THE ATHENIAN INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOS (AIA)

is a Centre for the Study, Research, Personal Development of Individuals & Professionals through a focused Training Programme and Application Development of the Social Sciences of Man. Founded in 1963 by George and Vaso Vassiliou, it was the first organization in Greece to offer training in Systemic Group and Family Psychotherapy and one of the first in Europe to introduce Systemic Family Therapy. It is a public-benefit, non-profit organization based in Athens, and it operates under the Society for the Advancement of Research in Human Relations (E.P.E.A.S.).

The aim of the AIA is to contribute, in a catalytic way, to Human Sciences, Communication and Collaboration between professionals working with People and their groups, at local and international level. It implements, fosters, and advances across all its activities the Systemic-Dialectical, Multilevel-Multifocal Approach to the human condition, as conceived and introduced by its founders, Giorgos and Vasso Vassiliou.

As core principle of AKMA’s philosophy is the steadfast preservation of its AUTONOMY in SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY and ACTION.

Guided by this principle to this day, AKMA remains an economically and socially independent institution, dedicated to fostering communication, dialogue, and collaboration among the sciences that place the HUMAN BEING at their center, with a distinctly international and cross-cultural orientation.

The logo of AKMA, depicting a lantern accompanied by the maxim of the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, “I seek a human being,” embodies the founders’ vision of a world in which collaboration and human dignity would triumph over competition and exploitation.

For more than 60 years, AKMA has functioned as a collective professional co-evolutionary process, serving as an international, interdisciplinary hub and incubator for theoretical development, as well as a foundation for initiating collaborative projects focused on community engagement.

I Am Present

I am present means
I gather the few remaining forces within me and ask who I am, where I am, and what impact my words and deeds have. I refuse the deceitful postponement of myself into the future and the deliberate immobilization in the past. I seek and find a point from which I can see more clearly around me and ahead of me.

I am more present means
I examine my relationship with the masters who surround me, transform my fear into knowledge, accept my temporary solitude, and replace rigid phrases with silent action.

I am even more present means
I decide alone, bitterly and soberly, in my own time and space, the manner of my life and my death.


— D.N. Maronitis

“The Alphabet Book of Slaves,” article in the newspaper TO VIMA (26/2/1972). Included in his book Anemoskala, Simadures Choris Anemoskala (Kedros Publishing, 1984).