TITLE:
Discussing the Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health from a Psychological Perspective
AUTHORS:
Masayo Uji
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Mental Health, Group Mentality, Addiction, Autonomy
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.11 No.7,
July
17,
2020
ABSTRACT: Under the socially critical situations, an individual’s personality pathologies tracing back to their origins a long time ago are usually exacerbated, and hidden group mentality of society as a whole is manifested. The COVID-19 outbreak, which has brought about an extremely high level of crisis all over the world, provides us with an opportunity to observe pathologies of society in addition to those of an individual more vividly, helping us understand the meanings of the pathologies. In this study, attitudes and behavioral reactions of Japanese individuals and society as a whole caused by the COVID-19 outbreak were discussed. Psychoanalytic and social psychology theories as well as self-determination theory were applied for discussing some behavioral phenomena, such as addiction behaviors and crude criticism and/or discrimination towards some particular category of people. After proposing some hypotheses regarding these attitudes and behaviors, I finally mentioned tasks with which COVID-19 challenges human society. I refer to the increased need for clinical psychiatry and psychology in contributing to society to achieve the tasks.