—helping people to be fully connected with and to themselves. I have used acrobatic hang-glider flights to explore the short vital moments when we have to encounter the unexpected. Of course you do not have to go hang-gliding to connect properly to yourself and to find heightened consciousness, but that is the way I myself discovered its importance. . . .

"Why can’t we live our lives as an adventure? We long to abolish the unknown and live only with certainties, but our certainties can soon turn to prejudice and intolerance. The unknown is always only just around the corner and there is no escaping what it may contain—bereavement, illness, unemployment. There is no choice for us but to go with these wind currents. What we can do is to ride them and use them with our inner capacities fully sharpened and developed."

Piccard was born into a celebrated family of Swiss adventurers. His grandfather Auguste was the first man to reach the stratosphere, and his father designed the first tourist submarine and holds a deep-sea diving record.

Other official sessions of the annual meeting will be held the day before the Convocation, on Sunday, May 14. The Business Meeting, for voting members only, will be held at 12:30 p.m. in room E354, level 3, McCormick Place Lakeside. APA’s officers and selected component chairs will present their annual reports to the membership. Members will be invited to bring to the attention of the APA leadership any issues they wish.