Affluenza: the criticism stands...
Oliver James has replied to my criticism of his (I am sorry to say terrible) new book Affluenza with the following point:
Daniel Finkelstein from the Times and Tim Worstall state that there is no connection between national inequality and mental illness, contrary to my evidence. But my claims concern this relationship in developed nations. Obviously if, as they do, you add in developing nations such as Nigeria, it is a different matter - my arguments regarding affluenza apply to developed nations.
On top of that, wilfully or because they have not read the book closely enough, they misrepresent my argument as being based on inequality. Rather, my point is that selfish capitalism (of which inequality is a consequence) is what is doing our heads in.
Well, wilfully or because he has not read my article closely enough, Dr James misrepresents my argument.
I did not state that there was no connection between national inequality and mental illness. Instead, I argued that Dr James had not demonstrated that national inequality caused mental illness. This is, as I pointed out, an entirely different thing.
Dr James now says that it is selfish capitalism that is the real issue and that I misrepresent him as making an argument based on inequality.
Funny that.
In his introductory chapter he describes the relationship between mental illness and inequality as being one of the two "fundamental facts about Selfish Capitalism and emotional distress" that the book reveals. He says that "since Selfish Capitalism is the main cause of inequality in developed nations, this strongly suggests that Selfish Capitalism is not a good way to run things". (Just for completeness, the other fundamental fact is that emotional distress is higher in English speaking nations than in Western Europe)
His assertion of a causal link between inequality and mental illness is absolutely central to his book and he does not demonstrate it to be true.
Having read the book, as well as today's associated Guardian CiF Column (It's a Mad World), I agree.
Correlation does not imply causation, and other factors, perhaps correlated with both income inequality and emotional distress, may instead be causative.
The question of Italy as a confounding datapoint (those who have the book, observe the figure in Appendix 1 and the table in Appendix 3) stands.
Ian
Posted by: IanWhickham | 16 Feb 2007 19:14:52
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
http://www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=75&func=view&id=68&catid=6
http://www.earthnewswire.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=89&page=viewtopic&t=11
sushil_yadav
Posted by: sushil_yadav | 17 Feb 2007 13:51:49
"the other fundamental fact is that emotional distress is higher in English speaking nations than in Western Europe"
James might just as well argue that the speaking of the english language
is the cause of mental illness. If correct, perhaps he ought to have written his book in French.
Posted by: Peter | 17 Feb 2007 20:14:16