Neoliberal policy privatised stress into individual mental illness
Evidence
Mental illness has been depoliticised, so that we blithely accept a situation in which depression is now the malady most treated by the NHS. The neoliberal policies implemented first by the Thatcher governments in the 1980s and continued by New Labour and the current coalition have resulted in a privatisation of stress. Under neoliberal governance, workers have seen their wages stagnate and their working conditions and job security become more precarious. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1601
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The ‘privatisation of stress’ is a genuinely paradigm-shifting re-description joining political economy to mental health epidemiology.
- XREF: connects to: Neoliberal capitalism exploits the psyche rather than the body as its central productive force — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 63; SSRIs affect the personality, crossing from disease to lifestyle — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 868; Stress has been privatized, reframing systemic dysfunction as individual illness — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 42 (+31 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberal crisis narratives redirect blame from structures onto individual psychology
#corroborates(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 433 - Neoliberalism transforms the self so that crises stop being read as system failures
#corroborates(0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 302 - Neoliberalism induces risk-bearing then blames the victims when risk fails
#corroborates(0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 351 - Neoliberals conditioned self-government on accepting market discipline
#qualifies(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 297