Denial of death and capitalism during the health crisis

The least we can say is that the management of the covid-19 epidemic has not only affected the living, but also the dead. The orders were of unprecedented violence during what we will agree to call a major anthropological turning point: strict confinement of the elderly; prohibition of visits by relatives of residents living in rest homes; and burials rationalized by solidarity were the salient features of an episode that was in every way delirious. Contrary to what one might think, it is not finished insofar as it embodies an offshoot of the capitalist doctrine that has accelerated man’s entry into an ultra-digital era that was previously in gestation. In this article, we will link the denial of death that was at work during the pandemic to the denial of death as an essential part of the capitalist process. But what do we mean by capitalism? Inspired by the Greek philosopher and psychoanalyst Cornelius Castoriadis, we define this social model as a global enterprise of unlimited self‑a …

1. Érysichthon est un personnage de la mythologie grecque. Il est puni par la déesse Demeter d’une faim insatiable pour avoir été malveillant.