Mental health is not an individual matter, but a political one (2023)
The 2023 article argues that mental health is shaped by social and political factors like inequality, precarity, and systemic injustice, challenging the dominant view that it is solely an individual or medical issue. It calls for shifting focus from personal coping to collective action and policy change as essential for genuine mental well-being.
Background
- This article argues that mental health is heavily shaped by social and political conditions — poverty, inequality, racism, job insecurity, poor housing — not just individual brains or biochemistry.
- It pushes back against the biomedical model that treats mental illness mainly with medication or therapy, arguing this ignores root causes and can pathologize normal responses to oppressive environments.
- The author draws on "social determinants of health" and critical psychiatry traditions, which have long questioned diagnoses like depression or ADHD as individual disorders.
- Published by Psyche, a UK-based magazine covering psychology and philosophy for a general audience. The piece contributes to a growing Western debate about whether rising "therapy culture" obscures the need for political change.