ABSTRACT
As every psychoanalyst knows, unconscious beliefs – things the readers do not know they believe in – are often stronger than conscious ones, those their acquired through enquiry and education. Reactions to the many dangers posed by coronavirus have made one very deep-rooted unconscious conviction in particular stand out: that children are ultimately weak and the elderly strong. Instead, fewer imagine that the most probable vector of virus transmission is through a lover’s kiss, a fraternal handshake, a perfectly clean drinking glass shared with a child. The pandemic is a breeding ground for urban legends, better known today as fake news. Every epidemic manufactures its plague-spreaders. Blaming a virus as such is not enough; there must be a human guilt too. The Iranians, with a dizzying association, came to the conclusion that something banned as a moral poison, namely alcohol, could in that case work as a panacea, a panpharmakon.
