I did not expect this book: it was written as a parenthesis upon request. In November 1994, my daily newspaper persistently asked me for a long-term Sunday full-page collaboration on topics of my choice. I agreed on the condition that the articles be printed in Greek - that is, using the polytonic system - which the management accepted, and I started writing and delivering texts.

The commencement of the publications was set for New Year's Day 1995. However, when the time arrived, the publication was postponed and continued to be delayed, while I kept delivering material, until in mid-May, asking for clarification of the situation, I was informed, without further explanations, that the collaboration with the newspaper was canceled.

Meanwhile, the series of articles, except for the last one, was ready, and I couldn't bear not to complete it. But now I was no longer concerned about the newspaper's broad audience, and the article transformed into quite a demanding and extensive study: I found the opportunity to explain, to some extent, the nature of individualization.

This "opportunity" perhaps lasted longer than I had anticipated; nevertheless, the series of articles about present-day Greece as a spiritual issue, albeit unevenly, has been completed. In these, I added three notes about painting (the first from 1983, and two following from 1995), a lecture on education at the Athens College (1991), which was later published in "Oikonomikos Tachydromos" (November 1992), and I submitted the book, with minor additions and corrections, for printing.