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Special Issue: Psychoanalysis, Climatic Change and Pandemic Discontents 

 Frenis Zero  Publisher

       "Coronavirus: a Sphinx of modern times "

 

 

 By Anna Ferruta

 

Anna Ferruta is Training and supervising analyst of Italian Psychoanalytic Society and full member of IPA, living in Milan (Italy).

The paper was originally published in Milan Psychoanalytic Center website, March, 2020 https://www.cmp-spiweb.it/coronavirus-a-sphinx-of-modern-times/   The Italian translation is available in https://www.cmp-spiweb.it/coronavirus-una-sfinge-del-nostro-tempo  
Many thanks to the author and to Milan Psychoanalytic Center (CMP) website editor for the permission to re-publish it in Frenis Zero online psychoanalytic journal.

        


 

            

 

 

  

   

 

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Psicoanalisi e luoghi della negazione

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"Psicologia dell'antisemitismo" di Imre Hermann

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OTHER BOOKS

"La Psicoanalisi e i suoi confini" edited by Giuseppe Leo

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Anno/Year: 2009

Pages: 224

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"La Psicoanalisi. Intrecci Paesaggi Confini" 

Edited by S. Fizzarotti Selvaggi, G.Leo.

Writings by: Salomon Resnik, Mauro Mancia, Andreas Giannakoulas, Mario Rossi Monti, Santa Fizzarotti Selvaggi, Giuseppe Leo.

Publisher: Schena Editore

ISBN 88-8229-567-2

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Foto: Anna Ferruta

 

 

 Entering the thoughts everyday life, the corona virus has

 

awakened us from the deep  sleep that kept human

 

fragility confined  elsewhere (children, refugees, Africa) or

 

considered as an  exception regarding the  less fortunate, either

 

 

because of their illnesses (cancers, strokes – often attributed

 

to an unhealthy life style), or to environmental hazards of sorts.

 

 

 

 

The disorientation and fragility of human condition

The course of humanity (described by Harari in his book Sapiens.

 

 

A brief history of Humankind, 2011, 5 million copies sold,

 

 

translated in 30 languages) seems to have been interrupted, facing

 

 

us with a sense of disorientation and with the fear of being lost.

 

Everyone’s eyes lift from the smart phone they had been

 

navigating the web with until that moment, sustaining the idea

 

that one can light heartedly dismiss the   limits and fragilities of the

 

human predicament. Everyone is summoned to reflect upon

 

themselves and on their place in relationships with other people,

 

 animals, plants and matter.

 

 

The Corona virus is the Sphinx

 

All of the sudden a tiny microscopic virus with spikes questions

 

mankind, a new kind of Sphinx bars the road and poses

 

 an enigma.

 

 

The immediate reaction is of course to avoid the crossroad that

 

forces us to contend with human fragility and to take shelter in

 

thoughts that provide some kind of respite from becoming aware

 

of the situation (fleeing the country, isolation); or, an

 

overwhelming sensation of fear and of not knowing where to turn

 

in such an unexpected and unforeseen situation (rushing to shop

 

for groceries – one never knows what may happen).

 

The next reaction that also provides some degree of momentary

 

relief, is to accuse the people who have issued the guidelines to

 

curtail the general population’s health of being wrong, many times

 

 without even examining the advice given. It is simply an

 

 understandable defensive reaction to cast out the angst of being

 

 met with the invisible and insidious enemy, and the request and

 

 need of protection that will be denied.

 

 

 

 

Three sources of strenght

 

 

Abruptly and brutally confronted with the forgotten fragility of

 

 the human condition, we however have an opportunity to

 

 rediscover three sources of strength that have been dismissed as

 

 uninteresting. We can all assume our personal responsibility in a

 

 renewed fashion and with greater awareness abiding by the rules

 

 that protect us and the people close to us (for example by avoiding

 

 situations that amplify the contagious note of this virus). The

 

 pleasure that comes from being responsible and being able to take

 

 care of one’s self and those who depend upon us is an

 

 extraordinary antidote to fear as it allows us to uncover unknown

 

 energies and use them to secure ourselves and others. Everyone

 

 can do something.

 

 

Another source of energy consists in becoming aware of how

 

 important the “hideous others” who we share the world with

 

 actually are to us. The people we distractedly brush by everyday

 

 and rediscover when for some reason, as is happening now, they

 

 evaporate, disappear from the train stations, from bars, from the

 

 streets and classrooms and make us feel poor, deprived of our

 

 community and sense of belonging.

 

But the most important of all resources is the chance to overcome

 

 the fears raised by the sudden perception of our fragility (often

 

 used to create an easy bias for some form of propaganda) by

 

 relying on the knowledge provided by men and women of science:

 

 they and only they have the tools to give useful advice on what

 

 measures to take.

 

 

 

The antidote to fear

 

 

Simple, essential, precise guidelines that come from those who

 

 investigate the pathological effects of the virus, are a

 

 good antidote to fear as they re-establish the contact with

 

 the emotional experience of trust in a caregiver, the trust that

 

 kept us all alive at the beginning of our existence.

 

Furthermore the trust we place in researchers exploring the

 

 unknown, who study the virus and the ways to contend with it

 

 (vaccines, prevention, diagnosis) continues in the footsteps laid

 

 down over centuries, of man’s ability to study the heavens and

 

 Earth, the planets and animals, despite his intrinsic fragility (let

 

 us keep in mind that Rita Levi Montalcini identified the NGF, the

 

 neuron growth factor in snake venom and Fleming’s discovery of

 

 penicillin came from studying molds).

 

 

Personal and community responsibility, a confident ear lent to

 

 those who boldly explore the unknown instead of shunning it and

 

 resorting to what is already known, help us confront human

 

 fears, keep our eyes open and our vision focused on the future of

 

 new generations.

 

 

“We may insist as often as we like that man’s intellect is powerless

 

 in comparison with his instinctual life, and we may be right in

 

 this. Nevertheless, there is something peculiar about this

 

 weakness. The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not

 

 rest till it has gained a hearing. Finally, after a countless

 

 succession of rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points on

 

 which one may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but it is in

 

 itself a point of no small importance. And from it one can derive yet

 

 other hopes.” 

 

Freud S. (1927). The future of an Illusion. XXI, SE, 52.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
   

 
 

 
   
 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 

         

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
   
 

 

 
 

 

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  
   
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

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