The Paradox of Progress

The last two centuries have brought much progress and prosperity to humanity. Above all, people seem to be in better health than ever before. The child mortality rate has fallen significantly, people are getting older and older, and medications for diseases are being developed quickly, many diseases have been eradicated.

At the same time, something apparently inexplicable is happening: life satisfaction and mental health are deteriorating. The number of depressions diagnosed in 14–19 year-olds rose by 119% between 2007 and 2017 (Kaufmännische Krankenkasse).

Now the question comes up: What is the reason for this?
Of course, there will not be a single trigger, but will be due to various factors.

Science and Religion

On the one hand, this certainly includes the unstoppable scientificization of the world. While many people used to use “God” or other transcendencies as a justification for matters that were not understood at this point in history, science explains more and more of them. Science shows us: the universe does not center around humankind after all.
While in the Christian faith human beings are the crown of creation, Darwin and his successors show that we are probably “only” an evolutionary product (and certainly not the end product).

While religion and spirituality have given many people a meaning in life for thousands of years, this meaning is no longer so easy to find in modern times. The “final push” in the western world was given to faith by the Enlightenment movement. It looks like this: there is probably no objective and general meaning. The previous identification with religion now falls away and there is a subjective loss of meaning — only a few probably find this meaning.
Life satisfaction decreases where there is no meaning — at least for many people who seek more in their lives than momentary and temporary pleasure.

In recent years, an exercise that has been practiced for centuries by almost all religions has become more and more popular: Meditation. But this phenomenon is worth an article itself.

No visions?

Another aspect is also the decline of the great visions in recent years: In the 60’s, people wanted to go beyond the world, to the moon. In the 1970s, Nixon launched the war against cancer, which was to be defeated in the same decade. In the 1980s, it was AIDS. In the decade that followed, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new world order and the democratization of many countries began. During the Cold War there was at least a clear bogeyman, and identification with one’s own country.
Besides religions, such goals also give people a sense of purpose. Even the janitor of NASA defined himself about it: “I’m helping put a man on the moon”.
In the last 20 years, large-scale projects have apparently declined — at least in the mainstream of society. Great modern visionaries with big goals like Elon Musk are respected, but often described as insane.
My personal feeling is that these visions will increase in the coming years. Led by “crazy” Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk or health pioneer Bill Gates, these ideas and ideologies will become socially accepted.

Increasing mental health problems

Alfred Adler, pioneer of psychotherapy and individual psychology, said that “all problems are interpersonal relationship problems”. This probably refers to problems about which one is really worried or even gets depressed. They are triggered by fear about the future, social pressure and feelings of inferiority. These are aspects of social life that are probably all too familiar to most people. After the natural dangers and problems of our ancestors have been solved to a large extent and people are living more and more peacefully, modern problems are triggered by these structures.
One aspect, however, is certainly also that more attention is paid to psychological problems and these are more often addressed. Today, bullying is often talked about: A social problem that certainly existed in the past, but was not so named there and was not so visible.
Although mental health has received more and more attention in recent years, it is still incredibly stigmatised throughout society. Those who have a broken leg complain in front of their friends and go to the doctor, while psychological problems are hushed up and those who go to therapists are “different” or “sick” anyway. Actually the people who are aware of these problems and want to change something are the healthiest in my opinion. But also the access to help is very limited (talking about Germany right now): While students need a high school diploma of 1.0 (best possible grade) to study psychology, patients often have to wait months for therapy sessions.
What can we do now to improve the situation? First of all, this probably starts with the social stigma: We have to speak openly about personal crises ourselves and encourage others to do so by praising rather than judging!
After that, a more extensive offer of therapy and psychosocial counselling must be created so that the worries and crises can be adequately addressed and a healing process can begin.

Would love to hear your ideas to improve this state of increasing hopelessness and mental health problems.