title: Sacred psychiatry in ancient Greece.
abstract: From the ancient times, there are three basic approaches for the interpretation of the different psychic phenomena: the organic, the psychological, and the sacred approach. The sacred approach forms the primordial foundation for any psychopathological development, innate to the prelogical human mind. Until the second millennium B.C., the Great Mother ruled the Universe and shamans cured the different mental disorders. But, around 1500 B.C., the predominance of the Hellenic civilization over the Pelasgic brought great changes in the theological and psychopathological fields. The Hellenes eliminated the cult of the Great Mother and worshiped Dias, a male deity, the father of gods and humans. With the Father's help and divinatory powers, the warrior-hero made diagnoses and found the right therapies for mental illness; in this way, sacerdotal psychiatry was born.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Attikon Hospital, 1 Rimini str,, Athens 12462, Greece. tzefgr@yahoo.gr.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tzeferakos
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Douzenis
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