Pandemic ripples:Scrutinizing Arctic communities’ perspectives on COVID-19 and mental health – A case against damage-culture

• Main Author: Schwalbe, Daria Morgounova
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; inuit; sami
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/pandemic-ripples(5d56750e-2949-458a-a9d5-4f1a79a9b002).html; https://cultmind.ku.dk/research/covid-19-and-global-mental-health/blog/pandemic-ripples/

It has been repeatedly pointed out that the long-term psychological consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic might still be underway, as the massive and complicated nexus of emotions and pain is only beginning to be understood. In the Arctic, the virus was not very widespread, and Greenland managed particularly well to control the pandemic and the imposed social isolation measures were limited. Yet, the numbers of suicide threats and cases of sexual and other forms of violence were reported to increase in Greenland, as well as across North American Arctic, particularly after the first wave of the pandemic. In this essay/blog, I explore emotional responses and psychological consequences of the pandemic for the Arctic communities. Further, by looking at assumptions about suicide, culture and cure, embedded in therapeutic and health discourses, I scrutinize the role of culture and context for mental health in Greenland. I also touch upon the danger of the ‘silent culture’ (in Danish, ‘tavseskultur’), ascribed to Inuit (and Sami) societies, and the possible side effects of the ‘culture of confession,’ which prevails in contemporary health care and media discourses, and which assumes that ‘talking’ is the only possible cure and hence, the only rational solution to the mental health problems in the Arctic. I question this universal idea, arguing that to change the current mental health challenges in the Arctic, we need to change the framework of understanding suffering experiences in relation to the conditions for people’s lives.