Looking into the human psyche with a microscope

Nikos Athanasou, an Oxford professor, osteoarticular pathologist and scientist, talks about how his profession has also helped him become a good fiction writer


Reading Nikos Athanasou last book, The Person of the Man, one can’t ignore the author’s deep understanding of male-female relations. He dives into his characters’ personalities and doesn’t leave anything untold.
After reading even the first few pages of the book, one could conclude Athanasou is a writer with an almost unrealistic knowledge of the human psyche and intersexual relations.
Every sentence he puts down resonates in the reader, leaving a déjà vu effect, as it mirrors our own experiences.
Nikos talked to Neos Kosmos from Oxford. Not from behind a typewriter or computer, but from behind a microscope.
Even though phrases like “Fellow in Osteoarticular Pathology”, “Consultant Histopathologist”, “Professor of Musculoskeletal Pathology”, have nothing particularly romantic or literature related about them, Nikos Athanasou can fairly call himself a writer, whose books have been reviewed in Australian newspapers and literary journals. He was invited to The Sydney Writers Festival in 2005 and to an Oxford symposium on Greek Writers in England. Extracts from his stories have found their way into some course texts used in Modern Greek and Sociology studies.
Born in Perth of parents who emigrated to Australia from Kastellorizo in the early and mid-20th century, Nikos graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney. Since 1980, he has lived in England, where he works at the University of Oxford, as a Professor in Musculoskeletal Pathology.
His book The Person of the Man, has recently followed on from Hybrids and The Greek Liar.
Greek Australians – dual identities
It all started with short stories about Greek-Australians, that Nikos Athanasou began writing during his medical course. Soon after, an Australia Council grant was given to him, to assist in the writing of a collection of short stories which became Hybrids, concerning both first and second generation Greek Australians.
Hybrids (1995) was a collection of character-based short stories on Greeks in Australia that highlighted the sense of dislocation or estrangement from the two parent Greek and Australian cultures.
“The stories also show how particular aspects of Greek-Australian life, such as the anachronistic rigid social and religious structures and the strong emphasis on materialistic goals, discourage nonconformity and limit personal development and individuality,” Nikos tells Neos Kosmos.
This last theme is explored more fully in Nikos’ novel The Greek Liar (2005).
“I felt that this subject had not been fully explored, particularly with regard to the sense of hybridity felt by Greek-Australians of my own generation. I think that I was one of the first to use the word “hybrid” in this context. I felt that Greek-Australians do not see themselves as entirely Greek or Australian but rather as hybrids containing elements of both cultures; some elements are general and predictable, as language, but others are often highly personal and not always obvious. As for example, that sense of not feeling entirely engaged or at ease in a social settings that isn’t wholly Greek or Australian.”
Writer with a doctor’s skills
Specialist osteoarticular pathologist, scientist and lecturer, Nikos has always been interested in English and non-English literature and humanities in general.
I wonder if being professionally involved in medicine, has given Nikos a better insight to human psychology that may have helped him create such believable characters and to understand male-female relations in a way that every reader can connect to them? He, however, says he has no greater insight into human psychology than anyone else.
“I would say, however, that being a pathologist has taught me to be a good observer: my job is to look, down a light microscope, for evidence of disease in order to provide a diagnosis on biopsied tissues, often rare bone and soft tissue tumours. This evidence can be quite subtle and needs to be weighed carefully. This discipline is probably relevant to my approach to character,” he tells us.
On an every day basis, Nikos Athanasou looks at all aspects of the physiology and pathology of bone and joint tissues. He also directs several research groups carrying out investigations into the pathological bone reabsorption that occurs in many common bone and joint disorders.
In his spare time as an academic at Oxford, which involves research, teaching and a lot of diagnostic hospital work, he relaxes by reading and writing. He shows his modesty by saying how publishing only three works of fiction over several decades does not strike him as “very impressive” in terms of literary output. However, combined with two books he published on bone and joint pathology, and over 250 scientific papers, the output is nothing but impressive.
Being professional in a totally different field, Nikos’ talent in writing had to be developed and tamed. He does not believe in pure talent.
“Most writers learn how to write, mostly from reading, and they may be quick or slow learners. I am the latter.
“In a way I do relax by writing fiction but probably not enough. In a sense, I do reserve my emotion for fiction. I am aware that my view of the world and my writing style is strongly influenced by my profession. A scientific or medical paper is unemotional and needs to be accurate and clearly expressed. The discipline of writing science has at least helped to make my writing clear. However, more is needed to write fiction. Aristotle wrote that ‘the excellence of style is to be clear without being commonplace’. Writing science at least gets you part of the way there,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
His last novel The Person of the Man, is a deliberate departure from his first two books. It is set in London and Oxford and has no Greek element, although he observes that his Greek background may have influenced the theme.
“The Person of the Man is, in a sense, a pathological analysis of an outwardly successful but secretly flawed marriage. Through betrayal and tragedy the true Person of the Man – the phrase is taken from the Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes – is revealed, and it is shown that love cannot be analysed, it can only be understood,” Athanasou says.
In majority of reviews, his last book has been praised for his narrative style, being written in first person narrative, from a female perspective.
“Given the highly personal but also strongly analytical tone I wanted to strike in the novel, this point of view seemed most natural and effective. Although it is, of course, common for female writers to write in the first person, and quite a few male authors have famously written about female subjects in the third person, it is very uncommon – and I confess to not realising how uncommon – for a male writer to write a novel through first person narrative.”
* Nikos Athanasou’s books are available at all good bookshops and online.