Abstract

RABELO, Fabiano Chagas  and  MARTINS, Karla Patrícia Holanda. Negationism: a psychoanalytic reading of The white castle, by O. Pamuk. Ide (São Paulo) [online]. 2021, vol.43, n.72, pp. 129-140. ISSN 0101-3106.

The article makes a comparison between the response to the epidemic in the fictional historical novel The white castle and the current Brazilian pandemic situation. The logic that guides a series of wrong and repeated decisions by the federal government is questioned, in order to investigate the directives of the negationism discourse that underlie them. The differences and similarities between denialism and other forms of beliefs, such as religious faith, superstition and fact-based conviction, are highlighted. One wonders how, in a politically troubled, theocentric and dictatorial context, the characters in the book's plot are able to mobilize an effective health campaign, while in Brazil, in a democratic and supposedly secular environment, the authorities hesitate to take the necessary measures. The conceptual references used are Freudian concepts of narcissistic wound, narcissism of small differences, illusion and denial (Verleugnung).

Keywords : negationism; pandemic; psychoanalysis; science; religion.

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