It is with much sadness that we report to the EFPP community the passing of John Tsiantis, who was the first EFPP vice-president from 1991 for several years. It will be clear from what follows that through his activities he epitomised all that the EFFP stands for. He was an organisational genius in accessing and making use of European contacts and funds for the development of innovative joint projects that provided services, training and research. He spent some years in the UK gaining experience of child and adolescent psychiatry services and underwent psychoanalytic psychotherapy training, returning to Greece to lead extensive developments.

He believed firmly in the relevance of the EFPP to which he gave of his best. In the early years, he was a wonderful support to Brian Martindale, the EFPP’s first chair. With the foundation pillars of the EFPP being its three sections standing alongside one another but not competing, he put the child and adolescent section firmly on the map by organising in 1994 in Athens the first EFPP child and adolescent section conference. This was a great success, drawing a large European attendance. He then started the EFPP book series becoming its first Editor-in-Chief. The series is now 21 strong. https://www.karnacbooks.com/SeriesDetail.asp?SID=87. The first monograph he edited was entitled Countertransference in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents, probably the first book on the topic. How lucky the EFPP was to have had John, Lydia Tischler and Birgit Hallerfors as its first three child and adolescent section representatives.

Many will remember the ongoing bi-annual Syros Summer Workshop for Psychoanalytic Studies meetings on the Greek Island of Syros where a small number of EFPP members would gather to discuss a theme. These were initiated in 1998 by John in collaboration with Dimitris Anastasopoulos and Effie Lignos.

John had trained in child and adolescent psychiatry in the UK, working in the Child Guidance Training Department at the Tavistock Clinic with Salo Tischler and at the same time training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the British Association of Psychotherapy.

On returning to Athens from England John introduced a plethora of psychiatric reforms in mental health services for children and adolescents throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s.
Initially single handed, he started the Clinic for Psychological Medicine at the ‘Aghia Sofia’ Children’s Hospital (later becoming the Child Psychiatric Clinic, attached to the School of Medicine of Athens University). This was based on his experience of UK models. There, hundreds of mental health professionals and postgraduate medical students were introduced to psychodynamic ideas. John Tsiantis fought for the recognition of child psychiatry as a separate specialization. He is generally recognized as the first Professor of Child Psychiatry in Greece although for some years the medical establishment withheld the recognition of Child Psychiatry as a separate discipline.
His vision inspired many of us Greeks to leave our careers abroad and follow his example, returning to Greece to work alongside him for institutional changes in the mental health services for children and adolescents.
He collaborated with municipalities of both troubled areas of Piraeus and remote areas of Greece to set up child and adolescent mental health services, providing supervision and seminars through visiting teams.
He took great care to develop training programmes for health visitors and other primary health care professionals who worked with children and adolescents. These programmes were mostly funded through initiatives that John developed with the European Union.

He also undertook the huge project of reforming the Leros asylum. Through the Hellenic Association for Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Health (‘The children of PIKPA Leros’, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 165, 1995) he organised a team of experienced colleagues to offer an alternative to the Leros asylum, where all the unwanted children due to psychiatric disorders, or severe educational incapacities, were deposited. The development of a network of hostels as family units within the community offered these children conditions of feeling respectable human beings, reconnecting them with their families, when possible. One example of the obstacles he faced was the need to overcome and battle against the upper middle-class residents of an affluent Athens suburb who tried to block the operation of one of these protected homes. The project expanded to provide day centres for adolescents, and a home for children who couldn’t be cared by their own parents. This was one of John’s great achievements, which acquired international attention and awards.
Sadly, in recent years Government funding has failed to sustain some of these projects.

He initiated child psychotherapy in the public sector providing basic training to the staff by inviting senior child psychotherapists from ACP (UK) and enhancing the clinical skills of colleagues within and outside the Clinic. For this he elicited financial support from donors. It was his initiative that led us in 1991 to create the Hellenic Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Children & Adolescents (HACAP), serving as President for many years. This organisation has long been an active member within the EFPP. He also developed the Association’s journal: “Child and Adolescent: Mental Health and Psychopathology”.

He also contributed considerably to adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Greece and to Cyprus. In 1977 he was among the co-founders of the Greek Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and he remained a member throughout the rest of his life. He actively promoted the training of Cypriot colleagues. In collaboration with Dimitris Anastasopoulos he started the Cypriot Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
As can be imagined, John had vision, will and conviction. He could recognize the potential of every colleague and was always pushing, sometimes subtly and sometimes with more force, to extract from everyone their maximum capabilities. He had the ability to make everyone feel special and unique. His psychanalytic stance was always there, facilitating his different roles and activities.

Attending a conference with John was not strictly a scientific exchange. It was an opportunity for new initiatives, new collaborations, and new projects. It was joie de vivre. Very early on he recognized the need for research in the field of mental health and came into contact with colleagues from other European countries in order to collaborate in many research programmes which resulted in numerous publications. His own long list of publications, both in Greek and English, covered a wide variety of subjects.

Judith Trowell, a UK research collaborator writes:

John had first worked in the UK with Professor Issy Kolvin on an important project about patients with learning disability on the island of Lesbo and another based in Athens ,Milan and London looking at mental health disturbances in children with haemophilia or β-thalassaemia. More joint research developed following Professor Kolvin’s move to the Tavistock Clinic and the Royal Free hospital with John committed to including the psychoanalytic viewpoint in all this work.

Standing out was an exciting and creative international study into childhood depression, involving London, Athens and Helsinki. In preparation there were visits to one country or another which involved amazing food , and wonderful sightseeing as well as hard work. John was always on hand making sure things went well and people were cared for properly. The links with Effie Lignos in Athens and Maria Schulman in Helsinki consolidated this. Junior staff came to be trained in London As well as research publications the book “Childhood Depression, A Place for Psychotherapy” was published. John initiated other books and publications.

John will be always remembered as a pioneering spirit, a mentor, a dedicated teacher, a reliable colleague, a tireless inspirer, “brother in arms” and good friend. Everyone has remarked on his kindness and support for the talents of others. He was very cultured, loving music especially. He would often combine his travels with visits to concerts and the opera. Brian remembers particularly his sense of fun and evenings full of laugher, sometimes hilarity after a long days work whilst enjoying a glass or two of wine.

Although he retired in 2006 from his position as Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry he continued with many different projects in Greece and abroad.

Sadly Government funding became unavailable for some of his national projects and during the last two years his failing health began to take its toll… but we will remember him as a charismatic visionary who embraced psychiatric reform in Greece.

We have send our heartfelt condolences to his wife, three sons and their families.

Effie Ligno
Brian Martindale