I think the simplest way to understand that just because many mental illnesses benefit a great deal from being treated with various chemicals, that does not mean that mental illnesses are all therefore uniformly and necessarily caused by chemicals in the brain, is to remember that an aching back is not in fact the result of a deficiency of acetaminophen, nor is malaria a condition brought on by the body producing an inadequate supply of quinine. Health conditions have both external and internal causative factors. The same is true of psychological conditions.

The origins and functions of the mental health system

Consistent with Marx, the modern mental health system evolved alongside capitalism as it emerged in Europe and the United States, and it is useful to consider how it arose, and also what predated it.

In England from the 16th century, a series of laws called the Poor Laws enabled local officials to manage various social problems linked to poverty, including the problems posed by people who would nowadays be labelled as having a mental disorder. Looking at material from the Poor Law records suggests the Poor Law fulfilled two main functions in this respect: it enabled the provision of care for those people who could not look after themselves (and for their families if it was the bread winner who was incapacitated) and it allowed for the control of behaviour that put the peace, harmony and safety of the community at risk, but was not amenable to the usual forms of community punishment or formal legal sanctions. The Poor Laws catered only for families who were not wealthy enough to make their own arrangements and they took over some of the functions of the monasteries that were destroyed under Henry VIII, particularly provision of care for the sick and disabled. They also formalised pre-existing local, informal arrangements of social control.

The rise of capitalism and industrialisation in England in the 18th and 19th centuries threw more and more people into poverty, and these local arrangements started to become increasingly burdensome, bringing the idea of institutional solutions into vogue. Following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, those who were unable to provide for themselves were forced to enter the forbidding Victorian Workhouse to obtain public assistance. The regime in these institutions was deliberately designed to be harsh and punitive so that people would endure low paid work in terrible conditions to avoid having to resort to them. When people did turn to the Workhouse, in desperation, they would be motivated to leave as soon as possible.

The public mental asylums arose in this context and were designed to provide a pleasanter, more therapeutic space for those residents or potential residents of the Workhouse who were mentally disturbed. Right back in the Elizabethan Poor Law a distinction was made between the deserving and undeserving poor, with the idea that the undeserving poor were the lazy and unmotivated who could be forced back to work, while the deserving poor were the sick and incapable who could not. The asylum arose to cater for a section of the deserving poor and it was believed that the gentle, but structured regime (as it was intended) would help restore the mad to sanity and thereby render them fit to work.

In other words, the capitalist system made it necessary to separate the deserving and undeserving poor, so as not to undermine efforts to make the majority fit for exploitation in the exacting environment of early capitalism. Asylums provided a place for the care of the unproductive and for the containment of disruptive behaviour that might threaten social harmony and make other people less willing or able to be exploited.

In recent decades, the functions of the public asylum have been privatised and re-distributed among a network of private providers of secure facilities, residential homes, home care teams and, of course, families. This was designed to reduce costs to the public sector through the provision of less intensive care by a lower paid, less skilled workforce, and to increase opportunities for the generation of profit.

Joanna Moncrieff, The Functions of the Mental Health System Under Capitalism, Mad in America

— Judi Chamberlin, On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System

requested by rainegrenade

we don’t need more access to mental health care, we need different mental health care.

and “increasing access” too often = making it easier to force people into treatments against their will or without full information & consent.

it’s not insignificant that many people involved in tragedies towards themselves or others were already accessing care.

related:

— Carl Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

— Sharon Astyk at Casaubon’s Book. Bathtubs: A Theory of Community Relations (via protoslacker)

i’d like to add that when it comes to mentally ill people and disabled people it’s construed as a choice between homelessness and institutionalization. i am so fucking sick of hearing people say “wow, sure are a lot of homeless schizophrenics, maybe we should bring the institutions back???“ like fuck you, as if the only two options are letting us die in the streets or locking us away in an institution. as if there isnt an option where we get to be included in society and treated like people

normalize walking away from therapy that isn't doing you any good

normalize informing yourself about the effects and efficacy of psychiatric medication and deciding for yourself whether to take it

normalize disagreeing with and rejecting diagnostic labels

normalize choosing peer support and peer-led groups

normalize autonomy over our minds and bodies

please stop making fun of assistive devices like things that will help you open jars or put on your socks, please stop calling them a “waste of money” or “something for lazy idiots” please im begging you. do you know that disabled people exist

Phoenix Rising: A Voice of the Psychiatrized (1980-1990)

Here’s an archived link to the site. 

^^^ Updated link!