Memories of Loss: A Psychosocial Analysis of the Narratives of Family Members of Covid-19 Victims.

Abstract

This article presents a psychosocial analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic experience in Brazil, based on narrative interviews with 13 bereaved family members. Using Mbembe's (2016) concept of necropolitics as a theoretical framework, the research investigates how the actions and omissions of the State were perceived by those who lost loved ones. The results reveal that the government's management, characterized by scientific denialism, minimization of the crisis, and delays in vaccine acquisition, was interpreted by the participants not as an administrative failure, but as a deliberate policy of death.