Andreas Embiricos: Writer, Poet, Photographer, Psychoanalyst, KCL Alumnus by Andreas Andreou Athens Views, Dec. 2014 ANDREAS EMBIRICOS (1901-1975) is an admittedly intriguing example of a unique Greek intellectual whose life and worldview reflect in a vast multifarious work that occupies a prominent place in the pantheon of twentieth century culture. Poet, writer, photographer, and psychoanalyst, this creative genius was born in Brăila, Romania in 1901 to a family of Greek shipowners from the island of Andros. His father, Leonidas Embiricos (1872-1947), was a wealthy banker, shipowner, MP and Minister of Foodstuff Provision under Eleftherios Venizelos. With his father, at one point, the richest man in Greece, Andreas nevertheless consid- ered himself a ‘Tolstoyist’ and a radical, and took steps as bold as ploughing side-by-side with the Greco- Albanian workers of his father’s vast fields in Boyiati, northeast of Athens. Educated in Athens and London, he studied Philosophy and Literature at King’s College London in the 1920s. He eventually left the British capital, breaking away from his father and the family businesses, and arrived in Paris in 1926. It was around that time that he was introduced to psychoanalysis, primarily through Réne Laforgue and Marie Bonaparte, both of which were founding members of the Paris Psycho- analytical Society and very close to Sigmund Freud. Upon return to Greece in 1931, Embiricos becomes the first Greek psychoanalyst, introducing this revolutionary new field to a largely backward society, becoming an object of criticism by liberals and conservatives alike. He practiced psychoanalysis for another twenty years, before devoting himself completely to writing and photography. As if the introduction of one radical idea wasn’t enough, Embiricos proceeds to introduce another category that stirred both critics and audiences. Even though he was writing poems since his early youth, his style changed radically after meeting André Breton and his circle of surrealists in 1933. In January 1935, he delivers his famous public talk ‘On Surrealism’ and in March he publishes his iconic collection of poetry, Blast Furnace. The book constitutes the first work of surrealism ever to be published in Greece and, in that way, Embiricos becomes the first Greek surrealist. Yet the reactions are intense and the polemic against him fierce. Years will have to pass until the work is understood better and finally restored to its righteous place. Embiricos publishes two further books in his lifetime, Hinterland (1945), which features some of his most famous poems, and Writings or Personal Mythology (1960) with prose poems (or poetic proses). The troubled (national and personal) experiences of the Occupation and Civil War leave deep marks on the poet, who becomes increasingly more reluctant as regards the publication of his work. His opposition to the mili- tary dictatorship of 1967-1974 is reflected in his choice not to publish (in their entirety) any of his three fur- ther collections. Oktana (1980), Generations in All or Today As Tomorrow and As Yesterday (1985) and The Amulets of Love and Arms (2012) will all be printed after his death. His later work retains the bold, daring, iconoclastic tone stemming from his earlier surrealist work, but incorporates the lessons of the recently surfaced ‘Beat’ poetry too. However, at the centre of Embiricos’ world view lies a profound belief in the revelatory power of love, and the need for an ecumenical erotic lib- eration. In his 1943 diary he states that ‘the greatest and most difficult issue human beings have to solve, wherever they live, whatever they stand for, whatever they believe in, is neither the moral nor the religious, nor the social, nor the financial one, but the erotic one, which –if left unsolved– prevents the solving of all others.’ His life’s work, the novel The Great Eastern, revolves around this very axis. A colossal work, which spans over two thousand pages, it is, according to various scholars, twentieth century’s most extensive and daring erotic novel –at least on a European scale. It relates the incidents aboard the ship ‘The Great East- ern’ during its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1867. In the words of its editor (and KCL alum- nus), G. Yatromanolakis, the text develops all of its writer’s ‘fantasies, doctrines and visions’ in an epic tone. In that respect, Embiricos’ legacy is the utopian vision of a world unified harmoniously under the absolute, borderless, noble practice of love in all its manifestations. The novel took six years to write, yet it went through several revisions up to the poet’s death in 1975. It was finally published in eight volumes between 1990-1992 with its outspokenness causing yet another stir. Embiricos was not only a prolific writer; he was also an avid photographer, with several published volumes of his photographic work as well as exhibitions during his lifetime and in recent years. His work as a photographer has been divided mostly between pictures of landscapes and antiquities from Greece and abroad, portraits of friends and of children, with specific emphasis to the photographs of the artist’s son, Leonidas. The sensitivity of his glance is parallel to the sensitivity and kindness of his gestures as a writer, with –in the words of his close friend and Nobel laureate, Odysseus Elytis– ‘the ingredients of a psychoana- lyst’ and the ‘tanks of a visionary and prophet.’ A work whose cry for spiritual endoscopy and liberation is still persistent and pervasive today, 40 years after Embiricos’ death. Recommended Reading: Connolly, D. (ed.) (2004), The Dedalus Book of Greek Fantasy, Dedalus. Embiricos, A. (2004), Amour-Amour, tr. N. Stangos, A. Ross, Green Integer. Ricks, D. (2003), Modern Greek Writing: An Anthology in English Translation, Peter Owen. Valaoritis, N., Maskaleris, T. (eds.) (2003), An Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry, Talisman.