Mental Illness and Class | Capitalism is Killing Us

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Much of the mental illness that we experience today is a direct result of the alienation produced by capitalist relations of production.
The solution?
Revolution.
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Citations (in order of appearance):

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Timestamps
00:00 Intro: Mental Illness is a Class Issue
02:10 Title
02:40 Mental Health and Individualisation
06:19 Capitalism and Alienation
10:28 False Prophets: Individualistic Solutions
12:12 Revolutionary Solutions
14:19 Conclusion
15:51 Credits

[LP-zcgy]

It’s really a shame that mindfulness became a dirty word. For me, mindfulness helped me to connect with my body and the world around me. I used to disassociate all of the time—without even being aware of it.

And changing my thought process was what led me to seek to study communism more in the first place! I used to think that it was “nice” but it would “never work”. It’s “too good to be true”.

But communism and dialectical materialism have shifted my perspective: revolution without work is too good to be true, but if we put in the work: studying, organizing, training—we CAN do this! Each revolution: Germany, Paris, the Soviet Union, Cuba teaches us a little more. Each mistake and triumph gets us a little closer to the goal!

[Coolkid-xcby]

thanks for putting in words that feeling of how nobody, not even therapists, seems to understand the mental issues we face

[dr.zoidberg]

It's not even just systemic overarching aspects of capitalism, it's the particular pressures exerted by those things.

Being crushed by student loan debt, not being able to secure high enough wages to live with dignity, not having access to healthcare, needing to give up your life to care for elderly/disabled family members, etc.

There are an infinite number of stressors & humiliations imposed on people by capitalism. Those alone, _even if_ you can fight alienation & atomization in your own life, will absolutely have a negative affect on your mental health.

[Heyoka]

Tending to one's mental health, or even to health in general, is a luxury that's increasingly unavailable to the non-capitalist class. How are poor people supposed to afford 70 euros per hour to see a psychotherapist? A lot of the working class can't even afford a dentist.

[DialecticRed]

At my school, we start each day with a tidbit of neoliberal propaganda. Every morning after the pledge and announcements, they leave with "Have a great day or not, the choice is yours!" and that infuriates me to no end.

[BL-sdqw]

Mental illness is a societal construct based on a logical fallacy.

First, "professionals" see the "symptoms" that the patients present, and based on that, they give them a diagnoses. Then, they base the symptoms on the diagnoses.

In reality, people make sense when you take their context into account. Pathologizing normal human reactions to shitty life syndrome is a tool for oppressive systems.

Source - My knowledge on anthropology, social psychology, critical psychology and political psychology

I recommend the book Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker as an introduction to the topic for anyone interested

[Mushroommarx]

I’ve suffered from addiction for 20 years and the last 10 I’ve attempted suicide 7 times.

I did the hose in the exhaust pipe into cab of truck.
Friends were worried and called cops. They pinged my off iPhone and when they found me they ripped me out of the truck and slammed me to the asphalt.
Like I was a criminal.
Not someone suffering.

3 “up the river” wrist slits. Tendons and veins exposed.
All 3 of those were when I was in recovery houses and was due to be kicked out for relapsing.
They found me every time before I could bleed out.
One time I was passed out in a 3 foot wide pool of blood when they got there.
I wrote in the blood “I am hopeless” and passed out.

The other 3 were cries for help. For sure.

It’s taken me a couple of decades to realize the primary cause of my suffering.
For sure it’s past traumas but more so, it’s the current environment.
My soul does NOT want me to be part of the “do any work to survive” life.

I need to make a difference.
I need to help other suffering addicts.
So I’m giving up EVERYTHING I have accumulated he past 3 years and going into a recovery then assisted living
By doing this I will be able to get the state grants for counseling education.
I don’t qualify for federal grants.
Need to go another route.

If I’m to stop these cyclic patterns of success then relapse then success then relapse I had to see the bigger picture…
That being…

Success and material things are NOT bringing me happiness.
Why??
Because to get that success I am literally contributing to and contradicting my communist self.

I am an Audio Video technician.

I work for the rich.
I help them consume tons of shit they don’t need.
I cater to them in their gated communities and help them consume massive resources.

I’m done.
Addiction recovery specialist is my goal and I will obtain it

Thanks for letting me share.

[BladeValant]

I love this, i am just so depressed most of the time and this is what pushed me left.

[misaelcueva]

I was debating with some dude that was arguing that because a lot of homeless people have mental illness, that means that homelessness it's not a capitalism problem, but a mental illness problem, they also argued that helping mentally ill people with shelter didn't helped them because they just love living on the streets, I was literally shocked

[YouHaveAnApeHead]

I'm lucky enough to have a roof over my head without fear of eviction anytime soon and yet I still suffer through Mental Health issues. I can't imagine what the less fortunate members of the working class must go through.

[RubsNL]

The amount of mental health professionals that fail to acknowledge these facts is too damn high

[akanetsukino]

I felt that. That was way too relatable for someone who's suffering exactly because of this system as a low wage worker. Thanks for this video.

[rustyshackle]

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

[lars]

Learning about communism has both improved and worsened my mental health. I've been exposed to the horrifying realities of our current system and its outcomes, but I've also finally discovered solutions, or at least critical analysis of these situations. This is all very stressful as a young person who has been taught in a capitalist manner my entire life.

[southerncomrade]

Looking forward to this one. In my 20 yrs as a psychiatrist in US mainly focused on new pharmacotherapeutics for MDD and psychosis, I've come to understand that most, if not all, mental angst is a direct manifestation of patients' material circumstances. And tangible changes in these circumstances always result in better outcomes than medications alone. Obvious, but clinical experience backs it up.

[annascott-hinkle]

As a person on the autsim spectrum who has had mental health struggles since childhood, I used to think something was wrong with me beacuse I don't it into soceity. Ableism in capitalism lead me to view myself as bad. I now understand that's it's not me that's bad it's the system. I talk to peope about how capitalsm both creates and increases mentel illness as often as I can, I even have told my therapists. Thank you for making a video about this, I will be sharing it!

[reidwilkins]

Hi Paul!

Great video! Lots of great content and quotes! As a point of constructive criticism, I'd like to address your points about mindfulness.

While I have many similar qualms with mindfulness as you mention in this video, I think the excessive stress we feel as members of the proletariat is a hindrance toward our liberation through revolution and I see mindfulness as a potential piece of the larger solution to this issue. For one, mindfulness practice's origin is generally attributed to Buddhists long before bourgeois relations of production even existed. Unfortunately, it has been co-opted by capitalists, and while I think some proponents of it are promoting it at least in part out of goodwill, even their prescriptions are clouded by capitalist hegemony. Mindfulness is undoubtedly used as another tool to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" in the current day. However, as with much of our existence and experience under capitalism, it is unable to reach its full potential here and will be truly realized when the systems of wage slavery and capital accumulation that provoke so much alienation are abolished and socialism/communism is actualized. It is not and was never intended to be simply a tool to de-alienate workers.


Furthermore, I view mindfulness as a dialectical process by which both internal and external contradictions can be resolved on an individual level. For this reason, I think it can be a great tool in the development of humanity, particularly, as aforementioned, upon the instatement of a socialist/communist set of relations. Mindfulness harnesses the dialectic between reality and consciousness, allowing us to better and more clearly interpret the world around us and ourselves and how they relate and affect each other. It can certainly be helpful in addressing mental health issues, but it has much more potential than that, in my opinion. If we, as communists, may re-appropriate it from the self-help individualistic capitalists who peddle it as the end all be all, we can utilize it to strengthen ourselves and our movements, while nonetheless staying grounded (or becoming even more so) and motivated toward revolutionary action.

I hope you take these thoughts into consideration on your position on mindfulness. Otherwise, I really enjoy the content you keep pumping out! It's well-written and polished, and I'm so grateful that your channel exists as a resource for incoming leftists to the movement!

Your Comrade,
Reid

[jacobmatkin]

Your video essays are some of the best content on this godforsaken website. Keep it up comrade!

[陈想-ok]

I'm from China. I saw your video on a Chinese website and it was pretty good, comrade.

[cauLIAflower]

It's not that taking care of our mental health individually is inherently bad -- on the contrary, it's still very important as it's an integral part of our overall well-being. HOWEVER, it must not stop there.

If we truly wish to make a better world where people's health are taken care of on a holistic level, we also have to take part in the even bigger fight against the VERY SYSTEM that causes (and perpetuates) these problems in first place. It is only then that we can ensure that everyone is free, safe, equal and healthy.

Yet another amazing vid, and a relevant one at that since it's Mental Health Month. Cheers to you and this video!