During the last 25 years that I have been giving lessons to young and old,from children with learning disabilities to young people wanting to undertake their higher studies in a foreign language,I have discovered a common factor among all of those young individuals.This factor for me represents a valuable tool to better understand the psyche and the personalities of all my students,both female and male.This common element can be described as follows:During the course of the lesson ,many young people have the tendency to make “doodles” or abstract drawings on pieces of paper,on pages of note-books,or even on my cigarette or cigar packages.These sketches are of great value to me because they are spontaneous creations describing or defining the real situation or disposition of the person. It is the subconscious expressing itself,meaning the truly creative and revealing aspect of the human persona, exactly like the dreams.

The first great teachers of psychiatry like Freud,Jung and Adler espoused the idea that the human subconscious was the most inventive and creative tool in human expression,this wholesome and primeval part of the human specie,wrongly pushed aside for the sake of an”artificially organised civilization”.According to these great scientists(of the human psyche) and wise men,it was this marginalization of the subconscious which had produced the various psychoses,the self-destructive human violence and humanity΄s alienation from nature΄s equilibriums.It is therefore paradoxical to see in our days,that for the sake of society΄s “virtual reality”(a matter of survival),most of the psychiatrists worldwide try to convince their “unfortunate patients” not to become affected by any directives or psychological pressures from their subconscious,because it is far more important to follow the roles and the rules of society,even though these may “sometimes”seem unnatural and unhealthy.This convincing process by the psychiatrists is implemented “effectively” by using “scientific rhetoric”,by projecting the social uncertainties in being different, and of course by using “medical”drugs to debilitate the person΄s natural powers of mental and psychological resistance. The person in these particular cases has to accept in a “conscious” way (to the degree that it can)the everyday human madness and society΄s unnatural “checks and balances”,dismantling in the process many human mental capacities,many emotional affinities with the natural environment and with oneself,and of course any human intuition for the universal.To successfully become part of society,a person must abandon his or her uniqueness and naturally the primeval archetypes of the subconscious.That is exactly why I have collected tens of these “spontaneous” sketches of my students.What comes to my mind right now, is the image of the psychiatrist father of Phedros,that young boy who is in limbo concerning his own identity and his purpose in life.

The drawing which I shall present on my site,was made this year by a female student of mine called Hara,which in greek means “happiness” or “joy”.Hara is 26 years old,well educated,intelligent,attractive,dynamic,creative,simple but elegant.She has a responsible job in a large private enterprise,a position where she has to utilize effectively all of her knowledge and talents.The drawing which can be seen just beneath and can be magnified in order for someone to better examine the details,was drawn spontaneously by Hara during one of our lessons this year.This drawing represents all of us ,especially those individuals after the ages of 5 or 6,when children begin to distort their personalities in order to survive socially.I shall make the analysis just below the actual drawing.

As we can see from the drawing ,there is a central nucleus which is essentially the real substance of Hara΄s personality and identity.This nucleus or core has been crossed out by various straight lines in all directions, which is real self-negation for the sake of becoming part of society and her social environment.She has to survive socially,but not live her own human reality.The moment she negates the nucleus of her human identity,she feels insecure and so she starts to create her own trenches and defense lines .We can see that her first defense line is around the nucleus ,and then there is a larger and more complex defense line(polygon)encompassing everything. Her name is located within this network of defense lines ,and she feels absolutely trapped and alienated from a natural existence and from herself.What she deeply yearns for(subconscious) is to be outside of those defense lines and outside of her own social reality.She wishes to be a blooming flower(nature),free and open,and able to spontaneously love herself and all the people around her,shown as round spots spread about near her.