Industrialisation and psyche
By Humair Hashmi

Humair Hashmi is a professionally certified psychotherapist who teaches at Imperial College, Lahore. This article was first printed in the Daily Times and is reproduced with his kind permission

Loneliness and alienation are two seeds planted in the psyche by industrialisation that later germinate and grow into trees of psychopathology. Depression may be one of these pathological reactions. It is often felt as the sense of loss, sadness, hopelessness and being ‘down in the dumps’. A major manifestation of depression is the loss of interest or the sense of pleasure in life

I wrote an article, The Feudal Psyche, for the Daily Times of July 1, 2004. The article was based upon what is called, ‘library research’ in campus jargon and was part of a paper I had read at the Afro-Asian Psychologists’ Conference. The unabridged version appears in the conference proceedings. I have received a number of reactions, comments, and queries relating to the views expressed in the article. The main drift of these comments has been that pointing out only the negative influences of a feudal system implicitly suggests that the psyche flourishes without any pressures in an industrialised community which does not involve any negative fallout. Can one really say, in other words, I am asked, that industrialisation has no negative impact on the psyche of the people?

To say that feudalism breeds its concomitant psycho-pathology, is not to say that industrialisation does not. Every stage of material development — industrialisation included - generates its peculiar psychopathology. One did not imply that industrialisation has no relationship with psychopathology. It does. And that is what I intend to highlight here.

Industrialisation is the development of a country’s productive forces, characterised by the appearance of large-scale industry, capable of equipping the national economy with machines. Industrialisation in Europe began at the end of the18th century in Great Britain when the shift from an agriculture-based economy to one based upon mechanised production took place. The most fundamental change was the fact that the main energy source driving production shifted from animate to inanimate. Previously animal and human labour had been the main source of energy. By the end of the 18th century it was increasingly coming from steam, coal, oil and electricity etc. Another change that took place almost simultaneously was that production came to be controlled by public companies rather than family units or manors.

Industrialisation spread spontaneously and rapidly because the entrepreneurs were competing against each other for profit. It began with the development of light industry which requires less capital and yields quick returns. In time, however, the opportunity was afforded for the development of heavy industry. Researchers agree that industrialisation did not develop uniformly across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. The industrial revolution that originated in Great Britain in the late 18th century, spread to France, Belgium, Germany and the USA in the middle of the 19th century; into Japan by the end of 19th century; in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century and parts of South America, Asia, and Africa in the middle of the 20th century and after.

In his book Musa Say Marx Tak, Syed Sibe Hassan analyses the impact of industrialisation on the psyche of a person. He identifies two most prominent mental symptoms that may be directly attributed to industrialisation. Since the capitalists in an industrialised society are in competition with each other for profits, the entire social fabric is characterised by competition. There is competition between industrialists, between groups, and between individuals. An organisation is pitched against other organisations, a group against other groups, and an individual against other individuals. The result is an extreme sense of loneliness and isolation. A person realising that everyone else is in competition with him and out to take advantage of him, fears others and is suspicious of them. He cannot share his happiness, joy, or sorrow with others fearing that they may take advantage of it. He is utterly alone therefore, in a crowd, amongst his friends and even with his family. The sense of isolation and loneliness is a major influence of industrialisation on the psyche.

Analysts of the classical mould also point out that in an industrialised society a man is not only lonely and isolated from others but he also loses touch with himself - the finer, more humane self. How is such alienation linked to industrialisation? Consider. What a man produces through his labour no longer belongs to him. It belongs to the firm or the industrialist. His effort is therefore not of his own volition but carried out under compulsion and sometimes under extreme duress. This state of affairs generates a strong desire to avoid work and is met by stronger measures by the industrialist to extract work. Work therefore ceases to be an expression of the self or a source of satisfaction or comfort. Instead, becomes a source of discomfort, is carried out under compulsion and is performed mechanically. Thus a person’s work in particular and his life in general become compulsive and mechanical acts. Industrialisation thus generates a sense of alienation with the attendant sense of loss of identity.

Loneliness and alienation are two seeds planted in the psyche by industrialisation that later germinate and grow into trees of psychopathology. One of the psychopathological reactions may be what is described as depression in textbooks of clinical psychology.

Depression is often felt by the person as the sense of loss, sadness, hopelessness and being “down in the dumps”. Another major manifestation of depression is the loss of interest or the sense of pleasure in life. This feeling pervades in all aspects of a person’s life, including food, sleep and sex. Depressed people also report constant fatigue and tiredness and an extreme sense of worthlessness. The sense of worthlessness and self-blame, with attendant feelings of guilt, may predispose a person to frequent thoughts of suicide and death. No wonder, death by suicide increased phenomenally in the industrial era.

All these and more symptoms are directly attributable to the impact of industrialisation on the psyche.

One influence of industrialisation on the psyche can be traced to how it affects the structure and function of a family. In the pre-industrial era people were tied to land. This provided a strong factor in keeping the family together.

Industrialisation created increasing employment opportunities so that the father/husband/brother/son and the mother/wife/sister/daughter had to leave home — in some cases also the town — for work. The society therefore started shifting as a whole from the joint family to the nuclear family and then to the separated family paradigm.

Again as job market expanded the opportunities for husband and wife were not always in the same industry or the same city. In fact, industry discouraged husband and wife teams working at the same place. People had to be away from home and take jobs wherever the vacancies occurred. This situation led to more and more men and women leaving the family cocoon thus furthering dispersion of the family.

As a joint or a nuclear family generates problems, pressures and attendant psychopathology peculiar to it, so does the dispersed family. Since the world has moved towards industrialisation and the pace of industrialisation is gaining momentum, it is safe to assert that the break up of the family is a foregone conclusion in view of the forces inherent in the process. This is not without its negative impact on the society and the psyche.

Evidence from the so-called highly industrialised societies supports this view. For instance, according to research data available for the last few years divorce rate in the industrialised societies is above 52 percent. The trends show a marked acceleration. Even among couples choosing to stay together, there is a rapid decrease in the desire to have children. Research shows that most married couples prefer “child free” marriages. Also, more and more young and not-so-young people are moving towards cohabitation rather than tying the matrimonial knot. So, in the industrialised era, the traditional concept of a family is seriously threatened. It appears to be on its way out.

The family provided a general support system to an individual that is beginning to evaporate with its dilution and dissolution. The cushion it provided to an individual in times of strain, stress, and crisis is no longer available. He is now more exposed and vulnerable than ever before to psychopathology and its attendant dangers.

The fact of women joining the workforce has been particularly harsh on the family. Research shows that women with young children now form a large part of the industrial workforce worldwide. Combining family and work roles, and meeting needs and expectations at home as well as work has had very serious implications for society in general and for family and women in particular.

Juggling heavy responsibilities at home and heavy responsibilities at work renders working women more prone –among other hazards — to psychopathology. Research also shows that working women have less control over their work environment and less flexibility in their roles as workers. The pay available to women as industrial workers is at least 30 percent short of what their male counterparts get. And then the Glass Ceiling Effect leads to discrimination against women in promotions. These factors expose women to the negative fallout of industrialisation.

However the gender-related impact of industrialisation has a flip-side also. To say that women are victims of industrialisation is not to say that men are not. Male workers are particularly exposed to chemical and biological hazards at work places. These risks have extremely negative physical and mental health consequences.

To interpret the negative fallout of industrialisation as only a result of the inter-gender competition and conflict is a serious mistake. The villain in creating the problems for men and women at the workplace is certainly not the opposite gender but the paradigm of the industrialised workplace. To regard the opposite gender, the male or the female, as the villain of the piece is missing the point completely. Both the genders have their common as well as particular problems in a workforce, both have therefore to pitch their best brains together to devise ways and means by which the dehumanising industrial paradigm can be made more humane. The challenge is not to demean and defeat the opposite gender but to defeat the dehumanising fallout of industrialisation of which both the genders are victims.

Modern industrialisation impacts the psyche in many more ways. Globalisation, increased diversification, information technology, and the borderless world of trade and finance — all offshoots of industrialisation — have led to many consequences all having a direct impact on the psyche. Erosion of face-to-face contact, the demand for continually learning new technological skills, information overload, relocation from one place of work and residence to another, are only some of the facts of modern life. These demands lead to an increased level of stress amongst industrial workers in particular and the public in general.

The cost of stress-related problems translates into an annual loss of about $300 billion to the American economy alone. Add to that the cost from other highly industrialised countries, such as Germany, France, and Japan — to name only a few — and we are looking at trillions of dollars lost due to stress alone. Psychological stress, a direct consequence of industrialisation, is another impact on the psyche. Crowded workplaces, unsafe, polluted, and toxic work environment, competitive pressures, work overload, responsibility for other workers, lack of control over policies at the workplace and the danger of downsizing — a euphemism for unemployment — are all factors that contribute to stress on an individual in an industrial organisation.

The relationship between stress and psychopathology is as obvious as the linkage between industrialisation and stress. Research shows that industrial stress is a direct cause of a number of physical, psychological and behavioural problems. They may include lowering of ability to fight illness, high blood pressure and heart disease, unexplained aches and pains, and gastrointestinal problems. Stress may also predispose a person towards anxiety, irritability, anger and related syndromes. Stress has also been linked to over- or under-eating, loss of sleep, abuse of drugs and excessive smoking. These reactions to stress are predispositions to more serious psychological diseases.

The stressed modern man is like a ticking time bomb. No wonder the world is a witness to so much violence with terrorism as its worst face. To understand violence and terrorism in general and psychopathology in particular one needs to look at the global industrial paradigm as the main cause that serves as, if not the exciting cause, certainly as the precipitating cause of the problems that beset humanity in the modern times.