“They are great blessings to have tender parents, dutiful children and to live under a just and well-ordered government.” – Seneca, On A Happy Life1
On the 9th of November 2023 the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) organised a free policy talk about the state of mental health in Europe and the EU’s involvement in the problem. I chose this talk specifically because I believe that there is a very important, yet not often mentioned, overlap betwixt mental health and politics.
After a short and worrying introductory video2 Virginie Mahieu, a neuroscientist and researcher from the EPRS team, went into more detail. My key takeaways were as follows:
Factors that contribute to mental health are either internal or external. Internal factors are often more biological or psychological. This can include genetics, psychological resilience, childhood trauma, relation to substance abuse etc.
External factors can be far more numerous but also more interesting from a political science perspective. The ones mentioned to be contributing to the rising numbers were the war in Ukraine, climate anxiety, the pandemic, socio-economic anxiety, the housing crisis, the excessive use of social media and more demanding and invasive workplace dynamics.
After this brief discussion on what the main challenges were, the talk shifted towards what the EU could do, has done, and is doing to tackle the issue. It was said that despite the fact that healthcare and treatment largely remain competences of the individual member states, the EU could still play a role in facilitating research and development, improve information sharing and use its purchasing power to provide effective care for its citizens.
Despite mental health not being considered a relevant topic for the EU-level -or any level for that matter- this is changing. Recently the EP and the Commission have committed themselves to draw out a more concrete action plan. Due to this the EP and Commission were able to make available 1,23 billion euros to dedicate to their mental health policies.
My question to Mahieu was if the recent rise of national populism could be linked to the deterioration of mental health in recent years.
In the scientific literature, populist voters are often referred to as those who are “left behind” by globalisation and “lost” in the seemingly rapid change around them. Kriesi (2006) referred to them as the “losers” of globalisation3. Eatwell and Goodwin (2018) also mentioned that key grievances that fuel the populist movements are feelings of distrust in and de-alignment from the political status quo (i.e. the EU), relative deprivation and destruction of society around them4. These are all negative emotions, hence my hypothesis regarding a link between the recent movement and deteriorating mental health.
In her response, Mahieu spoke of a potential link that she herself hypothesises could be there but is hard to establish concretely due to limitations in the current existing research.
References
- Ker, J. & Seneca, L. (2014). On the Happy Life. In Hardship and Happiness (pp. 233-274). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226108353-010
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AWcmj_V8Y&ab_channel=EuropeanParliamentaryResearchService
- Kriesi, H. (2006). Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: Six European countries compared. European Journal of Political Research. 45 (6). 921-956
- Eatwell, R., & Goodwin, M. (2018). National populism: The revolt against liberal democracy. Penguin UK.
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