ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the main directions of argumentation in the area of mental health which have been offered by Marxist-influenced writers – namely, an understanding of the mental health system as a source of direct and indirect profit generation, and as an institution of social and ideological control. It examines the contemporary expansion of mental illness discourse under neoliberal ideology as a form of 'psychiatric hegemony'. The chapter discusses the economic dimensions of mental health system. The most often cited example of capitalism profiteering from the business of mental health in contemporary society is dominance of drug treatments. Alongside profit accumulation, Marxist scholars most often theorise the mental health system as a key institution of social control. As Moncrieff has recognised, the rise of biomedical psychiatry and neoliberalism are intrinsically linked – 'the chemical imbalance idea of psychiatric problems facilitates the neoliberal project', she argues, and 'features of neoliberalism in turn strengthen the chemical balance theory and biopsychiatry more generally'.
