Understanding mental health as a societal problem: The Social Causation Method

A different approach is rooted in the understanding that people have a need for social interaction in order to function and that we are affected by ever-changing political, economic and social contexts. Social interaction and collectivisation of our problems enhance the ability for survival in dealing with the everyday pressures that people constantly have to face, therefore the lack thereof can result in a state of loneliness or the atomisation of coping with mental illness. In this perspective, mental health is an issue that relates to social power, located in the structure of society. Class, racism, and patriarchy are ideological instruments that constantly work against individuals and especially against the organising of the working class. This perspective argues that the underpinnings of mental illness is in the way society is organised, and made particularly bad under capitalism.

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