936142 APY Australasian PsychiatryAlchin et al.

Australasian
Psychotherapy Psychiatry
Australasian Psychiatry

Love in the time of Corona 1­–3

© The Royal Australian and
New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/1039856220936142
https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856220936142
journals.sagepub.com/home/apy

David Alchin   Westmead Psychotherapy Program for Complex Traumatic Disorders, Cumberland Hospital, Australia; and
Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Australia
Loyola McLean  Westmead Psychotherapy Program for Complex Traumatic Disorders, Cumberland Hospital, Australia; and
Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Australia
Anthony Korner  Westmead Psychotherapy Program for Complex Traumatic Disorders, Cumberland Hospital, Australia

Abstract
Objective: As the world struggles to come to terms with “corona,” we find our collective experience to be entirely
alien, struggling to find meaning in the forms of feeling being evoked. When words cannot provide meaning to
experience, metaphor is often utilized.
Conclusions: Words like “love” are informed autobiographically as “growing words,” with no rules defining their
use. The significance of “love” to an individual is created through personal history, such that sophisticated under-
standing is only constructed following a lifetime of experience. “Corona” is perhaps a growing word; we cannot yet
grasp its meaning in the face of cólera (passion) and pati (suffering) informing our collective traumatic script. Psy-
chiatrists should aim to focus on the positive forms of feeling emerging during the pandemic, in order to be better
equipped to meet the impending “second wave” of mental health complications.

Keywords:  COVID-19, coronavirus, corona, metaphor, Conversational Model

In formulating the Conversational Model of psychother- meaning for which literal words won’t suffice. Hobson
apy, Robert Hobson once wrote: described “forms of feeling,” in reference to evoking a
verbal symbol of an immediate shared experience.1
Love is a growing word. It is not the same kind of
Occasionally, the English lexicon encounters limitations
word as ‘jam-jar’. . .. . .Knowing how to use the word
in its ability to attach meaning to an object: in these
‘love’ is part of our personal history, of our autobiog-
instances, words are sometimes borrowed to form sym-
raphy. . ..We can grasp the meaning of ‘jam-jar’ by
bolic significance. In this manner, cholera, derived from
being told the rules for its’ use, but this is not so with
the Spanish cólera, serves as an example of Jungian meta-
words such as ‘love’. We cannot start with a sophis-
phor. Whilst modern word associations of cholera evoke
ticated understanding, just as we cannot start with a
contagion and disease, in Spanish vernacular cólera
sophisticated taste in music or literature.1
translates to passion.
The Macquarie Dictionary defines passion as “any kind
Love and metaphor of feeling or emotion, as hope, fear, joy, grief, anger,
Musical or literary expressions, such as Gabriel García love, desire, etc., especially when of compelling force.”3
Márquez’s 1985 novel Love in the time of cholera, derive Passion (cólera) seems a term intended to add qualitative,
much of their language from the use of metaphor. Jung
recognized the value of metaphor as a tool to express
experience: “Man, with his symbol-making propensity, Corresponding author:
unconsciously transforms objects or forms into symbols David Alchin, Westmead Psychotherapy Program for Complex
(thereby endowing them with great psychological impor- Traumatic Disorders, Cumberland Hospital, North Parramatta,
tance).”2 It is a process of abstraction that, when utilized NSW 2145, Australia.
with appropriate finesse, embellishes experience with Email: [email protected]

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and perhaps quantitative, symbolism to the experience virus” have seen a notable increase, and the brewer has
of affect. Clearly, the axis on which our world currently since suffered losses in the hundreds of millions. The
spins has been tilted by a profound form of feeling that pathos of “corona” continues to grow, being constructed
could be referred to as cólera. by the cólera of existential fear. For this reason, perhaps,
the recent launch of a Corona-branded hard seltzer failed
Of course, English-speaking virologists have borrowed
to have “one splashy entrance.”
another expression to be used metaphorically. A sym-
bolic fluidity has meant that what once denoted a The failure of Constellation Brands’ viral marketing to
crown, was subsequently associated with a beer, before spread demonstrates that in the face of evolutionary
coming to represent not only a virus, but the forms of pressures, not every contagion can be engineered. In The
feeling touching us all. Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins wrote,
It was reported by the Macquarie Dictionary that “coro-
Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic trans-
navirus” will be crowned over “the coronavirus,”
mission in that, although basically conservative, it can
“COVID-19,” and “Covid-19,”4 the coronation being
give rise to a form of evolution. . .. Language seems to
officiated in its next online edition. “Coronavirus” isn’t
‘evolve’ by non-genetic means, and at a rate which is
new: it has spread through academic virology since pro-
orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution.9
totypical coronation in 1968.5 In 2019, virologists
believe a bat coronavirus mutated under evolutionary
pressures to become COVID-19. In 2020, “corona” has Emotive words undergo a form of cultural evolution,
evolved into a growing word, shaped by a global cólera. and at times spread rapidly like a form of contagion. As
they show increasing symptoms of use in conversation,
Coronal etymology new words and meanings are replicated, and spread, in
many ways representing a viral motif. Dawkins further
Akin to evolutionary pressures on a virus, words in their wrote that “We need a name for the new replicator, a
form and meaning exist under etymological influences. noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural trans-
The etymology of passion comes from the Latin pati (to mission. . .the French word meme (same).”9
suffer): historically, passion referred to experiencing suf-
fering.6 Earlier use of pati is seen in The Passion of The Perhaps then, “corona” represents two co-occurring pan-
Christ, during which the motif of a Crown (corona) of demics. The more “jam-jar” symbol of a viral pandemic
Thorns is evoked. This influenced later naming of the remains obvious. But there appears to also be a cultural
passionflower (flōs passiōnis), with metaphorical com- pandemic, a “corona meme,” more in line with the grow-
parison of the floral corona to the Crown of Thorns. It is ing word. One can draw an analogy between the way
inviting to speculate on the synchronicity that COVID- viral RNA inserts genes into a cell, in the same way “coro-
19 has been associated with the term “corona,” a symbol nal memes” insert pathos into the collective conscious-
long associated with passion. To experience passion is to ness. The question facing all of us is the possibility of
suffer: experiencing “corona” is experiencing passion. “positive contagion.” This relates to whether “corona”
Christ is said to have suffered for our sins. We accept the may be integrated into both individual and collective
passion of self-isolation, as a symbol representing that consciousness in a narrative, self-enhancing way, or
the more vulnerable need not suffer “corona.” whether it becomes part of an “adualistic” traumatic con-
sciousness that tends to self-isolate and alienate.
However, just as modern English borrowed “corona,”
the Latin pati borrowed from Ancient Greek (πάθος, “suf-
fering/experience”)—the plural of “pathos.” Intuitively,
in the context of COVID-19, pathos evokes notions of Alienation
the pathological; however, in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, we find We do not yet possess sophisticated understanding of
that pathos was originally construed as artistic commu- what “corona” implies—the evolving crisis continuing to
nication, one of three rhetorical vehicles of persuasion, inform an autobiographical experience that is increas-
together with ethos and logos.7 It is a valuable device that ingly alienated. The symbol of this crisis represents bil-
lives on in narrative art, appealing to the emotion of an lions of forms of personal meaning, yet the theme of
audience. Pathos seeks to elicit affect through a number alienation recurrently presents itself. Should we share in
of means, including metaphor. direct experience of the pandemic, we are mandated to
self-isolate. To curb the curve, social distancing is
demanded, promoting alienation, whilst group forma-
Cultural memes and Corona beer tion is increasingly prohibited, reducing our capacity for
The pati experienced by the collective consciousness cre- certain forms of intimacy. The intimate bar, intimate
ates pathos evoked by the symbol of “corona.” We are venue, intimately small wedding, the commemorating
provided with an example through Constellation Brands, funeral—all have seen bans under intimately constructed
who communicated recently that people “understand public health measures. Self-interest has compromised
there is no link between the virus and our business.”8 pro-social behavior, the empty supermarket shelves dem-
Despite this, online searches related to “Corona beer onstrating increasing distance between ourselves.

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Hobson recognized that “self arises and remains between traumatic script; within this forecasted “second wave”
people,” and at the moment we do not appear ourselves. of mental health complications, psychiatrists will shift
We are hoarding, self-isolating, panicking: aspects of to the role of lead actor. If we ourselves focus on hope,
ourselves we have not previously observed. The experi- joy, and love as the post-pandemic “jewels in the
ence of self is created within a thirdness, occupying a crown” of our own positive growth, we might perhaps
space between two people, functioning within a particu- find ourselves better equipped to navigate our task in
lar form of relationship.10 Conversation between two the second act.
people is generative of self, yet we are seeing less take
place. Meares noted that Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–
1835) was one of the first to recognize the existence and Conclusion
importance of the third, writing that “Inwardness . . .
In what may perhaps be called “covidian” times, Jung
severs the self from reality.”10 It has been said that our
might possibly have concluded the pandemic to be an
current existence is akin to living in a “science-fiction”
experience beyond individual comprehension, requiring
movie. Movies license their metaphor through the “sus-
symbols to represent that which remains unable to be
pension of disbelief.” This immediate feeling of shared
understood. “Corona” has for each of us many mean-
disbelief, of a disconnectedness, perhaps traumatic, is
ings, and yet it has a personal meaning that is yet to be
then sustained by a starvation of the social self, and the
defined. To paraphrase Hobson once more, we can grasp
inwardness that continues to grow among us.
the meaning of “jam-jar,” but we must work toward
“love.” For the moment, perhaps, there is work to be
Our traumatic script done to create the meaning of “corona.”
As narrative art, movies construct pathos through meta-
phor, played out by actors, and guided in their form by Acknowledgements
the use of script writing. Symbols used by script writers For Olivia
are often influenced contextually by the culture and
time in which the writers live. Meares has recently Authors’ Note
described the “disconnectedness of traumatic conscious-
Loyola McLean is also affiliated with Western Clinical School, Discipline of Psychiatry, The
ness” in which there is an experience of a “realm of University of Sydney, Australia; and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Royal North Shore
destructive forces, in which affect is entirely negative. . . Hospital, St Leonards, Australia.
governed by a system of memories. . .amalgamated and Anthony Korner is also affiliated with Western Clinical School, Discipline of Psychiatry, The
organized into a notional ‘traumatic script’. . .In this University of Sydney, Australia.
state, the patient ‘becomes’ one of the actors...”10
The collective consciousness is writing its own traumatic Disclosure
script, with the individual playing the role of actor on a The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content
global stage. The ending of Love in the time of Corona and writing of the paper.
remains closely guarded. The final plot twist facing us all
will center on whether “corona” will come to represent ORCID iD
a “crowning achievement,” a “death motif,” or some
David Alchin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9389-1986
third position; increasingly, the pandemic has allowed
us to pause for thought.
References
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The second act
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For all of the pati confronting the collective experience,
2017.
cólera continues to translate to passion. We should remain
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tralia; 2020. https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/blog/article/688/
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