issues with models of mental health, and does capitalism create mental illness
- yes mental health issues can be genetic
- yes mental health issues are chemical and can often be treated by adjusting those chemicals
- BUT
- stress contributes to physical ailments
- mental health issues ARE a physical ailments
- poverty, overwork, conflict, war, etc are all huge sources of stress
- so capitalism creates disorder were there was none by triggering certain genetic dispositions and chemical changes in the brain as well as denying the physical body the ability to heal and recover
- secondarily, capitalism expects and nourishes only a very particular arrangement of neurology - human values vary more widely than the values of capitalism, and without this external force there are a lot of disorders that seem a lot less like disorders and much more like natural diversity
- and then there is the third kind, the kind of mental state that impairs ability to socialise effectively, and that can and should be managed with any combination of chemical and non-chemical treatment that is available and appropriate, as humans are by necessity a social species and we need each other, regardless of capitalism (but capitalism still makes these kinds worse by encouraging competition and discouraging interdependence)
- and then the fourth kind, where the disorder is one that is dangerous to the person suffering from it. These are the kind that would very much still exist without capitalism (but capitalism STILL makes worse!) And these can often be treated with chemical and non-chemical methods also.