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
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
Publication date:
31.8.2020.
Visits: 509 *