Guest of Lact, Jean Dominique Michel, Health Anthropologist, Project Director of the "College of Recovery *", General Secretary of the Romande Association "Pro Mente Sana *" which defends the interests and rights of people suffering from disability or mental illness and; author of: "Covid: Anatomy of a health crisis *" came to share his analysis of this question which is both complex and complicated.

Some lighting...

Anthropology is an inductive and comprehensive science which studies the nature, meaning and logic of the interactional processes of human groups inscribed in a social and cultural context. The anthropology of health, on the other hand, studies the interactions between health, culture and disease. Depending on socio-cultural factors, health and illness are represented and apprehended in different ways. In this regard, Jean Dominique Michel reminds us that "The majority of cultures in the world consider illness as something collective, groupal, while in the West, health is something more personal, confidential, experienced alone. , thanks to the problematic of individuality. As part of his public health research work, he is interested in the question of "salutogenesis*", i.e. understanding the way in which a person will be able or not to find in his environment the resources necessary that will help him meet his health needs. This point of view is linked to the definition of the process of resilience insofar as it is the question of: "How to go through the trials in order to maintain and/or relaunch the dynamics of life? »; in a global perspective that I call “psycho-affective-emotional homeostasis”. To this, Jean Dominique Michel adds that, according to research in salutogenesis, intelligibility is one of the strongest vectors of resilience. In other words, it is by understanding a phenomenon that resources will be able to be mobilized. Despite the existence of a crisis plan established in the wake of historic pandemics, and the fact that Covid 19 is the 9th most serious epidemic since the end of the second war; Despite the fact that it remains in terms of order of magnitude, something usual; it was treated as something unusual, unprecedented, causing widespread panic. The virus itself is therefore not the problem, it is the representation of the virus, its effects, and the resulting actions that pose problems. Failing and disorganized management both human and material; added to a discordant communication; all amplified by media pollution, revealed a sick and divided interactional system. The combination of these three factors caused a situation of double bind, which favored: A multiplied culture of conspiracy A "deadly" climate hammered by catastrophic media announcements An obstacle to finding a fair posture in the face of an incomprehensible discourse. This is how political, scientific, health and media governance systems have opened Pandora's box. This has only accentuated the weakening of a system already in crisis, and consequently contributed to plunging populations into globalized insecurity.

Knowing the influence of ties on health, what will be the consequences related to the deprivation of interactions of children, elders, hospitalized people?
How to regulate the disruptive effects of stressors on metabolism?
How to restore the sacred doctor-patient bond weakened by state injunctions?
How to keep my health to be able to be in no exclusion?
How to get out of this unthought?
Following this observation, which is opposed to the principles of life, what are the prospects?
There are many questions that now push us to reflect on the perspectives that will help hope to come out of the box, because it is, as Jean Dominique Michel reminds us, our human and civic responsibility.

It is with the intention of collective intelligence that the following project ideas emerged from the group of participants:

Teaching to develop critical, philosophical thinking

This proposal joins the model of the sense of coherence inscribed in the salutogenesis approach: The understanding of an internal or external event, the notion of being able to manage it by relying on its resources, the fact of giving it meaning and drawing lessons from it constitute the triad which goes in the direction of the continuity of life; Rely on neuroscience research that attests to the constructivist reading of man: reality is a construction created by the observer, therefore it is never as we believe it to be. Which, in fine, makes it possible to get out of the danger of totalitarian thought. In other words, systems thinking constitutes a real human resource in terms of understanding complex phenomena.

Develop the bond of belonging and recognition to the human community

Create an organization of human relations that is based on solidarity, with the intention of linking up with the human community. View the person as a source, not a burden or a rival. Look for collective responses that will be good for you. “To communicate is to pool, and to pool is the act that constitutes us. If one considers that this act is impossible, one refuses any human project. »Albert Jacquard

In conclusion, this situation has revealed a society in crisis of meaning, trust, links, consequences of capitalist globalization advocating individualism, performance, competition, as keys to personal success. Like a return of boomerang, this crisis strikes the spirits and pulls a big alarm bell, It expresses a deep need to be listened to, heard, considered, recognized as being part of the whole that constitutes our humanity. It expresses a need to find links that consider the person as they are and not as they should be. She asks, to find a lost security.

Words transcribed by Sabria TAHAR