The Self and Its Crises

Abstract

Abstract During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was pervaded by the idea of “the virus” as an attacker and, in tandem, the concept of “the self” being attacked by it. This is puzzling, not least because the self is a philosophical and psychological construct, a concept, that rarely attracts global attention. But the virus changed this scenario, viewed as if it was assailing “the modern self, “the Western self,” or simply “our self.” As a consequence, the self in these COVID-19 discourses is understood as an entity on the same ontological level as the virus. This chapter explores the semantic, historical, metaphorical, and narratological background of this construct of “the self” challenged by the coronavirus and the resulting pandemic.