The rediscovery of friendship in adult age in a time of pandemic

Abstract

In recent decades we have witnessed the disruptive rise of an ultraliberalism which, by enhancing the autonomy of the individual, has given the collective dimension a primarily instrumental connotation; the affirmation of the “self-centered man” (Bertin’s definition), that pursues the experience of the world above all on the level of “possession”, has intertwined with the crisis, especially among adults, in the practice of friendship, understood as a relationship of voluntary, free interdependence, which continues over time through manifestations of sharing, complicity, intimacy, affection and mutual assistance. The social isolation resulting from the pandemic event has led to the reconsideration of the importance of friendships and to the search for new opportunities for meeting, online or face to face (possibly respecting the current restrictive rules for the containment of the epidemic), in which “being together” is predominant over “doing something together”.