Abstract
Through performing a Marxist analysis of the expansion of psy-professional expertise into the world of work, Cohen outlines the practical ways in which the mental health system serves the needs of capitalism to increase the market for goods and services as well as naturalise the fundamentally exploitative conditions of the workplace. Further, he argues that over the past 35 years, psychiatry’s role has changed from the social control and punishment of the unemployed and non-able bodied in the institutions to a more subtle focus on reinforcing compliant work regimes and permanent “self-growth” ideologies on the precarious worker in neoliberal society. This is demonstrated through a detailed case study on the recent medicalisation of shyness—as “social anxiety disorder”—by psychiatric authorities.
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Cohen, B.M.Z. (2016). Work: Enforcing Compliance. In: Psychiatric Hegemony. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46051-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46051-6_4
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