COVID & Crisis of Care : Feminist psychological view

COVID 19 pandemic has also unleashed a mental health pandemic. We are facing a humanitarian crisis of a magnitude that leaves us numb with food scarcity, health and mental health issues, problems related to employment, work, travel, migration, labour, communication and so on.  It is also challenging us in terms of our preparedness as caregivers, as individuals and as a society. This article is an attempt to analyze some of the whys, hows and what can be done in this context.

The specter of COVID 19 has had most of us going through various kinds of fears: real, imagined, state and media induced leading to dysfunctionality and distress, albeit to varying degrees. We have also gone through different phases of this fear and responses to it, as we have moved from lockdown to ‘New Normal’ to unlock to lockdown yet again. This fear is tinged with uncertainty and lack of control over self and surroundings. As I was trying to make sense of this as a psychotherapy practitioner and as a researcher, a formulation resonated with me. It is by Pollard (2019), who is not a psychologist, but a geologist (goes to prove how much cross fertilization of ideas amongst social and natural sciences is needed and also breaking the binaries of natural and social!) who has elaborated on the COVID 19 fears thus:

Fear of suffering (our own and loved ones), and the related fears of the unknown and potentially traumatizing surprises - which ties in very well with what COVID-19 has unraveled before us. Fear of not being in control (helplessness, disability, incapacity, dependence, being trapped) and the related fears of social anxiety, lack of autonomy, lack of essential knowledge, and of ‘not having enough’ (uncontrollable scarcities, including time) - something that all strata have gone through, but marginalized and the poor have gone through much more than the others laying bare the fault lines of caste, class, rural-urban and many more divides. The sense of ‘feeling trapped’ within homes, punitive action when you step out and the unpredictability of your own life and what lies ahead have increased distress to a great extent. Fear of failure and inadequacy - those who are not able to cope and adapt to COVID-19 challenges as well as the New Normal have experienced this, whether in terms of the upper middle class not being able to manage the dual stress of housework and work from home or the pressure of cooking exotic dishes, indulging in hobbies that can be flaunted etc. or the urban and rural poor being distressed due to sheer material resources becoming scarce. These fears are all real and will persist for a long time. But some of the fears are perceived or imagined fears and they have also engulfed the populace. They are both state induced and media led. The infodemic, depending on what media and social media one consumes (reading, watching death rates, conflicts, alarmist forecasting etc.), has also led to panic, anxiety and triggered clinical depression.

For women, children and the aged world over, ‘the myth of the safe home’ is busted yet again. Various countries, including India have reported that domestic violence, intimate partner violence, child sexual abuse, abuse of the aged and animals has spiraled. This points to a ‘collapse of care’ and signals an urgent need to attend to the care needs of various citizens. Many marginalized and excluded individuals, groups and communities have faced the crisis of care even more deeply than anyone else : transgender persons, sex workers, disabled persons, those with psychosocial disabilities, migrant workers in urban spaces.

The class divide and persistent inequalities and vulnerabilities which have always existed are now exacerbated. During the lockdown, domestic workers had to stop going for work and households had to manage domestic work themselves. This did not lead to the ‘enlightening appreciation of domestic labour’ nor did most housewives and households agree to paying them their full due, unconditionally. There was a lot of haggling and churlishness on the part of the upper middle class and upper class in terms of showing enough care and consideration to those who have worked for them for long periods. These are the same classes who were negotiating and being assertive for full pay for themselves! The hypocrisy and selfishness of our privileged classes even in a crisis was laid bare for all to see.

Women from all strata came close to losing their jobs (and many have already lost them according to the latest studies) and got pushed into ‘doing housework and work from home’. This holds the imminent danger of ‘re-housewifization’ and falling into the ‘domesticity trap’ for many. It has also created a lot of distress and loss of focus for many. The cliched ‘work- life balance’ has morphed into ‘work-work balance’ at home! Men putting up pictures of exotic dishes that they have cooked (to flaunt and mostly one off) does not cut much ice. It only points out to the fact that the middle and upper middle class is still caught in a time warp where stereotypical gender roles are still played out. If a man cooks ‘once in a while, it becomes a performative act’ (which social media laps up, consumes, reconsumes), whereas when a woman cooks, cleans and the rest, ‘she is just doing what is her job’.

Young adults who are students or professionals had to go back home during lockdown (because hostels were shut or landlords told them to vacate or they thought they would be safer at home) and many of them were engulfed by familial conflicts, restrictions and felt trapped and cooped up. Even some of those staying at home felt so. This is the insight I gained from the free online therapy sessions that I conducted for the last three months. It brought to the fore familial lifestyles where the young and the old see so little of each other that once they were thrown together for so long, all the dynamics and conflicts surfaced. It was exceedingly difficult for them to reconcile and resolve these conflicts, yet another crisis of care.

To meet these challenges and to answer the call for care from various sections of the society as per their needs; a multi-pronged strategy is essential:

• While community-based organizations, NGOs, social organizations who have done superlative relief work would continue with their efforts, the onus is not on their shoulders alone.
• First, the state must not abdicate its welfare and social role to all the citizens, and to that end, all pro social citizens should not let up the pressure on the government.
• Civil society needs to chip in towards the care of people from localities, zones, areas, and the city as a whole and neighbouring villages as well in the district.
• Secular and community-minded youth groups must take up the challenge of care vis-a-vis education (moving towards the digital divide of online education), health, mental health, employment support and more.
• MHPs (mental health professionals) will have to put aside their blinkers of individual-centered care and move on to people centered and community centered, psychosocial health care models. They will also have to discard their biomedical paradigm and imbibe and practice truly (not just paying lip service) biopsychosocial interventions. This will mean revamping and a complete overhaul of the system, but now is the time to do this and rise to the occasion.

Feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan wrote about the ethics of care that includes responsibility, concern, close relationships. It seeks a balance between care for oneself (self-care) and care for others. This applies beautifully to the COVID-19 situation where our worst fears viz. disease and death have come together. Yes, all of us are concerned about taking self-care and preventing/escaping the ‘COVID Positive’ tag and resultant pain/suffering and the worst-case scenario - death. But it also means that our risk taking behaviour should not be at the cost of others. It also means not stigmatizing those who are COVID positive and participating in their care as well. It would entail the responsibility of care of the most vulnerable individuals and group, becoming more inclusive, caring, considerate and compassionate.

Creating a culture of care to combat COVID would mean giving up individualistic, upwardly mobile, consumerist lifestyles for the privileged and embracing more pro-social, outward looking and outward reaching ones, towards persons and communities, especially those who are more marginalized and excluded.

Reference : Dave Pollard ‘Where we are now, more on the Culture of Fear’ – www.howtosavetheworld.ca

Dr. Sadhana Natu

(Dr Sadhana Natu is Associate Professor and Head, Dept. of Psychology at the Modern College, Pune. She is a practicing feminist psychotherapist, researcher, trainer, activist with long standing commitment and work in the areas of gender and mental health, youth and mental health, development sector and higher education. She is an advisor to many NGOs and CBOs.  She can be reached at sana.psychologist@gmail.com)