Metaphors and myths for the Covid-era: war, suspension, and Odysseus. From the article:
From an independent study of Fondazione ISTUD, more than one hundred narratives in Italy from students, adult, and elderly people locked in their houses were collected from March to the end of April 2020. Proceeding from the low ranking to the number one used metaphor, the fourth group of the most recurring metaphors was that of images that described the sense of perceived “destruction”; the arrival of the virus was seen by many as a natural sudden and disruptive catastrophe, like a tsunami, a typhoon….
The third most recurrent image in describing the experiences of these first months of the pandemic was that of “imprisonment” in homes, for some considered as protection but for others called “cloister”, “prison”, “cage”….
The second group of the most represented metaphors was that of “time suspension”, “the frozen world” – now a familiar concept to us, that we currently use during our on-line meeting when there is a loss of internet connection -; people’s lives were suspended, “in a limbo”, waiting to find again certainties about the future…. For the first time in this new millennium, Time has acquired a different taste in the grand narrative of citizens: due to the individual limits of movement, caused by the global lock down, the continuity of a routine such as going to school, or to the office, restaurants, gyms, cinemas, was stopped….
We all know pretty well that at their peak all the metaphor used reconnect with “war” during the COIVD-19 pandemic, mirroring the media and the health care professional language, therefore the realm of conflict.
Now, after one year of enduring COVID-19 and although the vaccine campaign started, we are living with the difficulties of an efficient logistic supply chain of vaccines, with daily announcements of new lock downs in many western countries. The policymakers and media narratives are still on the war side, every day broadcasting new infection rates and numbers of “victims”, using the same term as if we were in a war. How long can we bear a war without being traumatized? Elena Semino is an expert in metaphor analysis and she works on reframing the used metaphors to create healthier and more efficient images, and therefore beliefs, for the citizens, policymakers, and health providers. She proposes to switch from being soldiers to the metaphor of fire-fighters….
Can we proceed further? Are there more powerful and effective model which can help in this time and in this place? I endorse the use of the myth, coming from the long journey of the Odyssey. There is a man, Odysseus, who travels for twenty years in search of his lost homeland: he has to face enduring trials and, in the meanwhile, he learns also how to live and enjoy with the sudden daily discoveries; watching at the future, he keeps a constant eye at the present, not in its “seize the day” format, but in its wise, vigilant, strategic, emotional, affective, creative, and respectful attitude. This man is Odysseus that Homer, the Greek poet, if ever existed, defines a man from the “multifaceted genius”: in Greek, the world “multifaceted” is literally “multi-directional”, “polytropos”.
Translation amended and revised. For other articles on narrative medicine, see here.
Contrary to the metaphoric hysteria of the above article, stereotypically fraught with images of “imprisonment” and metaphysical mayhem, the reaction to the Covid pandemic in reality reflects the global malady of psychological and spiritual decline of another kind.
The magnitude of this recoil indicates the lack of inner meaning and focus of man, his addiction to often meaningless chatter and social rituals, an all too common form of existence referred to by Sartre ‘Being-for-Others’. Even in infinitely more dire conditions those who had an inner meaning to live survived with dignity and even discovered new abilities, as Victor Frankel describes survivors who were incarcerated in concentration camps during the holocaust in Man’s Search For Meaning.
The real mandate is to find our way back to what might be called the ‘orb of balance’.
Shakespeare first referred to it as the “obedient orb”
“Where you did give a fair and natural light,
And be no more an exalted meteor,
A prodigy of fear and a portent
Of Broached mischief to the unborn times” (1 Henry IV, 5,1)
If there is a meaning to the coronavirus in the course of its carnage
it is a wakeup call for man to reevaluate his existence.
Its paradoxically positive effects will one day be compared to the spinoffs ofMost importantly there was a reevaluation of antiquated modes of thought, literary expression and religious assumptions, ultimately leading to higher spiritual insight and forms of existence. At least for a season society and nature found their way back to the orb of balance. of the Black Plague on the population of 14th century England. The examination of pre and post plague skeletons in medieval graveyards indicate that the health of the population greatly improved after the plague. It represented an intensified process of natural selection.
Working conditions improved in the wake of the plague. More robust genotypes and immune systems emerged.
Most importantly there was a reevaluation of antiquated modes of thought, literary expression and religious assumptions, ultimately leading to higher spiritual insight and forms of existence. At least for a season society and nature found their way back to the orb of balance.
Dr, G, Heath King
Contrary to the metaphoric hysteria of the above article, stereotypically fraught with images of “imprisonment” and metaphysical mayhem, the reaction to the Covid pandemic in reality reflects the global malady of psychological and spiritual decline of another kind.
The magnitude of this enfeeblement indicates the lack of inner meaning and focus of man, his addiction to often meaningless chatter and vacuous social rituals, an all too common form of existence referred to by Sartre as ‘Being-for-Others’. Even in infinitely more dire conditions those who had an inner meaning to live survived with dignity and even discovered new abilities, as Victor Frankel describes the depth-dimension of survivors who were incarcerated in concentration camps during the holocaust in Man’s Search For Meaning.
Understood in the larger context of the Great Chain of Being the real mandate is to find our way back to what might be called the ‘orb of balance’.
Shakespeare first referred to it as the “obedient orb”
“Where you did give a fair and natural light,
And be no more an exalted meteor,
A prodigy of fear and a portent
Of Broached mischief to the unborn times” (1 Henry IV, 5,1)
If there is a meaning to the coronavirus in the course of its carnage
it is as wakeup call for man to reevaluate his existence.
Its paradoxically positive effects will one day be compared to the spinoffs of the Black Plague on the population of 14th century England. The examination of pre and post plague skeletons in medieval graveyards indicate that the health of the population greatly improved after the scourge. An intensified process of natural selection had manifested itself.
Working conditions improved in the wake of the plague. More robust genotypes and immune systems emerged.
Most importantly there was a reevaluation of antiquated modes of thought, literary expression and religious assumptions, ultimately leading to higher spiritual insight and forms of existence. At least for a season society and nature found their way back to the orb of balance.
Dr. G. Heath King