Mental Health in the Consumer Society Looking beyond the Biological Dogma

Abstract

As Mental Health Disorders are on the verge of becoming one of the leading factors of disability in the world, a new perspective of mental health disorders is necessary. In fact, mental health disorders are largely analyzed within the biomedical model, leaving out those social and power structures in which a disease might be embedded. In fact, due to a focus on growth, individualism and materialistic values, societies have grown ever more fragmented in the age of capitalism as is visible within diminishing relationships. Therefore, this thesis proposes an analysis of the structural forces behind mental health disorders that can be linked to a social logic of consumption.