Grief and nonviolence in a pandemic: Precarity, mental health and other ways of living

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a reflection about the importance of the collective experience of grieving processes, that were interrupted by the emergency of the COVID 19 Pandemic. It is based on ideas brought by intercessors who tell us about the scarcity of rituals in contemporary culture from the perspective of traditional paradigms, such as Ailton Krenak and David Kopenawa, in alliance with the principles presented by Judith Butler's perspective of aggressive nonviolence. The authors develop the hypothesis that grieving, when collectively elaborated with the offer of a safe environment of empathic and sensitive listening, where the narratives of pain and loss are welcomed, can result in a process of trauma resolution. This way, it awakens the necessary potency for composing creative and solidary actions of common care. Methodologically, the cartography is used as a process to register the lines of force and affectability that are revealed by listening processes in groups which the authors work. © 2020.