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Reanimating the plague

Bibliographic Data

ID12737362
AuthorsTom Fielder (0000-0001-6547-3894, Birkbeck, University of London, corresponding author), Lizaveta van Munsteren (0000-0001-6955-8844, Birkbeck, University of London)
Year2021
Volume14
Issue3
Pages203-215
Publication date2021-09-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Psychosocial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1478-6737 • E-ISSN: 1478-6737
PublisherBristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1332/147867321x16285375806758
OpenAlexW3197327919
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

The idea of ‘plague’ has returned to public consciousness with the arrival of COVID-19. An anachronistic and extremely problematic concept for thinking about biopolitical catastrophe, plague nevertheless offers an enormous historical range and a potentially highly generative metaphorical framework for psychosocial studies to engage with, for example, through Albert Camus’ (2013) The Plague and Sophocles’ (2015) Oedipus The King. It is, moreover, a word that is likely to remain firmly within the remit of public consciousness as we move further into the Anthropocene, to face further pandemics and the spectre of antibiotic resistance. A return to plague also opens up the question of a return to psychoanalysis, which Freud is often cited as having described as a ‘plague’. Psychoanalysis is, like plague, a troubling and problematic discourse for psychosocial studies, but, like plague, it may also help us to work through the disorders and dis-eases of COVID times. In fact, if the recent pandemic has reanimated the notion of plague, the plague metaphor may in turn help to reanimate psychoanalysis, and in this article we suggest some of the analogical, even genealogical, resonances of such an implication

Ancient history · Consciousness · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Metaphor · Pandemic · Plague (disease · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · History · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

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    Open Access•Jean-Pierre Vernant, Jean Pierre Vernant et al.•Myth and tragedy in ancient Greece•1980

  • Technology, Disease, and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

    Patricia Crouch, Patricia A Crouch•Sixteenth Century Journal•2002

  • Rethinking psychoanalysis in the psychosocial

    Open Access•Stephen Frosh•Psychoanalysis Culture & Society•2018

  • Temporal Drag

    Open Access•Lisa Baraitser•Theory Culture & Society•2015

  • An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections

    Open Access•Ron Barrett, George J Armelagos et al.•General Anthropology•2014

Unique citing works1
Citations per year0,2
Citation span2021 - 2021 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1
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