Capitalism and Mental Health
As an anti-capitalist business owner, I often get asked how those two things work together. If you’ve read my article on sliding scale pricing you’ll begin to feel the itch that I’m unhappy with the way that the mental health system works in America. Why are specialized therapies (such as music, art, dance, psychodrama) behind such a paywall? No shade towards other music therapists, or therapists in general, as they deserve the money they make for the work that they do, but it feels peculiar to me that so many therapists have such a high rate of entry.
I’ve seen people that are doing work similar to mine charge double what I charge for my max amount (as an entry point), and I’ve seen them justify it by saying that the clients they want to work with will be able to pay that much. This is inherently racist, and dripped within colonial capitalistic mindsets. I’ve been in touch with a doctor friend of mine lately who has been telling me that he didn’t know, as a white cis man from Colorado, that racism existed until he was in college to become a doctor. His family hid racism from him, and then he had to discover it on his own. That was followed up with a discussion on the fact that all of his colleagues in medical school, including those who were people of color, outwardly stated that they didn’t want to work in impoverished communities, or with other people of color. This desire to only work with well-off financially stable white people is entrenched in the medical system, and it probably isn’t going away anytime soon.
Coming back to my work, many people would rather look at my pay rate and say that I’m undercharging rather than that others are overcharging. I also need to live. I have rent to pay, I have bills, and I have desires and a want to travel and see the world. How do I balance this while also having a sliding scale based on the financial status of the client? Trust. I trust that I will have the time, energy, and ability to save money, schedule time off, and trust in my business and clients that they will continue being there when I return.
I don’t blame other therapists for falling into the Capitalism Void. It’s very easy. It’s actually seen as the norm in America, according to The Lovepost’s well written article on the subject:
“As a result, neoliberalism no longer needs to be taught, lobbied for or celebrated. Professor Jamie Peck coined the term ‘zombie neoliberalism’ to explain how people unconsciously spread ideology through their decisions. They apply a neoliberal lens to problem-solving because neoliberalism is assumed to be the natural, default way to improve things. Contemporary policy challenges, such as environmental pollution regulation, are often framed within neoliberal understandings. This naturalization makes it more difficult to grasp a systemic analysis, such as The Lovepost’s analysis of the effect of capitalism on mental health. Capitalism is just normal life, isn’t it?”
It’s incredibly easy to be told that things are okay and that the world is good. It’s incredibly easy to be told that America is the “good guy” in every given situation, and be taught that in school, but it’s just simply not true. America has messed up, a lot, and was built upon this messing up. There are only so many scapegoats that America has, too. “The economy is bad” can only take us so far when trillions of dollars aren’t being put toward wellness, education, or growth. Free thinkers don’t make people who already have money more money. America was built on the backs of slavery and after slavery was banned it became prison systems, asylums, homelessness becoming illegal rather than people being helped, and love thy neighbors (unless they’re black, brown, women, minorities of any type, LGBTQ+, disabled, from a poor family and poor educational background, beaten down and unable to work their way up because there are SO many systems in play keeping them from growing and expanding their horizons, the list goes on).
Recently I wrote a chapter for an upcoming music therapy novel, and in that I start off the chapter by saying something akin to not realizing that I could do something until it was told to me that it was a possibility. I don’t think this is just my neurodivergence keeping me from the awareness that I have the ability to do anything that I set my mind to. I don’t think this is just my ADHD, or my inability to focus. I think this is something that was built into me from childhood, and that seems to be backed up by people who study the effects of neoliberal capitalism on mental health. Ask questions until you’re grown enough to understand that asking questions is not okay. Learn what they tell you and don’t wonder about the other side of the story; Repeat back what you’ve learned without fail because otherwise you’re not a good student; NEVER wonder if there’s more for you out there, or other opportunities.
If I was a cold, heartless person with the imagination and thoughts that I have, would I already be rich through the painstaking labor of using other people’s weaknesses against them for my own monetary gain? I could never be that person. I allow myself to live within my means to the best of my ability in order to raise other people up. I believe in the good of people, and I believe that honesty is the best policy. If I am taken advantage of a few times, that’s not my fault, and I cannot fault others for being stuck within the Capitalist Ideal that they must take advantage of others in order to succeed – My journey on this earth is to continue to teach wellness regardless of level of education, and help expand the thoughts that people might be having about the world, their own lives, and their place within it. If I can help even a few people recognize that the world is more than what they’ve been told up until this point, I will have succeeded as a therapist.
There’s a really poignant set of articles by The Lovepost about Capitalism and Mental Health. I recommend reading through them, but a few choice points that they concluded were:
“A hard-headed cost-benefit analysis was incorporated into the new oversight of public health care and education. Two-tiered systems emerged: people with money paid for and received more and better care, while those who could not pay received what was offered. The unconditional right to access became a conditional right to purchase services. Even the language changed. Citizens became consumers, students became education service users and distressed families became clients.”
“In a 2022 article, Zeira concluded that policies intrinsic to neoliberal capitalism have driven the worsening American rates of “mental illness, life expectancy, infant mortality, obesity, children’s educational performance, teenage births, homicides, imprisonment rates, and social mobility.” She points to the neoliberal malaise of rising income inequality as the specific force driving this negative trajectory.”
“To draw out capitalism’s effects on mental health, it is important to highlight that income inequality is a natural and integral outcome of capitalism. Neoliberal capitalism has made this process more pronounced. Neoliberalism has overseen and fostered a dramatic redistribution of wealth, impoverishing and inducing chronic socioeconomic insecurity for many while drawing greater wealth towards the top percentiles of the Anglosphere population. The data exposing this redistribution are clear and uncontested. To cite just one example: since the end of the 1970s, 50 trillion USD has been transferred from the bottom 90 percent of American households to the top 10 percent.”
“Pickett and Wilkinson went on to demonstrate that income inequality doesn’t only affect those at the bottom of any country’s social hierarchy. It impacts the mental health of all members of society because inequality also leads to weakened social relationships and correlates with less trust, more aggression and crime, and less community engagement. All of these factors increase distress throughout society”
“Psychiatrists have found that working in these stressful settings predicts future mental disorder diagnoses. A meta-analysis of 228 US studies linked modern workplace stressors and job precarity in the United States to an excess of 120,000 deaths per year.”
At the end of the day, mental health needs to be taken care of better in America. Homeless people are treated as addicts, when many of them aren’t. People with mental illness are treated badly for not being “neurotypical”. Changing the status quo might seem impossible, but it’s not. The first step towards changing it is understanding that it needs to be changed.
I will go more into this in a follow-up blog, because much like The Lovepost’s 2–part incredible series on Capitalism and Mental Health, there needs to be more of a discussion on what we can do to change, as well as help our own mental health.
However, here is a small list of small changes we can do in our everyday lives to benefit ourselves regardless of capitalism:
Self-Care: Sleeping in, taking naps, allowing ourselves to move slowly through our day. Take a cup of coffee before talking to people. Hang out with people you love at spaces where you don’t feel the desire to spend money and you can just connect.
Go to therapy: You NEED to address your mental health concerns. Maybe this includes trauma, or family, or work stuff, or just life in general. You deserve to have a space to talk about things that upset you, be heard, and find ways to understand and work on them. I offer therapy at prices BASED ON YOUR FINANCES. I will work with you. Therapy should be affordable.
KEEP LEARNING: Capitalism, as we’ve learned, is designed around keeping you from learning how to process and deal with capitalism, as well as keeping you from learning new things without spending money. Spend time learning, and sharing that knowledge with others.
Protest: You are allowed to stand against the systems at play. If it’s too much on your mental health, take breaks, but only through spreading the word about things can we grow and learn.
I am here for you. You are not alone.