Acceso usuarios
Marcelo Vieira
Since the emergence of the Covid-19 outbreak, the world has faced profound changes, with different levels of impact on human experience. Besides immediate health, economic, and political issues, psychological and existential impacts have also emerged. It is no exaggeration to say that even our taken-for-granted, embodied being in the world has profoundly changed, with collectively felt impacts. In this paper, I argue for a general description of the Covid-19 experience. I suggest that loss of trust emerges as a pervasive dimension of these strange times, de-structuring the whole web of human relations since then. As an essentially affective category, trust can be described at the most basic level as a pre-intentional bodily orientation towards ourselves, others, and the world in general. A critical point is that loss of trust cannot be described as an internal and individual emotion, but rather, as an essentially relational and socially extended affective phenomenon. Another critical point is that, due to social distancing measures, loss of trust has to be understood mostly as a technologically scaffolded form of emotional sharing. I end by calling attention to the potential and present mental health impacts of losing trust.
