Published: March 2026

Keywords:
Plato, Plato’s Cave, allegory, metaphor, reality, truth, lie, individual, collective, group, society, family, family therapy, Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana, Giorgos Seferis, Nikos Karouzos, Miguel de Cervantes.

Metalogos

Abstract

The Cave

The Cave is another video by the Editorial Team of Metalogos - a work that began as a collective gesture under the coordination of Maria Pantelaki and was completed, with effort and persistence, in the absence left by her sudden death. An act of continuity and love, following a violent interruption. It was presented at the Systemic Association of N. Greece 2025 Conference.

Drawing on the allegory of Plato, the dialogue between voices and images does not remain within the bounds of philosophical reflection, but turns into a field of confrontation. Crossing the boundaries between society, the family, and the phases of family or group life - such as “the exit” - it critically engages family therapy, its theories and practices, exposing with sarcasm the dominant narratives of power and control in human relationships.

Within this tension, the thought of Gregory Bateson resonates - a reminder that when everything is read as control, complexity, relationship, and meaning are silenced.

Through continuous shifts in discourse and sharp reversals, the viewer is invited into reflection on the immobilisations, the unfreedoms, and the illusions of freedom in contemporary times. The means of communication and surveillance - useful tools, yet primarily vehicles of control, imposition, and the refinement of armaments - emerge as central mechanisms in the construction of realities.

The question persists:

Is contemporary Western society a technologically illuminated, yet equally suffocating Cave?

A place where people are not only chained, but also the ones who chain - participating almost hypnotically in the reproduction of the very narratives that constrain their thought and action, foreshadowing the disasters to come…