I feel like the pandemic made many of us become aware of how much human proximity and touch is vital for our wellbeing. We took touch for granted all our lives, common gestures we do all the time, naturally without a second thought become prohibited almost overnight. A handshake, a pat on the shoulder, a hug, a hello, or a goodbye kiss. Oh God,… how I missed clubbing; being immersed in a mass of strangers sweating, dancing bouncing, losing myself to the music along with everybody else. These experiences have a quasi therapeutic effect on me. I need clubbing to be human, it readjusts me somehow it helps me be more cool, more relaxed around others.
I found the experiment with the rubber hand revelatory, and it reminded me of Dr. Ramachandram who treated patients diagnosed with the phantom-limb syndrome. He used a similar contraption where he would ask the patient to put their residual limb in a box that had a mirror on a side facing the remaining(opposite) leg or hand. This would give relevance to the sensations they felt in the missing hand because they would look at it and would see it there (in the mirror). This experiment and the rubber hand one outlines the fact that we have social adaptive biological features - we are social animals. Humans have evolved specialized neurons called mirror neurons that activate in social contexts. They are particularly useful for empathy, social learning, language learning, and acquiring cultural norms and customs. I wonder if being deprived of touch for a prolonged period makes us more of an individualistic society? There still must be an ‘other’ to develop a strong sense of identity, without others, how would we know who are?
Thank you for this essay, I found it super interesting. Good luck with your research and keep in touch, let’s pray for the reopening of pubs and clubs and pubs in 2021 🙏