Published: October 2025

Keywords:
Systemic theory · Cybernetics · Constructivism · Complexity · Gregory Bateson · Edgar Morin · Psychotherapy · Therapeutic relationship.

A short biographical note on Theodoros Sfikas

by Maria Pantelaki

Theodoros Sfikas (1951–2008) was an important member of the Therapeutic Team of the Mental Health Centre of Western Thessaloniki (MHC-WT) and a significant figure in the psychiatric community in Greece. A graduate of the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he began his specialization in Neurology–Psychiatry in Paris and completed it at the Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki. As a trainee, he was selected to join the pioneering founding team of the MHC-WT, where he developed rich clinical, research, educational, and writing activity, serving there until 2008.

He was one of the founders of the journal Metalogos – initially printed (2002–2012) and later electronic (since 2013) – to which he contributed his knowledge, integrity, and passion for Psychiatric Reform. His theoretical and clinical orientation in Systemic Psychotherapy, enriched by psychoanalysis and philosophy – especially that of the French philosophers – profoundly marked his work.

Through his committed and deeply humane stance, he played a decisive role in advancing mental health care in Greece and broadening the field of therapeutic dialogue.

He was a founding member of SEVE (Systemic Association of Northern Greece) and President of its Administration Board for two consecutive terms (2004–2006 and 2006–2008). Representing SEVE, he actively participated in expanding the psychotherapeutic dialogue and co-shaping the framework for the establishment of the Hellenic Systemic Therapy Association (ETHOS) in 2013.

As a member of the editorial and scientific committee of Metalogos, he contributed decisively to shaping its scientific identity and to promoting dialogue between theory and clinical practice.

His published works include articles that remain reference points for the systemic community, such as:

• “Changes in Systemic Epistemology and Their Inscription in the Field of Psychotherapy” (Metalogos, issue 1, 2002; reprinted in issue 48),
• “The Construction of the Phenomenon of Drug Addiction between Sociopathology and Psychopathology” (Metalogos, issue 6, 2004),
• “The Identity of Psychiatry under Continuous Construction” (Metalogos, issue 13, 2008).

He also participated in the collective publication of the 1st Psychiatric Clinic of A.U.Th., Within, Outside and Upon Psychiatry (University Studio Press), which emerged from the “Friday Meetings” of the Clinic’s postgraduate program. There, he contributed the article “Relations between Soul and Body: Clinical and Epistemological Problems” (issue 3, 2003), alongside distinguished colleagues such as Th. Tzavaras, A. Papanikolaou, Th. Karavatos, M. Syngelakis, A. Bakalaki, M. Begzos, and Ian Walker — a testament to the open, interdisciplinary dialogue he sought between psychiatry, philosophy, and the human sciences.

As a mark of honour, the fourth volume in the series On Systems, Irreverence — A Survival Strategy for Therapists by Gianfranco Cecchin, Gerry Lane, Wendel A. Ray (University Studio Press, 2009, trans. Eleni Samara, ed. Violeta Kaftantzi), was dedicated to his memory.

His humanity, scientific integrity, critical spirit, and commitment to the human being characterized his entire professional path. The memory of Theodoros Sfikas remains alive — not only through his work, but through the way he inspired those who worked with him to see psychiatry as an act of deep understanding and respect for the human person.

Abstract

This article traces the emergence and evolution of Systemic theories following the end of World War II as an expression of the shift from the linear and mechanistic paradigm of classical science towards a new age of that is defined by information and interaction. Through the contribution of Gregory Bateson and the application of Systemic thinking to Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the family emerges as a fundamental system of relationships. First-order Cybernetics perceives the therapist as an external observer of a homeostatic system, while Second-order Cybernetics and Constructivism introduces the idea of a co-constructed reality, shifting focus on subjectivity and responsibility. Lastly, Edgar Morin’s concept of complexity proposes a synthetic framework integrating in unison the biological, the psychological, and the social, acknowledging the therapeutic relationship as a dynamic, reflexive field of coexistence and transformation.