Mental health

 

Some say that if you think you're having a nervous breakdown then you're not. That;s a matter of conjecture. Mental health issues certainly are multiplying and affecting more and more people. This can't wholly be blamed on capitalism because mental health problems go way way back.

Bethlem Royal Hospital, founded in 1247, and known also as Bedlam, recorded its first insane patients in 1403. The institution is famous, or infamous, for its allowing the public to visit in order to observe the behaviour of inmates, rather like going to the zoo.

'Evidence that the number of visitors rose following the move to Moorfields is provided in the observation by the Bridewell Governors in 1681 of "the greate quantity of persons that come daily to see the said Lunatickes".Eight years later the English merchant and author, Thomas Tryon, remarked disapprovingly of the "Swarms of People" that descended upon Bethlem during public holidays. In the mid-eighteenth-century a journalist of a topical periodical noted that at one time during Easter Week" one hundred people at least" were to be found visiting Bethlem's inmates  Evidently Bethlem was a popular attraction, yet there is no credible basis to calculate the annual number of visitors.

The Governors actively sought out "people of note and quallitie" – the educated, wealthy and well-bred– as visitors. The limited evidence would suggest that the Governors enjoyed some success in attracting such visitors of "quality". In this elite and idealised model of charity and moral benevolence the necessity of spectacle, the showing of the mad so as to excite compassion, was a central component in the elicitation of donations, benefactions, and legacies. While a substantial proportion of such monies undoubtedly found their way into the hands of staff rather than the hospital poors' box ,Bethlem profited considerably from such charity, collecting on average between £300 and £350 annually from the 1720s until the curtailment of visiting in 1770. Thereafter the poors' box monies declined to about £20 or £30 per year.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital

There is a traditional folk song, Tabout Bedlamo see mad Tom o' Bedlam

'To see mad Tom o' Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I'd travel
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
To save her shoes from gravel
Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonny
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink and no money '

https://folkhistory.blogspot.com/2014/04/bedlam-boys-are-bonny.html

Back to capitalism, recently the Blessed Tony, an ex-prime minister of the UK,

has publicly stated that the rise in the number of the working class suffering from a wide range of mental health issues should stop being pussies, should man (and woman) up, and should pull themselves themselves together because they are costing the capitalist class money.

He said, 'I think we have become very, very focused on mental health and with people self-diagnosing. We're spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago. And it's hard to see what the objective reasons for that are.'

The former PM added: 'Life has its ups and downs and everybody experiences those. And you've got to be careful of encouraging people to think they've got some sort of condition other than simply confronting the challenges of life. We need a proper conversation about this because you really cannot afford to be spending the amount of money we're spending on mental health.' Daily Mail

In a capitalist society there is. inevitably, a conflict between the health needs of the working population and the pursuit of profit. Workers are viewed predominantly as economic units to be exploited for their labour power. The cut-throat nature of capitalist competition obliges manufacturers to keep production costs as low as possible to maintain profits and avoid being undercut by rivals and forced out of business.

'In a capitalist society there is. inevitably, a conflict between the health needs of the working population and the pursuit of profit. Workers are viewed predominantly as economic units to be exploited for their labour power. The cut-throat nature of capitalist competition obliges manufacturers to keep production costs as low as possible to maintain profits and avoid being undercut by rivals and forced out of business.

Conflicts occur because the unchecked efforts of manufacturers to produce goods as cheaply as possible lead to the impoverishment of the workers by the payment of low wages, longer working hours, hazardous working conditions, exploitation of child labour, environmental pollution, and stress from alienating, repetitive, boring work on factory production lines. But a considerable amount of ill-health is caused by the interplay of factors resulting from the exploitation of labour. Accidents are caused by fatigue and hazardous working conditions. occupational disorders are common; gross exploitation leads to poverty, bad housing and malnutrition. However, the provision of health care represents a cost against production to be avoided if possible. The workers try, with partial success, to mitigate exploitation through trade unions and parliamentary reforms by pressing for better working conditions, higher rates of pay and the provision of health and social services.'

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2021/03/health-service-under-attack-1985.html

By 'We' Blair meant the capitalist class because the burden of funding health care to keep workers fit enough to run capitalism falls upon the the minority class .'

'Rachel from accounts' is said to be considering cutting billions of pounds from funds disability benefits.'

The below is from the Socialist Standard May 2017

'One thing guaranteed to bring out the worst in socialists is rich people banging on about their problems, but one would have to have a heart of stone not to feel some sympathy in the recent stories of princes Harry and William speaking out about their mental health problems after the death of their mother Diana 20 years ago. The revelations were quickly joined by others from Lady Gaga and the CEO of Virgin Money until, ok we get the idea . . . money doesn’t necessarily buy you happiness. But as some wit once remarked, if you think that, try poverty.

And one thing the poor are not poor in is mental health problems. The US Centers for Disease Control 2017 survey reports that 8 million adult Americans, or 3.4 percent, have such problems (New Scientist, 17 April) however this is likely to be an order-of-magnitude underestimation, as under-reporting in this area is rife. According to a 2016 report by the charity MIND, in the UK almost half of adults (43.4 percent) think they have had a ‘diagnosable mental health condition’ during their lives, and while around 20 percent of men and 34 percent of women have had this suspicion confirmed by medical professionals (mentalhealth.org.uk), a further 30 percent said they had never consulted a doctor. This is consistent with a lack of self-reporting across all areas of mental health, possibly because people try to tough it out, or else do not understand that they are suffering from an illness which might be treated but instead believe that they are personally inadequate in some way, for which no cure exists. Women suffer more in all categories. 1 in 4 young women self-harm, an alarming statistic given that self-harm is the most reliable risk factor in subsequent suicide – 1 in 25 hospitalised self-harmers will kill themselves within 5 years. Among UK residents aged 10 or over there is currently around one suicide every two hours (2014 figures). Ironically, given that such people typically have a low or zero sense of self-worth, MIND informs us that the average cost of a suicide, in terms not just of police, hospital and funeral costs, but also of loss of total lifetime ‘output’, is £1.7 million.

Globally, according to the World Health Organisation, mental health problems that are left untreated form 13 percent of the total disease burden, and will by 2030 be the biggest cause of death. The WHO estimates that nearly half the world’s population suffer from some form of mental illness. That’s more than from cancer, heart disease or diabetes. Costs are literally incalculable, as many factors are involved. Costs to the UK economy alone are estimated at between £70–100 billion. Global costs are projected to reach $6 trillion by 2030.

What can capitalism do about any of this? It can’t abolish poverty, a well-documented cause of mental illness. To do that, it would also have to abolish the privilege and luxury of the elite. It can’t abolish its own hierarchy, another well-known cause. It can’t get rid of war, or crime. It can’t take the stress, fear and anxiety out of being a wage-slave except by abolishing wage slavery. It can’t do anything about the entire matrix of oppressions which begins with the CEO yelling at the executive and ends with the black girl kicking the cat. Capitalism is the embodiment of mental illness, a destructive society pathologically bent on chasing its own end. If it was a person, it would be hospitalised as dangerously insane. That half of the population suffer mental illness is not surprising. What is surprising is that the other half don’t, or say they don’t. But then, perhaps nobody really knows, in capitalism, what good mental health even looks like. In a society full of broken people, just managing to get through the day may be deemed ‘healthy’.

Socialism, in doing away with property society’s rules, would do away with most if not all of the environmental factors in mental illness. It’s not a magic cure-all. It can’t address chemical or genetic factors, at least not without more research. It can’t do anything about bereavement. But what it could do is give people a decent life without fear, without low status and a consequent sense of low self-worth. It could give people the support of a strong community, a sense of open possibilities and the freedom to explore them, a chance to determine their own identity and desires and to have these acknowledged and respected by others. There’s nothing magic about it. Socialism would simply stop torturing people. And if that sounds like a hopeless daydream, it’s only because you’re so used to living in a nightmare.'

Paddy Shannon

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-market-system-bull-bear-and-black.html