Women Psychoanalysts in Greece
Athina Alexandris (1925-2019)
![Athina Alexandris](bilder/alexandris_athina.jpg)
Athina Alexandris was born in Athens, where she studied medicine and specialised in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital Agia Sofia. She completed her residency in psychiatry and child psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In the 1960s, she was head child psychiatrist at the Albert-Prévost Institute in Montreal. She received her psychoanalytic training at the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis and became a member of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society.
In the mid-1970s, Athina Alexandris returned to Greece and took part in an attempt to create a Study Group of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in Greece. After the failure of the negociations with the IPA, she co-founded, along with Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos, Andreas Giannakoulas, Mattheos Iosafats, and Yiannis Tsiantis, the Hellenic Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ΕΕΨΨ) in 1977, serving as its president.
In 1982, Athina Alexandris, Peter Hartocollis, Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos, Anna Potamianou, and Stavroula Beratis succeeded in establishing a Greek IPA Study Group. The Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society (EΨE) became a Component Society of the IPA in 2001. Yet in 1987, a split occurred when Alexandris and Sakellaropoulos sought recognition as training analysts without fulfilling the standards of the IPA. Athina Alexandris left the Study Group and continued to train psychiatric professionals as a lecturer and supervisor in collaboration with psychoanalytic and academic institutions such as the ΕΕΨΨ and the Psychiatric Clinic of the Aiginiteio University Hospital.
Most of Athina Alexandris' writings deal with fundamental topics such as guilt, the unconscious, supervision, violence, and the role of presence in psychoanalysis and in life. In her recent book on the various disguises of the death instinct (2015), she developed her thoughts based on Melanie Klein's theory. (Top of the article)
- SELECTED WORKS (s. a. ΕΕΨΨ)
- Ψυχαναλυση: Βια σε εποπτειες, σε παιδια, εφηβους και ενηλικες. Athen 2008 [Psychoanalysis: Violence in Children, Adolescents, Adults and Supervision. Athen 2008]
- Ψυχαναλυση: Το ασυνειδητο. Athen 2011 [Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious. Athen 2012]
- Ψυχαναλυση: Η ενοχη [Psychoanalysis: Guilt]. Athen 2013
- Ψυχαναλυση: Η εποπτεια [Psychoanalysis: Supervision]. Athen 2013
- Ψυχαναλυση: Η παρουσια [Psychoanalysis: Presence]. Athen 2014
- Ψυχαναλυση: Το ενστικτο θανατου. "Μεταμφιεση" [Psychoanalysis: The Death Instinct. "Masquerades"]. Athen 2015
- (und Frederick W. Lundell) Effect of thioridazine, amphetamine and placebo on the hyperkinetic syndrome and cognitive area in mentally deficient children. Canadian Medical Association Journal 98 (2), 1968, 92-96
- (and Grigoris Vaslamatzis) (eds) Countertransference. Theory, Technique, Teaching. London 1993
- REFERENCES
- Bossé, Jean: Présence de la psychanalyse à la clinique de l'enfance et de l'adolescence du Pavillon Albert-Prévost de l'Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur ou une expérience de pratique psychanalytique institutionnelle. Filigrane 10 (1), 2001 (2015-08-06)
- Ελληνική Εταιρεία Ψυχανάλυσης και Ψυχαναλυτικής Ψυχοθεραπείας (ΕΕΨΨ) / Hellenic Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2024-07)18
- Ελληνική Ψυχαναλυτική Εταιρεία (EΨE) / Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society (2024-07-18)
- IPA: 2019 Obituaries (2024-07-17)
- Kontos, Jannis, et al.: Greece. In Psychoanalysis International, Vol. 2: America, Asia, Australia. Further European Countries. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1995, 288-306
- Potamianou, Anna: Grèce. In Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse (2002). Ed. by A. de Mijolla. Paris 2005, 733f [International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Detroit u. a. 2005, 700-701]
- Talfanidis, Konstantinos, and Grigoris Maniadakis: Studying the archives of the Hellenic Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. An outline of its historical course. Int Forum Psychoanal 23, 2014, 127-132
- PHOTO: ΕΕΨΨ (2024-07-19)
Stavroula Beratis (1942?-2023)
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![Stavroula Beratis (2014)](bilder/beratis_2014.jpg)
Stavroula "Avra" Beratis was born in Piraeus. She studied medicine at the University of Athens and specialised in psychiatry and child psychiatry in New York. At the same time, she completed her psychoanalytic training at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and became a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She was an Assistant Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she collaborated with Fred Pine and Paulina Kernberg.
In the mid-1970s, she returned to Greece. Her husband, Nikolaos "Nikos" Beratis, became a Professor of Pediatrics at the newly founded Medical School of the University of Patras in 1979, and Stavroula Beratis an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry in 1981. She took over the leadership of the Psychiatric Clinic and was a Professor of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis at the University of Patras until 2010.
In 1982, Stavroula Beratis, along with Anna Potamianou, Peter Hartocollis, Athina Alexandris, and Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos, was one of the founders of the Greek Study Group recognised by the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). The Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society (Ελληνικη Ψυχαναλυτικη Εταιρεια, ΕΨΕ) became a full member of the IPA in 2001.
Stavroula Beratis was a training analyst, supervisor, and president of the ΕΨΕ. Her scientific publications focused on topics such as the psychological problems of children with thalassemia (Mediterranean anemia), suicide and suicide attempts among Greek adolescents, depression, and early symptoms of schizophrenia. (Top of the article)
- SELECTED WORKS
- The first analytic dream: Mirror of the patient's neurotic conflicts and subsequent analytic process. IJP 65, 1984, 461-469
- The personal myth as a defense against internal primitive aggression. IJP 69, 1988, 475-482
- Suicidal attempts and suicides in Greek adolescents. In D. Papadatou and C. J. Papadatos (eds): Children and Death. New York 1991, 77-84
- Suicide among adolescents in Greece. British Journal of Psychiatry 159, 1991, 515-519
- Psychosocial status in pre-adolescent children with ß-thalassaemia. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 37 (3), 1993, 271-279
- Psychosocial stressor in the conversion of subsyndromal depression to seasonal mood disorder. European Journal of Psychiatry 10 (2), 1996, 118-122
- The quantitative factor in the transformations observed during the psychoanalytic process. Psicoanalisi 10 (2), 2006 + pdf
- (et al.) Development of a child with long-lasting deprivation of oral feeding. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 20 (1), 1981, 53-64
- (with Joanna Gabriel and Stavros Hoidas) Age at onset in subtypes of schizophrenic disorders. Schizophrenia Bulletin 20 (2), 1994, 287-296
- (and Spyridoula Labropoulou) Psychosocial adjustment of thalassaemic children's siblings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 39 (7), 1995, 911-919
- (and Joanna Gabriel) Early trauma in the development of masochism and depression. Int Forum Psychoanal 6, 1997, 231-236
- (et al.) Symptomatology of the initial prodromal phase in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 28 (3), 2002, 415-429
- (et al.) Major depression and risk of depressive symptomatology associated with short-term and low-dose interferon-alpha treatment. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 58 (1), 2005, 15-18
- (et al.) Suicidality in the "prodromal" phase of schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry 52 (5), 2011, 479-485
- (with Savvas Savvopoulos and Sotiris Manolopoulos) Repression and splitting in the psychoanalytic process. IJP 92, 2011, 75-96
- (and Ioannis Vartzopoulos) Bodily manifestations in the psychoanalytic process. Psa Quart 81 (3), 2012, 657-681
- (with Anastasia Stathopoulou and Ion N. Beratis) Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure, risk of schizophrenia, and severity of positive/negative symptoms. Schizophrenia Research 148 (1-3), 2013, 105-110
- REFERENCES
- Ελληνική Ψυχαναλυτική Εταιρεία (EΨE) / Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society (2024-07-19)
- Kontos, Jannis, et al.: Greece. In P. Kutter (ed.): Psychoanalysis International, Vol. 2: America, Asia, Australia. Further European Countries. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1995, 288-306
- University of Patras: School of Medicine (2024-07-22)
- PHOTO: Film still from The Eighth Conference of the ΕΨΕ, Novembre 2014 (2020-12-28)
Frosso Karapanou (1909-2002)
Frosso Karapanou (or Carapanou / Carapanos) was born in Alexandria in Egypt, the daughter of Gerasimos Karapanos and Hermine Mavrommatis. Her father was a mining engineer. From 1943 to 1947 she undertook a personal analysis with Andreas Embirikos, the Greek poet and pioneer of psychoanalysis. She then moved to Paris in order to train as a psychoanalyst and commenced a second analysis with René Laforgue. Simultaneously, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne (1947-1949) and attended the child analytic seminars conducted by Françoise Dolto. In 1950 she went to Geneva, where she obtained her diploma as a kindergarten teacher. She returned to Athens for family reasons. From 1955 to 1958 she established the first psychoanalytically oriented kindergarten in Greece.
Between 1951 and 1968, Frosso Karapanou regularly travelled to Paris for further psychoanalytic training, attending the courses of the Société Psychanalytique de Paris (SPP). Since the early 1960s, she was also working at the Centre of Mental Health and Research (CMHR) in Athens directed by Anna Potamianou, where she headed a specialised unit of psychoanalytic psychotherapy established in 1965. After the coup d'état by the military junta in 1967, Frosso Karapanou stayed in Paris. Supervised by Georges Devereux, she graduated as a PhD with an ethno psychiatric study on obesity (1975). In 1968 she applied to the Institute of the SPP to be accepted as a candidate and thus finish her training. The SPP, however, insisted upon a new analysis, which she underwent with Denise Braunschweig in the years of 1969 to 1973. Family reasons forced her to return to Athens in 1973. Ten years later, in 1983, she became a member of the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Study Group, founded in 1982 and recognised the same year by the International Psychoanalytical Association. (Top of the article)
- SELECTED WORKS
- Η πρωιμη μητρικη αποστερηση [Early lack of maternal care]. Encephalos 3, 1952/53, 68-80 + ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΥΣΤΕΡΩΝ 7 (Juni) 2002
- La consultation psychiatrique du Centre d'hygiène mentale et de recherches. Athen 1965
- Réflexion sur le Centre Etienne Marcel. Le Coq-Héron Nr. 7, 1970, 13-16
- Approche ethnopsychiatrique d'un cas d'obésité réactionelle. Phil. Diss. Paris 1975
- Το ανδρικο "φιλοτιμο" και η γυναικεια "εξαρτηση" [Male "pride" and female "dependence"]. Επιστημονικη Επετηρις 7 (1), 1979
- Identité et identification dans la nouvelle de J. Joyce "Un petit nuage". RFP 48 (2), 1984, 581-600
- Πρωταρχικος ναρκισσισμος [Primary narcissism]. In: IXNH [Tribute - 50 Years After the Death of Freud. Texts from Greek and French Psychoanalysts]. Athen 1992
- (and Anna Potamianou) Genèse et évolution de deux fantasmes au cours de la thérapie d'un enfant psychotique. Revue de Neuropsychiatrie Infantile et d'Hygiène Mentale de l'Enfance 15 (1/2), 1967, 115-133
- (and Anna Potamianou) Langage, désir. In Didier Anzieu et al.: Psychanalyse et culture grecque. Paris 1980, 53-100
- REFERENCES
- ΕΛΙΑ - The Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (2017-07-21)
- Kontos, Jannis, et al.: Greece. In Psychoanalysis International, Vol. 2: America, Asia, Australia. Further European Countries. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1995, 288-306
- Vlahaki, Irini: From insanity to mental health - the novelty of the Hellenic Mental Health Center. Ι.Ψ.Υ.Π.Ε. - Mental Health Institute for Children and Adults (2016-04-27)
Anna Potamianou née Pipineli (1926-2021)
![Anna Potamianou](bilder/potamianou_anna.jpg)
Anna Pipineli-Potamianou was born in Piräus and studied philosophy and archeology at the Philosophical School of Athens. In 1958 she graduated with a PhD thesis on the causes of anti-social behaviour. Subsequenly she studied psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she worked at L'Hôpital des Enfants Malades, alongside with the French psychoanalysts Serge Lebovici and René Diatkine. She was trained as a child psychotherapist at the Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement de Psychothérapeutes.
Impressed by the psychiatric reformation movement in France, Anna Potamianou founded in 1956 the Centre of Mental Health and Research (CMHR) in Athens - the first official effort to implement psychiatric reformation in Greece. From 1957 to 1967, she was Scientific Director at the CMHR. After the coup d'état by the military junta in 1967, the CMHR was placed under state supervision and Anna Potamianou resigned. She went back to Paris to train as a psychoanalyst at the Institute of the Société Psychanalytique de Paris (SPP). In 1974 she became a member, and in 1980 a training analyst of the SPP.
When the junta fell in 1974, she returned to Greece once again as the scientific director of the CMHR, a post she held until 1978. In 1981 Anna Potamianou, Peter Hartocollis, Athéna Alexandris, Panagiotis Sakellaropoulos and Stavroula Beratis founded the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Study Group, which gained formal recognition by the IPA in 1982. In 2001 the Ελληνικη Ψυχαναλυτικη Εταιρεια (Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society) became an IPA member society. Anna Potamianou served as its president from 1998 to 2002 and belonged to the IPA board from 2005 to 2009. Besides working as a psychoanalyst in private practice, she taught at the Pantion University in Athens.
Anna Potamianou is also a member of the Paris Psychosomatic Institute (IPSO) and the Association Internationale de Psychosomatique Pierre Marty (AIPPM), and she has published widely on psychosomatic issues. In her study Destins et carillons de la culpabilité (2013) she examined the question of the relationship between guilt and somatisations. Perhaps best-known is her book Hope. A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States. Based on clinical cases, literary examples and myths, Potamianou shows in this book how borderline patients use hope as a means of denying reality, preventing change and sustaining omnipotence. (Top of the article)
- SELECTED WORKS (for more, see BiblioNet + Cairn.info)
- Τα αίτια της αντικοινωνικής συμπεριφοράς [The Causes of Antisocial Behavior]. PhD Thesis Athen 1958
- Personality and group participation in Greece. Mental Health and Research Publications Nr. 24, 1965, 2-24
- Problems of Mental Health in Greece of Today. Athen 1965
- On ego defenses. Psa Study Child 37, 1982, 421-432
- Les enfants de la folie. Violence dans les identifications. Toulouse 1984
- The personal myth. Points and counterpoints. Psa Study Child 40, 1985, 285-296
- Episkepsis: Pensées autour de la visite d'Anna Freud à Athènes. Rev Int Hist Psychanal 1, 1988, 247-254
- Figurations du Nirvana et réaction thérapeutique négative. RFP 4, 1988, 917-935
- Rêves et somatisation. Topique Nr. 45, 1990, 49-62 [Somatization and dream work. Psa Study Child 45, 1990, 273-292]
- Un bouclier dans l'économie des états limites: l'espoir. Paris 1992 [Hope. A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States. London 1997]
- In exile from the mother tongue. Canadian J Psychoanal 1 (2), 1993, 47-59
- Réflexions sur les processus désinvestissants. Rev Fr Psychosom Nr. 5, 1994, 92-96
- Processus de répétition et offrandes du moi. Paris; Lausanne 1995
- En dehors du temps... dans les figures du mythe d'Hélène: brillance et éblouissement du désir. RFP 3, 1998, 947-955
- De crises et de maladies. Rev Fr Psychosom Nr. 12, 1998, 7-22
- Le traumatique. Répétition et élaboration. Paris 2001
- Pathways of pleasure. The channel of primary anality. IJP 83, 2002, 609-621
- Nachdenken über Ethik und psychoanalytische Institutionen. EPF Bulletin 57, 2003
- Fixations psychiques, liages somatiques. Rev Fr Psychosom Nr. 22, 2002, 151-174
- Frappes et battements d'excitation. Rev Fr Psychosom Nr. 33, 2008, 8-29
- Epimythion au négatif. RFP 72 (1), 2008, 63-74
- Λογος και πραξις στην ψυχαναλυση [Diskurs und Praxis in der Psychoanalyse]. Athen 2012
- Destins et carillons de la culpabilité. Rev Fr Psychosom Nr. 44, 2013, 93-109
- (mit Jean Guillaumin et al.) L'invention de la pulsion de mort. Paris 2000
- VIDEO
- Anna Potamianou: Everyday Violence. Upclose.gr (2013-01-18)
- REFERENCES
- Bournova, Klio: En mémoire d’Anna Potamianou (1926-2021). SPP (2023-11-07)
- Kontos, Jannis, et al.: Greece. In P. Kutter (ed.): Psychoanalysis International, Vol. 2: America, Asia, Australia. Further European Countries. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1995, 288-306
- Obituary Anna Potamianou. Αέναη επΑνάσταση 2021 (2023-11-06)
- Oikonomakou, Katerina: Interview with Anna Potamianou. Eleftherotypia, 5 June 2010
- Sella, Olga: Interview with Anna Potamianou. Parathyri, 21.8.2011 (2013-01-18)
- Vassiliadou, Maro: Interview with Anna Potamianou. Kathimerini, 1.6.2020 (2020-12-28)
- Vlachakis, Irini: La tradition psychiatrique en Grèce et la transmission de la psychanalyse. Le paradigme historique du Centre d'hygiène mentale à Athènes. Topique Nr. 89 (4), 2004, 103-109 + Cairn.info (2010-02-01)
- Vlahaki, Irini: From insanity to mental health - the novelty of the Hellenic Mental Health Center. Ι.Ψ.Υ.Π.Ε. - Mental Health Institute for Children and Adults (2016-04-27)
- PHOTO: Αέναη επΑνάσταση (2023-11-06)