The antidote to many of our mental health crises must come from rebuilding society and creating a culture of community rather than a culture of hostility and toxicity.
Van Gogh – Starry Night. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
by vijay prashad
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
IIn 1930, Clément Fresse (1901-1980), a shepherd from the Lozère region of France, was confined in a nearby psychiatric hospital after attempting to set fire to his parents’ farmhouse.
He was kept in a dark, cramped solitary confinement cell for two years. Fries used a spoon and later a pot handle to carve symmetrical images into the rough wooden walls that surrounded him. Despite the inhumane conditions of these asylums, Fleiss created beautiful art in the darkness of his cell.
Not far from Lozère is the Abbey of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Vincent van Gogh was imprisoned here 40 years ago (1889-1890), where he completed around 150 paintings, including several important works. they starry night In 1889.
When I visited Ospedale Psychiatric Hospital (OPG), a former psychiatric hospital in Naples, Italy, in September, I learned that people who once committed a serious crime are considered insane.
This vast building on Monte di Santeframo in the center of Naples was first a convent (1573-1859), then a barracks for the Savoy regime during the unification of Italy in 1861, and a prison established by the Savoy regime. did. Fascist regime in the 1920s.
The prison was closed in 2008 and taken over in 2015 by a group that later formed a political organization. Potere al popolo! (Power to the people!). They renamed the building Ex OPG – Je so’ pazzo. “ex” means the building is no longer an asylum, and “Je so’ pazzo” is a favorite of local pop singer Pino Daniele (1955-2015), who died around the time the building was occupied. refers to the song.
I’m crazy. I’m crazy.
people are waiting for me
….
I want to live as a lion for at least one day.
Je so pazzo, je so pazzo.
Cho il popolo che mi aspetta.
….
Nella vita voglio vivere almeno un giorno da leone.
The former OPG now houses a legal clinic, a medical clinic, a gym, a theater, and a bar. It is a place of reflection, a center for people who aim to build community and confront the loneliness and instability of capitalism. It is a rare kind of facility in our world, where exhausted societies become increasingly isolated and individuals confined in a prison of thwarted aspirations, yet still have access to a few tools (a spoon, a pot handle). This is a facility that you would like to use. Carve out your dreams and aim for the starry sky.
Anita Reh, Germany, “Self-portrait”, 1930. Leh (1885-1933) committed suicide after the Nazis declared her work “decadent.” (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) does not have enough data on mental health. The main reason for this is that poor countries cannot maintain accurate accounts of the immense psychological struggles of their citizens. As a result, the focus is often limited to wealthier countries where such data is collected by governments and where psychiatric care and drug treatments are more easily accessible.
recent investigation People in 31 countries (mainly in Europe and North America, but also in some poorer countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa) are showing changing attitudes and growing concerns about mental health.
The survey found that 45% of those surveyed named mental health as the “biggest health issue facing people around the world.” [their] This number was a significant increase from the previous survey conducted in 2018 (27%). Stress is third on the list of health issues, with 31% citing it as their top cause of concern.
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There are significant gender differences in how young people view mental health, with 55 percent of young women citing mental health as one of their main health concerns, compared to 37 percent of young men (women (reflecting the fact that people are disproportionately affected by health problems).
While it is true that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues around the world, this crisis predates the coronavirus. Information from Global health data exchange show In 2019, before the pandemic, one in eight people, or 970 million people, had a mental illness, of which 301 million suffered from anxiety and 280 million suffered from depression. It is said that there was These figures should be seen as an estimate, at least a complete picture, of the serious crisis caused by unhappiness and maladjustment to the current social order.
Illnesses called “mental disorders” range from schizophrenia to depression, which can lead to suicidal thoughts. According to the WHO 2022 edition reportOne in 200 adults suffers from schizophrenia, which reduces life expectancy by an average of 10 to 20 years.
Meanwhile, suicide is the leading cause of death for young people around the world, accounting for 1 in 100 deaths (note that only 1 in 20 results in suicide) . We can create new tables, revise calculations, and write long reports, but none of this will alleviate the deep social neglect that pervades our world.
Adolf Wölfli, Switzerland, Overview of Neveranger Island, 1911. Wölfli (1864-1930) was abused as a child, sold as an indentured servant, and then interned at the Waldau Infirmary in Bern, where he painted the rest of his work. his life. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Ignore is not the right word. The common attitude toward mental disorders is to treat them as simply biological problems that require individualized pharmaceutical care. Even if we accept this limited conceptual framework, there is still a need for governments to support the training of psychiatrists, make medicines affordable and available to the public, and integrate mental health treatment into the broader health system. There is.
However, in 2022, WHO Found On average, countries spend just 2% of their health budget on mental health. The organization also found that half of the world’s population, mostly in poor countries, lives in an environment where one psychiatrist sees more than 200,000 people. This is the current state of affairs as we witness a general decline in public education about the need for health care budgets and a more liberal attitude towards mental health issues.
most recent WHO data (December 2023) covering the surge in pandemic-related health spending shows that health spending was less than 5% of gross domestic product in most countries in 2021.
On the other hand, in 2024 report world of debt, According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), nearly 100 countries spend more on debt servicing than on healthcare. These are foreboding statistics, but they don’t get to the heart of the problem.
Over the past century, the response to mental health disorders has been overwhelmingly individualized, with treatments ranging from different forms of therapy to prescribing different medications.
Part of the reason for the failure to address mental health crises, ranging from depression to schizophrenia, is that these problems are not only influenced by biological factors, but are also caused and exacerbated by social structures. It’s in refusing to accept that it can and does get worse.
Dr. Joanna Moncrief, one of the founders of the Critical Psychiatry Network, I will write “None of the conditions we call mental disorders result from biological diseases, but more precisely from “specific malfunctions of physiological or biochemical processes.” is not convincingly demonstrated. This is not to say that biology does not play a role, but simply that biology is not the only factor shaping our understanding of such disorders.
In his widely read classics, sane society (1955), Erich Fromm (1900-1980) developed an accurate reading of the psychological situation in the capitalist system, based on the insights of Karl Marx. His insights are worth revisiting (pardon Fromm’s use of the masculine word “man” and the pronoun “his” to refer to humanity as a whole).
“Whether or not an individual is healthy or not is fundamentally not a matter of the individual but depends on the structure of society.A healthy society is one in which humans love their fellow humans, work creatively, and develop reason and objectivity.” An unhealthy society creates mutual hostility and mistrust, turning human beings into tools for the use and exploitation of others. , which deprives humans of their sense of self, except when they submit to others or become automatons. Society can have both functions, and it can promote healthy human development. In fact, most societies do both, and the only question is how much and in which direction their positive and negative influence is exerted.
The antidote to many of our mental health crises must come from rebuilding society and creating a culture of community rather than a culture of hostility and toxicity. We built a city with more community centres, places like Naples’ Ex OPG – Je so’ pazzo, more places for young people to come together, socialize and build their individuality and self-confidence. Imagine if. Imagine what would happen if we spent more resources playing music, hosting sports games, teaching people to read and write poetry, organizing socially productive activities in their neighborhoods, etc. Please take a look.
These community centers may house medical clinics, youth programs, social workers, and therapists. Imagine the dynamism of festivals, music and joy, and events such a center would create. red book day. Imagine the potential for activities like painting murals, cleaning up neighborhoods, and planting gardens as these centers foster conversations about the kind of world people want to build. . In fact, we don’t have to imagine these things. It is already within us through small gestures. naples or in delhiin johannesburg or in santiago.
“I think depression is boring,” wrote poet Anne Sexton (1928-1974). “Maybe we should make some soup and light up the cave.” So I decided to make some soup in the community center, pick up my guitar and drumsticks, and dance and dance until that wonderful feeling descends on everyone. Join us in healing our broken humanity.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a Globetrotter Writer Fellow and Chief Correspondent. he is the editor of left word book and director Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow. Chongyang Financial Research InstituteRenmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books. dark country and poor countries. His latest book is Struggle makes you human: Learning from the socialist movement And with Noam Chomsky, Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the vulnerability of U.S. power.
This article is from dispatch of people And it was produced globetrotter.
The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect the views of: Consortium News.
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