An issue written during the (first) lockdown

(1)

Journal Identiﬁcation = NRP Article Identiﬁcation = 0621 Date: June 11, 2021 Time: 4:30 pm

doi:10.1684/nrp.2021.0621

REVUE DE NEUROPSYCHOLOGIE

NEUROSCIENCES COGNITIVES ET CLINIQUES

2 Editorial

Rev Neuropsychol

2020 ; 12 (S1) : 2-4

An issue written during the (ﬁrst)

lockdown ^*

Un numéro rédigé pendant le (premier) conﬁnement

To cite this article: Eustache F, Desgranges B, Viader F. An issue written during the (ﬁrst) lockdown.

Rev Neuropsychol 2020;12(S1):2-4 doi:10.1684/nrp.2021.0621

T

he global Covid-19 pandemic we are witnessing and the various lockdown measures which ensue have, beyond the patients directly concerned and fami- lies bereaved or confronted with the illness of a loved one, effects on the personal and social life of each of us and even more on that of fragile, isolated and sick people.

This special issue of theRevue de neuropsy- chologieseeks to account, in its own way, of this unprecedented situation and its innu- merable consequences.

Who contributed to this issue?

First of all, professionals in neuropsychology (represented by the Editorial Board of the Journal), facing the disease in hos- pital wards of multiple medical specialties or in nursing homes, or in connection with vulnerable or isolated individuals. Then, the members of the scientific council of the “Observatoire B2V des Mémoires”, a societal laboratory dedicated to the dis- semination of knowledge on memory and made up of personalities from various backgrounds (philosophy, medicine, neurosciences, history, artificial intelligence, ethology, ethics, etc.), gave their analysis or their point of view on the marks that this event will leave on individual and col- lective memories. Also, after discussions with these various contributors, we chose to solicit short articles from various specialists which would describe, from an angle specific to each author, the situation we are experiencing. These texts, presented in the form of “points of view” or “mini-reviews”, report a singular clinical observation, an alert on a situation deemed problematic, specially ethically, on the role of nursing staff, researchers, “experts”, the media, and

so on: in other words, testimonies and positions on the consequences of the pandemic linked to the coronavirus and the lockdown measures that resulted from it.

In France, the period of “total” lockdown extended from March 16^th to May 10^th, 2020. The idea of a special issue quickly arose in the minds of the editorial staff of the Review, and contributors have been in demand from the ﬁrst weeks.

We requested a return of the texts by May 15^th, because we wanted to publish articles written “on the spot” and in the very special atmosphere that prevailed during this period. This is one of the originalities of this issue, taken from life, with partial knowledge and the state of mind of the moment.

We sincerely thank the JLE editions and the B2V group who placed their trust in us and who immediately and warmly supported this initiative. We are inﬁnitely indebted to the authors who took their time, despite dis- organized agendas and multiple tasks, and managed to deliver, in a very short time, texts that were both very sharp and very personal. TheRevue de neuropsychologie owes them a lot and we are grateful to them.

After a few trips back and forth with the authors, all texts were handed over to the editor on May 25. This special issue of the Revue de neuropsychologie, consisting of around forty texts, will be the subject of a large print run and beneﬁt from an excep- tional diffusion.

The following texts are signed by authors from different disciplines and different sensibilities. The organization of the issue attempts to highlight the main lines, the themes that have prevailed in neuropsychology, psychopathology, or on

∗This article is an English language translation of the following article: Eustache F, Desgranges, B, Viader F. Un numéro rédigé pendant le conﬁnement.Rev Neuropsychol2020 ; 12 (2) : 107-9. doi:10.1684/nrp.2020.0544.

(2)

3 Editorial

their conﬁnes, whether in an institution or outside. First of all, it was a question of presenting the context: the intensive care units, the feeling of fear, the silence... Then, in a more thematic way, certain articles concern the children –and by extension the life of family– others the seniors who, because of their extreme vulnerability to illness, occupy a special place in this health crisis.

Communication, its excesses, its wanderings and untimely and sometimes inappropriate positions have undoubtedly contributed to the rise of fear in society. In some articles, we see the effects of the socio-economic crisis, already called by specialists the “Big lockdown”, and of which we already fear the consequences to come: bankrupt- cies, unemployment, poverty... Lockdown risks aggravating domestic violence, especially against children, by reinforc- ing family tensions, promoting addiction tendencies, and depriving victims of the means to call for help.

The unprecedented situation created by the pandemic also upset a number of landmarks, in our lifestyles, in our culture and even in the sources of our humanity, the encounter with death, which was not only counted, mapped and mediated, but also deprived, in large part, of the funeral rites which must necessarily accompany it. This state of affairs, of rare violence for the bereaved who could not accompany their dead as they would have liked, is the subject of a text in this issue. Finally, the ethical issues of lockdown, including those that concern us directly, for example the relationship between researchers / clinicians and citizens, are addressed in several articles.

The coronavirus crisis has even entered the terminology and semantics. There is a debate today about the masculine or feminine gender (in french) of the term “Covid”, so much so that even the Academies are taking up the question! For our part, we have decided not to make a decision, leaving this choice to the authors, depending on their country of origin and the time when they wrote their text. Less anec- dotally, the distancing, advocated by the WHO and relayed to saturation by a plethora of haunting slogans in the news- papers, on the airwaves, on television, by all the directorates and heads of services of France, was first, through an incred- ible lexical blunder, qualified as social before finding its true nature, which is physical. Our friend Eric Salmon, professor of neurology at the University of Liège, ended up uttering a

“rant”: let’s hope that he will be heard by those who have not yet noted this ignominy!

But the key word is undoubtedly ultracrepidarianism, or the art of giving one’s opinion on a subject about which one knows nothing. Molière’s doctors made us smile, but when in this time of a global pandemic, some people claim everything and its opposite in the megaphone of the media and social networks, sweeping aside the most basic scientiﬁc rigor, we are stunned, the feeling of fear in the population only worsens and the voice of reason becomes inaudible.

What image do scientiﬁc research, its “experts”, and even some senior politicians give, at this time when society so needs them? The resulting mistrust encourages fake news, a return to obscurantism and the temptation of “conspiracy”.

Mood post about distancing, by Eric Salmon, Neurologist,

Clinique de la Mémoire, CHU de Liège (Belgium)

Containment fell on us and we obediently rallied to the instructions to stay at home. The Belgian govern- ment quickly surrounded itself with a group of health experts, who regularly explained the rationale for the measures to be taken. So let’s agree on caution and containment, but with a hint of reserve. How could therapists involved in the family and social integra- tion of people with cognitive difﬁculties abandon their rehabilitation project? Then of course there are social networks. Yes certainly, for those who master them. Or again, there is the telephone, and this certainly remains the most common link to maintain a close link of prox- imity. And then, when possible, let’s knock on the door of the home to make sure that the adaptations of daily activities gradually put in place are not abandoned for lack of routine. But the routine, so necessary for our patients, was upset by containment and by the rules of protection. And now the media are harping on our ears with the obligation of social distancing. This is quite contradictory with cognitive rehabilitation. Let’s talk about physical distancing, okay, but social distancing, we don’t want that. So even with ﬁngertips, let’s stay socially and emotionally close to our elders.

“Every cloud has a silver lining” the saying goes. Can any positive lessons be learned from this “experience”? We hope so, and in many ways: in the relationship with others, which suddenly seemed so important, essential, irreplaceable to us, in the most creative ways of maintaining it, in spite of the obstacles to a direct exchange, in a new way of looking at things, in situations and towards people that habit had made us transparent, in the solidarity and generosity that were widely expressed and that we will have to know how to extend, individually and collectively.

The nursing and medical staff were remarkable, sometimes at the risk of their lives, and creative in this unexpected situation, both in the emergency and intensive care services, in the emergency psychiatry teams, where teleconsultation has made it possible to maintain a high-quality link even with patients kept at a distance, in nursing homes, who have been cut off from the world, in social services, that have received little attention and where too many problematic or dramatic situations have remained hidden. It has also happened that lockdown has, against all expectations, allowed the attenuation of certain symptoms (which should make us think about methods of treatment). These situations should be analyzed with sufﬁcient hindsight, including the development in post-lockdown.

(3)

4 Editorial

Animals have also shown us a tremendous capacity to adapt to this interruption, to putting our world on hold. The pangolin, a hero against its will, can no longer appear in tests of acquisition of new concepts, since its photo has made the front pages of magazines. Some others acted jokingly like this wild boar, a night owl strolling on the Croisette, or these mallard ducks installed on the steps of theComédie-Franc¸aiseand seeming to wait for the reopen- ing of the theater. Generally speaking, birds have occupied space, in the city as well as in the countryside and, privilege, we found time to enjoy their songs in this spring of 2020.

Throughout this issue of theRevue de Neuropsychologie, the satin bowerbird and the kentish plover will invite us to

anthropomorphism and will give us, here and there, a few lessons in “savoir-vivre” and “savoir-penser”. . .

For our part, we haven’t ﬁgured out everything that happened, we don’t know anything yet about everything that will happen, but whatever happens, we will remember it[1].

Caen, May, 29, 2020 Francis Eustache, Béatrice Desgranges, Fausto Viader

Conﬂict of interest None.

Reference

1.Eustache F, Desgranges B. Les nouveaux chemins de la mémoire.

Paris : Le pommier Inserm, 2020.

An issue written during the (first) lockdown

2

Editorial

Rev Neuropsychol

An issue written during the (ﬁrst)

lockdown *

Un numéro rédigé pendant le (premier) conﬁnement

T

3

Editorial

Mood post about distancing, by Eric Salmon, Neurologist,

Clinique de la Mémoire, CHU de Liège (Belgium)

4

Editorial

lockdown ^*