When I was 10 years old, I had a remarkable experience in Munich, Germany, where I spent my childhood. A classmate and I were violently sent away by a German shop owner on our way back from school. As he was pushing us out, he threw us onto the pavement. What followed was an unforgettable positive shock to our young souls. Before we could recover and stand up, the police, an ambulance and a psychologist had arrived and the procedure for the shop owner's ipso jure prosecution had begun. In literally five minutes, the constitutional rule of law was mobilised in order to investigate the obvious: whether there was violence against minors with possible racist motives. In the end, and after the shop owner’s sincere remorse, we helped his acquittal with our testimonies in court. Far from a childhood trauma, the effect that this experience had on us was to send us the message that we live in a friendly, safe, fair and protective world that actively and demonstrably cares about our welfare.
Since then, I have been a great supporter of the European idea and union embodied by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, from which the Anthem of Europe was adapted. When I returned to Greece at the age of 14, the Greek government’s inefficiency, dysfunctionality, and sloppiness, the deceit and lack of social and ecological awareness disturbed me, but I got used to them. I would certainly accept, welcome and look forward to any reforms which could bring the Greek government closer to the European acquis, rendering it more functional, citizen-friendly and effective, However, during the last five years of the Memorandum's "Adjustment Programme", I have seen very little in this direction. I do not understand how the institutions’ obsession with reducing the minimum wage in the private sector of a ruined economy, with 50% youth unemployment, could help. During the last 25 years of my career as a Homeopath and Psychiatrist, I have observed the collective emotional wave changing from euphoric irresponsibility, to anger - rage - infuriating fear - panic – despair – hopelessness – sadness- deprivation – peaceful ecstasy – prosperous completeness and love. Then again, it was only the healthy reflexes of Greek family solidarity that kept Greek society from crumbling during the last five years of this one-dimensional Memorandum “therapy”. I have a patient who has been working nights for the last five years, twelve to fourteen hours, seven days a week with neither a night off, nor health insurance. She doesn’t react because she is the only one who is still working in the family. I help her at no charge as much as I can, supporting her through homeopathy and psychotherapy consultation, but how much can she be helped under these circumstances? Won’t such occurrences only increase if there is a further reduction of the minimum wage?
Obviously, there is much to blame for our present economic situation. I am not an economist and cannot state an opinion thereof. Nevertheless, in my field of health care, I have both experience and opinions. Since 2004 and within 5 years, pharmaceutical expenditure has increased fourfold, from €4,5 billion, reaching €17 billion. The Troika proposed €6 billion of wage and pension cutting measures. The figures speak for themselves. The thorough, eloquent and candid work of my colleague Christos Ntellos, “The Silence of the Doctors”, is more than revealing. http://www.ntellos.gr/index.php/arthra/iatriki-ekpaideusi/iatrika-sinedria-i-siopi-ton-giatron.
An entire ring of doctors, pharmaceutical and health insurance companies - and every sort of middleman, squeezed enormous amounts of money from the savings of the state in the name of routine treatments of dubious effectiveness and safety.
Who is the victim and who is the rogue in a relationship of venality and bribery? It is a relationship of catastrophic co-dependence and the bill is paid by the insured person, the national economy and public health.
• In this day and age, the industrial-consumer development model, as well as reductive (left brain) scientific thought, are increasingly revealing their impasses and inadequacies. The recent economic crisis, the environmental crisis and the crisis of values and meaning are three of these consequences. There is an alternative model though, namely the holistic participatory and ecological model. An example of the holistic model in the health sector is the alternative, holistic medicine with Homeopathy as a principal form. The personalised philosophy of Homeopathy, (emphasis is given to the patient's constitution, not to the disease), is not consistent with the mass-consumption industrial model. The holistic approach has often given unexpected solutions for treatment of chronic, persistent diseases and its more extensive use could save money and protect patients from the pointless overuse of medications and the vicious circles of side effects caused by chemical pharmaceutical products. Its therapeutic efficacy, as well as the improvement of the general psychosomatic wellbeing and creativity that it imparts, has lead to a dynamic turn toward alternative medicine and especially Homeopathy.
• The reason that Homeopathy lost the battle against allopathic medicine at the end of the 19th century in America, was that it didn’t fit the mass consumption industrial economic model that existed then. It was, however, two centuries ahead of its time. But now its time has come. It is an alternative solution in the health sector that was structured and tested a long time ago at a human-centred level and not a profit and disease-centred one.
I have been fortunate to have visited India more than twenty times during the past twenty five years and watch an economic miracle happen year by year. A great part of this was critical support for (inexpensive, harmless and effective) holistic alternative medicine (Homeopathy, Ayuverda and Joga), by the Indian state, with its own ministry. Equally significant was institutional support for acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine in the Chinese economic miracle.
I pay my educational training trips with my own income and therefore reserve the right to choose the education I receive, regardless of the financial interests of the companies in this sector.
A lot has been said lately about German and Greek stereotypes. Ultimately, it has been a relationship of enrichment. The flourishing of German culture owes much to the ancient Greek spirit. Nietzsche’s philosophy is an important milestone. Homeopathy itself is the implementation, organisation and foundation of the Hippocratic Law of Similars, “Like cures like”, within a practical and effective therapeutic system developed by the inspired German physician, S. Hahnemann. Just as the Greek needs the balance of “German” qualities, the German needs “Greek” qualities to motivate and inspire him, to distance him from sterile rationalism and passion for power and control. Let us not forget the biggest surprise in football history in 2004, when a German coach organised, refined and tempered the Greek team's raw enthusiasm and adolescent recklessness.
In families with an addicted member, (heroin, cocaine, gambling), who begins to recover and get back on his or her feet, the real and deeper dysfunctional family models are revealed. This phenomenon is covered and dealt with in systemic psychology.
While it may be legal to turn a nation’s economy into an irresponsible “junkie” without even discussing the therapeutic outlook, (see debt sustainability), in order to save the financial system and banks, it is neither fair nor ethical. It may be legal to transfer debt responsibilities from gamblers-or profiteers to taxpayers throughout Europe, but it is not honest. Companies, political parties and large organisations often operate as bodies that focus on their self-sustainability, missing the point and purpose for which they were created, especially when not monitored, checked or held accountable democratically.
A very nice story says...
Once upon a time, there was an arid and unfortunate country where the residents were always thirsty and everything was withered and dry, until some water emerged in a place. The people learned about it and flocked there, they quenched their thirst and the land began to germinate and flourish. In order to facilitate water transport and distribution, they created an organisation which started working. Over time, they fenced off the place and created a hierarchy to manage and market it. The water however, which (like love) does not have hierarchy, withdrew. Nevertheless, the organisation continued to manage it, and being hypocritical, sold it as if it existed. The water emerged somewhere else where innocence, simplicity, authenticity, generosity, solidarity and honesty were still around, quenching people’s thirst and irrigating the land.
History repeats itself over the centuries.
That is more or less how we got from Christ’s message of Love to the practices of the Holy Inquisition. That is how we got from European ideals to all sorts of multinationally entangled “ministries” of the “institutions”. When a politician transfers his political responsibility for social reform to institutions, regulations and accountants, it is an evasion showing no political stature. Some play the part of Creon in a modern-day Antigone.
Modern neoliberalism has underground connections with the triptych of Protestantism (austerity, accuracy and hard work) and the rationalism and superrationalism that follows it.
The following is an excerpt from a highly revealing article by the astrophysicist Manos Danezis http://manosdanezis.gr/index.php/blog/360-2015-06-28-21-57-47 “Rationalism and superrationalism are the main drivers of the breakdown of western civilisation because the so-called rationalistic administrative circles:
1. Do not realise the constant change of meaning of the term “Logic” at a scientific, social and financial level and that Logic varies from region to region.
2. Do not understand that if the "logic" of Rationalism deprives us of “Values” and Humanity, that this philosophy must be cancelled as “socially dangerous”.
In the substantial essential “theology” of Protestantism, ancient Greek “moderation” is replaced by a hyperbole of fictitious needs that only serve to benefit the minority at the expense of the majority. In this economic-philosophic environment, “rationalism” creates “mainstream” science, something far from neutral that has difficulty addressing the “greater image”. That is why Manolis Glezos’ “Timeo hominem unius libri”, (Fear the one book man), is such a success.
A basic Protestant idea is the denial of tradition. It begins from the denial of the Church Fathers’ tradition and the acceptance of the Bible only, but in this way, oral traditions and association with the experience and wisdom of ancestors are lost.
It emphasized the mandate [Matthew 5:48] “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.
It thereby descended towards piousness and Puritanism, a victim of inaccurate translation. In the ancient and Hellenistic Greek, of the New Testament, the word “teleios” had the meaning of complete, accomplished, full, but was translated as “perfect” (flawless, faultless, without sin) in English. This error in translation came back from the West as a loanword and “perfect” came to mean flawless, or without sin in Modern Greek, rather than complete, or accomplished. Of course the obsession with a “humanly impossible” perfect, systematically leads to internal division, hypocrisy and pride – arrogance.
It is no coincidence that the great Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung, (although he was the son of a Protestant pastor), needed to embrace Catholicism and Gnosticism to be able to proceed with his personal individuation and develop his extended scientific “example”.
In my twenty-five years of professional activity, I constantly see the “vicious circles of side effects” to which many of the therapies proposed by “rational, mainstream” medicine lead. I continually see, use and benefit from the friendly, holistic, safe and effective means that alternative medicine offers.
We Greeks should not forget that the public sector was neither appointed nor formed by Tsipras and that the banks were closed by the one who is really in charge, even if it was an act of brutal violence against a nation financially drained and socially tormented for five years.
We Greeks must not forget the most important verses of our national anthem which refer to our ancestral difficulty.
144. 'Tis Discord who holds beguiling
royal mace, the cunning shrew,
and to everyone she's smiling,
saying "take it, thou shouldst too"
145. This slick mace she's slyly showing
truly hath a splendid guise
touch it not, because 'tis stowing
bitter tears ere now and cries
146. From a voice that hates you madly,
nay lads, let it not be heard
that your clout is turning gladly
unto your own brother's head
147. Let the foreign nations nother
think nor truly say with phlegm:
"If they're hating one another
liberty is not for them"
Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/greek-national-anthem-%C3%BDmnos-tin-elefther%C3%ADan-long-version-hymn-liberty.html#ixzz3nLRXxp00
When we research our resistance to therapy, transformation and examination of our consciousness in psychotherapy, we often stumble upon our fear of the unknown. “We prefer a familiar devil to an unknown angel.” Holistic, alternative medicine is for many people and for our country, the “unknown angel” of the health sector.
So, let us accept the responsibility, each one in his or her own microcosm. As it turned out, I made my first deposit at an ATM, learning on that occasion how it is done. It is better, of course, not to spend more than we earn. I have taken out only one loan and this was to install solar panels on the roof, through the energy of which it is repaid.
In the face of attempted European unification and the country’s need for settling down and healing its wounds, comes each person's responsibility. in conclusion, Laozi’s observation illustrates this best: “If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.”
Konstantinos Fytopoulos
(Psychiatrist / Homeopath)
