Mental Health Is a Political Problem

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From Tribune: “‘Psychology talk is often a convenient means of sucking out the politics which produce the sort of despair we’re experiencing today,’ psychologist Tarik Younis tweeted on 7 January. ‘Political or economic mismanagement (i.e. a rise in neoliberal policies) will inevitably be followed by widespread suffering and despair, especially for the underprivileged. We should therefore normalise saying this is a “political/economic crisis” and understand that mental health will follow.’

We need to seriously consider how to build a society that doesn’t make people so sick – psychologically or otherwise. That discussion is a political one. It concerns what kinds of policies will allow people to thrive, and what kinds of strategies are needed to get there. I hope the media can start talking about that, and not about a mysterious, simultaneous failure of brain chemistry.”

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3 COMMENTS

  1. “We need to seriously consider how to build a society that doesn’t make people so sick – psychologically or otherwise. That discussion is a political one.”
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    Well, actually the discussion does need to be a political and financial one, since the globalist banksters, who control the politicians, and large corporations, like the drug companies, are the problem.

    But I do agree, “It concerns what kinds of policies will allow people to thrive, and what kinds of strategies are needed to get there. I hope the media can start talking about that, and not about a mysterious, simultaneous failure of brain chemistry.”

    Yes, the psychiatrists’ and psychologists’ “chemical imbalance” theory, widely propagandized by the mainstream media, via the drug companies – yet disproven as true, decades ago – does need to end. It’s called false advertising, and it’s technically illegal in the US.

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  2. Making something into a “political problem” is just as idiotic a making something a “psychological” or “chemical imbalance problem.” As long as we try to make something into a “problem” we lose our natural ability to find an answer to make any situation better for all and anyone involved. Thank you.

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  3. All I see here is a veiled admission that psychologists and psychiatrists don’t know what they are talking about.

    We already know the major causes of distress and suffering on Earth. To turn the natural reactions of people to the results of the criminal practices of inept leaders into a “global mental health crisis” was one of Big Pharma’s boldest marketing victories. Suddenly all the poor and downtrodden of Earth became clients of the “mental health system!”

    But the ordinary sufferings of life ARE NOT mental health issues! The ones with the issues are the ones causing the suffering! And “solving” human suffering by creating a socialist Utopia won’t solve the mental health problem, because oppression and poverty have nothing to do with why people go insane. At best, they can be triggers. But the rich are just as likely, if not more so, to be deranged than the poor and oppressed.

    I would be most happy if mental health researchers and practitioners would concentrate on the criminally insane and leave the rest of us alone. But they are unlikely to do this, because it is difficult to look in the mirror and honestly see what is really there.

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