Honest, sensitive, playful, with a childish look and caustic, but human humor. This is how she saw her father with her children’s eyes, and then growing up Matthew Josafat, his daughter Jessica. Aspects that perhaps few were lucky enough to see behind the great psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who healed the souls of thousands of people and inspired even more either by his lectures or by entering many other houses from television.

“Dad worked hard, and his whole life was his work. When he returned at 11pm, he didn’t have the strength to share other sides of himself. In the early years when we lived in England, and he went to the hospital, and then he also worked at home, where he had a doctor’s office, I had to sit quietly in the living room and wait to see if I would see him and when, ”adds Mrs. Yosafat .

“The best memory of my father is from the age of four. He lifted me up and made faces, and I remember my laughter and feeling of absolute happiness. At that moment, he seemed to give me the whole world, ”recalls Jessica Yosafat.

But for a child, these moments are never enough.

The difficulties of his own childhood, combined with his need for self-expression, as well as for helping others to express themselves, led him, as his daughter Jessica says, quite naturally to the work of a psychoanalyst.

“I knew a lot about his childhood … that is, they hunted for war, lived in the mountains. He was a very gifted kid, but also with a lot of injuries, so it was a tough combination. He wanted to be a writer and a poet or a teacher. But in the end, partly to heal his own wounds and partly to satisfy his curiosity about man, he ended up there,” he explains.

When asked if the role of psychoanalyst or father prevailed in their relationship, Jessica Yosafat admits: “At home, he was a completely different person, but there were moments, for example, when we talked in the doctor’s office, when, perhaps, he was influenced by space. and he spoke to me, combining the theoretical and the practical. He was more in tune with his healing part along with his role as a parent. He also told me many times about his problems, I felt like a psychotherapist,” he explains.

Over the years, there were many times when she herself sat “on the sofa”, even unconsciously.

“He used to give me freedom of choice. However, regarding motherhood, although I felt that I didn’t need to have a child to be complete, he told me, “If you don’t have a child, you will regret it.” This thing worked in me, and when the conditions were ripe, I said that I should at least try, because I was indirectly affected by this conversation. And, of course, he hit … because my life has changed dramatically, and I will always be grateful to him for that.

Their relationship grew even stronger in the last year of his life. “We have become very close over the last year because although he was a successful, centralized person, he was more vulnerable and needed me more. He didn’t work, so I could give him something too, show my love and care, and I think he leaned on me with confidence. We were lucky to experience it.”

What friends and colleagues say about Matthew Josafat

Matthew Jehoshaphat has achieved a lot in his life, but the most important thing is that he continues to give. Through the psychotherapists he trained, of whom younger ones are being trained today, he played a decisive role in establishing psychoanalytic psychotherapy in our country for individuals, couples, families and groups. And it is not only the dissemination of psychotherapy that is important, but also the principles that it disseminates. Because Jehoshaphat, who was educated by the leading theoretical and clinical teachers in Britain and devoted his life to clinical work and education, instilled in this art of science a well-informed and insightful view of Greek reality. With analytical powers of observation, deep knowledge of history and culture, his education and experience, his memories, he traced the foundations of our perception and behavior – our dicks – as individuals, as spouses and partners, as members of a group and society. Always combining seriousness and tireless inquisitive gaze, with humor and understanding, he taught that therapy may not heal wounds, but it can make us more tolerant of ourselves and others, more able to enjoy life, to manage life.

Matthew Josafat was an inspiring psychoanalyst full of interest in people involved in clinical work. He considered psychoanalysis the only coherent theory capable of explaining man and his destiny, and therefore devoted himself to it. I met him, still young, during my psychoanalytic training, and our relationship had to evolve from that of a teacher to that of a friend. Matthew was also a wonderful person and a very good friend. Essential, sweet and with a good sense of humor. In his eyes, at first searching and trying, one could see his concern for people.

Rugged as a person and a leader as a character, he eventually managed to tame his various sides and let his agreed-upon side prevail. Doctor, teacher, therapist-analyst. With interest and love for others. Akakos to those who enviously slandered him.

Some accused him of being too popular. But I think that was his greatest quality. After all, Yalom is also accused of popularizing the people. But this does not negate his scientific training. Matthew believed that our duty is to speak simply, clearly. I completely agree. After all, like a true group therapist, he also had a need to reach out to many people. “… something will remain,” he said, “… after all, not everyone can engage in psychoanalysis …”.

It was sometime between late 2001 and early 2002, I had just completed my degree in psychology from the University of Kapodistria and was looking for my next steps with relative anxiety. I applied for admission to the then Greek Society for Group Analysis and Family Therapy as an intern. I remember, as now, that day when the phone rang and I heard a stern low voice on the other end of the line, which seemed to me a strange name by Greek standards: Matteos Yosafat.

Our first meeting was awkward on my part, yet I think they won each other because I saw something playful and gentle in his eyes, despite how he made you feel awkward when he decided . I had to somehow “reject” him to find out about his “difficult” relationship with blondes, about the trauma of rejection he received from his blonde mother, and that it probably continued unofficially with both of us. When I received a positive response from the Society, Jehoshaphat invited me to join his teaching and healing team. Then I, not knowing how the suspicious 24-year-old did it, told him that I would rather stay with him in training and go to therapy with the then president of the company, Dimitris Kyriazis. This fact began our relationship, a rejection to which the teacher, as I called him, often returned, and which often became a source of controversy as well as humor. Since then we love each other. He was intelligent and deeply emotional. I didn’t always agree with him, especially when he talked about female sexuality, but I always felt his support. And he had an amazing diagnostic eye!

My relationship with Matthew Josafat goes back 18 years. I completed basic studies in psychology and completed my first course of therapy. I started looking for psychoanalytic training. I decided to visit him to begin my personal analysis. When I knocked on his office door, he opened it himself, a calm figure with a characteristic impassive expression on his face. I immediately felt familiar but also embarrassed – I was in front of a psychoanalytic legend – his attitude made me feel like I had made the right decision.

Matthew was a man who could seem stern and aloof, but when you got to know him better, he was an extremely generous, warm and sensitive person.

I distinctly remember her saying: Leela, psychoanalysis is not only therapy, it is how we think and understand the world, and she was absolutely right.

Coming from a family with many siblings in a harsh era when war and the threat of death were ubiquitous, with a Jewish background that made him immediately understand the complex dynamics that develop within groups, from family, school, society, he returned to Greece. to generously offer his knowledge, but also the vast experience he had gained in England.

He is the one who, both by his personal example and by tens of thousands of analyzes on his patients, proved and proves how decisive are the traumas and experiences of a person in shaping his personality. However, at the same time, he showed that psychoanalysis is a tool that allows you to make conscious choices about your life right now.

*On Sunday, October 23, it will take place at the French Institute. event titled “Conversation about/with Matthew Jehoshaphat.