What the COVID-19 reveals about the role of honor in human behavior

Abstract

The research recently published by S.
Nomura et al in your journal is of particular
interest to us. Indeed, the quality of the
work carried out and the material put at our
disposal is somewhat impressive. The scope
of this article, based on the singularity of
the Japanese situation, is very interesting in
regard to the global health context. As part
of our research on the increased suicide rate
among Japanese women (all social categories
combined) following COVID-19, we were
also interested for the trial of M. Ueda et
al. which covered the same scientific field.
M. Ueda et al. study focuses on the social
categories most affected by this growing
suicide rate among Japanese women; the
latest data published in October seems to
indicate that housewives and employees
are the most affected by this phenomenon.
In addition, this article suggests the same
potential causes, consecutive to the pandemic:
economic precariousness, isolation, media
influence.
However, we believe that the socioeconomic
crisis arising from this health
context is not the cause of this phenomenon,
but a catalyst revealing in the foreground the
tortured relationship between the subject and
himself. As the real drama is not death, but
the guilt of giving up on dignity. Beyond the
emotional distress resulting from financial
insecurity, we would be tempted to think
that it is humiliation, combined with social
marginalization, that creates trauma. This
humiliation has traumatic value because it
crushes the subject, weakens his self-esteem
and alters his relationship to his ego ideal.