Title: How Individualism Affects Society and Your Mental Health | HealthGuidance.org
Headings: How Individualism Affects Society and Your Mental Health
How Individualism Affects Society and Your Mental Health
Context
The Birth of Individualism
Individualism and Mental Health

Content: How Individualism Affects Society and Your Mental Health | HealthGuidance.org
updated on January 29, 2020
November 2, 2016
Psychology
How Individualism Affects Society and Your Mental Health
Mark Goddard, Ph.D.
The value placed on individualism varies from one society to another. Some, like the United States for example, value it enormously. Others discourage individualism, considering it disruptive, selfish, even unpatriotic. But what impact do such attitudes have on mental health? Are individualists happier or more vulnerable to mental illness? Context
The idea that society is composed of unique individuals, with their own rights, inner lives, and distinctive personalities, is a relatively modern one. Traditionally, people were identified more by their social class. In a sense, behaviour was structured and ritualised. If you were a peasant or an innkeeper, you played that role, eating, drinking, swearing, and speaking like any other peasant or innkeeper. Any attempt to assert individuality would have been resisted.