Dr. James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a DPhil in social and medical anthropology. He is a Reader in Social Anthropology and Mental Health at the University of Roehampton, London, a psychotherapist (having practiced in the NHS), secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence and co-founder of the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry (CEP). He is author of the bestselling book Cracked: Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good and his new bookĀ Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis is out now.
ā Interviewed by James Barnes.
JB: The core theme of your excellent new book, āSedatedā, is the progressive medicalisation and individualising of emotional and psychological distress that has moulded all of our lives in theĀ West since the 1980s. This trend, as you illustrate, is deeply and intimately tied to the rise of the neoliberal political project in the US and UK via Reagan and Thatcher. You paint a very powerful picture of the insidious reframing of our often socio-politically derived distress in terms of dysfunctionsĀ inĀ the individual, ultimately serving the political status quo but harmful to our wellbeing. I wonder if you could expand on the theme of neoliberalism as it pertains to our āmental healthā and give us a taste of the key strands in the book?
JD: Thanks, James, a very good opening question. Iāll give it a go, but let me start by first defining the term neoliberalism, which is generally used to describe the style of capitalism that has dominated most Western economies since the 1980s (in particular the UK and US). Once neoliberalism, under Thatcher and Reagan, began replacing the more āsocialistā style of capitalism that prevailed between the 1950s and mid-1970s, it altered society in manyĀ significant ways. It did this by greatly expanding the dominance and reach of the market through tax cuts (mostly for the wealthy); by empowering multinationals via wide deregulation (cutting āred tapeā); and by dramatically reducing the stateās role in the economy through privatisation and cuts to labour, welfare and social protections.
ItĀ also introduced a new ideologyĀ of individualism, whereĀ success was seen as an outcome ofĀ exceptionalĀ individualĀ
Now, to understand how our mental health sector colluded with this ideological project, I recruit an idea thatās been central to much sociological thinking over the 20th century ānamely, that the main sectors of society (law, education, health care, religion etc) always adapt to what the economic paradigm of the day demands of them. Now, the peculiar thing about our mental health sector is that itās been more skillful than almost any other sector at adapting to the demands of neoliberalism. This is because the foundations of our mental health are relatively fluid and capricious. Unlike our legal system, for instance, where practice is rooted in long-standing legislative anchors, or our biomedical system, where practice is restrained by the bedrock of biological fact, the mental health sector has found almost no biological markers to anchor its treatment of mental distress, while its āevidence baseā is highly amendable to the direction in which powerful vested interests demand it goes.
InĀ āSedatedā, then, I explain thatĀ theĀ relativelyĀ
So what are the mainĀ featuresĀ of thisĀ collusionĀ between neoliberalism and mental health?Ā HowĀ has the sectorĀ been able to flourishĀ despiteĀ its consistentlyĀ poor results?Ā Well,Ā here are a few mechanisms IĀ discussĀ inĀ āSedatedā:Ā
Firstly, our sector hasĀ depoliticisedĀ suffering:Ā
Secondly, itĀ hasĀ privatisedĀ suffering: redefining individualĀ āmentalĀ healthāĀ in terms consistent with theĀ goals of the economy. Here āhealthāĀ isĀ characterisedĀ as comprising those feelings, values andĀ behavioursĀ (e.g. personal ambition, industriousnessĀ and positivity) that serve economic growth, increased productivity and cultural conformity, irrespective of whether they are actually good for the individual and the community.
Thirdly,Ā it hasĀ widelyĀ pathologisedĀ
Fourthly,Ā it hasĀ commodified suffering:Ā transfiguringĀ
Finally, it hasĀ decollectivisedĀ suffering:
JB:Ā What I found eye opening in āSedatedā, was just how entrenched and pervasive this ideology is in our society. The ways you illustrate how the neoliberal ethos ā competition for resources, productivity over wellbeing and āsurvival of the fittestā thinking ā is at play in schools and hospitals, for example, makes this quite clear. It is not just the habitual stress and anxiety that results from this, but a whole experience of others and the world in terms of āus vs them, haves vs have nots.ā Our valueĀ under this rubric isĀ earned āĀ by what have and do ā rather being to do with intrinsic human qualities. This ethos has become so embedded in our society that for many it can simply seem to be a given. How do you think it became so powerful?Ā
JD:Ā Neoliberalism is not just an economic paradigm but, like all such paradigms, it also entails a theory of human nature ā a concept of what is healthy and unhealthy, what is moral and functional; what motivates us and what constitutes the good life. In this sense, neoliberalism is a ātotalising systemā to use a sociological phrase ā it does not solely advance a suite of economic directives, but also a set of guiding principles for living (principles that, by the way, mostly serve those very economic directives). Margaret Thatcher intuitively understood this vital link between economics and human psychology. She understood how economic policy (in her case, neoliberal economic policy) had the power to radically transform how people feel, act and behave. As she said two years into her term as UK Prime Minister, her aim was to use economic policy to change the mentality and character of the nation: āEconomics are the methodā, she confessed to the journalist Ronald Butt, āthe objective is to change the heart and soulā.
The kind of hearts and souls she wanted to fashion viaĀ her policiesĀ wereĀ entrepreneurial, self-reliant,Ā hard workingĀ andĀ economicallyĀ
During the 80s and 90s, then, displaying the outward signs of such self-betterment grew in cultural salience. The things we consumed became the outward markers of our success. More and more of us came to derive our identity and self-esteem from our possessions,Ā believing that we principally defined and created ourselves through the objects we consumed, and that by acquiring more high-status possessions and accoladesĀ we somehow increased our value and worth as persons. As the moreĀ weĀ possessedĀ the more we believedĀ we were,Ā a dominant culturalĀ aimĀ became āto have muchā rather than āto beĀ muchā āĀ to put it in Erich Frommās terms ā to make material acquisition a central fulcrum of living.
So to answer your question as to why the neoliberal ethosĀ has becomeĀ so powerful in society,Ā well, economicĀ policy has the power toĀ affectĀ the direction in which we allĀ come toĀ strive, shapingĀ ourĀ identities,Ā goals,
Let meĀ give you a concrete exampleĀ if you are unconvinced. WhyĀ does current data show that undergraduate students today are more depressed and despondent than were undergraduates of 15-20 years ago? Well, undergraduatesĀ today generally perceive the world they are entering as more hostile than did undergraduates of the past, which is understandable. Unlike in the past, graduates now have huge student debts to repay;Ā theirĀ prospectsĀ ofĀ
JB: In āSedatedā, you powerfully argue that we need to focus on the socialĀ rootsĀ of distress ā such as unfair taxation, poor social welfare, inequality and social exclusion ā which have been historically denied by psychiatry (and also, it must be said, by academic psychology). The evidence mounts that this is indeed vital in understanding such distress and to the ongoing wellbeing of our societies as a whole. It is also true that psychiatry has increasingly acknowledged the role of these factors. They will be framed, however, in terms of ātriggersā of what then becomes an individual disorder that should be medicalised, something which you obviously disagree with. This is, to me, the very tricky thing about the psychiatric model: it can fit almost anything into its narrative. I wonder how you make sense of the differences?Ā
JD:Ā Psychiatry is not a science, even though, of course, it aspires to make use of scientific findings to guide its practices (as to who often produces those āfindingsā weāll leave for another dayā¦). If psychiatry is not a science, then what it is? Well, many social scientists may call it a set of cultural practices and ideas or what the Harvard anthropologist and psychiatrist, Arthur Kleinmann, has called an āexplanatory modelā. The term āexplanatory modelā I believe fits psychiatry very well, insofar as it is defined as a system of interlinked ideas and practices that frame and respond to suffering in ways that, in my view, mostly serve powerful social, political and professional interests.
One of the most obvious ways in which āexplanatory modelsā serve interested parties, is through their use of language (or, in the case of psychiatry, through its use or misuse of medical symbolism). Psychiatry uses medical symbolism to endow its pronouncements and practices with an aura of authority that they would otherwise lack, and to reframe human experiences in ways that make the model itself appear altruistic and indispensable. By using medical symbols like ādiseaseā, āillnessā, ādisorderā, āpathologyā, ādiagnosisā etc, the explanatory model drags diverse experiences of humanĀ suffering underĀ theĀ authoritativeĀ
The explanatory modelĀ thereforeĀ deploys symbolism toĀ bolster itsĀ credenceĀ and powerĀ in the world, hence the huge resistanceĀ the model hasĀ to de-medicalisingĀ its ideas, concepts and practicesĀ (andĀ its almost structural hostilityĀ towards non-medical symbolicĀ alternatives).Ā So even though the symbols donāt captureĀ theĀ realities of our emotional worldsĀ (you could even sayĀ thatĀ they distortĀ these realities) theyĀ stillĀ serveĀ the function ofĀ endowingĀ the model with the authority it needs toĀ dominateĀ and thrive.
ToĀ provide an example of how this misuse of symbolism works in a day-to-day practice, letās consider the following sentence that includes a word you mentioned a moment ago, James: āpovertyĀ triggersĀ mental illnessā.Ā As you suggested in your question, rather than saying āpovertyĀ generatesĀ multiple forms of humanĀ sufferingĀ and distressāĀ the word triggerĀ invokesĀ the powerful cultural symbolĀ ofĀ āmental illness’ to denote something that poverty supposedly provokes and that the model can supposedly ātreatā. This move does a couple of things. It ensures that the model remains relevant in the face of the social determinants of distress, protecting or even expanding the modelās jurisdiction over us, but it also allows the model to claim sophisticated ābio-psycho-socialā credentials, despite relegating social causes to mere ātriggersā and widely privileging biological/drug interventions in the management of what has been triggered ā namely ā the āmental illnessā.
But letās now also look at the phase āmental illnessā in this sentence. Some time ago I asked a group of medical students at Imperial College, London, to make sense of the following fact: why in the UK are the highest rates of psychiatric drug prescribing found in the areas of highest socio-economic disadvantage, poverty and unemployment? Is this coincidence? Or is there something causal behind the correlation? One student responded, to wide approval of the others, that it was no coincidence at all, as these are precisely the kind of social circumstances (high deprivation, poverty, etc.) that generate higher rates of mental illness.
I then askedĀ the studentsĀ toĀ pay attention to the use of the phrase āmental illnessā. While it is true, I said, that people in deprived situations are likely to suffer a great deal more than those who are more affluent, on what grounds are we correct to use medicalĀ symbolismĀ to describe that suffering? Do we use it because we have simply been taught to use it, or because we have objective evidence that it is somehow better toĀ medicaliseĀ such suffering than it is to view it, as many social scientists might, as a non-medical, non-pathological, yet understandable human response to harmful social, relational, political and environmental conditions? Perhaps the reason why inequality, poverty,Ā andĀ social disadvantage are good news for the antidepressant market, I continued, is because our response to socially induced suffering isĀ nowĀ so medicalised. This preserves theĀ domain of psych-authorityĀ and prescribing,Ā subtlyĀ distracts attention from the centrality of bad social policyĀ and so helpsĀ exonerate bad circumstances. If these mechanismsĀ greatly improvedĀ patient outcomes then perhaps anyĀ criticism wouldĀ seem churlish.Ā But the fact is,Ā everĀ since this explanatory model has widely dominatedĀ our services, clinicalĀ outcomesĀ haveĀ at best flatĀ linedĀ while according to some measuresĀ they have got worse, which isĀ the opposite of what youād expect toĀ findĀ if the model were working.
So yes, psychiatryās explanatory model is slippery and adaptable.Ā It endows poor interventions with status and power, and misleads as to the real origins of the āillnessā it purports toĀ remedy.Ā In this sense, itsĀ power, statusĀ and authorityĀ isĀ moreĀ derived fromĀ the symbols itĀ wields thanĀ fromĀ the actual social good it generates.Ā This explains, of course, its deep attachment to the symbols.
JB:Ā Clearly, much of theāÆ individualisingāÆ of distress/ideology of persons with ‘disorders’ goes directly back to the 1980s ā neoliberalism & the DSM-III ā as you illustrate and unpack. Reading your book, I couldnāt help but also think about the conditions that made these possible. It seems to me that the individualising/disorder-ising āÆof distress is almost written into what we might call the broad Western āproject of the individual selfā (for example, the more experience is conceptualised āÆas an internal, subjective phenomenon in some way reducible to the brain or body, the easier it is to say that that something āwrongā is āÆināÆĀ the person).āÆ Though we might call the āÆmanufacturing of minds and lives a la neoliberalism the most modern and extreme version or outcome of this, its roots, it seems to me, go back to the very inception ofāÆ capitalismāÆ and the scientific world view. I wonder what your take on this is?āÆāÆ
JD:Ā I am an anthropologist by training, and so have read countless ethnographies of how human communities and relations operate outside the domain of neoliberal arrangements. This has taught me many things, but in particular, itās taught me how the kinds of emotions and subjective states that any society honours, normalises and rewards are those kinds that best serve the smooth functioning of its social system. The anthropologist Emily Martin looked at this in the context of the modern US, where āmanic statesā are far less stigmatised than ādepressive statesā. Why? Manic states are more active, productive, consistent with frenetic demands of modern life, while ādepressive statesā are counter to extraversion and productivity, they slow people down and make them introspective. In this sense āanti-depressionā does not just refer to a kind of intervention, but to a pervasive cultural prejudice towards suffering itself ā as a society we have a very hostile relationship to any emotion that brings us down and that threatens the social order. Our communities have consequently developed a deep intolerance of suffering, which has in turn bred a certain amount of fear among us. The professionalisation of āmental health managementā has deskilled and intimidated us ā and our communities no longer trust they have the wisdom or resources to respond effectively (pretty much contrary to any indigenous group I have ever studied). And so we exile sufferers to āexpertsā in consulting rooms sitting far outside the community walls, who in turn end up, often with good intentions, transfiguring suffering into a mere commodity from which revenue can be accrued (letās not forget that the global psychotropic market is now worth around $70 billion a year). And our idea of care, once they return, often amounts to: āplease donāt forget to take your medsā ā there is no community, no shared cosmology, no ritual coming-together around the personās pain. There is isolation, fear, pathologisation and much too much medication.
This deep intolerance of distress (which is linked to bias against any economically inconvenient emotion) was even explicitly enshrined in the DSM. In 1980, the same year that Reagan came to power, the DSM for the first time reclassified occupational underperformance as a key index of mental disorder, at the very same time as neoliberal states began to grapple with the need to improve worker productivityĀ – i.e. the output of each worker per hour of their labour. While governments would aspire to improve productivity from the outside, via new social policy, psychiatrists and drugs companies would claim to improve it from the inside, via new drug interventions that claimed to alter the very dynamics of the unproductive self. The mid-century preoccupation among the psych-professions with cultivating productivity in the more humanistic sense (working to realise and make productive use of our full human powers) was now supplanted by the professional obsession with the need to cultivate productivity in the economic sense (rendering people better able to satisfy abstract economic measures, like returning to work rapidly). Those forms of subjectivity that threatened the optimum functioning of the market thus became those most readily pathologised and discredited, as did other ways of being deemed antithetical to the grander neoliberal project.
To give just one example of another way, the eminent sociologist Richard Sennett once wrote an excellent book on late capitalism, called New Capitalism. This book addressed how close and enduring social networks and relationships can actually impede the designs of late capitalism. The modern economy needs to have a highly mobile workforce (e.g. the average time we spend in any given job is now around 5 years). But having deep social ties and strong community affiliations actually inhibits the high mobility, and rapid staff turnover keep wages low, corporations nimble, and anxiety in the workforce at a productive high. Thus neoliberalism subtly benefits from the loosening of community ties, as detached people are better able to up-and-move, and are more able when they settle in a job to make the workplace itself their primary community. While this may be excellent news for employment markets, itās very bad news for our emotional health.
So whatĀ IĀ argue inĀ āSedatedā, to come to your question, James,Ā is thatĀ our mental healthĀ sector, broadly speaking,Ā does nothing toĀ problematiseĀ the social conditions of distress. Itās conservative, uncritical and deferential to dominant structure. Itās neoliberal by default. It seeksĀ to appealĀ servilelyĀ to late capitalistĀ aims and directivesĀ (oftenĀ to secure government funding)Ā moreĀ than toĀ offer any radicalĀ programmeĀ for reform. To use an analogy, our sector is like the good boy in the classĀ who bringsĀ gifts and praise each day for the tyrannicalĀ teacherĀ and becomes compromisedĀ as a result. OurĀ systemĀ thusĀ fails because it colludes with social structures that themselves generate harmful ways of being in the world.Ā The sector at best sedates these states while at the same time exoneratesĀ harmful social arrangementsĀ by over-emphasisingĀ theĀ so-called internal and disorderedĀ causes ofĀ structuralĀ distress.
JB:Ā Finally, your overall conclusion was that things need to change from the top down ā from politics and the politicians. I know you do lobbying at that level, so your money is where your mouth is! I wonder, though, how you see the role of service user movements on the one hand, and the critical discourse in the mental health professions on the other in that process? In other words, what can we do to help shift the dominant political narrative?Ā
JD:Ā There are two things I believe must happen if the mental health sector is to work. Firstly, reform has to start with ourselves, with identifying where we collude with the very causes of the suffering we purport to alleviate, by disseminating ideas and interventions that exonerate these causes. When I say āourselvesā I refer to both professionals and services users (or to the very many who straddle both categories). And we are making excellent strides ā I need not repeat for MITUK or MIA readers a list of the many people and organisations now engaged in pushing against the status quo. And by the way, we are no longer a small and symbolically inconsequential minority ā we are a growing and ever more powerful majority, with organisations like the World Health Organisation and the UN gradually aligning with this potent call for change.
But I am also a realist, and believe that until we have more accommodating political arrangements in our economy, reform will be significantly hobbled. You see, our sector fits so neatly with neoliberal arrangements that until there is wider structural change, I think the style of our current sector will continue to dominate, despite poor outcomes. I really grappled with accepting this conclusion while researching āSedatedā, because itās not particularly uplifting now it is, as it implies suchĀ a major prerequisite for change.Ā On the other hand, it is also true that socio-economic reform looks far less implausible than it did even in early 2020, given the economic effects that Covid will doubtless continue to exert in the coming years (an area I expand on in the book). So, and to finishĀ by paraphrasingĀ something I say inĀ āSedatedā:Ā when change arrives, and itĀ willĀ arrive as no economic paradigm has ever existed in perpetuity, alternative ideas in the realm of mental health will only be poised for implementation if we keep putting in the effort right now; if we work to defy the neo-liberal pressures and enticements, and if we develop interventions that put the needs of people and communities above our failing and now fading economic ideology.
JB:Ā Wonderful. Thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom, James!
JD:Ā Thanks so much for talking with me, James.
ā āanti-depressionā does not just refer to a kind of intervention, but to a pervasive cultural prejudice towards suffering itself ā as a society we have a very hostile relationship to any emotion that brings us down and that threatens the social order. Our communities have consequently developed a deep intolerance of suffering, which has in turn bred a certain amount of fear among us. The professionalisation of āmental health managementā has deskilled and intimidated us ā and our communities no longer trust they have the wisdom or resources to respond effectively (pretty much contrary to any indigenous group I have ever studied). And so we exile sufferers to āexpertsā in consulting rooms sitting far outside the community walls, who in turn end up, often with good intentions, transfiguring suffering into a mere commodity from which revenue can be accrued (letās not forget that the global psychotropic market is now worth around $70 billion a year). And our idea of care, once they return, often amounts to: āplease donāt forget to take your medsā ā there is no community, no shared cosmology, no ritual coming-together around the personās pain. There is isolation, fear, pathologisation and much too much medication.
This deep intolerance of distress (which is linked to bias against any economically inconvenient emotion) was even explicitly enshrined in the DSM. In 1980, the same year that Reagan came to power, the DSM for the first time reclassified occupational underperformance as a key index of mental disorder, at the very same time as neoliberal states began to grapple with the need to improve worker productivity ā i.e. the output of each worker per hour of their labour. While governments would aspire to improve productivity from the outside, via new social policy, psychiatrists and drugs companies would claim to improve it from the inside, via new drug interventions that claimed to alter the very dynamics of the unproductive self.ā
This is truly incredible. Exquisitely framed.
There are two themes ever present in the comments at MIA. One is anti-āvictimā-mindset promotion. That is, expressions of support for suffering are cast as having or promoting a victim mindset. So itās fine to talk about having been victimized but displaying any of the common behaviors or emotions resultant from that victimization is framed as having a victim mindset. Itās a very powerful form of silencing. Itās especially prevalent in discussions of systemic oppressions and marginalization by denials of the very existence of such.
Secondly, notions of help and/or recovery are equally stigmatized. But Dr Davies has very precisely stated here the reason why I promote eCPR.
āwe exile sufferers to āexpertsā in consulting rooms sitting far outside the community wallsāā¦āthere is no community, no shared cosmology, no ritual coming-together around the personās painā
This is what eCPR does differently. This is what peer support does differently. These are not āalternativesā to psychiatry, they are the foundations of a healthy community. This is why we need a cultural change around how we view distress and why we need to be in it together. We are all better off when we are all better off and not a day before it.
Report comment
This helps me understand more clearly what destroyed my life.
Report comment
Excellent.
And let us not forget that money is really the factor that keeps shrinkage alive and well.
This business keeps a lot of people employed.
Report comment
The author is correct that suffering is now a billion dollar business, maybe much more. But, in a way, I disagree. I think, in America, at least, we like to “suffer.” It shows that we have done something, even if we have done nothing. We are rewarded with drugs and sympathy. I do not mean just the “alleged psychiatric suffering.” I have known so may people in my lifetime who speak more of their ills, than any of their joys and successes. In an odd way, it is a little game played to gain a modicum of esteem when all other ways fail. However, I still contend that, we still, despite the idea that America was built on “rugged individualism” spend so little time on the individual and work to disregard any individual needs, feelings, desires, talents. This is usually for the “greater good” of society. And, most of the time, the “greater good” clashes with the “individual good.” This is a sadness in many respects, because when the sovereignty of a person is disregarded, so is the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of each nation. This can be an instigator for all kinds of conflict. Perhaps, it is because we might truly be worshipping suffering after all. And, in my opinion, why the mental health/mental illness paradigm fails. And, why, for the health, safety and continuation of humanity and possibly even the planet, mental health can never be reformed but must be ended. We must no longer concentrate on the fakery of mental health, but the real truth of individual health. Thank you.
Report comment
Removed for moderation.
Report comment
We have grown more and more allergic to psychological pain/distress/sadness/tears/etc.
This is due to psychiatry, mainly, who preaches that if it causes “disfunction”, a deviation of their “normal”, it needs their management. They themselves know that this is NOT working. They are the first to know.
If I am born less physically resilient, and can’t work in any physical capacity, I get physiotherapy, to help build me up. I do not get talked to, or drugged, to make it go away. I get support.
The mind/brain needs support in the same manner. There needs to be doing with the person, not some wasted hour of chatting, drugging of a brain which they know nothing about.
If I am not mentally “resilient”, I might need all kinds of support, until I become stronger, and if I do not become a superhero, physically or emotionally, this should not be held against me. A psych label will ALWAYS be held against you, and only held against you by the very people who are in people services.
Those services forgot so long ago that they ONLY have employment due to needs, which they use not to support, or serve, but rather oppress and overpower the vulnerable.
It is really disgusting to observe the treatment of the vulnerable. Worse than any animal society out there.
And I should not be labeled as “disabled”, since there is some form of ability in everyone.
I might receive a “disability” payment, but the term says nothing about the person as a whole. Just because there is no opportunity for me to use what abilities I do have, does not make me disabled. It is simply being in a place where the environment is not conducive to bringing out someone’s potential.
Report comment
Sam, I loved this comment. Especially the part at the end about how our disabilities donāt define us. This is why I prefer the term ādifferently abledā. I even read someone else use this term today for the first time. It is how I feel about myself. I am not a disabled person. I am a person with disabilities. But I have many wonderful abilities that get lost or remain unseen and unappreciated when I am framed solely in the light of being disabled. I think this gets at the heart of what disability advocates are fighting for – to be seen as whole people with many gifts and much to offer despite whatever physical or mental limitations we may have.
Report comment
Yes, Kindredspirit and Sam!
And your own struggle with potentially “disabling” type problems in life helped create and enhance your development of many “abling” qualities that those more (perhaps less) fortunate in life so far have not yet developed.
Richard
Report comment
You are right. Our disabilities don’t and shouldn’t define us. Sometimes, we need that disability distinction from the government to obtain needed services. But, privately, each of us can choose to define ourselves as we wish. Let us let our imaginations run wild on this one. Thank you
Report comment
I agree with those who have heaped a great deal of praise for this author and his penetrating analysis of neoliberalism as a guiding ideology for the current state of modern capitalism.
James Davies (with his book “Sedated”) has taken concepts about all the enormous harm perpetrated by the medicalization of human distress that some of us have been critiquing for many years, and uncovered and revealed multiple deeper layers of both the institutional and mental chains of control this Medical Model has created in today’s world.
For anyone hoping to make major, and/or revolutionary, change in the world. this is not only a must read, but also a must be discussed, digested and developed, and then circulated analysis.
Here is just one of the more insightful parts of this interview:
“…rather than saying āpoverty generates multiple forms of human suffering and distressā the word trigger invokes the powerful cultural symbol of āmental illnessā to denote something that poverty supposedly provokes and that the model can supposedly ātreatā. This move does a couple of things. It ensures that the model remains relevant in the face of the social determinants of distress, protecting or even expanding the modelās jurisdiction over us, but it also allows the model to claim sophisticated ābio-psycho-socialā credentials, despite relegating social causes to mere ātriggersā and widely privileging biological/drug interventions in the management of what has been triggered ā namely ā the āmental illnessā.”
On the negative side of Davies’ analysis is the fact that after a such a devastating critique of modern capitalism, he still remains stuck in “reform” and “reformist” type solutions for all the economic and political problems that will require serious *revolutionary* solutions.
Davies says:
“Firstly, reform has to start with ourselves…until we have more accommodating political arrangements in our economy, reform will be significantly hobbled.”
Davies appears only willing to hint at the need for larger systemic change leaving his readers to somehow believe that fundamental change is still possible within a class based capitalist system, even though he admits it will be more difficult in a post Covid 19 world.
Here Davies states the following”
“On the other hand, it is also true that socio-economic reform looks far less implausible than it did even in early 2020, given the economic effects that Covid will doubtless continue to exert in the coming years (an area I expand on in the book). So, and to finish by paraphrasing something I say in āSedatedā: when change arrives, and it will arrive as no economic paradigm has ever existed in perpetuity, alternative ideas in the realm of mental health will only be poised for implementation if we keep putting in the effort right now; if we work to defy the neo-liberal pressures and enticements, and if we develop interventions that put the needs of people and communities above our failing and now fading economic ideology.”
All this type of analysis does is ultimately perpetuate the illusion that fundamental change is somehow still possible within a capitalist system. This follows earlier comments about so-called “socialist” elements within society that predated the Medical Model takeover that began the 1980’s. This sort of implies that early incarnations of psychiatry and the “mental health” system were somehow devoid of oppressive forms of power and control over its patients and potential victims.
While forms of societal help in the past that involved principally counseling elements may have provided more support for people experiencing extreme psychological distress, we cannot forget the snake-pit hospitals, Electro-shock, Freudian misogyny and earlier incarnations of psych drugs like Thorazine etc.
I bring all this up NOT to suggest that we shouldn’t fight for reforms in the current reality, but only that we should do so firmly with the perspective that this work is part of an overall strategy for revolutionary changes leading to a complete socialist transformation of society. Here I am talking about a new form of socialism (learning from past historical mistakes), that has never before been attempted in human history.
Davies’ overall analysis in “Sedated” only reaffirms my belief that psychiatry and all forms of psychiatric oppression are firmly and FOREVER entrenched within the capitalist system. The Medical Model needs capitalism for its existence, AND capitalism now needs the Medical Model for its future existence. This symbiotic and deadly relationship between these two entities has evolved in a relatively short historical period over the past four decades.
The power and control (the drugging, incarceration, and mental chains) that the Medical Model (psychiatry and Big Pharma) provides for keeping the potentially rebellious sections of society under manageable control is an ESSENTIAL INSTITUTIONAL NECESSITY for the future of capitalism’s existence. The future of BOTH the capitalist system, and psychiatry and their Medical Model, are now forever inseparably bound. All future efforts to end all forms of psychiatric abuse in the world MUST accept this reality AND strategize accordingly.
Richard
Report comment
Richard, as usual a great comment and I did not miss the reformist words in Davies’ interview.
It is not possible to “reform”, and I’m sure a guy as insightful as him, must know this.
Perhaps he is stuck for words? Solutions? Finds it too daunting? Scared to offend?
The other area that is completely gone berzerk with psychiatrizing is the medical system.
It became much easier to tell people they are defective in their brains, than to acknowledge that science
is not able to answer most questions.
The doctor and shrink looking at each other both know they are often telling lies that greatly hurt people.
Report comment
Sam plover, The “psychiatrizing of medicine” as you describe might have been inevitable. Psychiatrists have taken hold of our society that we are sadly now in their evil grip; especially traditional medical doctors who are probably fearful of them in some manner. I noticed this myself especially as I was dealing with both psychiatrists and medical doctors. Unfortunately, this affects all who seek any kind of medical attention; even those who have traditional medical ills and would not consider seeing a psychiatrist. Of course, many times for a traditional medical illness, the medical doctor might suggest you see a counselor in addition to your appointments with him or her or that you join such and such a group of like diagnosed individuals. I saw this with my sister who had cancer and my father who had diabetes. This was back in the late 1990’s. I am sure it is “epidemic” now. The upshot is no matter what’s wrong with you; you’ll more than likely be treated as a psychiatric patient; no matter the diagnosis or doctor. Thank you.
Report comment
They are all afraid of each other, to be in agreement, is how they keep their jobs.
Report comment
Nice analysis of an excellent article. I also think James Davies thinks that capitalism can be reformed, or maybe a revolution instigated, by professionals taking action where as I think it probably has to be from the working class, and that includes service user/survivors of psychiatry leading.
Report comment
I am always a little nervous when people start talking about revolutions. Do they mean a revolution of thought or do they mean the total breakdown of the current society with civil war style violence? Because Iām thinking the US could go either way at this point, especially with the steady march toward climate collapse. Iām not really looking forward to the violent revolution that seems to be where we are headed. Especially in a culture that doesnāt think I should be able to arm myself against increasingly violent revolutionaries on both āsidesā.
Report comment
Kindredspirit
We should all be more than a little nervous about the current state of polarization in this country, which clearly seems headed in the direction of civil war type conditions and potential violent conflict.
And unfortunately, the balance of political understanding and developed organization is NOT very favorable at this time to those on the “Left” who grasp the necessity for humanity to move well beyond the oppressive nature of a class based capitalist society.
When I make reference to “revolution” I am clearly referring to both realms you mention, That is, “revolution of thought” and a total breakdown of the social order of things.
For all those who want a better world, we must certainly be involved in “changing minds” in revolutionary ways and in a revolutionary direction. Helping ourselves and other people become more rational and empathetic about every aspect of institutional forms of human oppression, and seeking newer revolutionary alternative economic and political forms of social organization etc. beyond capitalism.
As to the “breakdown in the social order of things,” that will not necessarily occur by human design or intention, but instead is the inevitably consequence of the intense class conflict over control of natural resources and necessities of life, fueled by international competition and related conflict of rising imperialist powers.
And yes, we should be very concerned about exactly who has most of the guns at the present time, especially with the rise of organized Right Wing militias etc. HOWEVER, when there is a total breakdown of the social order, guns will suddenly be available to everyone who wants one.
This is because this level of social breakdown will create major divisions within the military itself (creating different well armed factions) and within various police forces etc., and of course various parts of the country. And since there are already so many guns in this country, people will just end up confiscating them from WHEREVER they are stored.
I say none of this lightly, and have some of the same fears you have, and especially for my children and grandchildren who are inheriting such a complex and divided world.
I recently completed a new song (on the day after the last election) called “Second Coming.” In this song there are two Native American characters living on the streets of Birmingham, Ala. Here is my chorus:
—————————————————————-
Shiloh says there’ll be a “Second Coming” / A reckoning all the sinners need not fear
There’ll be no “come to Jesus moment” / When the “Strange Fruit” sadly reappears
Yellow Bird can’t say if she’ll pull the trigger / When someone looks her dead in the eye
Said, she’ll never ever stay silent / When the Klan, again starts to rise / Oh, they’ll be no compromise
You know these wars are never “civil” / Especially the second time around
——————————————————————–
Richard
Report comment
Richard, I’d just like to thank you. For this comment, for the amazing work you do, for your passion and commitment. You are an inspiration. Keep up the great work!
Report comment
Brett
Thanks so much for the validation; you just made my day!
And I always find your comments and writings here at MIA to be illuminating and inspirational as well.
Carry on! Richard
Report comment
The “mental health” “system thus fails because it colludes with social structures that themselves generate harmful ways of being in the world.”
No doubt, they wanted to murder a person that was distressed by 9/11/2001, and stands against the never ending wars that, that distressing event has created. Oh, because distress caused by a distressing event, is distress caused by a “chemical imbalance” in one person’s brain? WTF! They don’t seem to know much of anything about the banking and monetary systems, which most definitely need reform. Their primary actual societal function is covering up child abuse and rape, for the mainstream paternalistic religions, which most definitely need reform. Not to mention, they cover up easily recognized medical mistakes, for a big Pharma misinformed – and all too often, incompetent, and honestly downright murderous – medical industry. Oh, and they want to steal everything from us artists who speak the truth, through our history recording artwork, and based upon our many years of research into all these corrupt industries.
“we are no longer a small and symbolically inconsequential minority ā we are a growing and ever more powerful majority, with organisations like the World Health Organisation and the UN gradually aligning with this potent call for change.”
I hope you’re right, because I have zero doubt major reform, if not the complete abolition of psychiatry, and all DSM “bible” believing “mental health” industries, is needed. I mean, how many times does Western civilization allow an industry to commit massive holocausts, without eventually saying enough is enough. Our modern psychiatric industries’ current “holocaust” is killing “8 million” EVERY year.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2015/mortality-and-mental-disorders
Report comment
Someone Else, When I read your post, I think of those ad infinitum pictures—pictures within pictures within pictures within pictures, etc. I think, that could be one probable visual description of psychatry, etc.: never-ending cruelty, abuse, and stupidity. Thank you.
Report comment
Fascinating stuff!
I was blown over by “commodified suffering” comment. I have been calling this as the commodified feelings. In the mental health system, the most commodified feeling or state of mind is empathy. Try to show empathy, and it is taken right off your mouth, and you are forced into regression, and only then, you will be released until you again show the same empathy that was not allowed from you earlier. Do not worry of others (killing any collectivism on the way), just worry about your feelings as first person (creating isolation of the mind). Of course the therapist must show empathy, must function as my own empathy since I am not allowed because I am a child…symbolically speaking but yet as if. writing this down is making me go mental already. No reason to make helping others so categorized…it is soft, it is malleable, it is flexible, it is human connection of the mind, the body and the others all at once, all apart organically, and all mixed when needed in so many different capacities. No hard rules!
As a helper myself, I decided, there has to be a way to heal without functioning as their empathy (by rendering my clients disable). I want them to keep their empathy and still heal. I empower them to keep their empathy and heal with it with me or with them alone.
but the commodifying empathy, keeps the client keep coming back year after year…depleted of all humanity!
Thank you for putting words things I notice in healing business in therapy that did not make sense.
Report comment
I have to admit it cheers me up in a perverse way hearing about how messed up the world is. All my life, it was drummed into my head by my entire family and by the mental health system what a failure I was, what a crazy stupid hopelessly mentally ill borderline loser of a person who got tons and tons of help and despite that just kept getting worse. The world was never the problem. I was the problem. If I had just grown up and gotten with the program and used my coping skills and was mindful and listened to my doctors and was compliant with my medication and took some responsibility and lowered my expectations and worked harder and stuck my face in ice water and basically just STFU then everything would be rosy. And when I failed at that it was look who needs more ECT. Because I was human and had a reaction to family members dying and having breakdowns. Human when I shouldn’t have been. The fact that I’m fully disabled and alone is my fault according to the powers that be. Ha ha guess it’s not just me after all.
Report comment
Katel, I am sorry that you have felt that way. I, too, have had similar feelings. It’s not you, of course. But, as “crazy” as the world is, I don’t think it’s entirely the world, as our perceptions of the world. However, psychiatry, etc. does not allow us our unique perceptions of the world, rather positive, negative or mixed. Psychiatry, etc. through its drugging, therapizing and all its etc. seeks to impose their view of the world upon us and its usually a world of blame, negativity, oppression, and worse. Psychiatry, etc. has the goal to take away our inherent God-given ability to decide what we think about the world. This is not like the parent/child relationship, a necessary step in growth towards adulthood and maturity; no—this is out right theft of our minds and our brains. It’s not your fault, Katel. You have had the worst thing stolen from you; who you are. You can restore who you are to you; but, first, you must walk away from psychiatry and renounce it in all its evil forms. Thank you.
Report comment
Thanks rebel, yes I have done that I have renounced psychiatry. In doing so I lost what was left of my family and friends because they all support psychiatry and were completely invested in the “fact” of my mental illness. 3 months ago I cut off contact with my 84-year-old mother, who I haven’t seen in 10 years anyway, because she wouldn’t stop saying “you’re mentally ill”. I’m going to be 55 and I suffer from severe damage from ECT TMS decades of polypharmacy the trauma of psych hospitalizations (I added it up in my head once and it comes out that I’ve spent close to 5 years of my life in one locked psych ward or another). I go to a non-clinical peer support center the 3 days a week that they are open and the rest of the time I’m alone. I get what little joy is still available to me and part of that comes from news that in fact the whole world is nuts.
Report comment
I was subjected to ECT, and lobotomy after I had a baby when I was 11. I didn’t know what sex was, hadn’t known what was done to me, thought that my baby was miracle from god (I was a Roman Catholic girl and so had heard of the Virgin Mary who had a baby from god) and, to the point, could not describe or articulate how I had been impregnated. Post-lobotomy, I believed the narrative that I’d had a “kidney infection” that made me delirious and afterward left me mentally ill. I wandered through life disconnected from my experience and so, completely vulnerable in my neighborhood and afterward. I am surrounded by religious reactionaries who tout personal responsibility without any acknowledgement of the role played by religious and governmental authorities in damage done to girls and women in particular and socioeconomically marginalized groups in general. My culture stems from Ireland and a system of so-called “magdalenism” where female sexuality and generativity is seen as rooted in sin. Many of these religious people work as social workers, law enforcement and nurses. My child was raised by those who victimized me and I went on to have no more children. My reputation was ruined and I was told I was “schizo” because I believed I’d had a kidney infection. Systemic abuse is the issue no one wants to talk about. Not knowing why I felt the way I felt led me to seek all kinds of therapy and self help, much of which didn’t work because physical damage to my brain prevented me from connecting the dots until I was in my late fifties. I did manage to get a BA in psychology and study a fair amount of anthropology. I now read neuroscience and fear the current excitement about brain imaging and how it can be used in studying “mental illness.” Again: the focus will be on suffering individuals and not the systems that create suffering.
Report comment
Debra, what a tragic and incredible story. The fact that you got a degree and can articulate any of this post-lobotomy is miraculous in itself. Your story makes mine look like a fairy tale in comparison. I can only say that I can relate to some aspects as a teen mother, mother of loss, and ECT survivor. Your analysis of the actual issues at hand and your fears about the future are well grounded.
Report comment
Hi Debra. How devastatingly sad and tragic. I’m so sorry to hear that, but really happy about where you have got to in life. Have you considered writing about your story? If you’d like to think about it, please get in contact [email protected]. Best, James.
Report comment
Debra,
I read a lot of stories of people whose lives were adversely affected or destroyed by psychiatry. I have never read a story as dehumanising as yours in a few short paragraphs. I can’t believe that you survived lobotomy and can write so lucidly. I don’t know how you came to be pregnant at such a young age ( I can only presume it was sexual abuse) and having suffered having your child taken off you, you went on to be dehumanised by the psychiatric system.
You say you’re from an ‘Irish’ culture. I won’t inquire whether you’re from that benighted kip or whether you’re Irish American. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that maudlin book by Sebastian Barry ‘The Second Scripture’ about an Irish woman who was incarcerated for life in a mental hospital having become pregnant outside marriage. That story is a fairy story by comparison to yours.
I second James Barry – I hope you tell your story. Shame on them for what they did to you. If there was god which I don’t believe in they would all be burning in hell – all of them, the upstanding middle class doctors, the social workers, the nuns, all that cosy little cartel of the ‘caring’ professions, of ‘nice’ ‘decent’ respectable people.
Report comment