Mattias Desmet, professor of psychoanalysis at the University of Ghent, believes that we are massively in the grip of fear. Just recently he claimed in the online talk show The New World that we are collectively blinded by a virus that fuels our worst fears, causing us to stop thinking clearly and constantly making irrational decisions. Judging by the number of views, his speech reaches a large group of people. But it is far from scientific.
According to him, the corona measures only serve to curb our own fear. For the rest, they are completely unnecessary and even cause damage. All that social distancing, that washing hands, and adding hospital beds is really something for the faint of heart! After all, according to Desmet, the virus is much less dangerous than we think. To prove this, he brushes aside the broad scientific consensus and conjures up some quick statistics. It’s just the flu, sir!
No, according to Desmet, we should especially be afraid of our own fear, which is much more dangerous than the virus itself. Fear kills! For this he cites shadowy anecdotes of shamans who tapped someone with a staff, after which they fell to death from fear a few hours later. Really? I’ve been researching anxiety for 20 years, but I’ve never heard such nonsense.
And it becomes very profound when he states that we are experiencing a mass psychosis, a collective fear, where we stare hypnotized at a virus: a virus that binds the deep malaise of our contemporary society, making us afraid of the virus instead of worrying about our way of life. Sounds mysterious, and it is: there is nothing to it.
Fear is no more mysterious than hunger or thirst. It is just what it is: an emotional response to threat. Scientific research has clearly shown that in most cases fear is justified and has a very important function: it motivates us to take action and deal with the threat. Without fear, our species had long since ceased to exist.
Technically, we distinguish between fear and fear. We experience fear when a threat is still distant, or unclear, uncertain. We are then on our guard and keep a close eye on everything. We sharpen our senses and consider the situation. As the threat approaches, fear turns to fear. Then the body prepares for action: fight or flight. The stress system is activated and the attention is now very specifically focused on the danger. According to Desmet, there are all kinds of mysterious processes behind this, but that is not the case. We know exactly which circumstances provoke fear and fear and how to measure them. In fact, we know which areas of the brain are responsible for fear and fear (the bed nucleus of the stria terminales for fear and the amygdala for fear). The more we learn, the less mystery remains.
Of course our fears are embedded in the current world we live in. We no longer need to be afraid of predators, we are afraid of things that could threaten us today. For example, our fear system kicks in when we approach a collision, or when we wait for the results of an exam, biting our nails. The situations are different, the mechanism is the same.
And yes, sometimes our sense of fear does not quite match the actual threat level. Just think of the fear that a terror attack provokes in many people. It is exaggerated because the danger of terror is extremely small. If you compare the statistics of causes of death then terror dangles somewhere at the bottom. But images of terror are so intense that they nevertheless instill fear. We are not used to being afraid of numbers.
And that is precisely the problem with the corona numbers: they provoke too little fear. You can easily get rid of them. Charts are abstract. They are not compelling images of danger. Desmet completely misses the ball: the problem is not that there is too much fear, there is too little fear. This is becoming more and more painfully clear every day.
I have a proposal for Desmet: collect data on the number of people who die of corona fear every day (with or without a tap from a shaman’s staff) and put it next to the daily updates of Sciensano. Perhaps that will help you wake up from that silly nonsense.
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