There’s no getting away from the coronavirus. The world’s anxiety-ridden pandemic conjures up any number of dystopian films including “I am Legend” “World War Z” “Contagion” and “12 Monkeys.” All these films begin with a benign and largely ignored outbreak coming from a faraway country but soon emerges as a pandemic that kills off the population by pruning out the weak and elderly.
On Wednesday, March 11, I walked down Hillside Avenue in Williston Park and I saw any number of unusual things. I spotted a woman getting out of her car wearing a mask. I noticed that traffic is lighter than usual. I overheard a man in the post office explaining the ineffectiveness of Purrell as a preventive measure against the virus. I have had a few patients cancel appointments because they had to stay home and watch over their children since the schools were shut down.
One of my patients had to return from his semester abroad in Italy. I heard that New Rochelle is under quarantine. The hot yoga class I go to in Bayside has seen class sizes cut in half. You can no longer find toilet paper or bottled water because people have started to hoard these items. That night I listened as the President gave a sluggish and somber assessment of our current situation and promptly shut down air travel from Europe.
At about the same time the NBA canceled its season. And within a brief 24 hours, the nation has witnessed the shutting down of every major league sports season including MLB, the PGA tour and the NBA, the closing of Broadway and all theme parks including Disney World and Disneyland. Welcome to a world in a panic.
So let’s try to separate fact from fiction. I recently visited my general practitioner and she told me that the flu kills as many as 79,000 Americans per year. The coronavirus has only killed 40 to date. I asked my eye doctor about coronavirus and he remarked that it will get worse before it gets better and to avoid crowds.
From the psychoanalysts’ view, the world was ripe for a panic attack. Our nation has been in a state of chronic anxiety and exhaustion for more than 40 years. The growing income gap between the uber-rich and the rest has produced a true ‘pandemic’ of overwork and exhaustion.
This income gap has helped create a large cesspool of anger that gets repressed. But as the pressure of all these pent up emotions build they need an outlet or the whole system will blow. The coronavirus virus serves as a trigger and release valve for all this pent up frustration, anxiety and exhaustion. This accounts for the panic accompanied by anxious thoughts, hoarding and a tendency to overreact in a paranoid way.
This is not to say that the threat of the corona virus should be ignored. The most sensible viewpoint was shared with me by my chiropractor friend Dr. Bob Oerzen.
Bob is an extremely gifted practitioner with an office in Mineola and when I asked him about it the coronavirus he said “It’s all about prevention. There are germs that we are all exposed to every day. The key is to make sure your immune system is strong enough to withstand them.”
I asked him how to do that and he said “You need to get at least eight hours sleep per night, eat well and exercise daily. You also need to keep your hands clean, take some vitamins, get adjusted and do your best to think positively. If you do all that you are going to be fine.”
Good advice. The worst pandemic in history was the 1919 Spanish Flu which killed 50 million globally. It was spread by exhausted infantrymen who had comprised the immune system thanks to malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions. My guess is that our current pandemic will eventually run its course with far less damage done thanks to better nutrition, stronger immune systems, and faster containment efforts.
However, the underlying emotional/cultural dynamics that partially explain tour current panic will remain in place. Income inequality, overwhelming technological advances, and overwork are issues that are potentially far more deadly than any germ.
Paranoia is repressed anger that gets projected outward. Paranoia is responsible for the rash of school shootings and our current hysteria about a disease.
Blockbuster films become blockbusters only when they strike a chord within our collective unconscious. The great filmmakers are like modern-day prophets who give voice to our most troubling unconscious fears. “Contagion” was produced in 2011, and this film is almost an identical story to the coronavirus.
This year there have been two films that captured our attention. “Parasite” was the winner of the Oscar for best picture and is a story about a down and out Korean family which manages to wreak revenge upon an upper-class family. This film mirrors our biggest issue, the anger we feel by being part of the have-nots in a culture of haves.
“The Joker” also won awards and is about a down and out lower-middle-class fellow who is ‘mad as hell and won’t take it anymore.” He then proceeds to kill a celebrity host while being interviewed by him on television.
The host in “Parasite” was a rich family. The host in “The Joker” was a celebrity interview. What I see in our current world is a fear that we will all be the hosts for the coronavirus which we fear is out to kill us. But I think this is far from the truth. All you need to do is rest up, eat well, get some exercise and follow the new rules of disengagement.
