1PhD in Clinical Psychology, Division of Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
2Associate Professor, Division of Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Introduction: Individuals who experience stress due to financial hardship have needs relating to the socio-financial crisis, with repetitive negative events, changes to beliefs, attitudes, and negative reactions toward social life. When there is a crisis, a parasitic self seems to emerge and leads to anger outbursts and social aggression, produces disorder in human relations and institutions and is organized with one-way relations that lack equal reciprocity for mutual benefit, where one exploits the other.
Background: Several problems and challenges exist during times of financial hardship and unemployment. This study focuses on the economic recession in Greece.
Aim: To explore individual reactions among educated unemployed people who are experiencing financial hardship during the financial crisis, in particular people’s thoughts, behaviour, and reactions.
Method: The study employed a qualitative approach with descriptive thematic analysis. A total of 276 unemployed people in financial hardship answered two open-ended questions on their dominant thoughts and feelings on the Greek financial crisis. Participation was voluntary, and socio-demographics were recorded.
Results/Discussion: Participants’ experiences of financial hardship and unemployment is the major factor giving rise to a parasitic self in the society, economy, and work where the self is angry, depends on the exploitation of others to survive and which in turn creates a cycle of socioeconomic and moral declining society. Self-sufficiency does not exist, and the person starts living at the expense of another. Using Serres’s term, a social parasite is a microbe that “takes without giving and weakens without killing”. Findings reflect feelings of irritation and aggression and adversely affecting mental health and emotional wellbeing. Some reported negative emotions regarding their hardship and unemployment experience. There are implications for all economic crises, including the recent Covid crisis.
Keywords: Socio-Economic Crisis; Mental Health; Wellbeing; Unemployment; Emotions; Self; Qualitative Research; Thematic Analysis
Ioanna Karaoulani and Nigel Hunt. The Economic Crisis and the Rise of the Parasitic Self: A Qualitative Study of People Living through the Greek Unemployment Crisis. EC Psychology and Psychiatry 12.2 (2023): 28-43.
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