Pathologisation, in other words, trumps politicisation. Individual ills foreclose action on society ills. This process, it hardly needs stating, works pretty well in helping maintain the status quo. It also, of course, delivers considerable benefits for capitalism, since an ever-growing number of products and services (massages, apps, self-help books, therapy, booze, vitamins, pharmaceuticals) are sold to a frazzled populace as there to help with stress and anxiety. To take one member of the frazzled as an example: the single mother we see struggling onto a tram. She would no doubt benefit from a massage and spa treatment, if she could afford one and had the time. She would find it relaxing, even borderline orgasmic. But this fact shouldnt allow us to overlook the things that would really help reduce her stress in a meaningful way: affordable housing, a better deal for renters, available and reasonably priced childcare, family-friendly workplaces, wage equality, and better public transport linking her to family, friends and services, and thus preventing a slide into isolation. Similar cases could be made for the stress of many others in the community. For the stress of the casual, insecure worker. The stress of the unemployed man. The stress of the poorly paid woman. The stress of the homeless person. The stress of the recent arrival. To put this another way, stress often stems from concrete social and economic problems that we lose sight of by being seduced into seeing all stress as simply the struggles and failings of individuals to adjust to change, to find work-life balance, to go home on time. A larger political dimension is obscured. The resulting privatisation of stress essentially leaves each person trying to wage battle against a largely invisible enemy. From the article Read more: brisbanetimes.au/comment/when-stress-is-more-than-just-a-pain-in-the-neck-20131118-2xr1g.html#ixzz2l4jWmyvD Posted by Greg Oke
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:02:15 +0000
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