On Jan 10, 2010, at 3:27 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Any reasonably responsible estimate such as this, even if it is wrong,
> usually points to something, and while "greater diagnosis of mental
> illness" is probably one of the factors, there may be others of
> importance. I just don't think Andy's why yanks are so crazy is a good
> place to start.
I don't think you should start by assuming what you set out to prove, or anything like that. The OECD does offer some support for the notion that Americans experience more mental troubles than most other nationalities. There are good reasons for this - the extreme competitiveness, the inequality, the terrible consequences of failure, an ideology of self-reliance and a culture of individualism that encourages people to blame themselves for social problems, the expectation that we're supposed to be happy and cheerful (see Barbara Ehrenreich's latest for an excellent and often amusing analysis of that), etc.
Doug