Petros Polychronis and the epistemology of life

In living systems, the complex whole that emerges through the multi-level interactions and synergies among the individual constituent parts is able to interact with those parts the very moment they compose it. Depending on the dynamic interplay between them and being in constant dialogue with their wider environment, the whole and the parts are capable of modifying their behavior, adapting, and coevolving. The complex synergies that develop in a far from equilibrium state give rise to a particularly rich and often unexpected collective dynamic behavior. This article is an autoethnographic epistemological inquiry. Through the work and praxis of Petros Polychronis, child psychiatrist, systemic psychotherapist, and director of AKMA for twenty years, and through my relationship with him, I present the main pillars of an epistemology of living systems. The concepts of co-evolution, destabilization, crisis, dissipative structures, strange attractors, bifurcation point, entropy, and rhizome were, among others, for Petros Polychronis not just abstract theoretical conceptions but invaluable practical intervention tools for the empowerment and the sustainability of human systems at the personal and collective level.