Mindset Matters: The Changing Business Of Mental Health (Part Four)

When anthropologist Ruth Benedict wrote her seminal work, Patterns in Culture published in 1934, she set out to explore the idea that culture is linked to our changing actions writing “If we are interested in cultural processes, the only way in which we can know the significance of the selected detail of behavior is against the background of the motives and emotions and values that are institutionalized in that culture.” The same can be said for our understanding of the role of mental health within the broader culture and how a cottage industry is evolving into big business.

We must look beyond the more cerebral fields of psychotherapy and psychiatry to how the commercialization of mental health has been developed and grown into an industry that is not only more pervasive but widely accepted across popular culture. One could debate that the proliferation of our understanding of mental health within the digital age began in the 1990s and early 2000s when cable networks like MTV introduced shows like The Real World and The Osbournes. At the time these new reality shows were a brand-new form of television to be consumed, but more importantly, it was a turning point for mental health issues to be exposed to a wider audience in a very transparent way. These relatively unscripted series and the others that would follow provided viewers with a window into the highs and lows of daily life. Series like the Osbournes and other celebrity-driven programs demonstrated the notion that it doesn’t matter where you land on the social strata, we all face various challenges from anxiety to depression. This type of setting only humanized the experiences of everyday life and helped create a level of connection and openness that only continued with the dawn of the digital age.

While these reality television series provided a larger window into the subtlety of mental health concerns that many of these high-profile people faced daily, it still was a passive medium. It was the rise of social media that offered a way to communicate and expand the position for mental health throughout the culture. Social media platforms allowed anyone to communicate and created an open and opaque ecosystem giving way to a generation of people weaned on a level of transparency. This cultural shift permitted celebrities from musicians like Demi Lovato and Lady Gaga to athletes such as NBA stars Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan and many others to speak openly about their issues with mental health and open the dialogue further in ways that haven’t been considered acceptable in the past. It also favored new businesses to arise that saw not only the significance of mental health in our society but the value proposition within the larger business landscape. The implication of the social and economic impact has offered new inroads and opportunities for growth.

As the culture of mental health is ever changing so is the business of mental health. A prime example of this is actress Selena Gomez who helped found the company Wondermind with her mother Mandy Teefey and Daniella Pierson. The company leverages this new social media ecosystem to provide customized peer-to-peer mental health support and continues to develop daily content around various mental health issues highlighting the need for greater mental fitness. Other organizations that have entered the field of play are companies like TalkSpace, which focuses on providing on-demand licensed mental health professionals through live sessions or messaging allowing clients to better manage areas of psychological well-being. Then there is BetterUp, which is pushing the boundaries of the field of mental health exploring the value of human potential as critical to its impact on the future of work and transformational culture. All these companies highlight not only the hunger for products and services in and around mental health, but as Ruth Benedict understood the creation of a set of values, emotions, and behaviors that are dictating a new cultural standard within the digital age.

The business of mental health is in its infancy, and in an age where breakthroughs in technologies from artificial intelligence to neuroscience and pharmaceuticals are happening in real time while dovetailing with a greater societal acceptance, the path to opportunity is wide open.