The dramatic change in all facets of realty, and the experience of uncertainty and loss of control, undermine beliefs in conventional truths about the personal and professional self and about significant relationships. Participants noted that they were posing significant questions about key aspects of their own identity and the identities of other groups, including clients. As the pandemic caused a collapse of truths and norms and sense of control, participants questioned their true calling in life, their professional orientation, and their role in their family. Orit, for example, recounted that she reexamined her personal and professional identity:
I suddenly had very many questions about myself, about my professional world, about my personal world. All kinds of questions about what I’ve done until now and where am I going. Suddenly the thought of tomorrow was less important because nothing was in my control anymore.
Gil described a deep identity crisis in the field of education:
In the Corona period, two phenomena came to light. One, it’s really not so terrible if my students “missed” material. Material can be made up in ways that don’t require them to come to school, and in some cases they can go on without making up the material at all. The second phenomenon is the strong need to watch the kids so that their parents can go to work… these two phenomena emphasized … something that “turns the stomach” of any educator: The education system is necessary as a babysitter for the kids. This feeling was very perceptible during the lockdown and made it very difficult for educators because of the identity crisis that it created for them.
Gil believes that this crisis may drive schools to develop more significant learning, and especially more social learning. Dimona offered an example of such a novel approach, in her description of innovative methods for emotional and social group learning within the education system.
Participants also reported changes in their relationships with others, including their family members, and in the dynamics of those relationships. In several cases, the situation in Corona times yielded insights about changes in one’s role in one’s family, and strengthening the relationship between partners and within the nuclear family. Said, for example, said of himself, “In the Corona period [the first lockdown] …. I felt that it was a good time for me. It came to me as if to tell me, ‘Said, look at your family.’”
Said described one of his clients as another example of this insight. The client, after many years of efforts to build up her professional status, discovered during the first lockdown that she felt best at home, with her family. Said wrote of his meeting with the client, with his responses in parenthesis:
… a woman’s place is in the home…. I am independent. I earn a salary. I go out, I leave, but….for the first time I felt that my family … I was never in this situation … it actually gave me space to fell my family. I never had that [space] in my life.
