Grief in Covid-19 times or the impossibility of veiling the dead in the pandemic

Abstract

From the state of public calamity decree in Brazil resulting from the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus, laws that prevent activities in public places which characterize agglomeration were promulgated. With that, funerals and burials ceremonies of people who died by covid-19 were vetoed, and this protocol was then extended to all causa mortis. Supported by Psychoanalysis, we will analyze the situations of mourning in the face of the prevented ritualistic, as well as the traumatic effects in front of the violent loss. We will also try to interpret how the proliferation of images related to the grief dynamic is characterized as an aesthetic experience and the possible artistic reactions to this moment of helplessness. Finally, we will reflect the work of mourning as an exercise in recalling and escape from melancholic stagnation, proposed in works by Paul Ricoeur.