The winds of war in the Middle East, the dramatic news of the bombings and the risk of escalation, “at this moment, in our latitudes, are attenuated by the holidays that also dilute the sense of fear. There is less panic. Nothing new, it is known that on a psychological level they are an anesthetic, a diversion. It is like a modern version of the Roman ‘panem et circenses’, if the ancients distracted themselves, or were distracted, with the games in the arenas we distract ourselves like this”. This was stated to Adnkronos Salute by the psychiatrist Claudio Mencacci, president of the Italian Society of Neuropsychopharmacology (Sinpf).
The prevalence of indifference, Mencacci underlines, is certainly a negative element. “Indifference – he continues – has also been defined as cancer of the soul and can be favored by the continuous condition of threats, alarms – like at the Olympics these days – wars close and very close. The feeling of indifference, however, more properly, intervenes when the feeling of closeness with others is fundamentally lost. And vacations, in reality, partly make you lose the feeling of closeness with colleagues, with a part of the family. And it happens even more for distant situations”.
Experience tells us that “attention and a sense of alarm, in the summer months, are activated by events that concern people, news, crimes.” It is no coincidence that “demonstrations and public protests are much more difficult. Everything is much more subdued – he concludes – despite the gravity of the events being evident. But it is as if we felt them far away.”
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