/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16448611]

Is industrial society making us more insane or did it just make insanity more visible and closer to us? Or both? Any books about the how static or variable humanity’s mental development over history has been and how technology might have affected it?

[Anonymous No.16448679]

>>16448611
Both, we've been letting the only mildly insane out of the wards since the ~60s (you could argue longer ago) with the anti-psychiatry movement, and much mental illness is highly infectious

[Anonymous No.16448803]

>>16448679
What about the pre-psychiatry time though? Mental illness surely must have existed before it has been signified. Otherwise it just seems like a hoax to make people either work and productive or numb and innocuous.

[Anonymous No.16448809]

technological society and propaganda by ellul

[Anonymous No.16448837]

>>16448611
you should read Madness and Civilization by Foucault, it's not about the present but it gives a very interesting overview how insanity has been viewed over the centuries in Europe.

[Anonymous No.16448858]

>>16448803
Basically the bar for being a functional human being was much lower and all non serious shit was just beaten out of you.

[Anonymous No.16448866]

>>16448803
the number of people with mental illness has never changed we just more aware of it now trust me bro

[Anonymous No.16448879]

>>16448611
More of the latter. It's not like our history isn't full of shit like animal sacrifice, religious delusion, and so on.

[Anonymous No.16448881]

>>16448866
Industrial society has increased mental illness. Alienation makes it all worse

[Anonymous No.16448891]

>>16448879
None of that is insanity

[Anonymous No.16448915]

>>16448891
If you're talking about literal insanity, then pretty much nothing in postmodern society is insanity either.

[Anonymous No.16448929]

>>16448803
>Otherwise it just seems like a hoax
Shhh anon, you'll get us both locked up. Jokes aside, you are largely right as to the reason for modern psychiatry, that's not to say mental illness is a hoax, but treatment is all about returning people to work/comfortable numbness as opposed to solving the root causes. Pre-psychiatry mental-illness did exist, but what's notable is that psychiatry didn't exist because minor mental illnesses (such as depression, anxiety, excessive anger) were successfully treated with hollistic measures, as doctors understood that the body affects the mind and vice-reversa. For example take a brief peak through some ancient chinese medical literature (the Huangdi Neijing for instance): what we see is that mental illness isn't regarded as having many different forms, rather any mental complaint (with very broad segmentations for different moods) can be treated with blood-letting, warm baths, etc depending on the season. In terms of severe mental illness, madness that is, we again didn't see the segmentation we have today. In fact, the collected symptoms of schizophrenia doesn't show up in pre-industrual medical literature. I'm sure you've heard of the medieval dancing plagues as well, a fantastic demonstration of mental illness being a social contagion - with that in mind you can do the maths on why so many people have so many of the same mental illnesses since the advent of easy communication and denser yet cities.
>>16448837
This as well

[Anonymous No.16448947]

You'd get a wealth of stuff to think about on this topic from Foucault's Madness & Civilization

[Anonymous No.16448967]

>>16448611
Society has changed, a lot of mental problems are obviously caused by our current situation people are on shit diets and don't exercise properly, were also not made to interact with as many people as we do. Psychiatry as a field is also pretty bad, it's embarrassing to work in this field sometimes, we don't really know how to deal well with mental issues aside from basic cbt and drugs that are barley effective over placebo. But some blame is to the visibility, as we know hunter gather tribes just drop off their crazies in the bush and let them die.

>>16448879
That's not necessarily "insane" as those people had a completely different knowledge base and world view. You'd very likely be an animal sacrificer if you grew up in their situation.

[Anonymous No.16448986]

>>16448967
>That's not necessarily "insane" as those people had a completely different knowledge base and world view.
See >>16448915

[Anonymous No.16449682]

>>16448611
Lol have you read any historical novels or non-fiction?

People were always insane if not more. You have some sort fantasy of a harmonious pastoral in the past, but it’s exactly the opposite.

If you want to see what the past was like go to a developing country or somewhere with a low literacy rate. Then come back and see if you still think the same way

[Anonymous No.16449812]

>>16448611
Definitely making us more insane. Kaczynski is right.

[Anonymous No.16449824]

>>16449812
No he was wrong about everything, small try leaving your basement

[Anonymous No.16449877]

>>16448611
It's tough to say whether there was more mental illness now or before, in the past it was more likely to be called a demonic possession, and social stigma had bigger impact back then than it does now, making families hide troublesome members.

[Anonymous No.16450175]

>>16448879
What's so bad about animal sacrifice? We probably kill a greater number animals in a day than all the sacrificial animals in Antiquity combined. Only difference is that we throw most of them in the trash while they used them as a transcendental symbol to honor their gods and ate them afterwards.