Mourning and Funeral Rites in Times of Covid-19: A Reflection from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The way the subjects experienced the mourning process was drastically modified due to the pandemic situation. The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus 2019, covid-19 is a disease that its spread takes place on an extremely rapid scale, aggravating morbidity and mortality rates. Brazil is considered a vulnerable country, as it depends on technologies from other countries, with difficulties in the process of controlling the disease, as there were not the necessary inputs. With the change of funeral rituals, and order of social isolation, the patient, during the moment of the discovery of Covid-19 until his palliative moments, faced the process of death alone, without company or support. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between funeral rites and the lack of mourning and the consequences that this may have had in the pandemic period. In addition to proposing a reflection on the connections of funeral rites, mourning, psychoanalysis and the Covid-19 pandemic. The bibliographic study in an integrative literature review uses Psychoanalysis as a reference to discuss the mourning processes and funeral rituals, for the understanding of the lived moment, allowing to reflect on the practices of mental health professionals with the mourning processes and to contribute with references theories on this subject so demanded today.