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Open Access 01-12-2014 | Review

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Sacred psychiatry in ancient Greece

Authors: Georgios Tzeferakos, Athanasios Douzenis

Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry | Issue 1/2014

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.

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Title: RETRACTED ARTICLE: Sacred psychiatry in ancient Greece
Authors: Georgios Tzeferakos
Athanasios Douzenis
Publication date: 01-12-2014
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1744-859X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-13-11

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RETRACTED ARTICLE: Sacred psychiatry in ancient Greece

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