Psychosocial Analysis of the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Hoping for a Magical Undoing

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to address psychosocial issues in public health policy, as collective denial of facts and magical thinking led to mistakes and distrust. Boccara argues that societies must systematically take into account how psychosocial dynamics impact public policy and societal level dialogue to successfully face systemic challenges ahead. Failing to do so could lead to psychosocial tipping points and make it impossible for societies to manage such challenges.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 148 pages
Publication date: 04 October 2022
Publisher: University Press of America

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light significant psychosocial issues that have had a profound impact on public health policy and societal dialogue. One of the most striking aspects of the pandemic was the collective denial of facts, which led to misguided policies and a lack of trust. In hindsight, this could have been prevented. Boccara's research highlights how the core psychosocial response to the pandemic in most countries was characterized by a desire for the virus to either magically disappear or be dealt with effortlessly. This magical thinking and denial of reality often prevailed, deepening the denial even further as some countries chose to "live with the virus." However, deliberately choosing endemicity of the coronavirus may lead to insurmountable challenges. Humanity is truly at a turning point, and Boccara argues that successfully facing systemic challenges ahead will require societies to systematically take into account the ways in which psychosocial dynamics impact public policy and societal level dialogue. This means understanding how mental representations, fantasies, shared anxieties, and social defenses mobilized against those anxieties impact the society, and how nations function as social systems. There has never been a more critical time than now for societies worldwide to approach critical decisions from a psychosocial perspective. Failing to do so could lead to psychosocial tipping points, where the world as a whole would increasingly mobilize regressed defenses that would make it impossible for societies to manage such challenges.

Weight: 238g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780761873563