- Project Summary: In no more than 200 words, provide a brief description of your project, including the key questions your project attempts to answer and a brief discussion of how you intend to answer those questions.
- Deadline: March 1st Friday, 11:59 pm
I plan to do my research on neoliberalism and its effects on the mind and body. I want to understand more about the connection between seeing the body and all of its parts and innerworkings as a commodity, and how this has had a detrimental effect to our nations mental health, as well as physical health. I want to understand more how the agendas pushed through neoliberalism perpetuate many of the common problems people face today. I will look into our diets, what is in foods, the prices of quality foods, what is in our toothepastes, deodorant, shampoo, etc. and how this keeps the healthcare system afloat and making more money each year. I would also like to look into how a holistic approach is a potential threat to neoliberalism and what neoliberalism has done to keep their agendas on top. I am interested in this because of my own experiences with holistic healing and how it has changed my life for the better. I am also very interested in seeing how natural remedies compare to prescriptions for things such as ADD, ADHD, and many other diagnosable diseases, and how neoliberalism works to keep people paying for drugs through suppressing symptoms rather than getting to the source of the problems. I plan on interviewing people about their experiences with healthcare, and also interviewing a group of holistic healers from my hometown that I worked with this past summer. I also have been doing tai chi classes in the buck center, and would love to interview those people and ask about how tai chi has improved their overall health and wellness, as well as interview some people from the meditation club on campus and ask about their experiences.
Comments:
Thanks for your summary, Brandon. You have some interesting ideas in it but your focus is too broad. You are trying to do too much, which means that you need to narrow your focus down.
Also, bear in mind that some scholars make connections between neoliberalism and holistic healing approaches as well since the latter can be seen as a form of “self-improvement” or an investment in human capital as Wendy Brown argues.
If you want to do your final project about the relationship between neoliberalism and mental health, I can help you with that. After the break, you and I should talk about your project in person.