A condition is only called a mental illness if it is socially problematic, i.e. not good for being productive within the system. If your predispositions don't help the machine, or you could live well within another context—agrarian, hunter gatherer—but cannot cope within the modern world, then you are considered mentally ill. But if your neuroses help contribute to the machine, even if you are a monster in many ways, then you are considered "successful" and perhaps even called a genius.
The main reason I am suspicious of the surge in interest in "mental health" is that ultimately, the system always wins. This means that if there is a lack of fit between an individual and the system we live under, then the individual will always be blamed or attempts will be made to "fix" them, whereas the system keeps growing as it would, no matter the damages it causes to the environment and human beings.
Mental health within the system must always be in its service, which is why "health" and "sanity" must constantly be distorted so as to be favorable to the machine. If you cannot pay attention to the dull lessons from a boring teacher in a classroom, at an age where your body constantly prompts you to explore the world instead of sitting in a chair for 8 hours a day, then there is something wrong with you. You have an attention deficit disorder. It isn't the teacher who is at fault, or the schooling system, no, it is the child.
The current paradigm of mental health is one of management, not of healing. It is about sorting those who can contribute to the technological system from those who can’t, not about insuring a more harmonious relationship between individuals and one another, as well as their environment. The same way that jail is about sorting the trouble-makers from the rest, that school is about sorting the obedient children from the others, and the office is about rewarding the most compliant workers, and not necessarily the brightest, kindest, or most productive. Sorting and control, not health, beauty or love, is the name of the game for the system.
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2024-11-30