Vertrauen und Vertrauenskrisen in Zeiten der Pandemie.

Pandemics pose an existential threat to large segments of the human community. They differ from similar threats to large communities, such as natural disasters and wars, in the character of uncanniness. Dangers activate the attachment system and, at the societal level, initially lead to a tendency toward closer union with a strengthening of the respective leadership. The feeling of uncanniness also awakens a strong need for quick explanations that are as simple as possible, while at the same time bringing clarity and options for action. Together, this requires and promotes trust in leadership, as was evident in the first phase of the current pandemic. However, it then also awakens opposite tendencies, which are discussed in the context of Joseph Lichtenberg's Motivational Systems. They appeared in extreme form in the second phase of the pandemic with the „Querdenker" (lateral thinking) movement. Deciding who can be trusted and what explanation is actually trusted leads to the concept of Epistemic Trust. In a final consideration, the danger of radicalization and polarization is addressed and the possibilities of exerting influence from within the psychoanalytic and group analytic community are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]