Professor Nicolas Franck is divisional head at Le Vinatier Hospital and oversees medical training at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon. He has published two books with Odile Jacob, La Schizophrénie in 2006, and Entraînez et préservez votre cerveau in 2013, as well as many articles and scientific publications for mental health professionals. As a psychiatrist, he focuses on the reinforcement of the capabilities of people with psychic disorders, to encourage their rehabilitation. During the lockdown, his interest in factors of resilience has extended to the general population. Using a wide-reaching approach, he has contributed to an understanding of what enables each one of us to confront as positively as possible a situation that has made us lose our bearings.
Written during the lockdown intended to battle the COVID-19 crisis, this work takes us back to the period that upended our organizations and disrupted our normal lives by forcing us to reconstruct a daily routine, often alone, and with minimal input, in which our relationships were maintained through screens.
It analyzes the consequences of this crisis on our mental health and puts those consequences in perspective along with other situations of isolation, such as those experienced by astronauts, solo travelers, or speleologists. It takes us back to other epidemics and reveals how stress impacts our body and our mental activity. The voyage then leads the reader into the heart of a vast inquiry carried out during the entire lockdown which reveals its harmful impact on the mental well-being of the French population, and enables him or her to foresee its lasting impact on a person’s health. Finally, it proposes potential coping strategies involving attitude in order to confront the situation and to distance oneself from one’s usual way of life.