Anastasia Zissi is a highly experienced researcher and Professor at the University of the Aegean, Department of Sociology, whose work focuses on community and mental health, the design and organization of psychosocial interventions, the diagnosis of needs and quality of life assessment of the general population and socially oppressed groups. Since 2004 he has been a founding member of the steering committee of the Postgraduate Programme of Studies in Social Cohesion and Community Development of the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean and today is a Directorof the M.Sc. course “Applied-Clinical Sociology and Arts” of the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean and the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the University of Western Macedonia.

Days of Art in Greece had the great pleasure of meeting the current director of the MSc in Applied-Clinical Sociology and Arts, Anastasia Zissi, who is sharing with us the vision that “Art can make sense of life and establish relational practices that overturn traditional patterns of oppression by revealing the implicit processes that allow their reproduction“.

Having this wide background in psychology, sociology, we would like to ask you how much has the way of perceiving knowledge changed today, both in terms of the subject matter and in terms of the student-teacher?

Models of knowledge production and teaching have changed as emphasis is placed on the process of co-production, interdisciplinarity, the development of different perspectives and action. The Master’s degree in Applied- Clinical Sociology and Arts is oriented towards new models of co-production and working together informed by the principles of social justice, equity and respect for pluralism.

What do you think are the causes of the increase in psychological problems among young people? What is the role of parents and what is the role of the social environment?

We do not have longitudinal epidemiological data that can safely document the increasing trends in psychological problems among young people, but we know from official WHO reports and cross-sectional European surveys that adolescents and young people face a wide range of challenges both in their personal and their connection to the labour market. The great pressure for social acceptance, especially in terms of standards of external appearance, and often the difficulties in achieving an autonomous life put existential issues at the centre of their quest and concerns.  When these existential anxieties do not find a method of treatment, various forms of mental distress, sources of psychological pain, are likely to occur. Psychic pain expresses an accumulated inability to resolve internal tensions. The creation of intermediate spaces where young people can develop their talents and enrich their interests through participatory processes and companionship can strengthen bonds and positive reciprocity, alleviating internal deadlocks.

Do you consider the phenomenon of increasing violence against women to be real? And if so, what is the cause?

Often journalists are interested in documenting whether there is an increase in violence against women but the reality is that each act o violence needs to keep us alert as a society regardless of the statistical magnitude of it. What is certain is that the femicides of recent years and the high demand for the use of telephone assistance services suggest that there is something wrong with love affairs and the unfolding of a full emotional life.  When people enter into a relationship they fantasize about various things that do not resonate and this results in frustration that can spill over into the shores of evil. The inability to have a relationship of companionable reciprocity is exacerbated by ingrained patriarchal patterns.

Do mental illnesses have a class bias? Are they more common in communities with low economic opportunities? Durkheim has pointed out the “anomic phenomenon”. How much do you think psychoses are the result of fictitious needs of an over-consumptive society?

The class dimension of clinical psychopathology has been documented by a multitude of studies that actually emanated from Durkheim’s studies of anomie and suicide.  This is not to say that the affluent classes are free of mental health problems.  However, we know that the prognosis and treatment o mental distress is significantly influenced by the cultural capital of people and the communities in which they live and work.

*Anastasia Zissi is Professor of Community Psychology and Mental Health at the University of the Aegean, Department of Sociology, Greece. She conducted her PhD research study on community resettlement of Leros asylum psychiatric patients as an Onassis Social Foundation Scholar at University of Birmingham, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, UK. She has undertook a number of funded research projects related to community, mental health inequalities, social deviance, social psychology of racism. She has published in international scientific journals including; Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Community Psychology, Psychological Medicine. Her research interests cover the following topics; critical mental health and recovery, community psychology and social change, therapeutic communities, social understanding of deviance and disability.