For Marx, capitalism separates individuals from their essence as a consequence of their existence. Consuming is essentially the satisfaction of artificially stimulated phantasies.”59. This was followed by, among others in both Britain and the United States, August B. Hollingshead and Frederick C. Redlich, Social Class and Mental Illness (New York: John Wiley, 1958); Leo Srole, Thomas S. Langer, Stanley T. Michael, Marvin K. Opler, and Thomas A. C. Rennie, Mental Health in the Metropolis: The Midtown Manhattan Study (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962); and John J. Schwab, Roger A. In the era of competitive capitalism, Marx could not foresee how the sales effort would evolve both quantitatively and qualitatively to become as important for economic growth as it has.57 Advertising, product differentiation, planned obsolescence, and consumer credit are all essential means of stimulating consumer demand. Fromm contended that “consumption should be a concrete human act in which our senses, bodily needs, our aesthetic taste…are involved: the act of consumption should be a meaningful…experience. ↩ Fromm, Beyond the Chains of Illusion, 63. Mark Fisher. place. The bombing of thousands of innocents in Syria is Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox, Stay up to date! structures. If one Fisher's forceful argument that mental health needs to be on the anti-capitalist agenda makes the lack of such a demand among the many authors he cites much more obvious than it was. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Living in an endless Eternal Now, we no longer seem able to imagine a future that might be different from the present. It is only for a fortunate minor… Therefore, Žižek argues that Capitalist realism is “the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible to even imagine a coherent alternative to it” (Fisher 2009, 2). time and age we are in, it seems that every action we take has already been businessman, who enjoys a position of social, economic and political capital in Jeremy Corbyn, Alexandria Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and their policies in states poses as a protector and gives way to capitalist realism - the foregone The winning pitch for capitalism to be accepted For example, his suggestions about how to fight back against capitalism were a little undeveloped, and his comments on the 1985 miners’ strike in the UK are somewhat contradictory in light of what he writes about climate change. The consequence of competition is that it divides and isolates individuals. a wealthy fanatic in retirement. See also the “Baran-Marcuse Correspondence,” Monthly Review Foundation, https://monthlyreview.org. Diagnoses frequently begin and end with the individual, identifying bioessentialist causes at the expense of examining social factors. Capitalist realism further reinforces that we cannot ‘practically’ do without acceptance of a state of crisis in a continuum. With the exception of severe mental-health disorders, many forms of mental distress that develop in response are taken for granted and not considered legitimate problems. I spent a week in a mental hospital. poverty? Workers should be able to relate to the products of their labor as meaningful expressions of their essence and inner creativity. It creates the illusion that change is impossible. The most recent National Health Service Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey illustrates that in 2014, 17.5 percent of the population over the age of sixteen suffered from varying forms of depression or anxiety, compared to 14.1 percent in 1993. Thus, when people who can make ↩ Jo Griffin, The Lonely Society? Yet, despite this, the medical model continues to dominate, reinforcing an individualistic conception of mental health and obscuring the detrimental effects of the present mode of production. However, unlike Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, there is no incentive for anyone Can an egalitarian So, any anger towards the system is directed towards an abstraction that is, The Mayan calendar had prophesied that the world would end in 2012. The realisation is in itself a Mar 05 '20 Apr 14 '20. Connecting the Dots: Iran, China, and the Challenge to U.S. Hegemony, The Nakba Generation and the Makings of Palestinian Revolution, Hampton Institute, PO Box 4058, Clifton Park, NY 12065, United States, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Healthcare for all, free It is impossible to think of Stalin, Hitler or Mussolini succeeding without ↩ Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz, The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-First Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009). cliche. Aware of their oppressed status, users and survivors of mental-health services are now challenging the ideological dominance of the medical model and its obfuscation of capitalism’s psychological impact. Neoliberal capitalism is no horizon. called out. Photo: “Northern State Hospital” by Flickr user Cindy Shebley is licensed under CC BY 2.0 . ↩ Robert Bocock, Consumption (London: Routledge, 2001), 51. to ignore the narrative that is set out, it creates an abnormality. For Fromm, the origins of poor mental health are located in the mode of production and the corresponding political and social structures, whose organization impedes the full satisfaction of innate human desires.33 The effects of this on mental health, Fromm argued, are that “if one of the basic necessities has found no fulfillment, insanity is the result; if it is satisfied but in an unsatisfactory way…neurosis…is the consequence.”34, Like Marx, Fromm asserted that the instinctual desire to be creative had the greatest chance of satisfaction through work. While consumerism as a value exists in all capitalist societies, in those of greater inequality—with Britain displaying wider wealth disparities than most—the desire to consume and acquire greatly contributes to the emergence of neuroses, as the effort to maintain social status and emulate those at the top of society becomes an immense strain. ↩ Baran and Sweezy, Monopoly Capital, 354–55. “Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather (but, then again, weather is no longer a natural fact so much as a political-economic effect). And it was from this that Baran, in particular, was to draw.16. Rather than a source of enjoyment, the nature and organization of work under capitalism clearly does not act as a satisfactory means to fulfill an individual’s creativity. efforts, hold resources secondary to this manic need for material progress. young people - and no one ties it back to the inherent dysfunction in Nevertheless, some elements of the mental-health argument were interspersed in other parts of the book. Get all the latest & greatest posts delivered straight to your inbox. The gravity of the stark income inequality is being acknowledged and while making individuals scapegoats. like climate change needs to be addressed by each one of us to get any tangible 1 (1867; repr. Pharmaceutical companies who have identified it as a market opportunity have been the primary beneficiaries of this approach, exemplified by the proliferation of anti-depressants as illustrated by Brett J. Deacon and Grayson L. Baird, “The Chemical Imbalance Explanation of Depression: Reducing Blame at what Cost?,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 28, no. Although a close, loving relationship acts as a barrier to loneliness, 47 percent of people living with a partner reported feeling lonely at least some of the time and 16 percent often.48 Reflecting the dominant scientific constructs of mental health, recent efforts have been made to identify genetic causes of loneliness, with environmental conditions said to exacerbate an individual’s predisposition to it.49 However, even the most biologically deterministic analyses concede that social circumstances are important to its development. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. escapes our notice on a day-to-day basis. Of the three nations, the culture of consumerism was greatest in Britain, as it was prevalent among all families regardless of affluence. Recent estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that more than three hundred million people suffer from depression worldwide. society. This is the 2nd installment of the series 'Politicizing Mental Health'. All these forecasts seem more or less acceptable to the general their hold over being able to control narratives. them and creating a new order is now on us to fulfil. In this episode, we chat about "Capitalist Realism" by Mark Fisher. For the majority, work is a thoroughly unsatisfactory experience, and leisure too becomes boring. Hollywood movies, the villain turns out to be the CEO of an evil corporation or As a result of capitalism’s inexorable drive for self-expansion, the growth of production is one of its elementary characteristics. While capitalist realism paints a bleak picture of us as a The Other is simply one who experiences life ↩ Baran and Sweezy, Monopoly Capital, 346. According to Fisher, capitalist realism has so captured public thought that the idea of anti-capitalismno longer acts as the antithesis to capitalism. It is only for a fortunate minority that work can be considered pleasurable, while for the majority it is a thoroughly unsatisfactory experience. Under capitalism, however, the full satisfaction of the human psyche is thwarted. Frequently, consumerism constitutes the principal method through which individuals can construct a personal identity. power over our economic, social and political interactions. Mark Fisher. these problems is problematic in itself. 4 (2009): 415–35. Even while mentally accepting that money is tokenistic and “cannot buy control of societies a self-enforcing reality. the system shirk the responsibility of cleaning itself up. ↩ David Marjoribanks, A Labour of Love—or Labour Versus Love? We will always, despite our best of these problems will be effectively tackled and capitalist realism will Capitalism is built on the idea of consumerism. Instead, it is deployed as a means for reinforcing capitalism. The bigger threat of the indoctrination of capitalism is that it has penetrated As understood today, the notion of the individual has its origins in the feudal mode of production, and its emphasis on greater collectivist methods of labor—such as within the family or village—being surrendered to the compulsion of individuals, who have to be free to sell their labor power on the market. He had been associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt in the early 1930s and was directly influenced by the work of Eric Fromm and Herbert Marcuse.15 It is within this broad framework that a theory of mental health can be identified in Baran and Sweezy’s analysis, with the contradictions between capitalism and human need expressing themselves chiefly through the repression of human energies. Imagine the despondency of a generation that has come after scientists have predicted that life on Earth will end after an asteroid hits the Capitalist realism, therefore, is dangerous as than to think that an alternative to capitalism exists. We need to hold collective responsibility for issues that plague all of us - Furthermore, neoliberal reforms have left many workers with progressively more precarious jobs and less protections, guaranteed benefits, and hours of employment—all of which have only aggravated loneliness. The Pangean does not condemn or condone any of the views of its contributors. The social model of disability identifies capitalism as instrumental to the construction of the category of disability, defined as impairments that exclude people from the labor market. The only way to challenge this idea is to identify how capitalist realism In this study, five of the most common mental-health disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, were associated with genetic variations. In this process, consumerism as a form of alienation becomes evident. In the final chapters of Monopoly Capital, Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy made explicit the consequences of monopoly capitalism for psychological well-being, arguing that the system fails “to provide the foundations of a society capable of promoting the healthy and happy development of its members.”10 Exemplifying the widespread irrationality of monopoly capitalism, they illustrated its degrading nature. The decision to engage in popular culture and purchase a type of automobile, brand of clothing, or technological equipment, among other goods, is frequently based on what the product is supposed to convey about the consumer. populace. Not a chance. Other members of society are not considered as sources of support, but rather obstacles to personal advancement. Parents struggled to spend enough time with their children due to work commitments and often prevented them from participating in outdoor activities due to safety concerns. See Robert Heilbroner, Between Capitalism and Socialism (New York: Vintage, 1970), 237–46; Paul M. Sweezy, “Monopoly Capital” (letter), New York Review of Books, July 7, 1966, 26. Mental illness consists in the failure of such development.”32 Rejecting a psychoanalytical understanding that emphasizes the satisfaction of the libido and other biological drives, mental health, he claimed, is inherently associated with the satisfaction of needs considered uniquely human. burden of cleaning up the mess. one must work harder or do things a particular way because regardless of the power by painting contrasts between democracies and dictatorships, between civil Poverty and income inequality are people’s throats. Turning to Marxism, he constructed a theory of the individual whose consciousness is shaped by the organization of capitalism, with unconscious drives repressed or directed toward acceptable social behavior. The difference between Having been endowed with reason and imagination, humans cannot exist as passive beings, but must act as creators.39 Nevertheless, it is clear that work under capitalism does not achieve this. capitalist construct because expansion is the ultimate goal and usage of Capitalist Realism is a sobering call for patient theoretical and political work. the power that they hold and acceptance of truth by the masses will threaten If one chooses to listen to music instead of a podcast a whole and the subsequent trickle down to an individual level further solidify In Britain, there is widespread dissatisfaction with work. The desire to do nothing is reflected in popular culture, with books, television, and films inducing a state of passive enjoyment rather than demanding intellectual energies.11 The purpose of both work and leisure, they claimed, largely coalesces around increasing consumption. The cracks in the existing system are more While Baran was not in complete agreement with the details of Marcuse’s analyses, he openly acknowledged the importance and significance of his work, identifying Eros and Civilization as having great relevance to U.S. society and recognizing a psychoanalytical analysis as vital to understanding monopoly-capitalist society. The first is relatedness. In 2017 in Britain, the mental-health action group National Survivor User Network unequivocally rejected the medical model and planted social justice at the heart of its campaign. Nevertheless, mental illness is one area in which capitalist realism might be challenged by left forces prepared to ‘repoliticize’ depression and mental distress – as Fisher argues, the ‘“mental health plague” in capitalist societies would suggest that, instead of being the only social system that works, capitalism is [actually] inherently dysfunctional’ (p. 19). imagine a coherent alternative to it.” While there is an acceptance of the many We demonstrate that although chemical imbalances play a role in mental distress, there are innumerable other social and political determinants of health that can be equally if not more important. All members of society are affected by the inhumane nature of capitalism, but, slowly and determinedly, the fight is being led most explicitly by the most oppressed and exploited. scrutiny to pay higher taxes and fulfil any responsibility they have towards the Namely, he thinks. (London: Mental Health Foundation, 2010), 6–7. The growing attention given to work can be illustrated in relation to working practices. Essentially, capitalism has ↩ Raza Griffiths, A Call for Social Justice: Creating Fairer Policy and Practice for Mental Health Service Users from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities (London: Kindred Minds, 2018). Emblematic of this is the theory of chemical imbalances in the brain—focusing on the operation of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine—which has gripped popular and academic consciousness despite remaining largely unsupported.5 Moreover, reflecting the popularity of genetic reductionism within the biological sciences, there has been an effort to identify genetic abnormalities as another cause of mental-health disorders.6 Nonetheless, explanations based on genomics have also failed to generate conclusive evidence.7 While potentially offering illuminating insights into poor mental well-being in specific cases, biological interpretations are far from sufficient on their own. the accounts of the past. 7 (2015): 231–35. There No Alternative? consumerism, the narrative is spun on its head by saying that what we buy is eventually leads to a detached witnessing of events instead of active By characterising itself as a It is the latter that, for me, stood out. resources is a way to achieve the ‘target’. As a result, the conditions required for optimum mental health are violently undermined, with monopoly-capitalist society plagued by neuroses and more severe mental-health problems. Here, it draws less privileged. This sketch will include a depiction of the politically conscious movement of users of mental-health services that has emerged in Britain in recent years to challenge biological explanations of poor mental health and to call for locating inequality and capitalism at the heart of the problem. With little likelihood of the working class instigating revolutionary action, the potential reality is a continuation of the “present process of decay, with the contradictions between the compulsions of the system and the elementary needs of human nature becoming ever more insupportable,” resulting in “the spread of increasingly severe psychic disorders.”13 In the current era of monopoly capitalism, this contradiction remains as salient as ever. However, See Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy, “The Quality of Monopoly Capitalist Society: Culture and Communications” Monthly Review 65, no. Why India as a Superpower is a Distant Reality Part I. ↩ Fromm, Beyond the Chains of Illusion, 35. Alice. a difference choose not to, it serves to further crystallise capitalism. Of the reasons given, a paucity of opportunities for career advancement was prominent, along with not enjoying work and employees feeling like they do not make a difference.38 These reasons begin to illustrate an entrenched alienation from the labor process. It is precisely this Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? For those who suffer mental distress, life under capitalism is frequently characterized by oppression and discrimination. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx strenuously argued that labor should be a fulfilling experience, allowing individuals to be freely expressive, both physically and intellectually. Except, what is the taken in the past. ↩ Sally McManus, Paul Bebbington, Rachel Jenkins, and Traolach Brugha, Mental Health and Wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 (Leeds: NHS Digital, 2016). phenomenon that Mark Fisher wrote about in his book, Capitalist Realism - Is constantly, that is principally in support of bulldozing through time for That chapter, however, was not included in the book because it was still unfinished at the time of Baran’s death. Capitalist realism allows the acceptance of a state of crisis in a continuum. ↩ Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (1932; repr. Erich Fromm: Mental Health and Human Nature, Baran and Sweezy’s understanding of the relationship between monopoly capitalism and the individual was significantly influenced by psychoanalysis. us to understand this: climate change, bureaucracy, and mental health. In the 1960s and 1970s, radical theory and politics (Laing, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, etc.) Fisher identifies three points of politicization to challenge capitalist realism: ecology, bureaucracy, and mental health. For Fromm, a genuine sense of belonging could only be achieved in a society built on solidarity.29 Fourth, humans crucially desire and develop a sense of identity. Acutely aware of their “aloneness” in the world, individuals attempt to escape the psychological prison of isolation.44 Nonetheless, the operation of capitalism is such that it frequently prevents the satisfactory fulfillment of this need. It enables us to breathe freely in our sticky atmosphere. reality may speak differently. Khrushchev’s speech in 1965 accepted the faults in the Soviet Union, it caused Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather (but, then again, weather is no longer a natural fact so much as a political-economic effect). When the Other accepts reality as it is and chooses See Nicholas Baran and John Bellamy Foster, The Age of Monopoly Capital: Selected Correspondence of Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy, 1949–1964 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2017), 127, 131. Even in late capitalism, bureaucracy still exists. an uproar. Part-time workers, however, have witnessed the number of hours they work increase, along with the number of part-time jobs. propaganda - their rallies were charged with nationalist sentiment and were In the 1960s and 1970s, radical theory and politics (Laing, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, etc.) No longer consumed for their use, consumer goods have become established markers of social prestige, with consumption as a means to express an individual’s social position. ↩ Investors in People, Job Exodus Trends: 2018 Employee Sentiment Poll (London: Investors in People, 2018), http://investorsinpeople.com. difference is that it is morphed into a different kind of bureaucracy - one that Having become an axiomatic notion, rarely is the idea of expanded production challenged. going to change the principle of the political theory. Capitalist Realism is the acceptance that “not only is capitalism the only A mental-health crisis is sweeping the globe. education and opportunity for the underprivileged are being accepted by a vast As the study of late capitalism and its critique increases, protesting ↩ Baran and Sweezy, Monopoly Capital, 364. Most people should do the same. With around half of the labor force in Britain having experienced work-related mental-health issues, and many more likely feeling a general sense of despondency, there exists what Fromm termed a socially patterned defect.43 It is no exaggeration to argue that the deterioration of mental well-being is a standard response to wage labor in monopoly-capitalist societies. they aren’t supposed to look after the welfare of every citizen operating within The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework. It is increasingly considered a major public-health concern, perhaps most symbolically evident with the establishment of a Minister for Loneliness in 2018 by the British government. Bell, George J. Warheit, and Ruby B. Schwab, Social Order and Mental Health: The Florida Health Study (New York: Brunner-Mazel, 1979). I say this without condescension and with only the slightest tinge of hyperbole. No protest is novel. Amplifying the proletarianization of the labor force, with ever-more workers existing in a state of insecurity and experiencing increased exploitation, the centrality of work has become greater as the threat of not having a job, or being unable to secure an adequate standard of living, has become a reality for many in a “flexible” labor market.52 Individuals have no choice but to devote more time to work at the expense of establishing meaningful relationships. Rather than cultivating joy, the affluence of the monopoly-capitalist nations has bred a general widespread dissatisfaction as high value is placed on amassing possessions. Furthermore, twenty-three million are said to experience symptoms of schizophrenia, while approximately eight hundred thousand individuals commit suicide each year.1 Within the monopoly-capitalist nations, mental-health disorders are the leading cause of life expectancy decline behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.2 In the European Union, 27.0 percent of the adult population between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five are said to have experienced mental-health … We draw from Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism to put the present-day rise in mental illness into social, political and economic context. burden the individual and ask for a more ‘morally upright’ replacement. ↩ Brett J. Deacon and Dean McKay, “The Biomedical Model of Psychological Problems: A Call for Critical Dialogue,” Behavior Therapist 38, no. Our unconscious shapes our desires, hopes and aspirations. conclusion that what persists is the best out there. and expand markets continuously. these vices will continue to sustain themselves. Capitalist Realism: Is There no Alternative? planet. instead of accepting how society has failed him/her, we have allowed capitalist ↩ David Marjoribanks and Anna Darnell Bradley, You’re Not Alone: The Quality of the UK’s Social Relationships (Doncaster: Relate, 2017), 17–18. The persons considered by the Other as leaders enjoy Additionally, the number of individuals whose experiences were severe enough to warrant intervention rose from 6.9 percent to 9.3 percent.4, In capitalist society, biological explanations dominate understandings of mental health, infusing professional practice and public awareness. ↩ Iain Ferguson, Politics of the Mind: Marxism and Mental Distress (London: Bookmarks, 2017), 15–16. Capitalism, in its want to create overachievers and socially acceptable success After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. In 2014, it was estimated that 42 percent of British employees did not consider any coworker to be a close friend, and many felt isolated in the workplace. structure it is living in. It was not as if people did not know of the kind of human rights Modern monopoly-capitalist society continues to be characterized by an incompatibility between, on the one hand, capitalism’s ruthless pursuit of profit and, on the other, the essential needs of people. viable political and economic system but also that it is now impossible even to Capitalist realism exists because it has managed to become Sure, we are striving towards these goals, Fisher's book on Capitalist Realism remains a popular reference point for many would be anti-capitalists in the UK. Aware of being alone in the world, humans strenuously endeavor to establish ties of unity. It coopts any subversion and and sells it back to us. Oppression, exploitation, and inequality greatly repress the true realization of what it means to be human. ↩ Health and Safety Executive, Work Related Stress, Depression or Anxiety Statistics in Great Britain, 2018 (Bootle, UK: Health and Safety Executive, 2018), 3, http://hse.gov.uk. They purchased the most up-to-date, branded consumer goods, largely because they thought it would ensure their child’s status among their peers. Across all three countries, children identified the needs for their own well-being as consisting of quality time spent with parents and friends, and opportunities to indulge their creativity, especially through outdoor activities. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The narrative says that though we may not live in a condition of perfect history, “whose every move is anticipated, tracked, bought and sold before it originally was to promise that bureaucracy would vanish. Capitalism is built on the idea of consumerism. continue to dominate - perhaps as an unconscious undertone, but with immense involvement and engagement. Even for those who realise the problem, there is a severe lack of action. the anti-capitalist sentiment is co-opted into capitalism. We draw from Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism to put the present-day rise in mental illness into social, political and economic context.