2023, Cilt 10, Sayı 1, Sayfa(lar) 087-092
An Existential Approach to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Simay Ezgi BUDAK1, Yeter Sinem ÜZAR-ÖZÇETİN2
1Arş.Gör., Hacettepe Üniversitesi Hemşirelik Fakültesi Psikiyatri Hemşireliği Anabilim Dalı, Ankara, Türkiye
2Doç.Dr., University College Dublin, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, Dublin 4, Belfield, Ireland
Keywords: COVID-19, death, existentialism, life

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected individuals worldwide, both physically and psychosocially. The fact that COVID-19 is an unpredictable disease, threatening the health and safety of individuals, and the implementation of extraordinary procedures such as masks and quarantine precautions have caused individuals to experience uncertainty, limit their freedom, and think about death in this process. Individuals perceived the COVID-19 pandemic, which creates an unknown and deadly danger, as a threat to existence, and this has led to the emergence of existential concerns. As a result, individuals began to think more deeply about death and the meaning of life. Existential concerns associated with the pandemic process have affected individuals psychosocially to a significant extent and have caused problems such as psychological distress. Therefore, understanding the existential concerns caused by COVID-19 is crucial in determining and implementing psychosocial interventions to address these concerns. This review aims to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of existential theory and to review the search for meaning in life, existential concerns, and the methods used to manage these concerns, which emerged during the pandemic process.