Across the pond

David Finelstein, columnist of The Times, attacks the ideas put forward in psychologist Oliver James’s new book, Affluenza, which he wrote about in The Guardian yesterday. The gist of James’s argument is that consumer capitalism produces mental illness. After doing his demolition job Finkeltein comes up with a recommendation of a book by Tim Lott, which he says is a moving and funny account of his own mental illness. He summarises the message of the book:

Lott suggests that we tell each other stories about who we are and have trouble coping when reality makes those stories impossible to maintain. This is why bankruptcy, divorce and other traumatic incidents can lead to suicidal breakdown.

Follow the links for a ringside seat at this battle of the giants.

I am not too impressed with either case. I don’t think James add much to Marx’s concept of alienation and false wants, which he came up with about 130 years ago when consumer capitalism was its infancy. Long before he motor car. And Lot’s may be worth reading it does sound like a variation of identity problems, which have long been recognised as one factor in mental illness.

I am in no mood for joining in this debate, because I have just read the manic depressive diary of an Australian woman. It is not at all funny. She writes very movingly about the manic depression she has lived with all her life. And the most recent passages deal with her discovery that she has an inoperable cancer.

It left me feeling humbled. Nothing I have experienced has been anything like as painful. But I am grateful to have read it.