Neoliberal welfare policy has privatized stress and depoliticized depression

Evidence

Some of the right-wing commentators condemning Calum’s List have deplored the “politicisation” of mental illness, but the problem is exactly the opposite. 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. As the Guardian reports today, suicides amongst middleaged men are on the increase, and Jane Powell, chief executive of Calm, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, links some of this increase with unemployment and precarious work. Given the increased reasons for anxiety, it’s not surprising that a large proportion of the population diagnose themselves as chronically miserable. But the medicalisation of depression is part of the problem. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1601

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Foucault/Illich-style critiques of medicalization and to the reading history on privatized social problems as individual responsibility. — connects to: Neoliberal policy privatised stress into individual mental illness — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1601; Neoliberalism decomposed political collectivities through privatising the mind. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 536; Capital privatizes stress as illness then profits from treating it — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1500 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal policy privatised stress into individual mental illness #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1601
• Neoliberalism decomposed political collectivities through privatising the mind. #corroborates (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 536