New Statesman: How mindfulness privatised a social problem

This is a comment from the New Statesman online editor Hettie O´Brien from July 19th. I don't think it has been shared in the forum, and thought it was an interesting read. Nothing new though, but it's good to see critical thoughts on CBT and mindfulness from the media.

In a report published last month, Dr Dainius Puras, the UN’s special rapporteur on health, stated that confronting inequality would be a more effective prophylactic for poor mental health than excessive therapy or medication.

Yet governments often opt for treatments that focus on the individual rather than social maladies. “Most don’t want to be thinking about how their policies might be contributing to problems in the first place,” says David Harper, a clinical psychologist at the University of East London. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a treatment that focuses on raising awareness of negative emotions and developing coping strategies.

New Statesman: Observations: How mindfulness privatised a social problem

 

We have that already don't we?

In order to avoid welfare costs, medical costs, or the cost of disposal of 'assets', the minimum standard seems to be making sure people have to asset strip themselves to pay rent, utilities, and possibly care, for another few weeks of profit for someone else, then getting relatives paying thousands for people to set fire to them so their corpses take up less space.

Maximum profit per unit.

 

Indeed if they were serious about exploring their own theoretical approaches, rather than just extolling the wonders of their very limited behavioural/psychological interventions, they might actually address the biological aspects (particularly with ME) and the social aspects (as discussed here) of various conditions,

 

I knew when I saw this link that Mark Fisher would be mentioned somewhere in the article.

For those who want to read more about this from a cultural and politico-economic standpoint, I recommend Mark's essay 'The Privatisation of Stress'.
http://voidnetwork.gr/2012/03/12/the-privatisation-of-stress-by-mark-fisher-from-soundings-magazine/

Or perhaps this more reader-friendly piece from the Guardian in 2012.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/16/mental-health-political-issue

RIP Mark. One of the greatest minds of our generation.