World Gone Mad: The crisis of capitalism and mental health Jessica Cassell

Our brains do not develop in a vacuum but are heavily shaped by early childhood experiences of chronic poverty, stress, abuse, and violence. These adverse childhood experiences which alter the brain's circuitry and our body's stress response systems, are all rooted in the capitalist system and the exploitation, oppression, and inter-generational trauma that stems from it. In this episode I draw on modern developments in neuroscience and childhood development research to demonstrate that life under capitalism impairs optimal childhood development with serious repercussions throughout life. 

In this episode I look at how capitalist alienation and the loss of autonomy, denial of self, and the estrangement from humanity and each other it entails, is detrimental to our mental health.

In the first episode of World Gone Mad I give a general introduction to how the conditions of life under the sick and unjust capitalist system erodes our collective mental health.