14 | Mental Health, Individualism, and the Economy | "It's Not Just In Your Head"

Social Medicine On Air

Podcast crossover episode!

Harriet and Max, hosts of the "It's Not Just In Your Head" podcast, join us today to discuss mental health, how capitalism accelerates inequality and social breakdown, and how most approaches to mental health care support neoliberal individualism. They explain the connection between personal and social liberation, our need for one another, the value and pitfalls of medication-based approaches, the need for a strong labor movement and organizing, and how mental health is inextricably bound to social conditions.

"It's Not Just In Your Head" is a podcast with Harriet Fraad (@harrietfraad) and Max Golding, two mental health professionals who explore how our capitalist economic system impacts our emotional lives, from precarious housing and employment, to unaffordable healthcare, to endless debt -- it's not just in your head! Dr. Harriet Fraad is a mental health counselor and activist in New York City with over 45 years of experience, who writes and speaks on the intersection of politics, economics, and personal life; her work can be found at harrietfraad.com. Max Golding is a licenced marriage and family therapist from California who is interested in tenant and labor organizing, and connecting the struggle for mental health with other struggles for justice and liberation.

Their recommended resources:

• Mark Fisher. (2009). Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Winchester, UK: Zero Books.

• Capitalism Hits Home (podcast) with Dr. Harriet Fraad & Julianna Forlano, link

• Kate Pickett & Wilkinson, Richard. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin Books.