Integration

Faced with a reality that is so difficult to understand, that is constantly changing and that confronts us with threatening facts due to the speed, strength and complexity with which they are presented to us, one way to free ourselves from the unpleasant sensation of contradictions in our feelings is to dissociate.

We want and we don’t want to see people. We want and we don’t want to go out. We want and we don’t want to get mildly infected to obtain possible immunity against the virus. We think we know who the culprit is, but there are so many possible variables to explain why and where the danger comes from that we also know that we don’t know.

The confusion caused by the contradictory feelings that are running through us is so intolerable that many of us choose to dissociate the realities and see the world divided into GOOD and BAD. We are the Good guys, and there are the Bad guys. It’s that easy. Is it that easy?

At first, dissociation is the quick way in which children calm down when the same mother that is good when she gives them what they want is bad when she doesn’t. But when they realize that they’ll have to live with the bad mother if they also want to live with the good one, they succumb to panic, guilt and fear. The best way out is to learn to tolerate the slow and often painful task of integrating the emotions caused by a complex reality.