The psychological costs of capitalism's destructiveness

I was trained over 40 years ago in the discipline of community psychiatry. One of the key things that I learned was the devastating effects of poverty on one's mental health. Several years later, a seminal work entitled"Mental Illness and the Economy," written by an economist, Harvey Brenner exposed the reality of mass mental illness caused by economic disasters such as the one we are going through now. Subsequently, an entire body of research emerged under the category of the Psychosocial Impacts of Job Loss confirming the findings of Brenner.

For the handful of mental health professionals who kept pointing out that economic recessions and depressions lead to depression, suicide, homicide, alcohol and substance abuse, family breakdown(don't forget the Right Wing "Family Values" propaganda-where are they now), domestic violence, etc., it has been a long and lonely battle.

Another psychological aspect of the transformation of the American economy to a banana republic, is the political acquiescence of the populace. How long this will continue is hard to predict, but we should read our history books to learn that it does take time to form social movements that can overthrow the tyranny of financial oligarchies.