Power, Politics and Society Short Essay Studen No XXX
Mentally illness and the new economy – a coherence?
Introduction
In the past decades Australia has experienced an increase in the diagnoses of mental illness, such as depression and stress. Skeptics say it is a false epidemic because of lax criterias for being ill, and other argue that it is societal changes like economic crisis, which cause the increase in mental illness (Stark 2012). In this essay I will discuss the issue of the increase in mental illness disorders raised by the article In sickness and in health in relation to the article from The Sydney Morning Herald’s webpage: Questions, guilt plague public service survivors, where a worker tells of his experience of job insecurity in the public sector. To help understand this issue, I will critically discuss if Richard Sennett’s account of personal consequences of ’new capitalism’ can contribute to a deeper understanding of what is going on. I will do that by first explaining what the article In sickness and in health is about, and then as an example of that theme, I will include the voice of a worker with the article Questions, guilt plague public service survivors. Finally, I will discuss the increase in mental disorders and include Richard Sennett’s account of personal consequences of new capitalism and see if it can contribute with a deeper understanding of what is going on. Thus, my argument is that Sennett outlines the increase in numbers of mental illness as a consequence of economic pressure, so it is not a false epidemic. But his theory can not ensure that the increase in numbers in not just an affect of the intensified attention on this subject in media.
Article 1. In sickness and in health.
Australia has seen a sharp spike in the number of diagnoses of mental illness in the past decades. In the past decades we have experienced an increase in mental illness diagnoses as depression and stress. Critics argue there is no epidemic, that diagnosis criterias are too low, so even ”a binge drinker could arguably be counted as mentally ill” (Stark 2012, p. 3). However, as Kate Carnell, chief executive of the national depression initiative Beyondblue argues, the increase is caused by economic changes, which increase pressure on today’s worker. This article also statesthat that in Australia, one in five people aged 16-85 have experienced a mental disorder within 12 months, and another 25 per cent will be diagnosed of a mental disorder during their lifetime. That is a total 45 per cent of Australians who will be diagnosed with a mental illness, such as stress, depression or anxiety (Stark 2012, p. 3). What are the reasons for this? Sceptics argue, that the criteria for a diagnoses is too wide, so even a ”binge drinker” would be considered as mentally ill, and the reason for these wide criterias should be the economic interests of psychiatrists and medicinal companies (Stark 2012, p. 1). Another opinion suggests the increasing number of mental illness diagnoses is a consequence of societal changes such as higher economic pressure, which make workplaces far more stressful when the expectations on workers are much higher.
Article 2. Questions, plague guilt of public survivors.
This article Questions, plague guilt of public survivors is an voice from a worker, who tells of a daily work life with the fear for being the next to be dismissed. The ongoing discussion in his workplace is about which jobs are going next. He complains about this insecurity and tells of a widespread anger of lack of information about future prospects, and he asks: ”Do they know what this 'wait and see' is doing to people?” (Sydney Morning Herald’s webpage, p. 1). Today there is a competition for jobs in stead of working together between colleagues. These circumstances together have serious long-term mental health costs for people (Sydney Morning Herald’s webpage, p. 2).
Increase in mentally illnesses – a false epidemic or a serious effect of modern society?
I will now discuss what could be the cause of the increase in mental illness disorders in Australia, and include Sennetts theory about personal consequences of ’new capitalism’ to give us a deeper insight into what is going on. We have the first article In sickness and health, where they discussed, whether it is a consequence of societal changes as higher economic pressure and expectations on today’s workers, or if it is simply an false epidemic. Then we have our second article, where a worker complains of his working environment, which is marked by insecurity, competition for job and lack of information about future prospects.
To understand this, I will give a brief description of what Sennett says about our ’new capitalism’ and it’s personal consequences. He states that new capitalism is characterized by constant changes in peoples work situations is due to the effectiveness of the economy in adapting to change, and therefore demands flexible workers, and working conditions (place, people, project etc.). Those who can not cope with the rapid changes and the increasing insecurity will lose in this meritocratic system. As a consequence many people develop a dispensable self, which can best be described as a sense of personal failure (Sennett 1997, p. 167f). The reason is that this economic flexibility is legitimized by personal autonomy, and therefore an ethic of self-responsibility is widespread today or as he puts it ”the burden of self-responsibility” (Sennett 1997, p. 175). This has serious effects on people’s mental condition and thus more people experience mental illness.
This underlines the argument made in the first article In health and sickness, that it is not a false epidemic created by psychiatrits and medical companies, which could have an interest in that, but is a serious effect of economic changes, because people experience unemployment as personal failure rather than the effect of economic structural changes. According to Sennett it is not because of personal failure, and it is an important political challenge to tell people, who somehow suffer from the new economy by losing jobs and be unemployed and feel they ”have no footing in the process of economic growth” (Sennett 1997, p. 168) that they are indispensable, necessary and worthwile. But is that a solution to the problem? Because it could be somehow difficult to explain to a man like the one, who talks in Questions, plague guilt of public survivors, that his fired collegaues are still very worthwile – just not here. Maybe they are good workers, but not good enough compared to those, who were chosen to keep. It is somehow hard not to take it as a personal matter. The truth might be, that the selection of the fittest is just harder today, and that is what the workers have realised? And the reason why Sennett feels a need to critique social darwinism and system of meritocracy as unfair (Sennett 1997, p. 167f).
But would any political intervention not be an obstacle for the effectiveness of the free market? If the loss of workers from the work force is because of mental illnesses due to insecurity and high expectations is higher today than the short-term profit of leaving the economy as it is, it could be worth it to consider intervening in some way. Maybe we should do more than just provide people with a sense of indispensability, if they are actually dispensable. So, Sennett’s theory can help us to understand why the number of mental illnesses increases as stated in the first article, and help us to understand that the man in our second article is not just an unique situation, but an expression of a general tendency in today’s society.
Conclusion
I wanted to discuss the increase in numbers of mental illness disorders as stated in the first article In Health and Sickness, with the second article Questions, plague guilt of public survivors as a voice from a worker, who experience these changes. I wanted to include Sennetts account of personal consequences of the ’new capitalism’ to maybe get a deeper insight of what the causes could be. I did this by first give brief overview of what is discussed in the first article, then what was said by the worker in the second article, and finally I discussed this in relation to Sennett account of personal consequences of the ’new capitalism’.
Thus I found out, that Sennett support the argument in the article In sickness and health, that the increase in numbers of mental illness diagnoses was a consequence of economic changes due to the economic flexibility and the following insecurity. With that in mind our second article Questions, plague guilt of public survivors can be affirmed as not only a unique story but as an expression of general tendency in today’s society.
Reference list
Sennett, Richard 1997, ’The New Capitalism’, in Social Research 64, 2, Academic Research Library
Stark, Jill 2012, ’In sickness and in health’, Sydney Morning Herald, June 10, 2012
Sydney Morning Herald, newspaper’s webpage, viewed 29 August 2012:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/questions-guilt-plague-public-service-survivors-20120807-23s5d.html?skin=text-only
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