TO 18ANΩ during its 40 years of operation has demonstrated in practice that "there is an alternative," that "the drug addict can recover," as long as they find the therapeutic program that suits them. Thousands of dependent individuals have recovered, found their way in life, a path of emancipation, creativity, and struggle.

That is why 18ANΩ became – along with other dry, public, and free detox programs – a target of government policy. That is why the government rushed to pass, in the height of summer, despite strong opposition from all agencies and the majority of society, the law that privatizes mental health and addiction treatment, that demolishes 18ANΩ with its philosophy, condemning dependent individuals to remain in the misery of the streets, "invisible".

Therefore, we record the HISTORY OF 18ANΩ, starting from its initial steps within Daphni, in the climate of social upheaval after the Regime Change, collective struggles, hopes, and disillusionments for a truly revolutionary psychiatric reform.

Amidst the expansion of hard drug use in Greek society and the desperate search by more and more individuals for treatment places at the then small 18ANΩ, therapists and clients managed, through collective struggles, to realize their vision and build a model unit with thirty-three facilities across Attica, introducing for the first time in Greece specialized addiction treatment programs, where psychotherapy and art, in their dialectical relationship, become the catalyst for addiction recovery and produce remarkable results.

At ΨΝΑ, this resistance gradually took the form of a minority but brave deinstitutionalization movement, which gathered young psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and other professionals. The founding team, without a unified ideology, was inspired by the ideas of May and the vision of revolutionary societal change.

Key influences included Freud, Lacan, Marcuse, Sartre, Foucault, Marx, surrealism, the constant revolution, the anti-asylum movement, Franco Basaglia, Félix Guattari, Olivenstein, Laing, Cooper, and other thinkers.

COVER IMAGE: Artwork from the artistic workshop of 18ANΩ. Epilogue: Savvas Michail