Is Psychology the corrective arm of capitalism?

Although psychology professionals have traditionally proposed improving people's quality of life as a fundamental objective, the truth is that in today's world this discipline tends to act in favor of the status quo, and therefore to promote the maintenance of the negative consequences of "free market".

Not surprisingly, the conception of psychology as a corrective arm of modern capitalism it is very widespread. To analyze to what extent this idea is correct, it is first necessary to look at the global economic structure in which mental health is framed today.

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Capitalism and neoliberalism in today's society

We can define capitalism as a economic system focused on competition for resources, in the primacy of private property over public property and in decision-making by the owners of the means of production rather than by the states and, therefore, the citizens. Although capitalism has existed in different forms since the beginning of history, it became the dominant economic model throughout from the Industrial Revolution and was institutionalized throughout the world with globalization, a clear consequence of these developments technicians.

Critics we call "neoliberalism" the ideology that sustains modern capitalism. This term refers to the resurgence of the classical principles of the free market that took place after the decades after World War II, during which states had applied interventionist policies to minimize inequalities social, which tend to grow without limit within the capitalist framework due to the accumulation of resources by those who most have. These types of measures allowed wealth to be redistributed to a certain extent, something almost unusual in modern history and which put economic elites on alert.

The key difference from traditional liberalism is that in practice neoliberalism advocates for the (not necessarily democratic) takeover of states and governments. supranational organizations, such as the European Union, to ensure that policies that favor those with large amounts of capital can be implemented accumulated. This harms most of the population, since the reduction of wages and the dismantling of the public sector they make it difficult for the less favored to access basic services such as education and health.

Neoliberal ideas and the very natural functioning of the capitalist economy promote that more and more aspects of the life are governed by the logic of monetary benefit, focused especially on the short term and on enrichment individual. Unfortunately, this includes the conception of mental health as a commodity, even a luxury item.

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Economic inequality and mental health

The material inequalities promoted by capitalism favor differences in mental health as a function of socioeconomic status. As the number of people with monetary difficulties increases, a development especially marked since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the consequent recession, also increases the prevalence of mental disorders, particularly those related to anxiety and depression.

An increasingly demanding work environment contributes to the generalization of stress, an increasingly alteration difficult to avoid and that increases the risk of contracting cardiovascular disorders and other physical diseases. Likewise, the precariousness of working conditions generates insecurity and decreases the quality of life of the people who depend on their jobs to survive.

Precariousness

On the other hand, the capitalist structure needs a significant percentage of poor people to be able to support itself: if everyone could subsist without need for employment, it would be very difficult for salaries to remain as low, and therefore for owners to continue to increase their profit margin. Benefits. This is why the promoters of the neoliberal ideology reject the reform of a system in which unemployment is not so much a problem as a structural requirement.

Those who fail to fit in with society are told that they are not trying or that they are not good enough; This facilitates the development of depressive disorders related to the inability to achieve your social and professional goals. Depression is one of the main risk factors for suicide, which is also favored by poverty and unemployment. In Greece, the country more affected by austerity measures in public investment than the Union European Union has imposed since the crisis, the number of suicides has increased by about 35% since 2010.

Furthermore, with the privatization and progressive destruction of public services the negative consequences of capitalism for mental health are accentuated. In the framework of the welfare state, more people were able to access psychological therapy than otherwise. They could not afford it, but the states today invest much less in health, especially in its psychological aspect; this favors that psychotherapy remains a luxury for most of the population, instead of a fundamental right.

The corrective role of psychology

Clinical psychology is not only difficult to access for a large number of people, but it is also subject to the medicalization of mental health. Even though in the long run it is more effective to treat depression or anxiety through psychotherapy, the power of pharmaceutical corporations and the obsession with immediate profit have formalized around the world a healthcare model in which psychology is little more than support for disorders that cannot be "cured" with medicines.

In this context that is not very conducive to promoting mental health, psychology functions as a check valve that, although it can improve well-being in individual cases, does not act on the root causes of problems that collectively affect societies. Thus, an unemployed person may be able to find work after going to therapy to overcome their depression, but there will continue to be a high number of unemployed at risk of depression while working conditions are keep.

In fact, even the term "disorder" designates a lack of adaptation to the social context or the discomfort produced by it, rather than a fact of a problematic nature in itself. Put bluntly, psychological disorders are seen as problems because they interfere with the productivity of who suffers them and with the structure of society in a given period, rather than because they harm the individual.

In many cases, especially in areas such as marketing and human resources, scientific knowledge obtained by psychology are not only not used to increase the well-being of the people who need it most but what it tends to directly favor the interests of the company and the "system", making it easier for them to achieve their objectives: to obtain as many benefits as possible and with the least resistance from subordinates or citizens.

From the capitalist model, human development and the achievement of personal well-being are only beneficial insofar as they favor the progress of economic and political structures that already exist. The non-monetary part of social progress is considered of little relevance since it cannot be accounted for within the product. gross interior (GDP) and other indicators of material wealth, designed to favor the competitive accumulation of capital.

The individual against the collective

Current psychology has adapted to the social, political and economic system in a way that favors its continuity and the adaptation of people to their operating rules, even when they have base failures. In structures that promote individualism and the selfishness, psychotherapy is also obliged to do so if it aims to help specific individuals to overcome their difficulties.

A good example is the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT, a cognitive-behavioral treatment developed during the last decades. The ACT, highly supported by research in a large number of disorders, focuses on the person adapting to the conditions of their life and derive your goals from your personal values, overcoming the temporary discomfort you may feel in the process of achieving these objectives.

ACT, like most psychological interventions, has a very evident positive side in terms of its efficacy, but also depoliticizes social problems because it focuses on individual responsibility, indirectly minimizing the role of institutions and other macrosocial aspects in the emergence of psychological disorders. Ultimately, the logic behind these therapies is that it is the person who has failed, not society.

Psychology will not be truly effective in increasing the welfare of society as a whole as long as it continues to neglect the primary importance of modifying. social, economic and political structures and focusing almost exclusively on providing individual solutions to problems that are actually collective.