Evgenia T. Georganda’s scientific contributions

This article is based on a presentation for the symposium on “Existential Reflections on Love, Its Complexities, Meanings, and Possibilities” held at the 2018 American Psychological Association conference in San Francisco, California. The article highlights the value of the concept of Oistros both for therapy and for the way in which we live our lives. It offers a definition of Oistros and explores the conditions, namely Eros and Thanatos, that serve to bring forth and sustain this way of being. A discussion of the function of Oistros and its relevance to living life well is offered to illustrate its potential primacy as an existential concept.

Although one could argue that the first form of a phenomenological approach to dialogue and therapy was introduced by Socrates somewhere around 300 bce with his “dialectic inquiry,” modern existential and phenomenological traditions in psychiatry and psychology arrived in the 1920s in France and in the 1930s and 1940s in some other southern European countries. Developed mainly by psychiatrists and a few psychologists, the initial period aimed to produce an alternative perspective to the dominant mechanistic and somatic viewpoint over psychopathology. Following the work of Karl Jaspers, Binswanger, E. Straus, von Gebsattel, and Boss, southern existential pioneers wanted to include the subjective personal experience of the person who suffers in its diagnosis and understanding. In Italy there are different and heterogeneous groups linked to phenomenological‐existential psychology, some focused on philosophy and existential psychology, others on Viktor E. Frankl's Existential Analysis and Logotherapy, and others on phenomenological psychopathology.

“Oistros,” or oestrus, or estrus, is a concept with many meanings and implications. In ancient Greece oestrus was a gadfly that stung animals and drove them to react. Socrates was the first to use the image allegorically in describing himself as a gadfly that awakens people from their lethargy and laziness. It is connected with the passion for life, with creativity, and an awakening from the indolence of everyday living. It is also directly associated with the female reproductive cycle via the estrogens related to pregnancy and childbirth. It is thus related to the ideas of attraction, union, and creation in general, as well as to spiritual, mental, and psychic elation, enthusiasm, and inspiration. “Zhi Mian” is a concept that the Chinese Institute for Existential Psychology introduced to the existential community a few years ago. It means to “face life directly” and to have the courage to look at our existential issues with no pretenses. This is similar to the concept of “oistros” evolved by “gignesthai,” the Hellenic Association for Existential Psychology, that is, to the awareness and awakening that promote change and turn life into an intense and meaningful experience. When stung by death awareness, we give greater importance to life by realizing our time limitations and are not wasting time as if we were eternal. “Oistros” leads to a life full of passion, energy, and creativity, helping us to achieve the Epicurean dictum that “To live well and to die well is the same task.”