Biochemical explanations of mental illness serve capitalism by depoliticizing suffering

Evidence

The current ruling ontology rules out any possibility of a social causation of mental illness. The chemico-biologisation of mental illness is of course strictly commensurate with its de-politicisation. Considering mental illness as an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism: first, it reinforces capital’s drive towards atomistic individualisation (you are sick because of your brain chemistry), and second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational “pyscho-mafias” can peddle their dodgy drugs (we can cure you with our SSRIs). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation. If it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1408

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the STS tradition of medicalization critique (Conrad, Zola) and to critiques of the biomedical model. Also resonates with Fisher’s recurring capitalist-realism theme across his work. — connects to: Treating mental illness as brain chemistry depoliticizes it and serves capitalist interests — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 82; Medicalizing depression blocks political explanation of its systemic causes — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 46; Biologizing mental illness conveniently depoliticizes its social causes — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 82 (+6 more)
• SEED: Could seed an essay on how the serotonin-depression narrative flourished because it was culturally and economically useful, not because the evidence was strong.

Broader Connections

• Biologizing mental illness conveniently depoliticizes its social causes #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 82
• Depression increasingly gets defined as illness, not difficulty, through biological reframing. #corroborates (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 162
• Neoliberal policy privatised stress into individual mental illness #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1601
• Biological determinism lets privileged subjects dismiss the social causes of inequality #corroborates (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 118
• Neoliberal capitalism exploits the psyche rather than the body as its central productive force #expands (0.75) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 63