Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:34:30.728Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Psychosocial Dynamics of Change at Leros PIKPA Asylum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

J. Tsiantis ,
P. Kordoutis ,
G. Kolaitis ,
A. Perakis  and
H. Assimopoulos
J. Tsiantis*
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Athens; Department of Psychological Paediatrics, “Aghia Sophia” Children's Hospital, Athens
P. Kordoutis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Paediatrics, “Aghia Sophia” Children's Hospital, Athens
G. Kolaitis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Paediatrics, “Aghia Sophia” Children's Hospital, Athens
A. Perakis
Affiliation:
Association for Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Health, Holargos
H. Assimopoulos
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Paediatrics, “Aghia Sophia” Children's Hospital, Athens; Association for Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Health, Holargos, Greece
*
Professor John Tsiantis, Director, Department of Psychological Paediatrics, “Aghia Sophia” Children's Hospital, GR 11527 Athens, Greece
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The pilot intervention project at Leros PIKPA asylum was resisted at all levels of its implementation. Resistance ranged from implicit and passive to explicit and hostile. It took the form of strong rejective attitudes, defensiveness, and repressed emotions of guilt, shame and fear. It was apparent in efforts to delay, obstruct or reverse the progress of the project and undermine the work of intervention team members. It was evident in the interactions of the intervention team with all parties involved in implementing the project: medical professionals and welfare services, the state and local administrations, the central and local administrations of PIKPA staff, the local community, and the asylum residents' families and relatives. It is argued that this resistance to change is due to the interplay of cultural/attitudinal, psychodynamic and socio-economic factors that are not unique to Leros or Greece. The analysis of the psychosocial processes involved in resistance to changing the Leros PIKPA asylum may offer insights to the deinstitutionalisation of custodial settings in general.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 167 , Issue S28: The Children of Leros PIKPA , July 1995 , pp. 46 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballas, D. (ed.) (1991) Greek Psychiatric Reform. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General V, European Social Fund.Google Scholar
Bion, W. R. (1961) Experiences in Groups, and Other Papers. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Blue, A. (1993) Greek psychiatry's transition from the hospital to the community. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 7, 301–318.Google Scholar
Bullock, R. (1981) The grief relief process: coping with the life and death of physically and mentally disabled children. Orthopsychiatry and Clinical Psychiatry of North America, 12, 193–200.Google Scholar
De Bruxelles, S. (1990) Island of the damned: UN is urged to intervene. Observer, 4 March.Google Scholar
Greek Bank of Industrial Development, Prefecture of the Dodecanese Islands & Municipality of Leros (1989) Study on the Development of the Island of Leros, pp. 3–47 (in Greek). Athens: Greek Bank of Industrial Development.Google Scholar
Grove, R. (1991) Greece: a Greek tragedy revisited. Lancet, 338, 107–108.Google Scholar
Holt, G. & Bouras, N. (1988) Attitudes of medical students to mental handicap. Medical Teacher, 10, 305–307.Google Scholar
Kelman, H. C. (1958) Compliance, identification and internalization, three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51–60.Google Scholar
Koutrelakos, J., Gedeon, S. M. & Struening, E. L. (1978) Opinions about mental illness: a comparison of American and Greek professionals and laymen. Psychological Reports, 43, 915–923.Google Scholar
Koutrelakos, J. & Zarnani, O. (1983) Opinions about mental illness: a comparison of American and Greek social work students in 1969 and 1979. Psychological Reports, 53, 71–80.Google Scholar
Larwood, L., Gutek, B. & Gattiker, U. E. (1984) Perspectives on institutional discrimination and resistance to change. Group Organization Studies, 9, 333–352.Google Scholar
Lax, R. (1972) Some aspects of the interaction between mother and the impaired child: mother's narcissistic trauma. International Journal of Psycho-analysis, 53, 339–344.Google Scholar
Lazerson, M. (1975) Educational institutions and mental subnormality: notes on writing a history. In The Mentally Retarded and Society: A Social Science Perspective (eds Begab, M. J. & Richardson, S. A.), pp. 33–52. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Liakos, A. (1990) Coordination, Management, Organisation, Education, Personnel. Regulation 815/EEC. Expert Committee Report to the Greek Ministry of Health and the EEC (in Greek). Athens: University of Ioannina.Google Scholar
Lyketsos, G. C. (1990) Attitudes toward the mentally disabled. In Psychiatry: A World Perspective, Vol. 4 (eds Stefanis, C. N., et al, pp. 101–114). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Madianos, M. G., Madianou, D., Vlachonikolis, J., et al (1987) Attitudes toward mental illness in the Athens area: implications for community mental health intervention. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 75, 158–165.Google Scholar
McGuire, W. J. (1985) Attitudes and attitude change. In Handbook of Social Psychology (eds Lindzey, G. & Aronson, E.), pp. 233–346. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Menzies, I. L. (1988) The development of the self in children in institutions. In Containing Anxiety in Institutions, Selected Essays (ed. Menzies, I. L.), pp. 236–258. London: Free Associate Books.Google Scholar
Merritt, J. (1989a) Europe's guilty secret. Observer, 10 September.Google Scholar
Merritt, J. (1989b) The naked and the damned. Observer, 10 September.Google Scholar
Nestoros, I. N., Hantzi, A., Stilianou, M., et al (1992) Attitudes of psychology students at the University of Kriti toward mental illness. In Psychological Research in Greece (eds Dimitriou, A., Efklidi, A., Gonida, E. & Vakali, M.), pp. 195–207 (in Greek). Thessaloniki: Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
Newman, J. (1987) Background forces in policies for care and treatment of disability. Marriage and Family Review, 11, 25–44.Google Scholar
Observer (1992) Children in chains on island of the damned. Observer, 8 November.Google Scholar
Open Mind (1987) A Greek tragedy. Open Mind, 29 October, pp. 12–14.Google Scholar
Rudie, F. & Riedl, G. (1984) Attitudes of parents/guardians of mentally retarded former state hospital residents toward current community placement. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 89, 295–297.Google Scholar
Safilios-Rothschild, C. (1970) The Sociology and Social Psychology of Disability and Rehabilitation. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. & Darling, R. (1989) Ordinary Families Special Children. A Systems Approach to Childhood Disabilities. London: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Sinason, V. (1992) Mental Handicap and the Human Condition. New Approaches from the Tavistock. London: Free Associate Books.Google Scholar
Snyder, M. & Ickes, W. (1985) Personality and social behavior. In Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2 (eds Lindzey, G. & Aronson, E.), pp. 883–947. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Triandis, H. (1972) The Analysis of Subjective Culture. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Triandis, H. (1988) Collectivism vs. individualism: a reconceptualisation of basic concepts in cross-cultural psychology. In Personality, Cognition and Values: Cross-cultural Perspectives of Childhood and Adolescence in Personality, Cognition and Values: Cross-cultural Perspectives of Childhood and Adolescence (eds Bagley, C. & Verma, G. K.), pp. 60–95. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tsiantis, J. & Maratos, O. (1990) Institutional care and rehabilitation for children in Greece. In Psychiatry: A World Perspective, Vol. 4 (eds Stefanis, C. N., et al), pp. 643–649. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Vorria, P. (1991) The stigmatizing effect of institutional care in Greece. Children and families with special needs: the right to hope. In ESSOP European Congress Proceedings (eds Petaridou, E. & Nakou, S.), pp. 341–346. Athens: European Society for Social Pediatrics.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (1970) The human choice: individuation, reason and order versus deinviduation, impulse and chaos. In 1969 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Vol. 17 (eds Arnold, W. J. & Levine, D.), pp. 237–307. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.