Pandemic paranoia: Toward a reparative practice of the global psyche

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a collective paranoia which is not only driven by our psychic anxiety but also mirrors the irrationality of the crisis and the failure of global governance. During such catastrophic times, in which the state has failed to create a sustainable civil society, scholars such as Melanie Klein, Silvan Tomkins, and Eve Sedgwick have theorized the ways in which we may turn paranoia away from its destructive tendency toward a reparative practice of relationship-building and collective action. I discuss the limits of a clinical approach to paranoia and propose a reparative practice of the global psyche toward social transformation, especially in relation to the rise of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic.