INTERVIEW
It is a new chapter in their history that the French are about to close. For 55 days, they had to live in confinement, without seeing their loved ones, often without going to work, to stop the coronavirus pandemic which is shaking the world, and France since March. For many, this experience is like a trauma. So, on the eve of deconfinement, it is legitimate to wonder how it will have transformed us, and to understand why the return to the world is so distressing.
"It's classic," says neuropsychiatrist, Boris Cyrulnik. Invited to Europe 1 on Sunday, the specialist even compared the experience of confinement, then of deconfinement, with that of prisoners. "Prisoners are unhappy when they enter prison, and after four or five years in prison, they are afraid of going out, afraid of the social world where they have lost the habit of living." Just as the social world has become a stranger to them, we are anxious to find this former world, where we could move freely.
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The fear of confinement, the anxiety of deconfinement
At the end of these 55 days of confinement, we are asked to return to a new world. "We know that the virus is not completely dead, we know that the working conditions will be changed, we know that France is ruined", continues Boris Cyrulnik. "We don't know if we're going to be able to adapt to this new world, so the deconfinement is an anxiety".
Besides, the neuropsychiatrist specifies that there is indeed a difference between fear and anxiety. A difference that is perfectly justified in the context of the experience that the French have been living for two months, one of the terms associated with confinement, the other with deconfinement. "In fear, we are the object of fear and we know how to protect ourselves, to associate, to flee, to hide," he explains. "While anxiety is invisible, it is unknown, we do not know what awaits us".
In addition, according to Boris Cyrulnik, "this is the first time that we have been dealing with a virus of which we did not know the chemical formula, the clinical effects and the means of treating it and" eliminating it ". Hence this evolution from fear to anguish. With deconfinement, "we enter the world of anguish, whereas we entered confinement thanks to fear".
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"Chaos is deterministic"
However, says the neurospychiatrist, this experience should allow us to question our way of life. According to him, we will have to invent new rituals: stop kissing each other, shake hands. "Lots of cultures in Asia do not kiss each other, yet they are cultures of extreme politeness." After a period of chaos, we are forced to determine new directions, adds Boris Cyrulnik. "Chaos is deterministic".
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