Capitalism and Psychopathology

Book excerpt: This book argues that psychological suffering is the manifestation of the alienation caused by the double life that is imposed upon individuals in Capitalism. It identifies capitalism as the source of this suffering. The book demonstrates that psychopathologies like depression, paranoia, Borderline Personality, as well as the symptoms like hallucination, delusion, splitting, etc. are nothing but the requirements of this system. This claim is substantiated through a dialogue between the psychoanalytic discourse regarding mental illness and the Marxian critique of life under capitalism. Psychoanalysis finds the roots of psychopathology within the psyche of the individual while Marxian critique looks at the systemic dimensions of alienation and the suffring it causes. The author's claim is that Capitalism, alienation, and psychopathology are one and the same phenomena. It is not possible to get rid of one without the others.