Socio-Analytic Dialogue in a Time of Pandemic

Download or read book Socio-Analytic Dialogue in a Time of Pandemic written by Bruno Boccara and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-04 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main purpose of this essay is to make the case to governments and civil society worldwide that there has probably never been a more appropriate time than the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic to genuinely incorporate psychosocial and systems dynamics thinking into public policy and country dialogue. In order to do so, it shows the relevance of the ideas underpinning the proposed framework by focusing on several psychosocial aspects of the pandemic, particularly empathic availability and reparative leadership. History suggests that the pandemic is likely to have a significant impact on societies worldwide. Yet, while the seismic changes we are witnessing right now may have disruptive consequences, our ability to understand psychosocial issues from a systems dynamics perspective did not exist before. This, in itself, creates a unique opportunity. The capacity that most countries now have to work-through their shared psychosocial issues increases the likelihood of them successfully navigating the uncharted waters ahead. It is first argued that the pandemic may have been experienced as a necessary act of atonement for our collective guilt in the sense of becoming a way to undo the damage inflicted on the planet. The essay continues with a psychosocial assessment of mental representations of the pandemic in the United States and shows how splitting and omnipotence ended up having disastrous consequences on the nation's response. It then reviews psychosocial developments in several countries and shows that empathic availability and narcissistic withdrawal on the part of the leadership enhanced the management of the pandemic while, on the other hand, unresolved social conflicts hampered it. The essay continues with an overview of the psychosocial concepts that should be particularly relevant to managing crises of the magnitude of the pandemic. These include reparative leadership, empathic capability and availability at the societal level, and psychosocial transmission mechanisms. Societies' capacity to work-through their respective psychosocial issues would allow them to reach greater consensus as to what the post pandemic world may and should look like. The essay concludes that countries need to better understand and, therefore, manage, how they function as a social system. There comes a time when ideas potentially capable of profoundly changing the world must be brought to the centers of decision making. That time is now upon us.