EKUMENA I ETIKA U POSLOVANJU Miro Jakovljević

Guest Miro JakovljevićHosted by Augustin BašićMay 3, 2026

Miro Jakovljević

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

We live in a culture of conflict and paranoia, but what if the true path to health — both individual and societal — lies in cultivating a culture of empathy? Dr. Miro Jakovljević, one of Croatia's most respected psychiatrists, has spent decades viewing his field not just as medicine, but as a discipline interwoven with humanities, art, and even religion. He argues that there is no mental health without healthy relationships, from the most intimate family unit to the global community. This conversation moves beyond clinical definitions to reflect on life, faith, death, and what it truly means to be human in a world that often seems to lose its way. You will walk away reconsidering the foundational role of empathy in every aspect of our lives.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

No mental health without healthy relationships, from family to global community,” says Dr. Jakovljević. The insight isn't that relationships matter; it's that the health of any system, from a person to a nation, is fundamentally relational, not just individual.

Dr. Jakovljević notes that psychiatry is unique among medical disciplines for having its opposite — “antipsychiatry.” This isn't a flaw, but a built-in mechanism for constant improvement; the most scrutinized ideas are often the ones forced to evolve the fastest.

Instead of a “clash of civilizations,” Dr. Jakovljević argues for psychiatry's role in promoting an “empathic civilization.” The goal of any field touching human experience should not just be to treat problems, but to actively shape the culture it operates within.

Dr. Jakovljević recounts collaborating with a Catholic priest for over thirty years, even participating in an Islamic psychiatric congress where a hodža remarked that their faiths seemed the same. When the principles are sound, the labels disappear; the shared human experience is a stronger unifier than any doctrine.

When his wife was in a coma with COVID, she first asked to be taken home to die, then for a gun to end her suffering, only to fully recover against all odds. This personal story reveals that even in extreme despair, a guiding faith and an improbable medical intervention can turn “impossible” into reality.

Those who find meaning in life will never commit suicide, while those who lose it, or hold “wrong beliefs,” are more susceptible. The lesson for any leader isn't to provide answers, but to foster environments where individuals can discover and sustain their own sense of purpose.

Reflecting on the poet Šimić's warning “Man, beware not to go small beneath the stars,” Dr. Jakovljević redefines “smallness” not as lack of power or wealth, but the commodification of everything – where even truth and health become mere goods to be sold. True stature comes from refusing to reduce fundamental human values to transaction.

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