We Can Fight COVID-19 and Social Isolation by Promoting Meaning

[Shiloh]

Source: https://ifstudies.org/blog/we-can-fi...moting-meaning

March 17, 2020
We Can Fight COVID-19 and Social Isolation by Promoting Meaning
by Clay Routledge, @clayroutledge

If properly directed, our basic social needs can help us defeat and recover from this growing pandemic. Tweet This
Meaning in life has great motivational power. It gives people hope and the personal agency needed to take care of themselves and help others. Tweet This
When people are focused on pursuing meaning, they are more inclined to privilege the greater good over immediate self-interest.

Many Americans appear to be struggling with the need for social distancing to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. In cities across the country, people continue to frequent bars, restaurants, cinemas, and gyms despite the recommendations of public health professionals. Young adults, in particular, may not be taking the threat seriously or may not fully appreciate that even if they are fortunate enough to not get very sick, they can spread the virus to others who are more vulnerable. Our social nature is a big part of this problem, but the good news is that if properly directed, our basic social needs can help us defeat and recover from this growing pandemic...

[drlipton]

I would like to suggest 2 books about the search for meaning in a time of great trouble: Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and The Plague by Albert Camus. Frankl's book is an attempt to understand the psychology of the survivor's of Hitler's concentration camps. Camus' book is more like a parable, the story of a good doctor in Oran, in northern Africa, French Algiers. The description of the subtle onset of the plague, the quarantine of the city, mass death and then recovery is eerily prescient. It is a corollary to Camus' essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. We must just keep pushing on the rock.
Thank you, Moderators and Leaders of this forum!

[Emily]

I would like to suggest 2 books about the search for meaning in a time of great trouble: Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and The Plague by Albert Camus. Frankl's book is an attempt to understand the psychology of the survivor's of Hitler's concentration camps. Camus' book is more like a parable, the story of a good doctor in Oran, in northern Africa, French Algiers. The description of the subtle onset of the plague, the quarantine of the city, mass death and then recovery is eerily prescient. It is a corollary to Camus' essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. We must just keep pushing on the rock.
Thank you, Moderators and Leaders of this forum!

You beat me to it on "Man's Search for Meaning." Here's a link to it:

Man's Search for Meaning - Fablar www.fablar.in › docs › Mans_Search_for_Meaning.78114942.pdf