HE.S.T.A.F.T.A. - Scientific Society of Mental Health Professionals

In this introduction I will try a synthesis by choosing two concepts, the concept of resonance and the concept of metaphor. I describe the concept of transition both in its pragmatic meaning (transform) and also it’s metaphorical as a form of discourse. The articles take us to another place and another time (expanding the observational context), where our thoughts create resonances, helping us to gain a broader or better understanding of the topics which we reflect on. Thus, we could see this 16th issue as a transition issue, with different meanings.

But as now reality is violently invading and landing us in the present of the coronavirus era, and with what this entails, the journal will begin with Valeria Pomini's article, which is both an experimental description of the situation in Italy, and an analysis of the multi-parameters that influence people's lives in new circumstances.

Katia Charalabaki refers to the double bind that an employee experiences in the psychiatric institution context, and in this case as just retired, and how she responds to the transition point, to herself as well as to us who read it.

Jaakko Seikkula will continue to take us into the world of psychosis which, with the help of the Open Dialogue method, he will see and signify through an interesting alternative as a defense against intense anxiety. Konstantinos Batsalias will go back to the 5th century B.C., where he will focus on the teaching of sophists, which was a revolution at those times, and then to the modern era of psychiatry and the DSM, with similar distortions.

Titus MIlech will take us to another area of concern in modern Germany and will refer to the responsibility of recognizing crimes committed by World War II by Germans.

Grigoris Abatzoglou will continue, reflecting on the concept of maternal care (and through this the emergence of language), which he will see as a metaphor of all kinds of care. "Language is fueled by a nostalgia for returning to something total (the lost paradise of the maternal emotional embrace we all contemplate) that would abolish it as a language, so it is in constant metaphors. And then it can become a poetic language, a magic language, a prophetic language, but also a pathological language" he says.

Dimitris Kokkalis will then convey the psychoanalytic notion of transference, trying to understand it in the context of systemic psychotherapy, where he analyzes the complex network of transference and countertransference interactions by enriching it with interesting clinical examples.

Finally, Katia Charalabaki with her two texts, is leading us to other "spaces". She will refer to specialized psychotherapeutic work that addresses both the mind and the body, as they apply to the KAT hospital, according to the film "To the Sea" of the French director Marco Gastin, which will be analyzed through the concepts of loss, individual-group relationship and the concept of genogram.

And, at the end, she will comment on the concept of self-knowledge and that of symbolism, inspired from Nikos Roussos’ and Thodoris Droullias΄ book on play-therapy, "Symbols of the Self - Images of life" (Aparsis Editions).

This is where the cycle of transition-metaphor closes, in its literal and metaphorical meaning.

Finally, all the pictures in this issue are from paintings by the painter Paul Walker *, who was kind enough to allow us to use them.

Enjoy reading! *Paul Walker was born in Birmingham (UK) and studied BA Fine Arts at Birmingham Polytechnic and Master Degree at Chelsey School of Arts. Since 1991 he lives and works in Aegina (GR). He has exhibited in group and solo exhibition in UK and in Greece. His work can be seen at his site www.paulwalker.gr Contact: info@paulwalker.gr

Read the next article:

ARTICLE 2/ ISSUE 16, April 2020

Families and Therapists in the vortex of the Corona Virus Pandemic

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