This is the first in a three-part series on the contextual influences modern society has on mood disorders and addictions.2) the purchase risks, and 3) the possibility of soul renewal through (but not limited to) the therapeutic use of cannabis.

Part I: The Addictive System

“We live in a society that is replete with data but starved for wisdom. We are connected 24/7, but anxiety, fear, depression, and loneliness are at an all-time high. We must correct the course”. ~Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey

The “addictive system” (1) is the elephant in the living room. Mood disorders and addictions, like everything else, don’t happen in a vacuum. However, we tend to miss out on the overall social “space” when we only focus on individual issues, such as depression and anxiety or opioid and social media addictions.

What exactly is this context?

It is an invisible psychological environment, the backdrop against which people inadvertently succumb to addiction or suffer from mood disorders. The rise in prescriptions for antidepressants and the number of suicides outline the growing dark side of modern society.

It is a complex and interconnected network of public (government) and private corporations, aligned with the media in the 24/7 marketing and advertising of information, products and services: a cacophony of surround sound from targeted messages designed to shape public opinion and an increasingly strong consumer mindset.

Some call it propaganda.

Intangible psychological concepts are applied to marketing and sales, concepts that are supposed to drive all humans: the perceived need for: social status, security, earning, the right image, having the best, looking good, getting an edge, keeping up with your neighbor, excellence, being first, etc. The advertising messages then weave together the promise of helping the ‘consumer’ achieve one or the other of these intangible goals when they purchase your information, product and/or service. The ubiquity of these messages in modern society has been normalized and even welcomed.

How did we get here?

Edward Bernays, in the early to mid-20th century, is probably the person who set the standard for public relations and advertising in the US. He was the nephew of the well-known psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, and like his uncle before him, Bernays believed in the predictability of the human unconscious when it came to the human and psychological motivations for self-preservation, safety, aggression, and sex.

He transferred what he learned from his uncle to help launch his career in public relations, and met with great success. Due to his efforts on behalf of the pork industry in 1915, bacon became a traditional breakfast mainstay. In the 1920s, he made smoking fashionable among women by calling cigarettes “torches of liberty” to advance the tobacco industry, and he established fluoride as indispensable to dentistry in the 1930s (a waste product of aluminum ) for his client, Alcoa Aluminum. (2)

Watch this video that says it all: Get inspired

Stay tuned for Part II: Buy the addictive system at your own risk

1. Anne Wilson-Schaef. When society becomes addicted. Harper and Row, Publishers Inc. 1987
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations_campaigns_of_Edward_Bernays