We’re All Going Crazy Now: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Can Promote More Compassionate Clinical Perspectives

Categorical conceptions of mental disorder divide individuals’ functioning into the categories of normal and abnormal. It is well established that normal functioning is partially culturally defined and understood with reference to culturally expected responses to daily life. However, when a radical and unprecedented situation occurs, as in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, these expectations become less clearly defined, and any categorical account of mental disorder becomes obscured. We argue that, in the midst of this pandemic, traditional hierarchies between the clinician and their client are challenged, because categorical interpretations of mental disorder are less applicable. We use this observation to argue that incidents like the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the ambiguity and permeability of the divide between normal and abnormal functioning, while recommending more humanistic perspectives on individual distress.