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Thom's blog
Neoliberalism Is Creating a Mental Health Crisis
 Meagan Day writing over at Jacobin magazine is quoting from a new study that was published in Psychological Bulletin written by Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill. And what this absolutely fascinating study found was behavioral and psychological changes in the American population, and these changes are most pronounced among people under 50, down into the end of the Millennials in particular, but it stretches right across the United States. And what they're finding is that perfectionism is on the rise. Now, what is perfectionism? Perfectionism comes in three forms: there's self-oriented perfectionism - "I want to be perfect", there's other-oriented perfectionism - "I want my wife / my husband / my employee / my employer / my neighbor / my friend to be perfect", and then there's socially prescribed perfectionism which is where the entire culture starts basically harassing us all to be perfect. They say all three types are on the rise and this is a bad thing. This is causing an increase in suicides, an increase in anxiety, and an increase in all kinds of problems. In fact, they write:
"Unsurprisingly, societies governed by these values make people very judgmental, and very anxious about being judged..."
Meagan Day writes:
"It describes the feeling of paranoia and anxiety engendered by the persistent - and not entirely unfounded - sensation that everyone is waiting for you to make a mistake so they can write you off forever. This hyper-perception of others' impossible expectations causes social alienation, neurotic self-examination, feelings of shame and unworthiness, and 'a sense of self overwhelmed by pathological worry and a fear of negative social evaluation, characterized by a focus on deficiencies, and sensitive to criticism and failure.'"
Do you find yourself criticizing yourself as you go through the day? "Oh, I shouldn't have said that, oh my god, I can't believe I did that." That's what we're talking about here.
"They found that people born in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada after 1989 scored much higher than previous generations for all three kinds of perfectionism, and that scores increased linearly over time. "
Socially prescribed perfectionism has doubled - a hundred percent increase.
"In other words, young people's feeling of being judged harshly by their peers and the broader culture is intensifying with each passing year."
So why would this be happening? Well, it turns out that this is the result of neoliberalism, which you could also call Reaganism or Thatcherism. Both the United States and the United Kingdom have been badly infected by this.
Read more here. -Thom (What do you think? Tell us here.) |
Friday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Jude Wanniski's 2 Santa Clauses...alive & well in 2018
Article: " Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8 (Powers of Congress). " The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States..." Book: Grant by Ron Chernow.
Site: POGO (Project On Government Oversight). Quote: " You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight." - Barry Goldwater.
Hour Three: Anything Goes... What's on Your Mind? Thom takes YOUR Calls...
Quote: " If [people] place such things as friendship and family ties above their own productive work, yes, then they are immoral. Friendship, family life and human relationships are not primary in a man's life. A man who places others first, above his own creative work, is an emotional parasite." - Ayn Rand. |
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Thom's Poll
Trump Won't read His Daily Intelligence Briefings - In Order to Get Him to Read - Should We....
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