This issue is published during a difficult dystopian occasion, due to the train collision in Tempi. Thus, we could not abstain from the prevailing concern. The word “responsibility” dominated the Media, and looking it up in the dictionary by Babiniotis, I found that it acquired a special content as an institution of the Athenian Democracy, when every public official would be audited at the end of his tenure concerning his accountability – by recruits that were named “euthynai” (from the Greek word “euthyne” that means responsibility). The official would be called “ypeuthynos” meaning responsible (accountable). Thus, we dedicated two short papers to this event (one by Valeria Pomini and one by myself), with different viewpoints.
Following these, the first paper is a Manifesto that came out of a mental health specialists’ meeting from five European countries. This was in the context of YAMI’s week of action, and the specialists exchanged opinions and experiences on the lives of young people and the challenges that Europe is faced with, which resulted in the publication of this manifesto. It refers to the goals on which the actions on the improvement of young people’s mental health in Europe must focus on. Furthermore, it refers to the improvement of the quality of life, prevention, timely intervention and therapy, for a wide range of therapeutic methods, with “love” and ultimately through research.
In the next paper, Katia Charalabaki discusses old age(a subject that is very rarely discussed from an experiential viewpoint in the literature). Following a wide commentary on its ethnological and social aspect, she discusses its experiential implications in a moving manner, in an era were youth is universally promoted, in institutions, the workforce etc.
In Lykourgos Karatzaferis’ paper, the author, utilising the subject of abused refugees, analyses the concept that “one cannot meet people in crisis without confronting the crisis of the frameworks in which these people are included”. He refers to Basaglia’s quote that the therapeutic act is a political one, that “there is no health without freedom and justice”, and that ultimately, the patient’s crisis is also our own.
The following paper, written by a group of British therapists, refers to a research program that was implemented in South London, where they called the family in for the first meeting, if a member of the family was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This offers another perspective to the intervention and helps us view the frame of the patient’s difficulties beyond their own psychopathology, and to also involve the family and significant others in therapy from the very beginning. Many studies have highlighted the benefits of involving the family in therapy, even though it is not widely done. This specific study showed that this kind of involvement of the family, constituted a positive relational experience for all participants.
Then, with Nikos Mourikis’ interesting, multifaceted article, we will concern ourselves with the transcendence of the “ego”, that is “ego without ‘ego’”, in Krishnamurti’s concepts of the truth, silence, and the timeless, and how these resonate with topics discussed by Bateson, Checcin, Assegioli, Berne, Foucault and others.
Athanasions Bazoukis, in his paper, discusses adolescent self-harm, which is a phenomenon we encounter all the more often… He analyses the type of violence, and places it in a continuum of self-harming behaviour with escalating severity, at the end of which lies suicide attempt. He analyses the developmental components of the symptom, and prompted by Gerasimos Stefanatos’ article, he poses certain open questions for thinking and processing that is definitely required for a topic as hard as this.
Finaly, Lykourgos Karatzaferis, utilising Thodor is Magalooikonomou’s book on deinstitutionalisation (“Dromokaition - Leros - Dafni. Wall after wall”) as a starting point, submits his concerns in a holistic view and sets the optimism of action against the pessimism of reason, in an effort to – in his own words - keep the dilemmas open on the road to transcendence.
Enjoy reading!
On behalf of the Editorial Board,
Katerina Theodoraki
