Orpheus Programme - The New Treatment Concept at the Anton Proksch Institute

The Anton Proksch Institute's Orpheus Programme offers a host of different modules designed to help patients discover and rediscover their own vitality and resources. When life is once again beautiful and filled with joy and meaning, addictive substances lose their seductive power.

Why the New Treatment Concept at the Anton Proksch Institute is called the Orpheus Programme

In Greek mythology the sirens were notorious bird-women whose sweet and seductive song promised passing sailors beauty and pleasure, but who instead brought death and destruction. All those who heard the sirens fell under their spell.

Two famous heroes of antiquity succeeded in passing the sirens unscathed: Odysseus and Orpheus.

Odysseus had his men tie him to the ship's mast and ordered the crew to seal their ears with wax in order to resist the temptation. Struggle, compulsion and self-flagellation – a method that has little to recommend it in the treatment of addiction today.

Orpheus chose a different method. When he and the Argonauts sailed past the sirens, he took his lyre and sang so beautifully that he drowned out the sirens - he played the better music.

In the Orpheus Programme we try to help people «sing better and more beautifully», to discover their own creativity and means of expression thus empowering them to use other strategies to resist the «temptations» of drugs.