The Ultimate Oxymoron: Industrial Civilization And Mental Health (Carolyn Baker)

[Tace]

Industrial civilization does not occur among healthy people. --Ken Carey, Return of The Bird People

Jan. 11, 2011 (CarolynBaker.net) -- In the days following the tragic Tucson massacre where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded and several other individuals shot and killed by suspect Jared Loughner, mainstream media has simmered with interviews and sound bytes regarding the status of mental health treatment in the United States.

It is now apparent that Loughner was a troubled young man whose emotional issues intensified in recent years and that as a result of his bizarre behavior, he was dismissed from Pima Community College and prohibited from returning without passing a psychological evaluation.

In the ensuing discourse since the massacre, we have been incessantly reminded by media that mental health issues are as real and valid as physical illness and should not be viewed with disdain, but rather treated by mental health professionals as any physical ailment such as diabetes, heart disease, or cancer would be treated by a physician. Yet even as journalists and mental health and political pundits banter about mental health treatment in the United States, they fail to address, or perhaps even understand, the deeper questions.

This article is intended to address those questions, the implications of which extend vastly beyond the Jan. 8, Tucson tragedy.

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[villager]

1. unrecc'd by the "paradigm apologists" evidently... which sort of goes to the point of the article

I wonder if the unreccer realizes they're behaving exactly as...predicted?

[tama]

2. Collective mental disorder

Well, how else to discribe this system that is destroying the environment that it depends on in manic growth, that is analogical to how cancer tumer behaves in human body?

It's a good diagnosis. As part of collective mental disorder - civilization wide - I'm therefore also insane but with correct diagnosis and without denial, the healing process can really start on individual level. I've been getting much better after realizing the correct diagnosis for the symptoms I suffered from (overweight, in bad shape, depressed, psychosis).

[reggie the dog]

5. good luck

it is difficult to not be depressed and have psychosis in this fucked up world. we are supposed to all be in competition and for me teamwork seems much more appropriate... i know i am fucking crazy but i would rather be crazy than happy with "consumer culture"....

[riverwalker]

3. fascinating article

thank you for this. Her upcoming book is now on my list.

[reggie the dog]

4. I talked to a psycologist one time

about my daily cannabis use and explained to her that i smoke weed because i am generally depressed because i dont fit in in a place where i am supposed to compete with everyone to see who can accumulate more "things" even against our own friends and family, that i feel out of place with the idea "bigger , better, faster, more" and that when i smoke reefer i can do my own thing, and live my own way and just sort of not give a fuck about prevelant culture. She said that my depressive symptoms were a normal reaction to the world we were living in and that my smoking cannabis daily and not using alcohol (like i had done before but didnt like the negative ramifications of alcohol use) was a normal reaction to wanting "a break" from an upside down world....