“Illness Representations in COVID-19”: Somatoperception During a Pandemic

Addressing the psychosomatic aspects of the pandemic gives rise to a wide range of questions. National experience in addressing these issues is analyzed here in the light of classical concepts of somatoperception and body experience recognition. The results, obtained from following COVID-19 patients samples have been taken into consideration: affected patients, recovered patients and those who have not come across this disease directly. To describe somatoperceptual characteristics in a pandemic, the term “Illness representations in COVID-19” is proposed. During the comparison of the degree of study in different levels, it was found that the sensitive level has not yet received sufficient lighting, unlike the other levels. The analysis of the literature data led to the identification of future research directions of illness representations in COVID-19. In addition to the features of the sensitive level, interlevel mutual influence and structural-dynamic characteristics of illness representations in COVID-19 depending on the person’s own experience in dealing with COVID-19 may be the subject of such studies.