You've brilliantly diagnosed how capitalism doesn't just create individual trauma - it systematically prevents us from processing that trauma collectively, instead forcing us to either consume it as personal pathology or pass it down as inherited wounds. What strikes me is how this connects to something I call "unmetabolized memory" - when societies can't collectively process their pain, they build systems that perpetuate the very conditions that created the suffering in the first place.
If we truly want to heal the mental health crisis, shouldn't we be asking: How do we create systems that help communities metabolize trauma together instead of forcing individuals to carry societal wounds alone?
Great piece. It feels nice that there are others out there that see the true reason for mental health decline. It can feel very isolation trying to describe why you feel certain ways to people who don’t see mental health in this light, and believe that it’s truly just a “chemical imbalance” or prescribe you as just being lazy.
Absolutely phenomenal piece. I’ve explored many of these same conclusions from a different trajectory, through the lens of dispossession and estrangement. What you’ve framed so clearly here reminded me that mental health crises don’t just arise from capitalism’s conditions but from its severing.
I would go so far as to say that the original wound (what I call “theft”) is the rupture between person and purpose, land and life, labor and meaning. Estrangement is the diagnosis, and our treatment must be collective. We were not made to survive in alien cages of disconnection and commodified life.
Much respect for the clarity and care in this work. I’ll be citing it and would welcome cross-pollination anytime.
You've brilliantly diagnosed how capitalism doesn't just create individual trauma - it systematically prevents us from processing that trauma collectively, instead forcing us to either consume it as personal pathology or pass it down as inherited wounds. What strikes me is how this connects to something I call "unmetabolized memory" - when societies can't collectively process their pain, they build systems that perpetuate the very conditions that created the suffering in the first place.
If we truly want to heal the mental health crisis, shouldn't we be asking: How do we create systems that help communities metabolize trauma together instead of forcing individuals to carry societal wounds alone?
100%. I tell ppl “there is no trauma, only colonization and its effects.”
great article. gonna share it with my comrades ❤️
Great piece. It feels nice that there are others out there that see the true reason for mental health decline. It can feel very isolation trying to describe why you feel certain ways to people who don’t see mental health in this light, and believe that it’s truly just a “chemical imbalance” or prescribe you as just being lazy.
Such a fantastically written piece, really eye-opening.
Thank you!
Absolutely phenomenal piece. I’ve explored many of these same conclusions from a different trajectory, through the lens of dispossession and estrangement. What you’ve framed so clearly here reminded me that mental health crises don’t just arise from capitalism’s conditions but from its severing.
I would go so far as to say that the original wound (what I call “theft”) is the rupture between person and purpose, land and life, labor and meaning. Estrangement is the diagnosis, and our treatment must be collective. We were not made to survive in alien cages of disconnection and commodified life.
Much respect for the clarity and care in this work. I’ll be citing it and would welcome cross-pollination anytime.
love the articles ❤️
Appreciate you
Another take: depression as a normal human response. https://open.substack.com/pub/dreamsdemystified/p/dreaming-through-darkness-on-melancholy?r=1tgqjy&utm_medium=ios
https://giftypost.substack.com/p/beyond-the-echo-chamber?r=27fe0r