This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy

The ‘mental health plague’ in capitalist societies would suggest that, instead of being the only social system that works, capitalism is inherently dysfunctional, and that the cost of it appearing to work is very high.

Often today, those who suffer from mental-health issues are encouraged by well-meaning awareness groups to claim proud ownership of their troubled inner lives. So rather than feel stigmatised, a sufferer might seek dignity by identifying with her depression. That proud identification might be helpful in the short term (and certainly to disparage pe

‘Depression’, writes Ruth Cain, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Kent, ‘may appear almost self-protective: an opt-out from an unwinnable set of continual competitions’.27 Although stigmatised in many ways, it is the healthy response to a mad, uncaring world.

Operating under an illness model of care doesn’t just carry powerful implications for the way we conceptualize perfectionism, it impacts the way we conceptualize every aspect of mental health. The slightest pang of sadness, a drizzle of frustration—we register any decline in positive emotion with an assumption of pathology. It’s a cultural tic. The