Society and Mental Health: The Place of Religion
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200800002 |
| Pages | 4-7 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Author | Ian Shaw |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Ian Shaw
Professor in Health Policy, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
Society and Mental Health:
The Place of Religion
Abstract
As the consumer culture exerts a growing influence, considerable attention has been paid recently to achieving
‘happiness’ and improving mental health via psychological therapies. But is it the case that individuals have
‘something the matter’ with them or more that society is failing to offer a sense of belonging? This paper considers
whether it may be helpful to try rebuilding a sense of community and spirituality in people’s everyday lives.
Key words
Religion, society, mental wellbeing, spirituality, psychological therapies
the top level is termed ’growth needs associated with
psychological needs’. ’Deficiency needs’ must be met
first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy ’growth
needs’ drives personal growth.
The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into
focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are
satisfied. Once an individual has moved upwards to
the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer
be prioritised. If a lower set of needs is no longer being
met,the individual will temporarily re-prioritise those
needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs,
but will not permanently regress to the lower level.
Another way to read Maslow’s need hierarchy is
as a ladder on which we climb from ’animalism’ to
humanity. And one way of stating the limitations of
consumer society is to say that it can satisfy only our
animal needs. Consumerism can meet our physiological
need for nutrition and our safety need for shelter.By
the time we reach the third and fourth levels –
belonging, love and esteem – consumerism,like
Mephistopheles, delivers the semblance but not the
substance. We may try to purchase love, friendship and
respect, but what we buy will be prostitutes, parasites
and toadies. At levels five and six – our cognitive need
for knowledge and understanding and our aesthetic
need for beauty – consumerism is a spent force. As
for self-actualisation, the fulfilment of our potential
as human beings, consumerism is its antithesis.
Consumerism does not raise us up, it drags us down.
Another strand in thinking about consumerism
and what it is to be human derives from the ethical
writings of Aristotle. His influence runs powerfully
TS Eliot wrote, in his famous Choruses from
The Rock:
What life have you if not life together?
There is no life that is not in community
And no community not lived in god.
A community is where individuals and their gifts are
recognised and where their individuality is affirmed.
Community is also the place of support mechanisms.
It is not surprising that happiness has decreased since
the 1950s, despite increases in GDP (Layard, 2005).
The relevance of the traditional anchors and
support mechanisms of community – the family,
neighbourhood and the Church – have been eroded
sharply over the last 50 years in Britain. We live in a
more secular society where the relevance of community
and family has been downgraded as the satisfaction
of individual desires has moved to the centre stage.
The vehicle for this change is the consumer
culture. Sociological study of consumption is bound
up with notions of what it is to be a fully developed
human being, morally and spiritually (Aldridge,
2003). According to one influential theory put
forward by Abraham Maslow, human motivation
across all societies and at all times is organised in a
hierarchical structure of need. As each lower level
of need is met, so the next higher level comes into
force. Maslow’s ’need hierarchy’ has seven levels
(Figure 1), often depicted as a pyramid consisting of
five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together
as being associated with physiological needs, while
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 13 Issue 1 March 2008 © Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
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