THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FACE MASK

Here in South Korea more or less everyone in is wearing a face mask. According to the opinions of medical experts in the West,  these people must be  sadly misled or deluded, because a face mask is only useful in cases when we are specifically at risk or already diagnosed. Perhaps they are, medically speaking. But the  judgment ignores the symbolic value of wearing a face mask.  

The face masks says: ‘We are a beleaguered people who, confronted by a common and invisible enemy,  have adopted the same persona  – the same mask – as an act of solidarity.’ ‘Persona’  is a Greek  word referring to the  mask worn by an   actor  to portray his character.  In psychology, ‘persona’ refers to the aspect of our character  we often unconsciously present  to others,  or  that  is perceived by them. In this sense, the medical face mask is a signal   that Koreans have   suppressed the usual signs of  individuality  and position in the social hierarchy in the shared struggle against the virus.   Through  unconsciously announcing to each other their solidarity – their sameness when confronted by  the threat of the  virus -    each individual is made to feel emotionally stronger as part of a greater collective.

The population of  South Korea is about 51.4 million. That means  there must be an awful lot of facemasks out there. The Western states,  unlike South Korea, China, Japan, and other East Asian countries, have  no tradition of wearing face masks in daily life  (in these countries they are routinely worn against air pollution, and while  one is sick and interacting with others)  so   there aren’t enough face masks available to clothe a whole population, and those that exist are sorely needed in  situations  where they can be of real medical value.  Anyway,  Western culture  is far more inherently individualistic, and such an overt visual sign announcing that the the self has been subsumed into the collective is likely to be misunderstood and resisted.  

But we Westerners do  East Asians and others a great disservice by judging the face mask only  in terms of its directly explicit  and clearly denoted medical efficacy.  We also do humanity as a whole a great disservice by ignoring the vital role played by   largely unconscious symbolism in  creating communal bonds, and nurturing hope and the spirit of rejuvenation. We tend to say  something is ‘merely symbolic’, but this grossly underestimates the power of the symbol  to construct, direct, and change lives.    While Coronavirus will certainly be defeated  thanks largely to medical vigilance and skill,    the creative deployment of an effective symbolism will also play a vital part.