Marxist scientists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin said, “nothing evokes as much hostility… as the suggestion that social forces influence or even dictate either the scientific method or the facts and theories of science." But it is in this illusion of non-ideological objectivity where ideology can be seen to be the most entrenched, functioning as unknown knowns, that is, as unrecognized assumptions or inherent biases which mediate how scientists approach the world. [...]
[S]tudies have shown that “within a given location, those with the lowest incomes are typically 1.5 to 3 times more likely than the rich to experience depression or anxiety.” The plethora of factors that stem from and contribute to poverty has allowed researchers to establish “a bidirectional causal relationship between poverty and mental illness,” [...]
“[C]hemical imbalances” don’t arise out of a void but are produced by the concrete environment the individual is in. The point, again, is not to diminish the biochemical in order to elevate the role of the environment, but to see both the biochemical and the environment as dialectically interconnected, acting “upon each other through the medium of the [individual].” [...]
It is much easier to reduce depression to a biochemical phenomenon in the brain than to analyze how the social relations prevalent in the capitalist mode of life create the conditions for the emergence of depression. Similarly, once this reduction is established, it is much easier to treat the “solution” through individualized drug consumption than through socially organized revolutionary activity. [...]
Tracing depression to the exploitative and alienating relations sustained between people and their work, their peers, and nature, is not only a much more laborious task, but one which would necessarily end in the realization of the systemic root of the problem. [...]
Cuban scientists see mental health issues and treatment “within the context of the community,” not isolated individuals. [...] This socialist model has afforded the Cuban people the conditions where, despite the enormous material difficulties created by the US blockade, depression in Cuba affects only 3.8 percent of the population, whereas in the United States 4.8 percent.
I didn't actually read this article, but I seem to recall that the meta-analysis study they reference at the beginning being shady. I'm lazy right now and don't feel like digging too much, but I remember the authors of that paper using shoddy evidence to argue against the use of SSRI's and other anti-depressents.
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There has been no proof that serotonin is linked to depression, and even before this particular study dropped, there's been deep suspicions in the field from scientists who aren't pharma shills. you should really read the article. also definitely reject "I'M a REAL scientist, and here's why Study That Says Society Is Bad Somewhat is actually fake and bad science; a thread" twitter posts
I read the meta analysis study when it came out and remember finding it of poor quality. I also remember reading multiple arguments against it that I found valid (on Reddit /r/science not Twitter thank you very much :soviet-huff: ). I may very well be completely wrong I just thought I'd share from memory.
Ok I guess that's the point of this article as well.
This article presented the meta-analysis as rather authoritative.
I haven't read the paper but I would be interested to know if that's not the case.
I have found SSRIs to be helpful in my mental health treatment and plan to continue taking them, so I'm not anti-pill. I like the way Mark Fisher framed it: depression is materially rooted and chemically instantiated. Drugs are a valid and useful tool for treating the problem (i.e. a crutch to support you in the hellscape) but they aren't the root cure.
This is still probably reductive but I can see three groups of thought:
Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance and cured with drugs
Depression is caused by capitalism and drugs can treat but not cure it
Depression is caused by capitalism and taking the pharma company's pill will only enslave you to the system
I happen to be in camp 2.
spoiler
You may be right. That's a good take. I'm just trying to goof around, not dunk on you, comrade. :meow-hug:
Well put. I'm in this camp.
4 isn't an actual position. Everyone in all the other 3 camps would agree with that. You can't use your statement to inform any treatment that the others wouldn't. camp one will say that its all meditation, exercise, and SSRIs, which 4 agrees with. Camp two will say the same except that societal and communal factors are extremely important which 4 agrees with. And camp 3 will say that SSRIs don't work and that its all just societal factors, which 4 agrees with.
4 is a summation of the question that everyone is trying to answer. Everyone is trying to prioritize all these different factors and find out which ones truly have a causal relationship between them and depression.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDhqTf5eJH4
theory of congruent depression vs clinical depression prob encompasses all 3 of these