> I suspect that America's lack of work life balance, lack of social safety net, repressive moral culture, high gun violence
Are Americans in therapy directly affected by those issues, or - how can I put this - merely worried about those issues in general terms?
The Economist wrote recently about how political views appear to affect mental health in the USA. The title feels unnecessarily inflammatory, for which I apologise, the article's content feels much more balanced.
What do you mean by "directly affected?" The lack of a social safety net makes me worry about myself (and loved ones) and what might happen in the event of severe job loss or health misfortune. In my city I see people living on the streets almost every day - it is a recurring reminder of the thin line.
Almost by definition, anyone who is directly suffering from the lack of a safety net -- because they are falling through where it would be, and living on the street -- is unable to gain access to therapy, because they wouldn't have money to pay for it.
>It is possible that liberalism does not just correlate with sadness but may exacerbate it. Musa al-Gharbi, a sociologist at Stony Brook University, has noted that educated, affluent white liberals have come to endorse the idea that America is systemically racist, leading them to view other racial and ethnic groups more warmly than their own. “This tension—being part of a group that one hates—creates strong dissociative pressures on many white liberals,” he wrote in the journal American Affairs. Another hypothesis, advanced by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, and Greg Lukianoff, a lawyer, is that liberals are performing a reverse cognitive behavioural therapy on themselves: promoting not resilience and optimism about incrementally improving the world but catastrophic rumination about problems such as climate change and fearfulness of disagreement even on university campuses. Such habits of mind can deepen depression.
> leading them to view other racial and ethnic groups more warmly than their own
I smell Great Replacement Theory bullshit. Even liberal white people still like white people. Even "diverse" shows have white people. Even comparatively less-racist places STILL have an advantage for white people.
Personally, one of the biggest factors that impacts my quality of life is not my own financial problems but my friends' problems. E.g. having enough money to eat out isn't much good if no one else can go with you. It's hard to have fun when your friends are worried about making ends meet. Etc.
So even if it doesn't happen to them, it may directly effect them.
Are Americans in therapy directly affected by those issues, or - how can I put this - merely worried about those issues in general terms?
The Economist wrote recently about how political views appear to affect mental health in the USA. The title feels unnecessarily inflammatory, for which I apologise, the article's content feels much more balanced.
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/04/04/are-ameri... ( https://archive.is/iWAaP )