#art
#depression
#capitalism
#psychology
#neoliberalism
“It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation. If it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation: and the task of repoliticizing mental health is an urgent one if the left wants to challenge capitalist realism.” – Mark Fisher
“Digital communication media has clearly intensified these pressures of precarity. It’s archaic to talk about a work place now, if you have an e-mail, you no longer have working hours… if you have a smartphone, the entire world is your workplace… this is what I mean by the banal inferno.” – Mark Fisher
“In the West we have this Banal Capitalism, dominated not by a kind of ever-mutating digital dance floor culture but by sort of the neurotisizing mechanisms of social media or social networks [...] Who really cared about communications 10-15 years ago? Might be nice to get a letter once a week… but you weren’t checking for the letter every 30 seconds. You weren’t obstructed from enjoying any other activity while waiting for that letter to arrive. We can’t enjoy anything while under the influence of this parasite that overrides our nervous systems, the electronic communicative material is our obsession as a consequence”. – Mark Fisher