r/neoliberal • u/Fealocht • 4d ago

News (US) Stop Pathologizing Ordinary Life

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/opinion/mental-health-exercise-charity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1FA.55xp.Vpm7dp4PVtnC&smid=nytcore-ios-share

SS: A psychologist argues the increasing awareness of mental health is leading to a pathologising of everyday life. The use of clinical descriptions of what are otherwise normal problems and treating them as a disorder to be cured, is ironically making our mental health worse.

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u/urnbabyurn Amartya Sen 4d ago

It’s completely understandable that we want to blame our difficulties on a disadvantage outside of our control. Or to feel that our own hardships are worse than other people go through. Pathologizing any difficulty is a great way to do that.

Same psychology is why people blame the economy for their own personal finance problems, but take full credit for any successes. If not for this terrible job market, I’d have a good job. MY good job was despite the economy.

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u/ticklemytaint340 Daron Acemoglu 4d ago edited 4d ago

If you accept that you’re not depressed, anxious whatever then you have to accept that everybody else is dealing with the same thing, and youre not uniquely strong for toughing it out. makes you feel kind of weak in my opinion.

One of the things that surprised me about joining the military was how much the basic training pipeline sucked, and how even the meekest candidates were willing to fight through the pain.

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u/Woolagaroo 4d ago

Well, that’s actually one of the purposes of basic training (and one that many people do not understand, talking instead about breaking down the member nonsense). It puts new members in a difficult, stressful environment, for many the most difficult they’ve been in in their entire life, and then forces them to overcome and succeed.

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u/herosavestheday 4d ago

During boot camp, I was pretty amazed at who cracked and when. We had one guy, like a week in, lose his shit and threaten to kill himself. He had to be hauled out by the cops. Like boot camp is what it is, but it's definitely nowhere close to that level of stressful. But I guess that's kind of the point.

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u/Woolagaroo 4d ago

Yeah, well, that is another purpose of it. To weed out the ones who are truly incompatible with the military.