Fear, anger, and media-induced trauma during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic

Fear, anger and hopelessness were the most frequent traumatic emotional responses in the general public during the first stage of outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic (N = 1,000). The four most frequent categories of fear were determined: (a) fear of the negative impact on household finances, (b) fear of the negative impact on the household finances of significant others, (c) fear of the unavailability of health care, and (d) fear of an insufficient food supply. The pessimistic communications used by the Czech mass media contributed to intensifying traumatic feelings, fears and psychological distress in the general public during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. The anxious emotional tone of the messages and the presentation of selectively chosen “bad ending stories” contributed to the psychological traumatization of the Czech population. This form of communication was motivated by an effort to reach the broadest audience possible. Older adults were the most affected part of the population because of their isolation and their very limited opportunity to share their worries and emotions with others. The communication used by the Czech mass media during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic is a representative example of a traumatizing form of media communication during an epidemic

Quantum Anthropology: Man, Cultures, and Groups in a Quantum Perspective

Free download of e-book: https://www.academia.edu/28881906/Quantum_Anthropology_Man_Cultures_and_Groups_in_a_Quantum_Perspective The book offers a fresh look on man, cultures, and societies built on the current advances in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum philosophy, and quantum consciousness. The authors have developed an inspiring theoretical framework transcending the boundaries of particular disciplines in social sciences and the humanities. Quantum anthropology is a perspective, studying man, culture, and humanity while taking into account the quantum nature of our reality. This framework redefines current anthropological theory in a new light, and provides an interdisciplinary overlap reaching to psychology, sociology, and consciousness studies. Contents: 1. Introduction: Why Quantum Anthropology? 2. Empirical and Nonempirical Reality 3. Appearance, Frames, Intra-Acting Agencies, and Observer Effect 4. Emergence of Man and Culture 5. Fields, Groups, Cultures, and Social Complexity 6. Man as Embodiment 7. Collective Consciousness and Collective Unconscious in Anthropology 8. Life Trajectories of Man, Cultures and Societies 9. Death and Final Collapses of Cultures and Societies 10. Language, Collapse of Wave Function, and Deconstruction 11. Myth and Entanglement 12. Ritual, Observer Effect, and Collective Consciousness 13. Conclusions and Future Direction

Participation in alternative realities: Ritual, consciousness, and ontological turn

The ontological turn or ontologically-oriented approach accentuates the key importance of intercultural variability in ontologies. Different ontologies produce different ways of experiencing the world, and therefore, participation in alternative realities is very desirable in anthropological and ethnological investigation. Just the participation in alternative realities itself enables researchers to experience alterity and ontoconceptual differences. The present study aims to demonstrate the power of ritual in alteration, and to show how co-experiencing rituals serves to uncover ontological categories and relations. We argue that the experience of alterity in everyday activities is of a different quality than the experience of alterity when participating in rituals. Transcendent reality is accessible during rituals. It serves as source of potentialities. These potentialities are actualized in ritual and entangled with people's everyday existence. Furthermore, we argue that participating in ritual enables the researcher to step into the alterity of alterity, and to get nearer to the origins of ontologies. Ritual participation also invokes the extension of consciousness and provides a collectively shared cognition, opening up the ontological dimension and enabling access to existential experiences and concepts. In these settings, relations between people and the world can be recognized and investigated