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Our current global mental health problems are caused by our forced addiction to money
In an overarching reality fully focused on money (financial growth), we get deprived of morality and unconsciously develop mental disorders at all levels of society. Nearly all our current global challenges can be attributed to that. Disconnecting from the financial doctrine, embracing the morality of our sustainable existence as a natural species in our natural Earth habitat, gives us again a sense of meaning and purpose. It empowers us mentally, healing old problems while developing a sustainable future together. But we need to make the disconnecting choice. The experiences, with the introduction of an alternative coined as Sustainocracy, have provided useful insights with very promising results. They were published in the global Journal of Mental Disorders (article to be released soon, available upon request).
When my article on “breaking with our heritage” was published, through the University of Urbino in Italy and the Euro-Spes community on business and spirituality, I was invited by the Journal of Mental Health Disorders to reflect on such mental turning points through their global magazine.
A mental turning point was experienced when I decided to break away from the doctrines of the financial world in order to develop certain ethical considerations that were important to me. The benefit of such breaking is that one develops a new reality, getting to compare both, the finance driven doctrine and the one based on ethical values, also from a mental empowerment point of view. The analysis remains very subjective when only related to me, a potential outcast of a mainstream functioning of society. It becomes more objective when relating it to other mental and behavioral breaking points experienced by more people, even by entire regions, such as the city of Eindhoven.
Equally I could relate to the reaction of people and institutions when invited to join the activities of the human centered “Sustainocracy”, an environment based on my own moral awareness about existential human values. For instance to develop the “healthy city” together. Especially the activities of COS3i for social inclusion became a Box of Pandora with many people carrying different kinds of old traumas. These had mostly been inflicted by the impact of a single approach to reality through doctrines (such as money or religion). Presenting people with an alternative, a second choice based on human values, gave many a mental boost. It equally showed the negative impact on mental health when people get disconnected from morality. It undermines their identity, their behavior, their wellness, while developing mental and behavioral disorders that can range from psychoses, burn-out, behavioral tunnel visions, competitive aggression up to deeply rooted narcissism.
This does not only affect people in a situation of financial disadvantage but also those that develop well in the financial competitive hierarchies. Presenting people again with morality breaks with the limiting tunnel visions, enhancing their well being with meaning and purpose. This happens in a job, in leadership positions and also in people’s private life. When they feel meaning and purpose again they equally feel the possibility to give their old trauma’s a place in their past. They develop their own breaking point and empowerment.
Only when an alternative, such as the approach of Sustainocracy, is introduced as an healing injection of morality, the old mental disorders become apparent. Before they were nasty handicaps, problems for society. They justified the appearance of all kinds of care institutions that function within the same overarching doctrine. These normally don’t solve the problem, they suppress them or try to get people to deal with them through denial or minimization. The mental disorders also develop into political and financial hierarchical clusters, deprived of morality and with biased self interest as their only motivation. The people involved don’t see themselves as mentally disturbed because of the lack of a moral counterweight. This explains why we have arrived at a global situation referred to as the “Anthropocene” or “the human being as the 6th cause of destruction of life on Earth since its existence”. These indicators already allude to the collective mental disturbance that leads to self destruction. It reminds of my article “How stupid can smart be“, reflecting about the denomination of the region of Eindhoven as “the smartest of the world”. How smart is a region when it pollutes itself out of financial self interests, causing severe physical and mental disorders among its citizens? Is smartness only measured in financial terms or patents? Or in our capacity to sustain our species in a healthy, mature and progressive way? With Sustainocracy we decided for the latter.
We all have a choice. We only have to make use of it and reap the benefits. The invitation to develop it will always remain, with or without our help.
Mental health empowerment
At the request of the global magazine “Mental health” I wrote a scientific article about this. This is based on another article of mine about the phenomenon of a mental “breaking point” or a change in thinking and acting that is motivated by moral meaning. This means that someone questions his or her own behavior, often pushed by the imposed norms of society or old personal ways of thinking (traditions, trauma), and decides to completely change course. A special side effect is that mental health is given a strong boost through meaning and a strong commitment to the moral values on which decision-making is based. In my case, this became the basis for the emergence of Sustainocracy as an evolutionary proposition for human societies. Over time, I came into contact with many people who walked with me on this path of Sustainocracy for some time. They often carried a mental backpack of old traumas, negative self-image, fears, insecurities, etc. that all in one way or another arose from the current money-driven and strongly hierarchical society. Due to the lack of an alternative, these people continued to have mental health problems. When they came into contact with Sustainocracy and the associated human values, a new perspective emerged, a form of meaning that contributed to a form of healing and empowerment for all kinds of people. This was often still hampered by the pressure of the system authorities and associated expectations, but the relativism had planted the seeds.
The current uni-dimensional money-driven society is structurally unhealthy and produces mental ill health as can be seen in the culture of fear that is also fueled by the polarization of political parties. The entire financial political structure is located in the unhealthy, immoral quadrant of the drawing. This is reflected in the many problems in the world that are often caused by this competitive control politics. We are all part of that, partly due to the forced dependency imposed by the system. My own personal turning point brought me to the point of commitment to human values. At that time I had no idea of the impact of this on the mental health of me and my environment in general. This is because I first had to let go of forms of unhealthy control and fears. I was able to do this with confidence because of the meaning that had invaded me. In all the activities that I subsequently developed, healthy, warm interpersonal ties were created, also with people in hierarchical positions of all kinds of companies and institutions, including governments. The shared commitment to, for example, the “healthy city” approach in Eindhoven and the surrounding area provided a healthy mental dose of meaning, creativity, mutual connections and goal-oriented motivation. These are all building blocks for mental health, in contrast to fear, uncertainty, competition, hatred, judgment, jealousy, etc. that are caused by our one-sided social management based on money, dependency, performance, political interests, competition, inequalities, control, meaningless growth (with many negative impacts), etc. We are often unaware of the mental ill-health that this form of society causes because we are completely mentally absorbed in the activities (work, consumption, entertainment) that are expected of us or have become part of our blind comforts. We often feel the symptoms of mental disturbance and unrest but do not make conscious connections because of the culture in which we live. We only notice the real difference when we let go of this, experience the turning point ourselves and let the meaning do its work. With Sustainocracy everyone has a choice. But the choice has a price. That price is not expressed in money but in letting go of control and fear, and embracing human values and cooperation. Mental health is a result.
Mental health challenges for our youth, education and society as a whole
The pressure of our current societal development on our youth shows important mental health issues in the form of trauma, anxiety, stress, negative self image, lack of confidence in the future, fear, etc. There are many reasons that cause such challenges: family pressure on educational performance, societal pressure due to expectations, lack of maturely balanced role models, broken families, general negativity in the media, social media influences, global instability, financial problems, etc.
During recent international encounters I met with educators from different areas of the world that were looking beyond their traditional teaching methods. They were passionate about values driven education and learning, looking into ways to empower the students with special attention, methods and overarching meaning. I myself participated with sustainocracy as overarching, human centered, societal approach to sustainable personal and regional development. We coincided so strongly that we started sharing insights, (proposed) publications, interaction with students, etc.
In general it opened a box of Pandora around mental issues in general and specifically seen in the context of the era we live in these days. Research shows that a stagering 12 to 15% of our upcoming generations suffer from some kind of mental or behavioral disorder. This is considered even a tip of the iceberg. My own experience, at societal level in my own region, places the burden even higher. Burdens that remain even unnoticed due to the tunnel vision of people forming society. This is influenced also by the recent Covid events, political polarization of societal diversity, lack of attention on values in the educational institutions (with certain exceptions) and the unreal pressure of the capitalist societal bias.
Gradually a network appears of professionals with a sense of responsibility, wanting to do things differently with and for our youth, to provide them with meaning, purpose, mental resilience and instruments to handle the challenges of this era effectively. If you wish to be part of this network feel free to contact me by email (jp@stadvanmorgen.com) or through replying to this blog.
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 