Narrative mindshaping, neoliberalism, and mental health

Various theorists have argued that dominant approaches to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment are deeply rooted in capitalist norms and values. I propose that just as neoliberal ideology and free-market logics have shaped customary understandings of mental disorder, they have influenced people’s sense of what it means to be “mentally healthy.” Such ideology and associated values are disseminated partly via a “master narrative” regarding what sorts of attitudes and behaviors signify “mental health.” According to this dominant story, mental health consists in (i) falling in line with market demands (for economic productivity and consumption), and (ii) taking personal responsibility. To make sense of how the norms and expectations associated with this narrative mold human subjectivity and prompt a particular sort of worldly orientation, I draw upon insights from the enactivist approach and associated notions of embodied habit and mindshaping. This approach helps to conceptualize the intertwinement of biology and culture and the way in which sociocultural influences get “internalized” and anchored in the body, via habit formation and the entrainment of neurobiological dynamics. Insofar as neoliberalism cultivates embodied habits that ultimately detract from mental health, it is plausibly understood as toxic.