This paper is based on a lecture given at a conference held in October 2024 to celebrate the 30 years of operation of the Family Therapy Unit of the Attica Psychiatric Hospital, and a farewell to the founders of the Unit.
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I wonder if today’s event comprises an invocation of honour, a farewell, or a remembrance of a beginning. I would prefer for it to be the latter. “A remembrance of a beginning” it is then.
I will try not to tire you, and will only stress two important components of a 30-year tenure of the Unit; a value system where two important entities were observed/married, that played a crucial part in the birth and evolution of the Unit.
“Memory and Time”
“Memory”
First let us consider Memory, with two important references to my history and the genealogy of Memory.
· The first concerns “Ancient wealth”, Sophocles’ magical quote in his tragedy “Electra”, spoken by Electra herself, when she welcomes Orestes and tries to remember the beginnings of their wealth. She attempts to urge him into committing a killing that is both noble and unholy. She moves and commemorates.
· The second concerns Priam’s visit to Achilles’ tent, imploring him to return to him the lifeless body of his son, Hector.
What is it that urges Achilles to give in to Priam’s plea to return Hector’s body, and when does this happen?
Achilles is moved by the presence of old Priam, recognizing and remembering the figure of his own father – Peleus. He digs through MEMORY and commemorates.
“Time”
In Book 11 of the Odyssey, the Nekyia, when Odysseus descends to the Underworld, to the root/mother, he encounters Tiresias. There Tiresias (long before Augustin of Hippo) reminds Odysseus of the importance of the unbroken, three-dimensional time:
- THE PAST (Referring to Achilles’ soldiers).
- THE PRESENT (resonance with his mother).
- THE FUTURE (recourse towards Ithaca: the importance of the sacred cattle of Helios).
So, this blind poet from the island of Chios (note the oxymoron) has the blind seer with extraordinary “vision” descend through time – a clock without hands, with the knife in the water to make his paradox begin/be heard…
Thus, this chronological discontinuous-continuum becomes the basis for logos (reason) to touch the skin, and nestle within the midriff.
NARRATION
What is narration then? It is a very serious “game”, that is worth for all to play. Childhood, the anxiety of nostos, dreams, desires, memories, all become material for pure pleasure, in order for one to be able to narrate. Everyone remembers, they are not constructed, and obviously, are reciprocated.
In conclusion, I would like to mention two of my mentors in my tenure – thus far – in psychotherapy: Charilaos Varouhakis and Christopher Dave.
Thank you.
