While difficulties in measuring its existence and nature abound, arguably one the most widespread neuroses to plague present-day capitalism is loneliness. Alienated labor, Marx contended, is when “labour is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being…therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind.”35 Under capitalism, great efforts are made to ensure human energy is channeled into labor, even though it is often miserable and tedious.36 Rather than satisfying the need to express creativity, it frequently represses it through the monotonous and grueling obligation of wage labor.37. Capitalism is as much an inequality-generating system as it is a mental illness producing system. In what follows, I briefly sketch the state of mental health in advanced capitalism, using Britain as an example and utilizing the psychoanalytical framework of Marxist Erich Fromm, which emphasizes that all humans have certain needs that must be fulfilled in order to ensure optimal mental health. “While fulfilling the basic needs of survival,” Baran and Sweezy argued, both work and consumption “increasingly lose their inner content and meaning.”12 The result is a society characterized by emptiness and degradation. With birth severing ties of natural belonging, individuals constantly pursue rootedness to feel at one with the world. The National Alliance on Mental Illness(NAMI) quantifies some of our challenges… British parents were considered more materialistic than their Spanish and Swedish counterparts and behaved accordingly toward their children. Individuals, it is said, must compete with each other on a general basis to enhance their personal development. As he contended, “mental health is achieved if man develops into full maturity according to the characteristics and laws of human nature. While Marx never produced a formal psychology, Fromm considered that the foundations of one resided in the concept of alienation.18 For Marx, alienation was an illustration of capitalism’s mortifying physical and mental impact on humans.19 At its heart, it demonstrates the estrangement people feel from both themselves and the world around them, including fellow humans. Today, the severity of the mental health crisis is now widely recognized. For one, they made references to the centrality of latent energies such as libidinous drives and the need for their gratification. Suicide rates are currently at a thirty-year high, substance abuse has become epidemic, and a new culture of online connectedness thinly masks a phenomenon of social isolation. In the second half of this week’s show, Professor Wolff Dr. Harriet Fraad on how capitalism is affecting mental health in the U.S. In time, this system would come to dictate our social relations; now, in an era of competition and profit maximization, we see each other as objects — as means to our various ends, rather than multi-dimensional beings. And it was from this that Baran, in particular, was to draw.16. We hate our jobs and have little control over what we do — and often have no idea what purpose it serves anyway. A long line of social science research has shown that unemployed people are much more likely to become depressed; after all, under the reigning ideology, our self-worth is measured by our economic output. As the basis on which society’s superstructural formation is erected, capitalism is a major determinant of poor mental health. Why do we feel such lack of control over our own destinies? At the heart of many mental health problems is a perceived lack of control over one’s circumstances, or fear of external forces. Negative feelings become commonplace and, to varying degrees, are acknowledged as normal reactions to work. Rarely is satisfaction truly achieved through consumption, because what is being consumed is an artificial idea rather than a product that imbues our existence with meaning. A mad world: capitalism and the rise of mental illness Mental illness is now recognised as one of the biggest causes of individual distress and misery in our societies and cities, comparable to poverty and unemployment. The corporation checks off so many of the traits usually assessed for psychopathy — manipulativeness, shallow affect, lack of long-term goals, aversion to responsibility — that legal scholar Joel Bakan called it, in his book The Corporation, “a pathological institution.” If we ever encountered a person who sought only to pursue self-interest, they would be regarded as psychopathic; yet increasingly, this is precisely what we are doing and becoming. Acutely aware of their “aloneness” in the world, individuals attempt to escape the psychological prison of isolation.44 Nonetheless, the operation of capitalism is such that it frequently prevents the satisfactory fulfillment of this need. The desire to do nothing is reflected in popular culture, with books, television, and films inducing a state of passive enjoyment rather than demanding intellectual energies.11 The purpose of both work and leisure, they claimed, largely coalesces around increasing consumption. : Our Relationships at Work; Relationships and Work (Doncaster: Relate, 2016). The emotional commitments required for friendship and the intellectual efforts needed for conversation were made largely absent as social interaction became increasingly about acquaintances and small talk.45 Contemporary monopoly capitalism is no exception. What can be done about all this? Most of us intuitively understand this game and its stakes, which is why we set out very methodically to climb the corporate ladder and keep our resumes in top shape. All individuals must establish a sense of self and an awareness of being a specific person.30 Fifth, it is psychologically necessary for humans to develop a framework through which to make sense of the world and their own experiences.31, Representing what Fromm argued to be a universal human nature, the satisfaction of these drives is essential for optimum mental well-being. How can we go beyond mainstream psychiatry, and build a movement to advance mental health at the societal level? Trump says the faster we hustle back into the workplace, the more our national mood will improve. Food insufficiency and physical and mental health in a longitudinal survey of welfare recipients. As the basis on which society’s superstructural formation is erected, capitalism is a major determinant of poor mental health. Mental illnesses, including addiction, exemplify this problem. Under monopoly capitalism, consumerism is more about consuming ideas and less about satisfying inherent biological and psychological needs. ↩ As exemplified by Jordan W. Smoller et al., “Identification of Risk Loci with Shared Effects on Five Major Psychiatric Disorders: A Genome-Wide Analysis,” Lancet 381, no. It belongs to another. He was undoubtedly familiar with the wider body of work by both thinkers. Individuals may resort to alcohol and drug abuse to numb their misery, while persistent experience increases blood pressure and stress, as well as negatively impacts cardiovascular and immune-system functioning.46 A mental-health condition in its own right, loneliness exacerbates additional mental-health problems and is often the root cause of depression.47 In 2017, it was estimated that 13 percent of individuals in Britain had no close friends, with a further 17 percent having average- to poor-quality friendships. Shapiro, S. (2003). Radford, Virginia: Wilder Publications, 2011). ↩ National Survivor User Network, NSUN Manifesto 2017: Our Voice, Our Vision, Our Values, (London: National Survivor User Network, 2017), http://nsun.org.uk. Mental health and capitalism. As understood today, the notion of the individual has its origins in the feudal mode of production, and its emphasis on greater collectivist methods of labor—such as within the family or village—being surrendered to the compulsion of individuals, who have to be free to sell their labor power on the market. As a result of capitalism’s inexorable drive for self-expansion, the growth of production is one of its elementary characteristics. ↩ World Health Organization, Data and Resources (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017), http://euro.who.int/en. ↩ Trade Union Congress, “15 Per Cent Increase in People Working More than 48 Hours a Week Risks a Return to ‘Burnout Britain’, Warns TUC,” September 9, 2015; Josie Cox, “British Employees are Working More Overtime than Ever Before—Often for No Extra Money,” Independent, March 2, 2017. ↩ David Marjoribanks, A Labour of Love—or Labour Versus Love? He studied Fromm’s The Sane Society, together with Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization and One Dimensional Man (in manuscript form). What will you learn from writing letters to yourself? Consuming is essentially the satisfaction of artificially stimulated phantasies.”59. Social media keeps us ever more connected online, while walling us off in the real world. We have long known that our social conditions — everything from our physical environment, to socioeconomic background, to prevailing cultural beliefs — exert overwhelming influence over our psychological well-being. Additionally, the number of individuals whose experiences were severe enough to warrant intervention rose from 6.9 percent to 9.3 percent.4, In capitalist society, biological explanations dominate understandings of mental health, infusing professional practice and public awareness. Connecting the Dots: Iran, China, and the Challenge to U.S. Hegemony, The Nakba Generation and the Makings of Palestinian Revolution, Hampton Institute, PO Box 4058, Clifton Park, NY 12065, United States, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ↩ Baran and Sweezy, Monopoly Capital, 115. ↩ Robert Bocock, Consumption (London: Routledge, 2001), 51. ↩ United Nations Children’s Fund, Innocenti Report Card 7: Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries (Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2007), http://unicef-irc.org. The avoidance of loneliness and the search for meaningful relationships are fundamental human desires, but capitalism suppresses their satisfactory fulfillment, along with the opportunities to form common bonds of love and friendship, and to work and live in solidarity. Selfish Capitalism, much more than genes, is extremely bad for your mental health. The challenge posed must be viewed as part of the wider class struggle, as being one front of many in the fight for social justice, economic equality, dignity, and respect. For Fromm, there existed an inherent relationship between positive mental health, meaningful personal relationships in the form of both love and friendship, and expressions of solidarity. It’s time, then, that we started to be precise about what exactly is at the root of the mental health crisis; it’s time we identified this system by its name: capitalism. Nevertheless, some elements of the mental-health argument were interspersed in other parts of the book. Max Bacharach, mental health worker, Hackney Socialist Party. Fromm emphasized that all humans have certain needs that must be fulfilled in order to ensure optimal mental health. Learn more, Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. The solutions presented by capitalism inevitably fail to cure the malaise capitalism itself created. ↩ Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz, The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-First Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009). Dr. Stephen Bezruchka discusses the pharmaceutical/psychiatric industry and the spiraling rates of anti-depressants and other drugs given out to adults and children. As anyone who has seen a psychotherapist knows, the premise is that the subject is “sick” and therefore needs to be fixed, whether by medication, adjustments in lifestyle, or ultimately changing one’s mindset. But as we have seen, mental distress arises in large part because of the discrepancy between human needs — connection, security, meaning — and the alienating social conditions offered by society. Although the exact figures are likely to remain unknown due to the intangibility of such experiences, it can be inferred that, for many members of the labor force, it is commonplace for work to provoke general unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and despondency. Oppression, exploitation, and inequality greatly repress the true realisation of what it means to be human. To do this, Marx asked us to imagine the pre-industrial artisan — the shoemaker, the baker, the tailor — who worked not for a capitalist, but for themselves. Which structures in society give rise to these conditions? The more fortunate among us will be prescribed regular meetings with a therapist who promises to fix us and help us adjust ourselves to polite society, possibly with the aid of medication to correct our “chemical imbalances.”. He had been associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt in the early 1930s and was directly influenced by the work of Eric Fromm and Herbert Marcuse.15 It is within this broad framework that a theory of mental health can be identified in Baran and Sweezy’s analysis, with the contradictions between capitalism and human need expressing themselves chiefly through the repression of human energies. The current state of capitalism is in turmoil, according to independent op-eds, political pundits, and even the United Nations; a group of scientists has recently warned the UN that capitalism will fail because it focuses on short-term profits, not long-term benefits. More specifically, competition is, economically, one of the bases on which the market operates and, ideologically, corresponds to the widespread belief that, to be successful, one must compete with others for scarce resources. Under capitalism, however, the full satisfaction of the human psyche is thwarted. Furthermore, twenty-three million are said to experience symptoms of schizophrenia, while approximately eight hundred thousand individuals commit suicide each year.1 Within the monopoly-capitalist nations, mental-health disorders are the leading cause of life expectancy decline behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.2 In the European Union, 27.0 percent of the adult population between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five are said to have experienced mental-health complications.3 Moreover, in England alone, the predominance of poor mental health has gradually increased over the last two decades. Another key aspect of capitalism and its impact on mental illness we could talk about of course is inequality. For forty years, wages have been stagnant or falling for most households, while those who are fortunate enough to have a steady job typically work longer hours than the average medieval peasant. David Matthews is a lecturer in sociology and social policy at Coleg Llandrillo, Wales, and the leader of its degree program in health and social care. Rather than a source of enjoyment, the nature and organization of work under capitalism clearly does not act as a satisfactory means to fulfill an individual’s creativity. Beyond these direct threats to our material and psychological wellness, modernity also seems to be accompanied by an inescapable feeling of general emptiness, isolation, and lack of meaning, which so many existential philosophers and social theorists have attempted to capture and understand. Capital makes the worker ill, and then multinational pharmaceutical companies sell them drugs to make them better. Psychiatry, no matter how well-intentioned, is largely structured as a capitalist enterprise, and does not address the causes of the problem. Turning to Marxism, he constructed a theory of the individual whose consciousness is shaped by the organization of capitalism, with unconscious drives repressed or directed toward acceptable social behavior. Adopting a broadly materialist perspective, a social model of mental health addresses material disadvantage, oppression, and political exclusion as significant causes of mental illness. “Our products,” Marx concluded, “would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.” Labor was a point of joy, meaning, and human connectedness. In capitalist society, biological explanations dominate understandings of mental health, infusing professional practice and public awareness. 3 (July–August 2013): 43–64. We need to challenge this as part of a broader social justice agenda.”62 Furthermore, the action group Recovery in the Bin positions itself and the wider mental-health movement within the class struggle, pushing for a social model that recognizes capitalism as a significant determinant of poor mental health. See Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy, “The Quality of Monopoly Capitalist Society: Culture and Communications” Monthly Review 65, no. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx strenuously argued that labor should be a fulfilling experience, allowing individuals to be freely expressive, both physically and intellectually. It is worth noting that the treatment of mental health in Monopoly Capital did not go unnoticed and was subject to criticism by Robert Heilbroner in a review in the New York Review of Books, to which Sweezy responded in a letter, defending their analysis in this regard. Considerable evidence suggests that far from being beneficial to mental health, work is actually detrimental to it. It’s easy and free to post your thinking on any topic. The psychological toll of this market-extremist thinking is ubiquitous and measurable. When “The Quality of Monopoly Capitalism II” was finally published in Monthly Review in 2013, almost sixty years after it was drafted by Baran, the section on mental health was excluded due to its incomplete character. In the article A Mad World: Capitalism and the Rise of Mental Illness the author even dares speaking of mental illness as being the second pandemic we are constantly living in [1]. I know that when I’m depressed the best antidepressant is company – the complete opposite of capitalism’s relentless atomization of us. Write on Medium, work longer hours than the average medieval peasant, unemployed people are much more likely to become depressed. It follows that capitalism is crucial to … Mental illness consists in the failure of such development.”32 Rejecting a psychoanalytical understanding that emphasizes the satisfaction of the libido and other biological drives, mental health, he claimed, is inherently associated with the satisfaction of needs considered uniquely human. While making explicit the importance of Sigmund Freud, Fromm acknowledged his greater debt to Karl Marx, considering him the preeminent intellectual.17 Accepting the Freudian premise of the unconscious and the repression and modification of unconscious drives, Fromm nonetheless recognized the failure of orthodox Freudianism to integrate a deeper sociological understanding of the individual into its analysis. For Fromm, the origins of poor mental health are located in the mode of production and the corresponding political and social structures, whose organization impedes the full satisfaction of innate human desires.33 The effects of this on mental health, Fromm argued, are that “if one of the basic necessities has found no fulfillment, insanity is the result; if it is satisfied but in an unsatisfactory way…neurosis…is the consequence.”34, Like Marx, Fromm asserted that the instinctual desire to be creative had the greatest chance of satisfaction through work. Attempting to avoid work at all costs, leisure frequently fails to offer any consolation, as it is also rendered meaningless. From the episode: Andrew Keen: I’m particularly interested in this relationship between capitalism and mental health. It was Fromm, most notably, who was to develop a unique Marxist psychoanalytical position that remains relevant to understanding mental health in the current era of monopoly capitalism. Coronavirus, capitalism and a crisis of mental distress. No longer consumed for their use, consumer goods have become established markers of social prestige, with consumption as a means to express an individual’s social position. The impact of this has been demonstrated within British families in recent years. Consumerism, however, ultimately breeds dissatisfaction as the desire to substitute old products for new ones turns maintaining one’s position in society into a relentless pursuit of an unobtainable standard. Worker cooperatives, meanwhile, are still subject to the competitive dictates of the market. Of the reasons given, a paucity of opportunities for career advancement was prominent, along with not enjoying work and employees feeling like they do not make a difference.38 These reasons begin to illustrate an entrenched alienation from the labor process. Moreover, 45 percent claimed to have felt lonely at least once in the previous two weeks, with 18 percent frequently feeling lonely.

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