From Mad in America, another must read by Bruce Levine:
an excerpt:
Mental Illness as Rebellion Against Society
The most deadly criticism one could make of modern civilization is that apart from its man-made crises and catastrophes, is not humanly interesting. . . . In the end, such a civilization can produce only a mass man: incapable of spontaneous, self-directed activities: at best patient, docile, disciplined to monotonous work to an almost pathetic degree. . . . Ultimately such a society produces only two groups of men: the conditioners and the conditioned, the active and passive barbarians.—Lewis Mumford, 1951
Once it was routine for many respected social critics such as Lewis Mumford and Erich Fromm to express concern about the impact of modern civilization on our mental health. But today the idea that the mental illness epidemic is also being caused by a peculiar rebellion against a dehumanizing society has been, for the most part, removed from the mainstream map. When a societal problem grows to become all encompassing, we often no longer even notice it. (read the rest at Mad in America)
More of Bruce Levine’s work on Beyond Meds:
- Mental health professionals along with police, teachers and the corporate press are the guards of the system
- Scientology vs. Critical Psychiatry
- Liberation Psychology for the U.S. – are we too demoralized to protest?
- Eli Lilly and the Case for a Corporate Death Penalty
- Revolutionary Road, A Beautiful Mind and Truthfulness
- Comment by Bruce Levine in response to Depression’s Evolutionary Roots
- Suicide in the military, increasing antidepressant use and can we trust NIMH Studies?
- Postpartum Depression: Cultural Disorder?
- Psychologists Profit on Unending U.S. Wars by Teaching Positive Thinking to Soldiers
- Activism necessary if we want the truth about psychiatric medications be heard
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