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Vittu Perkele's avatar

Really, I think the problem is that the market-based theory Bryan is trying to fit mental illness into is based on the idea of markets being efficient at fulfilling preferences for rationally self-interested actors. Notice that this implies that rationality, or at least average mental functioning approaching it, is a prerequisite the entire system itself is founded upon. So mental illness, where there is a disturbance to mental functioning severe enough to impede everyday rational action, is by definition outside the domain of analysis of markets and economistic preferences. You can't use a system of analysis on a domain where it's undefined, and I think that's what's happening with any attempts to explain mental illness in this manner, and why it falls so short in terms of meshing with basic common sense.

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