The SARS-COV-2 pandemic in the era of narcissism: What really threatens the coronavirus?

Angelo Raffaele Pennella, Angela Ragonese

Abstract


On December 31 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus causing severe illness in the city of Wuhan. Over the following weeks, the virus emerged and the spread of infection reached pandemic proportions which led to the need to take a series of measures aimed at containing, as far as possible, the infection.
The scenario we are witnessing sees the arrival of an unknown, dangerous and unpredictable presence, represented by the media as the "public enemy number one", against which nothing is possible except social isolation. The SARS-COV-2 confronts us with an extraneousness from which it seems impossible to escape leading to assume positions or behaviors that reflect the way this virus appears to have been represented affectively.
This contribution intends to present some preliminary and incomplete reflections on the meaning and impact that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic can have on the collusive dynamic on which our social relationality is based.

Keywords


coronavirus; affective symbolization; narcissism; collusion failure.

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