What I Cant Say in Session - Ep. 3 Your Mental Healthcare is Being Capitalized On

I cant say that I’m surprised. Something started out with good intentions. But within the landscape of late stage capitalism of a highly individualistic and self-serving culture, that thing has been weaponized. It has become a tool for personal gain. It becomes increasingly hard for a product of that environment to excuse itself from being a participant in it. 

I will not mince words, I don’t believe the Mental Health Industrial Complex is serving up what it says it is. I recently learned how common it is for students in psychotherapy programs to not have been to therapy themselves, ever. I’m sorry, what? That’s like someone wanting to become a professional basketball player that has never picked up the ball. The career has attracted self-serving actors of all shapes and sizes. Some masquerading their gnashing teeth behind a mask of eloquently designed sheep’s wool.

The capitalist systems that run most of the world need a few things to sustain themselves. The people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder need a large base of underpaid and undervalued people to sustain them and their lifestyle. In our society this is not just the lowest members of the socioeconomic ladder, it is a large portion of the middle-class as well. The Mental Health Industrial Complex is another institution that creates class division and perpetuates inequality and inequity. 

These days it’s so easy to consume mental health content on podcasts, books, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook. While providing information is not inherently harmful, these things have one thing in common. They make money. Typically, the goal for the creator to make this type of content is not solely to provide assistance to those that need it. Even if it started out that way, the monetization of the content they produce offers an irresistible temptation to pad their own pockets. They can make money, really good money, and do something that is categorically much easier. For most people, creating content will be much less mentally, psychologically, and emotionally taxing than it is to support people with dysregulated nervous systems, living in cycles of systemic oppression, and enduring nearly unspeakable trauma. For the consumer, the best case scenario is this content offers them tools and they have the intrinsic motivation to use those tools and apply them in their every day life, while asking for support from close family members and friends. 

That’s the best case, but it’s unlikely. 

At worst, consuming this content is a distraction. It makes people believe that they have everything they need to heal themselves and they don’t seek out support from a qualified person (professional or not) that will help them regulate their nervous system and they continue living their lives, feeling even more miserable because they didn’t heal themselves and they don’t understand why. Does this fact stop the creators from taking your money for their online programs, healing retreats, or merch? Apparently not. 

I’m not here to judge the people who make mental health content, have money-making businesses, or are otherwise subjectively successful. I imagine their intentions are pure. I also imagine that if I were faced with a similar decision, I would not be any different. Which means it’s become very important to me, not to put myself into a position where I have to choose. In my heart, I’m an anti-capitalist, and that makes me biased. But I’ve participated in the capitalist systems I was born into for my whole life, and this has created tension within me. I see the urge to live a more comfortable life, making more than 100k a year and having my family taken care of financially in a way that I never was. I must ask myself, what does it mean for me to be a good parent and provide for my kids? Shall I attempt to give them the most comfortable life possible? 

But with all there is to consume out there, one thing has always struck the wrong cord within me. You cant trust anything that someone does if they have an ulterior motive. In a capitalist system, if it isn’t a stated motive, money is invariably an ulterior one. Perhaps this comes from my own trust issues, of which I have many (after all, I have an extensive history of being bullied as a child), so take what I say with a grain of salt. The cycle of consumption is a way life that capitalism has packaged and sold to hundreds of millions of unassuming people. Take the phrase “The American Dream” for just one simple example. The advertisers, marketers, and salespeople are good at their jobs. Their task? Making that black number on the bottom of their reports as big as it can be. Whether that’s a sales report, stock valuation, or their own paycheque. 

I used to believe that the mental health industry was impervious to the economic corruption of capitalism. My naivety was short-lived. Even those that I look to for wisdom and inspiration are participants in the system. Therefore I must be too. Still one belief permeates my worldview, healthcare should be about care, not profit. 

Beware the wolves.