End of the world and emotional contamination effect

The end of this year is peculiar, with people preparing for two controversial events: the end of the world (the possibility is being discussed) and [Christmas and] New Year [under Eastern Orthodoxy, Christmas Eve is celebrated on January 6. – Ed.]. Psychologists say this controversy is germane to human nature, that people tend to love and hate at the same time, ponder death and plan their life for another five years, fear and joke about things. There are many jokes about the alleged end of the world on December 21, 2002, like one would be an idiot to work the whole week and have no weekend, or the end of the world is coming and you haven’t visited the beauty salon, or I’m not yet married, so there will be no end of the world.

The very notion makes people nervous, didactic or facetious, with all this serving as proof that people are concerned. The reason is that it reaches the innermost layers of human nature and psyche; that people ponder the sense of life, their mission in this world, the meaning of soul and eternity.

Says Pavlo FROLOV, Candidate of Sciences, research fellow with the National Academy’s Institute of Social and Political Psychology: “Such ‘terminal’ conditions (in which one [seems to be able to] find an answer to the question about the sense of one’s existence) are especially difficult to endure. Promoting issues like the end of the world makes one ponder this sense, what one has been able to accomplish, the epoch during which one exists; the topic of death, destruction of human life, reaches the innermost strata of mentality. Now there is an opportunity of discussing death and doing things you usually avoid doing these days. That’s a fact, and that’s why people tend to ponder the possibility of the end of the world. This makes people reconsider their past deeds. The main thing is the right way to bring up such topics, so as not to scare all those interested in them and help adopt the right approach. Psychologists have come up with a smart solution to the problem [in Ukraine]. People are invited to sign up for group existentialistic analysis therapy, with sessions scheduled for December 20. Experts say the emphasis on [the alleged date of the end of the world] December 21, 2012, will help society realize that it eventually will cease to exist, that this will bring forth a great deal of vitality [emotional energy], but that this vitality, if misused, may turn into a mass psychogenic illness.”

Those who are willing to take part in this project will have an opportunity to discuss their life, that this life will eventually end, also such topics as loneliness, friendship, the way they could accomplish their plans or failed to do so, and so on. They will discuss things they haven’t been able to do for want of time. This would serve our society’s benefit to ponder such topics, whether or not expecting the end of the world or Christmas and New Year, even March 8 [International Women’s Day] or May 9 [the date of the Soviet Union’s victory in WW II] festivities. Society would benefit by paying head shrinks rather than spending money getting prepared for the end of the world.

Says Olena LISHCHYNSKA, M.D. (Psychology): “Why all this fuss about the end of the world? The fire is fueled by the mass media that are habitually hunting for sensations. I have watched all news reports, on practically every channel; they all offer various kinds of shelters and equipment. The topic of the end of the world, just like that of Christmas, has been commercialized. Consider the past 500 years when the end of the world was often proclaimed by various sects or sham prophets. That was their way of doing business or coming into power, by making the man in the street listen to them. People fear death and, when properly brainwashed, are easily governed. An adult adopts a sober approach to his/her eventual demise, yet this individual is hard put to accept the idea of the death of humankind. This is what I refer to as the emotional contamination effect. I have discussed the topic with my colleagues and learned that in Kirovohrad and Sumy people are actively discussing the possibility of the end of the world, while little public attention is being paid to it in Ivano-Frankivsk. Various individuals are showing varying responses because all depends on their Weltanschauung concept, their attitude to media reports. There are also all those horror movies and traditions, like Halloween. Our children are thrilled by horror stories. The impression is that our adults love them, too. I believe that a ‘natural experiment’ is being carried out, aimed at demonstrating how a tall story can turn into a mass psychogenic illness. Sad but true: apocalyptic themes appear to be in harmony with Ukrainian mentality, considering that Ukrainians have long grown tired of political] ambiguity and socioeconomic instability. Psychologists, however, insist that Ukrainians remain inherently optimistic.

“This spring we carried out a poll. It showed that our respondents expected a better domestic situation in Ukraine in the next five years. In other words, unless you’re waiting for the end of the world, you believe that your living will improve five years from now, but when they keep telling you that the end is coming, you start worrying about the possibility. Such controversial situations are germane to mass/collective consciousness, with hopes for survival and a better living combined. The same is true of individual consciousness. An individual can be helped to adopt optimistic as well as pessimistic moods.”

Look at the way the man in the street behaves, be it at a shopping center or in a bus, streetcar, etc. There are no indications of fear, anticipation of the end of the world occurring in a couple of days. Everyone seems content with his/her daily routine, going to work, shopping, visiting doctors, getting married, writing doctorates, suffering the red tape of selling and buying apartments. Apparently the end-of-the-world topic serves the benefit of rapprochement between communal members, just as it helps them get a better idea about why they exist in the first place. This is very good. Sigmund Freud believed that people are driven by two conflicting central desires: the life drive (libido or Eros, the God of life) and the death drive (e.g., Thanatos, the God of death, although Freud did not use the term). People have these two desires until their death. This is like black and white, like good and evil, like day and night. These are normal phenomena, normal physical and mental conditions that can’t exist separately, for one phase ends just as the second one begins. In other words, give Thanatos his due and start living a new life on December 22, 2012.