COVID-19 and Mental Health: The Impact of Lockdown on Mental Health

The global spread of COVID-19 has caused widespread fear and anxiety, first because of the fear of infection, the anguish of death, and then because of enduring uncertainties about the nature of the epidemic, its modes of transmission, its degree of severity, and the effectiveness of therapeutic intervention protocols to save those infected. A distinction should be made between two situations that are often confused: on the one hand, the psychological effects caused by the fear of the spread of the pandemic and its severity – and thus revealing the threat they pose to the life instinct – and, on the other hand, those caused by measures taken to combat the pandemic, including the lockdown.