Reconceptualizing Social Distancing: Teletherapy and Social Inequality During the COVID-19 and Loneliness Pandemics

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic amid a preexisting loneliness epidemic, as well as argue in favor of the reconceptualization of social distancing as physical distancing. As public health measures require us to take up possibly isolating practices in order to reduce and eliminate the spread of the virus, it is important to develop or take up new forms of prosocial yet physically distant dynamics in order to address the negative psychological impact of these measures. The negative consequences of public health interventions might increase feelings loneliness and isolation experienced within Western industrialized societies. For this reason, teletherapy serves as temporary (and limited) intervention that could ameliorate the psychological effects of isolation. It could also serve as a space for the development of critical consciousness, as people reflect on the sociopolitical and economic impacts these measures have on them, and how they wish to address them. Nevertheless, we also offer an ethical cautionary tale to the application of teletherapy beyond the current emergency pandemic of the COVID-19.