ABSTRACT
In Eric Hobsbawn’s (1996) book on the 20th century, he suggests that the most significant period of that century was that between the First World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a totally unforeseen event that ushered in the decline of the former communist system in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This led to a departure from the state-socialist systems that governed virtually all these countries to a Western-style market economy, with an unprecedented transition and transformation that included every aspect of human life. One of the main features of this Western-style economy is individualism, that is, the tendency for social conflicts and social inequality to be individualised. Arguably, within the framework of this social system, problems and conflicts are easily translated into socially accepted and communicable individualised morbidities. This is done through the psychological (re-) structuring of the human being, both body and soul. In an effort to adapt to continously
changing social realities, it becomes possible and perhaps even encouraged for social distress to become articulated through medical or psychiatric terminology. Depression and anxiety disorders are commonly acknowledged as indicators of such individually experienced life strains. In Western industrialised countries, the tremendous increase in rates of depression during the last five decades has been explained in terms of the cultural tendency towards individualisation and the fragmentation of social bonds (Seligman, 1990). It has even been suggested that any rapid and enduring cultural change is likely to be associated with an increase in psychological strain, which can be at times of epidemic proportions (Reykowski, 1994; Arnetz, 1996).
