Is society driving you mad?
Yes?
You’re in the right place!
Bankers, businesses, and politicians are finding ways to squeeze people economically at every turn, when there’s nothing left to squeeze. The loss of jobs and housing leads to hunger and homelessness.
Poverty and stress are breeding grounds for trauma, which many of us are burying with addictions.
Most of us not only have a precarious livelihood, but we’ve lost our communities.
Technology is replacing human interaction, which is good for the tech billionaires, but means many of us no longer have friends.
Social support and interaction isn’t only a necessary buffer against stress, anxiety, and depression – it’s through others that we find relief from poverty, and with them that we change the world.
When capitalist society has everything to do with why we’re mentally unwell, why do we so seldom talk about mental health in this context?
The dominant mental health paradigm seldom addresses the role of trauma, institutional oppression, inequality, poverty, or the media in our wellbeing. It rather supports capitalism by dehumanizing the poor, individualizing social problems, and pathologizing difference. It encourages conformity to a society run by sociopaths, and weakens us by pathologizing social problems. There are those who would like to keep us depressed, anxious, and powerless. Disempowered people don’t form unions; they consume to numb their pain.
Psyke is a new collective and blog exploring mental health from alternative perspectives, and in the context of capitalism and culture. It’s a place where personal narrative meets psychology, science, culture psychoanalysis, philosophy, and economics.
Psyke in Greek means butterfly. We believe in individual and collective transformation. In the process of transforming the world, we are transformed. And by transforming ourselves, we transform the world we live in. We believe we can best do these things together.
Mental health is a social and community issue, as well as an economic and political one. We all have ideas and perspectives to share, and we can all help each other.
We want to create a place for you to write and share your story, and to connect and collaborate with others.
We’re exploring alternative treatments, doing research, and creating resources.
We invite you to join us. Write for us, share your narrative, and help us grow as we create new projects and resources.
Welcome to psyke!