Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
So someone who has profound mental health problems or physical disabilities but can't access adequate health services due to various societal or economic obstacles to care should sort themselves out first before blaming the world?
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Peterson is a clinical psychologist. He’s treated many people with severe and debilitating mental illness. So clearly he believes not everyone can solve their problems by being more diligent and positive in the areas they can control. But a lot of people can.
This is one of the biggest problems with trying to address social ills today - we catastrophize by treating the worst case scenarios as the norm. Some people struggle to go to a job every day because their mother was an alcoholic who humiliated and belittled them, and now they’re in thrall to an addiction of some sort. They need serious intervention. But some people struggle to hold down a job because they’ve never developed healthy habits of body and mind. They can probably sort their own #### out with some guidance and incentive.
A lot of people denounce that sort of advice as victim-blaming. Everyone who suffers must be treated as helpless, powerless victims lacking all agency. Only by transforming our systems can they be given the top-down help they need.
But that approach is rooted in politics, not science. In most cases, treating distressed people as lacking in agency does not help them get better.