Can today’s crisis in mental health be seen as the result of neoliberalism? We asked the panelists to reflect on the aftermath of the 2007/08 financial crisis and the austerity policies which followed, but then to engage with how the slashing of expenditure on public services and increase in private debt has been met with questions around whether these factors are exacerbating mental health problems.
This event titled, ‘Mental Health and Neoliberalism’, sought to situate the growing awareness of psychological distress in relation to such exogenous cultural and economic structures of oppression, but also examine how new technologies may be amplifying certain self-obsessive psychological states, such as attention and feedback addiction from social media and mobile devices.
Each speaker gave a presentation of their research on this topic, before engaging in a Q&A with the audience.
