Psychoanalysts note that the coronavirus pandemic will leave an unfavorable and long-lasting mark on the psyche of people. In particular, the inability to say goodbye to a dying loved one can cause more lasting trauma. Meanwhile, it is predicted that the pandemic will increase the ability of the younger generation to find ways to survive in unusual situations.
The lack of a school for children, as well as religious rites of baptism, communion and marriage, is a drawback, a symbolic gap that the pandemic has introduced. However, scientists note that young people can cope with the lack of transition rituals, such as the eighteenth birthday or the matriculation exam. On the other hand, mourning, parting, the last service – this is a matter that affects the psyche much more strongly and for a long time.
Will isolation, lack of contact with relatives, colleagues at work or school cause irreversible psychological trauma? Psychoanalysts answer that the need for contact with others depends on the generation. Young people are looking for these contacts and this is how they construct their personality, which is why their need to exchange thoughts and feelings, the need for entertainment, is so obvious and normal. Young people violate the rules of sanitary isolation by organizing illegal games, which we learn about from police reports. Older people are often at home, so it is easier for them to tolerate isolation. In real life, it turns out that you can perfectly arrange a holiday from 10 people, such as a birthday or even a baptism. At the same time, the unexpected difficulties of isolation can make young people more resourceful.
In the context of the pandemic, counseling by psychoanalysts over the phone has developed, during which many people say things that they would not otherwise say in person. Remote communication has become something unusual these days. There are so many seminars and conferences, people are happy to be able to talk about what they are doing in a way that they have never talked about before. The mass media report an increase in the number of suicides and an increase in the number of cases of depression. In the spring of 2020, there was an increased consumption of psychotropic medicines, now this is repeated continuously. The focus is on COVID-19 because it is the most urgent issue, with previously hidden mental illnesses increasingly being discovered during the epidemic. The situation of searching for enemies in society, primarily those who are carriers of the new virus, has worsened. People are wary of each other. Previously habitual physical needs for sneezing are now cautiously accepted by people. And if you still cough, as often happens when you feel thirsty or have a crumb stuck in your throat, the consequences can be very unexpected (people’s comments, unpleasant looks, judgments).
People don’t feel protected by the authorities, even scientists are divided and have opposing views on how to deal with the pandemic, and now on new vaccines. It’s very destabilizing.
