Pandemic Podcast

Does it sometimes feel like you’re surrounded by people who’ve been hypnotised in some way? Well, maybe you are. My guest tonight is Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University in Belgium, and his observations over the past 18 months have led him to conclude that the overwhelming majority have indeed fallen under a kind of spell. Except it’s not actually a spell, of course: the term for it is mass formation and right now it’s manifesting as a psychological response — not unlike hypnosis — to the unrelenting, single-focus campaign of fear to which we have all been subjected. Join me at 5pm when I will explore with Mattias what triggers and sustains this mass response, where it could ultimately lead us, why a minority somehow manages to remain unaffected, and whether there’s anything we can collectively do to break the spell before it’s too late.