Mental Health

Under a system like capitalism, that is so viciously and ruthlessly opposed to fully, properly, and consistently meeting human need, and that presents such a wide and obvious disparity between its character and method of operation, and the genuine physical, psychological, and emotional requirements of the human species, why would we expect that individuals would not lapse into this or that mental or psychological abnormality? Would not develop this or that maladaptive behavior?

The reality is that human beings require a social and economic support system, and capitalism simply does not provide it, save in perhaps a fashion that is unpredictable, unreliable, piecemeal, and wholly dependent on a rickety, ridiculous, and obsolete alignment of stars of personal effort, corporate cooperation, and market availability. In contrast, however, human beings require a support system that is firm, reliable, predictable, permanent, and relatively comprehensive, and as little subject to the vagaries, arbitrariness, caprice, and winds of change of impersonal mechanisms, whether man or market, as possible.

In the chaotic, free-for-all capitalist social and economic environment, how can the human psyche not fragment? How can it not dis-integrate?

If anything, it is probably notable that there aren't more reported cases of mental illness or maladaption than there are.

Well, actually, perhaps it's not as notable as imagined, given that care of the mind (i.e. therapy) exists under capitalism as a purchasable commodity like any other, whether soap, razor blades, or toilet paper. Which is to say, if more people could afford therapy, we'd probably realize a more accurate statistical picture of the true extent of mental illness across this profit-obsessed planet.

Indeed, the topics and phenomena of mental health and mental illness are critical ones, because the prevalence of this kind of malady is an excellent barometer of the general health of a society, and the measure in which that society, and the principles upon which it is founded and operates, correspond to the genuine, organic needs of the human species.

The phenomenon of mental illness is also critical because each individual with this kind of malady causes an untold number of deleterious ripple effects in a society.

The World Health Organization reports that there are 450,000,000 people worldwide who suffer from mental or neurological disorders. There is some unreported additional number of persons who also so suffer, but who have not reported their illness. And each of the 450 million individuals suffering a mental illness causes, deliberately or accidentally, some number of adverse affects to some untold number of persons, such as family, friends, co-workers, employers, and even individuals met in casual acquaintance or interaction, such as on the street, at shopping malls, or at the beach.

Mental illness, in the main, has three principle--and predictable--causes:

• The profoundly inhuman character of capitalism and its operation. Most of us can readily see that the way our modern society, and especially our modern economy, operates is not conducive to the development and maintenance of good mental health.

• Narcissism and human ego (factors reinforced by capitalism, and in some measure reciprocally reinforcing capitalism). This refers to the fact that so much of the suffering we experience as human beings comes at the hands of other human beings, acting thoughtlessly or insensitively. This lack of care for our fellow human beings, occurring ubiquitously, over the arc of many years, often especially injurious, surely takes its toll on the psyche and state of well-being of the individual and the society.

  To really drive the point home, contrast the behavior of people and its effect on others, of our modern-day society, with that of a Cooperative Society, where individuals would be inculcated from birth with the principle of brotherly love, and would act with love and sensitivity toward their fellow human beings at all times. It doesn't take much imagination to understand what a beautiful society that would be, and how radically it would differ from modern capitalist society.

• Biological anomaly.

The latter two causes are subsidiary to the first cause, because were it not for the first, the latter two could probably be better deconstructed and largely corrected or compensated for, and in some measure prevented.

Perhaps the best general remark, the most insightful and accurate that can be proffered on this question of mental health comes from Joel Kovel, who writes in the Introduction, p. xxii, to A Complete guide to Therapy:

"...it seems to me that, given the nature of the psyche and present social relations, a certain amount of neurosis is inevitable...."

(Kovel, Joel. A Complete Guide to Therapy. New York: Random House/Pantheon Books, 1976.)

Much more to come on this key topic.

Also review this website for specific mental illnesses, such as Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia.

Pharmaceuticals & Overmedication

The overarching and immutable reality of capitalism is that each company must sell as many products as possible, as quickly and often as possible, lest that company be overtaken by competitors and lose market share, and perhaps even go out of business, altogether. This economic compulsion is why companies under capitalism are continually inventing new products to sell; it's why we have not five but five-hundred varieties of bubble gum, and why the auto industry changes models each and every year. In the pharmaceutical industry, of course, the products in question are pharmaceutical drugs, so each pharma company seeks to create as many new drugs as possible, an objective that is made immeasurably easier when specific maladies exist to warrant purchase of these drugs by consumers and health care agencies and institutions.

Thus do we find the pharmaceutical industry, in concert with shills in both the political and academic worlds, continually percolating out and defining a plethora of new "illnesses," the likes humankind has never seen, nor should see. Consumers and patients pay the price, as these drugs sometimes cause psychotic side-effects such as thoughts of suicide or murder, or simply make the patient worse in the long run, as good-quality research clearly shows.

The merciless need to sell skews and contorts every part of our existence in human society--the forms of behavior that it drives in the pharmaceutical industry are among the most pernicious, devastating, and criminal.

Resources

Books

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, by Robert Whitaker.

Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications, by Peter Breggin.

The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment, by Joanna Moncrieff.