Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis

Description

In Britain alone, more than 20% of the adult population take a psychiatric drug in any one year. This is an increase of over 500% since 1980 and the numbers continue to grow. Yet, despite this prescription epidemic, levels of mental illness of all types have actually increased in number and severity. Using a wealth of studies, interviews with experts, and detailed analysis, Dr James Davies argues that this is because we have fundamentally mischaracterised the problem. Rather than viewing most mental distress as an understandable reaction to wider societal problems, we have embraced a medical model which situates the problem solely within the sufferer and their brain. Urgent and persuasive, Sedated systematically examines why this individualistic view of mental illness has been promoted by successive governments and big business - and why it is so misplaced and dangerous. Title Copyright Introduction Part One: The New Opium Chapter 1: An Economic Prelude Chapter 2: The New Culture of Proliferating Debt and Drugs Chapter 3: The New Dissatisfactions of Modern Work Chapter 4: The New Back-to-Work Psychological Therapies Chapter 5: The New Causes of Unemployment Chapter 6: Education and the Rise of New Managerialism Part Two: How We Got Here Chapter 7: Deregulating the So-Called Chemical Cure Chapter 8: Materialism No More Chapter 9: Dehumanising Productivity Chapter 10: You Only Have Yourself to Blame Chapter 11: The Social Determinants of Distress Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes and References Index