PHYSICAL BODY, LIVED BODY & EMPATHY DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. WHAT’S THE MATTER?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly had a devastating impact on a global scale. About two months after its onset, the contagion has turned into an unprecedented threat to the health of the world population, forcing all the countries of the world to face a very difficult period, almost comparable to a post-war condition. After just over a year, then, the educational drifts of the pandemic begin to be increasingly evident, which is certainly attributable to the restrictive measures that have been imposed on us, such as the limitation of personal freedom, the zeroing of sociality and, on the educational side, the consequent distance learning. Being distant does not only mean containing the contacts of the physical body, but also weakening the social dimension of learning that belongs to the lived body and which is well expressed through the practice of empathy. The aim of this contribution is to reflect on the relationship that is established among body-emotion-communication and the worrying drifts that the current conditions of physical confinement seem to exacerbate, in light of the fact that it would be almost impossible to intercept the emotional state of the other without the presence of the body that communicates sensations, emotions and moods. “Distant but close”, this is the slogan that is still repeated to us every day. Difficult to practice “empathic closeness” in the absence of a body?