{"id":340,"date":"2018-01-30T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T14:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/countercurrents\/?p=340"},"modified":"2018-01-30T14:42:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T14:42:02","slug":"how-neoliberalism-is-damaging-your-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/countercurrents\/2018\/01\/30\/how-neoliberalism-is-damaging-your-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How neoliberalism is damaging your mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lance Bellers\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a widespread perception that mental ill health is on the rise in the West, in tandem with a prolonged decline in collective well-being. The idea that there are social and economic causes<\/a> behind this perceived decline is increasingly convincing, amid what has been termed the zombie economics<\/a> and grinding austerity<\/a>, which have followed the global financial crash.<\/p>\n

In particular, there is growing concern that the conditions and effects of neoliberalism \u2013 the enervating whirl of relentless privatisation, spiralling inequality, withdrawal of basic state support and benefits, ever-increasing and pointless work demands<\/a>, fake news<\/a>, unemployment and precarious work<\/a> \u2013 is partly to blame. Perhaps most wearying are the invasive yet distant commands from media, state institutions, advertisements, friends or employers to self-maximise, persevere, grab your slice of the diminishing pie, \u201cbecause you are worth it\u201d \u2013 although you must constantly prove it, every day.<\/p>\n

In our work and leisure we are urged to feign permanent enthusiasm amid radically lowered expectations. Neoliberal newspeak<\/a> hollows out the terminology of achievement, mandating boasts about personal \u201cexcellence\u201d and \u201cdedication\u201d as actual possibilities for achievement diminish and work becomes stripped of meaning. At my institution, the cleaners\u2019 uniforms are emblazoned with inscriptions announcing that they deliver their work with \u201cpassion, professionalism and pride\u201d \u2013 as if it were reasonable to demand \u201cpassion\u201d from a cleaner on minimum wage whose workload has doubled since 2012.<\/p>\n

\u2018Free choice\u2019<\/h2>\n

A colleague recently informed me that young children in Bermuda make amends for misbehaviour by intoning, \u201cI want to make good choices\u201d. As criminologists Steve Hall, Simon Winlow and Craig Ancrum have explored, \u201cchoices\u201d become life-or-death when a bad choice or two can turn you into an irremediable \u201closer\u201d<\/a>. We are told that structural barriers to aspiration, achievement and contentment will melt away in our fantasy \u201cchoice\u201d economy.<\/p>\n

But this falsehood of \u201cfree choice\u201d demotivates and depoliticises. In such a world, depression, anxiety, narcissism (the primitive defence of the infantile self against overwhelming attack) are entirely logical responses. It has been confirmed<\/a> that neoliberal societies make their citizens physically as well as mentally sick; the effect is magnified the more unequal the society and the more unprotected its citizens from free-market \u201ccompetitiveness\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Non-stop distraction.\u00a0<\/span>Kamira\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Depression in this context may appear almost self-protective: an opt-out from an unwinnable set of continual competitions. The recent rise in diagnoses of mental illnesses<\/a> and \u201cdevelopmental disorders<\/a>\u201d involving states of agitation and hyperstimulation is similarly interesting. In the case of ADHD, for example, a person\u2019s hyperactivity and distractibility render them officially \u201cdisordered\u201d or even disabled, to the extent that they are supposedly unable to cope with a hyperstimulating, late-capitalist environment. Yet they are, in another sense, entirely in tune with an economy of non-stop distraction, in which attention is repeatedly grabbed at and financially exploited<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Self-measurement<\/h2>\n

Neoliberalised healthcare requires every patient (or rather, \u201cclient\u201d of healthcare \u201cservices\u201d) to take responsibility<\/a> for her own state or behaviour. Mental healthcare is therefore being reframed<\/a> as a series of \u201coutcomes\u201d geared at measurable improvement which the \u201cservice user\u201d must manage by themselves as far as possible. Access to psychiatric diagnosis and support from public health services (and also within private or employer-run occupational healthcare schemes) sometimes depends on completion of a mood or symptom diary using smartphone or Fitbit self-tracking techniques<\/a>. And there may well be more punitive future consequences for failure to self-track, as employers and perhaps benefit agencies gain more power<\/a> to command this sort of performance from workers.<\/p>\n

This \u201cmHealth\u201d app \u201crevolution<\/a>\u201d also shows us how mental illness and anxiety about mental health itself may be deftly commodified and financialised. Measurement apps like MoodGym<\/a> are purchased by the UK\u2019s National Health Service for use with patients. As the patient self-monitors, she is persistently encouraged to demonstrate \u201crecovery\u201d, regardless of long-term impairment<\/a>. It is telling, too, that recovery is based on \u201cfitness for work<\/a>\u201d since the worthwhile adult is engaged in work activity at all times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This focus on work-readiness partially explains the relative paucity of children\u2019s mental health services in the UK, which are catastrophically low in beds<\/a> and were among the first to be privatised<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Rushing to work.\u00a0<\/span>estherpoon\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Care \u2013 or risk management?<\/h2>\n

Neoliberal states divest themselves of the costs of care by individualising and privatising care duties. People displaying troubling symptoms are divided into the \u201cdangerous\u201d, against whom punitive or authoritarian containment methods may be used, and those left to cope with what resources they or their families have left.<\/p>\n

The 1970s-80s saw the closure of the last asylums in the UK and the welcome end of long-term institutionalisation for thousands written off as \u201cmad\u201d and without rights to liberty. As the state also made significant savings through the transfer of patients back into \u201cthe community\u201d, the situation appeared win-win<\/a>. But half a century after \u201ccare in the community<\/a>\u201d became the norm for most chronically ill patients, effective community treatment is stymied by slashed budgets, low staffing levels and morale<\/a>. Systematically defunded NHS psychiatric services struggle to fulfil the legal burdens placed on them to provide basic care.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, it is the police<\/a> who handle \u201cfront-line\u201d mental health crises<\/a> in the UK. Prisons \u201cwarehouse<\/a>\u201d the mentally distressed. Meanwhile in US prisons \u201cmental health\u201d wards house<\/a> suicidal or otherwise mentally or emotionally unstable prisoners, who are placed in special \u201csuicide-proof\u201d garments and cells, sometimes in prolonged isolation. Any pretence of care will ultimately recede in favour of protection against litigation in the prison context. \u201cSuicide smocks<\/a>\u201d are now placed on patients who appear suicidal or psychotic on admission or during incarceration in many US states, and are worn even in court.<\/p>\n

What ways, then, are there to resist these worrying trends? Black humour is one way to deal with systems which command \u201cpositivity\u201d while simultaneously informing you at every stage that you are already a \u201closer\u201d. But collectivity of various kinds will be our best protector. As psychologist Paul Verhaeghe predicts<\/a>, the age of the \u201cutterly unrelieved individual<\/a>\u201d has (probably) reached its limit. What lies beyond the limit, particularly for those already broken or caught in the punitive grip of incarcerative \u201ccare\u201d, is less clear.<\/p>\n

Ruth Cain<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Kent<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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