Capitalism is structurally bipolar, feeding on population mood cycles

Evidence

It is clear that capitalism, with its ceaseless boom and bust cycles, is itself, fundamentally and irreducibly, bipolar. Capitalism is characterised by a lurching between hyped-up mania (the irrational exuberance of “bubble thinking”) and depressive come-down. (The term “economic depression” is no accident). To a degree unprecedented in any other social system (and capitalism is very precisely NOT a social “structure” in the way that the despotic state or the primitive socius are), capitalism both feeds on and reproduces the moods of populations. Without delirium and confidence, capital could not function. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1409

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is the phenomenal rise in bipolar diagnoses genuinely isomorphic to capitalism’s boom-bust, or a diagnostic-framework artifact? Worth chasing the empirical literature.
• XREF: Echoes the chapter 8-9 material on addiction and drives, and connects to ‘biomedicalization’ critiques of psychiatry. — connects to: Bipolar disorder is the mental illness proper to capitalism’s interior — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 75; Psychiatric disorder rose with industrial capitalism’s onset around 1750 — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1406; Capitalism structurally requires collective mood swings to function — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 75 (+2 more)