Research on the psychological root and transmission mechanism of rumours in major epidemics based on the perspective of psychoanalysis

Abstract

Since the Covid-19 epidemic, many rumours have been generated under the main theme of a whole people fighting the epidemic together. From the standpoint of depth psychology, a psychoanalytic perspective has its own advantages and unique research value on the psychological roots of rumours in major epidemics and their mechanisms of transmission, which this article discusses, along with the anxiety and fear created by the life instinct, the elements of attack and projection under the death instinct, and conjectures how the role of Lacan’s postulation that the unconscious is constituted like language all play a role as main causes of a current epidemic of rumours. The transmission mechanisms of epidemic rumours are the following: the spreading of panic caused by the interruption of emotional connection, aggressive spreading of rumours caused by hostility in processes of identification, and problems in mechanisms of projective identification, and the combined effect of audiovisual media. Furthermore, the authors make specific suggestions on how to deal with rumours in major epidemics, so as to improve understanding and response to these in cases of major epidemics.