Mental illness isn’t caused by capitalism. Would access to care be better under the utopian system the book advocates? Of course— it’s a utopia! Except that the authors don’t actually seem to believe in mental illness as such (or so I gather from a perusal of the “Death Panel” podcast). In it’s failure to accept the tragic reality of organic mental illness, or the desperate need for skilled medical treatment by professionals whose care is based on a combination of extensive training, experience, wisdom, compassion and evidence based medicine (I.e.psychiatrists!) they remind me of the Christian Science promise that illness can be cured by faith.
Putting energy into making Medicare for All a reality makes sense to me, but conjuring a prelapsarian vision of bottomless abundance of care on demand (much of which would presumably not actually be necessary, since capitalism causes illness) just seems quixotic. I wish people with good brains and hearts like these writers would address those hearts and minds to the problems on the street. I dare say it is harder to spend time caring for the seriously ill than to work in the elevated realm of political theory. Also, the painfully familiar anti- psychiatry talk is upsetting to me, both as the mother of an adult with SMI and as someone with a decades long chronic illness myself (and who lived with untreated depression for many years before the advent of SSRIs).
So presently we have all this gatekeeping of treatment, of disability support, etc. And we see over and over how politicians (or, I guess, in the US insurance companies) think there are too many ill and disabled people, too many people getting treatments and/or special support, and it's getting too costly. So they narrow the gates until fewer and fewer people get in, even though that means shutting out people who ARE entitled to treatment and special support according to the laws and the rules.
It seems a common reaction to think that if someone who's entitled to treatment and special support according to the laws and the rules doesn't get it, there must be some MISTAKE that will be corrected if only we point it out to the right people. But it's an inherent part of the system that things work like this!
Mental illness isn’t caused by capitalism. Would access to care be better under the utopian system the book advocates? Of course— it’s a utopia! Except that the authors don’t actually seem to believe in mental illness as such (or so I gather from a perusal of the “Death Panel” podcast). In it’s failure to accept the tragic reality of organic mental illness, or the desperate need for skilled medical treatment by professionals whose care is based on a combination of extensive training, experience, wisdom, compassion and evidence based medicine (I.e.psychiatrists!) they remind me of the Christian Science promise that illness can be cured by faith.
Putting energy into making Medicare for All a reality makes sense to me, but conjuring a prelapsarian vision of bottomless abundance of care on demand (much of which would presumably not actually be necessary, since capitalism causes illness) just seems quixotic. I wish people with good brains and hearts like these writers would address those hearts and minds to the problems on the street. I dare say it is harder to spend time caring for the seriously ill than to work in the elevated realm of political theory. Also, the painfully familiar anti- psychiatry talk is upsetting to me, both as the mother of an adult with SMI and as someone with a decades long chronic illness myself (and who lived with untreated depression for many years before the advent of SSRIs).
This sounds really interesting.
So presently we have all this gatekeeping of treatment, of disability support, etc. And we see over and over how politicians (or, I guess, in the US insurance companies) think there are too many ill and disabled people, too many people getting treatments and/or special support, and it's getting too costly. So they narrow the gates until fewer and fewer people get in, even though that means shutting out people who ARE entitled to treatment and special support according to the laws and the rules.
It seems a common reaction to think that if someone who's entitled to treatment and special support according to the laws and the rules doesn't get it, there must be some MISTAKE that will be corrected if only we point it out to the right people. But it's an inherent part of the system that things work like this!