Introduction
One could say that the present issue is a “tribute”: An “offering” to this “science fiction” situation that our country and all of the world is going through. The coronavirus and quarantine situations, and their consequences on the lives of persons, families and the society. But before we move on to the main subject, two points: First: The Family Therapists’ community mourns the loss of child psychiatrist and family therapist George Freris , who passed away suddenly in September. Dimitris Georgiadis , who collaborated with him in many periods of his professional course, will make a more extensive tribute to George Freris. Second, we will refer to a letter sent to our journal by the president of the Hellenic Federation of Systemic Societies and Family Therapy (ETHOS) Dimitris Karagiannis : “…I feel honoured to extend to you our warm gratitude for the invaluable service of your journal’s articles to the field of Systemic Viewpoint. The «Systemic Thinking & Psychotherapy» journal is valuable and important for its immense contribution to the field of Greek Systemic Psychotherapy, which although, rapidly evolving in clinical practice, lacks the relevant theoretical infrastructure…”. Honorary and also touching… And now let’s move on to the main subject: We begin with a poem by University Professor Elias Kourkoutas: ** “ The pandemic conspiracy ”. Read it! The first paper is “ Living with the coronavirus ” by Nikos Marketos , and it is a description and scientific analysis of the pandemic conditions in the biological, psychological, and relationship situation that we experience, and that threatens to “break down the mental boundaries between what is intelligible and finite and what is infinite…”. A deeply experiential article follows, titled “ Coronavirus dreams and the quarantine journal: Charting personal and collective fears ” by Eleftheria Alavanou , ** Alexandra Donofrio , ** Daphni Skaglioni ** and ** Katia Charalabaki** , where, on the one hand, the internet –namely facebook- is utilised in order to convey questions and answers regarding the coronavirus, and on the other hand, there is a collection and description of dreams from the days of quarantine and beyond, so that we will “be able to process this black dinosaur that walked into our living room and is at the verge of squashing us…” Then, there is the article “ Μ ental care in a helplessness situation Coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 Children and Adolescents ” by Theodora Skali , where we transition to a more academic and educational consideration of the problem, focusing on children and adolescents. Here, particularly useful instructions are given regarding the interpretation and the reflection of children and adolescent behaviour, and also regarding the potential of the family environment positively mediating it. Returning to psychiatry-psychotherapy, we reach the “ Multiple Family Group Therapy in an Early Intervention Setting for Psychosis: A Pilot Group in a Public Hospital ” paper by Dimitris Galanis , Miriana Selakowitz, ** Aphrodite Feretzaki, ** and Valeria Pomini . It is a hard but very important family intervention project, during the first psychotic episode for a family member that brings Gregory Bateson’s et al. studies and theories into clinical practice. At the same time it also includes the very important collaboration and cooperation between professionals involved with the person, the family, and the wider social network, which highlights the holistic, just, and democratic intervention during the first psychotic episode. The next paper is titled “ The remains of the first love. Unresolved bereavement and the selection of romantic partner ” by Kia Thanopoulou . It is an especially original and innovative paper that also combines clinical practice and theory. Through the presentation of clinical material, an exploration takes place of how the mother’s illness during the daughter’s adolescence, and her subsequent death, can complicate the young girl’s journey to find herself and also contribute to pre-oedipal fixations, thus affecting sexual identity through the selection of love object. Next is the “ Comparative Evaluation of the Concept of “Repetition Compulsion” ** from a Psychoanalytic and a Neurophysiological perspective** ” by George Skalkotos . There is an extensive theoretical description of the concept of “repetition compulsion” that was first described by Freud. Furthermore, there is an attempt to highlight the points where Neurosciences and Psychoanalysis meet, by analysing concepts such as trauma, pleasure principle, transference and countertransference, death drive, memory, deferred action, and pattern completion. The final article is titled “ When Memory, clad in words, heals ” and is written by Niki Troullinou . “The writer’s creative use of Memory will pass the torch on to the reader. And he in turn will retrieve his own precious valuables. Because words have worn the roar of meaning, the buzz of the air on a hard night, the echo the mother’s voice, the grandfather’s story by the stove, with winter writing its own images, wherever we are, in the desert or in the modern 21st century home, literature generously offers the consolation of memory recollection. And it is this way that the words of a literary text also become an account, become therapy. Is empathy…” … the author states. The issue ends with the book presentation of “ Systemic Research in Individual, Couple, and Family Therapy and Counseling ”, edited by Matthias Ochs , ** Maria Borcsa ** και ** Jochen Schweitzer (2020)** , by Valeria Pomini . The collaboration of the publisher, Springer International and the European Family Therapy Association – EFTA, (initiated by EFTA’s president at the time Maria Borcsa and Peter Stratton), led to the conception of a series of scientific publications with the goal of experienced therapists and researchers to contribute to the systemic community, through discussing current issues of family therapy, research and education. 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 the issue… and please feel free to give us feedback through (positive and negative) comments!
On behalf of the editorial board,
**Katia Charalabaki **
*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