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Editorial

https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2020.61.307

Vignette on Canetti, crowds, and the self in times of COVID-19

Ivana Rosenzweig ; Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre, Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK


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Abstract

In this extraordinary issue of the Croatian Medical Journal, published in the middle of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we examine its impact across all sections of the wider society. The starting point of our exploration engages with the personal microcosmos of self-discovery during the bizarre and abnormal times of lockdown, beautifully narrated by Calisher (1). Calisher’s self-deprecating, sharp wit and narration are reminiscent of Ephraim Kishon’s (1924-2005) work from the 1960s and 1970s, in which he, as a European émigré and a refugee from the Hungarian Communist regime, describes his life and struggles in the newly founded state of Israel. It reminds us of the importance of humor as a uniquely adaptive defense mechanism that can serve to ward off anxiety, and which can help us to manage conflict; the same humor can provide a pivotal platform to create our new inimitable value system, new meanings, perspectives, and new modes of relating to any imposed and sudden chang-es in our environment and our lifestyle over which we have little, if any, control (2).

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

255100

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/255100

Publication date:

31.8.2020.

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