Open AccessFace masks as layers of meaning in times of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Luca Tateo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
culture and psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.509
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1461-7056
pISSN - 1354-067X
DOI - 10.1177/1354067x20957549
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , ambivalence , face (sociological concept) , context (archaeology) , norwegian , object (grammar) , covid-19 , psychology , meaning making , social psychology , feeling , sociology , aesthetics , epistemology , linguistics , social science , psychotherapist , medicine , history , art , philosophy , disease , archaeology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
The pandemic of COVID-19 has brought to the front a particular object: the face mask. I have explored the way people make-meaning of an object generally associated with the medical context that, under exceptional circumstances, can become a presence in everyday life. Understanding how people make meaning of their use is important. Using cultural psychology, I analyse preferences toward different types of face masks people would wear in public. The study involved 2 groups, 44 Norwegian university students and 60 international academics. In particular, I have focused on the role of the mask in regulating people affective experience. The mask evokes safety and fear, it mediates in the auto-dialogue between “I” and “Me” through the “Other”, and in the hetero-dialogue between “I” and the “Other” through “Me” The dialogue is characterized by a certain ambivalence, as expected. Meaning-making is indeed the way to deal with the ambivalence of human existence.