On laptop screens, televisions and social media feeds across the nation, images and words fueled by a fractured political landscape spout anger, frustration and resentment. Clashing ideologies burst forth in public demonstrations, family gatherings and digital echo chambers.
Red-hot rhetoric and finger-pointing memes are open expressions of emotions generated by engaging in politics. But there is another set of emotions far less incendiary but just as damaging to democracy. These feelings can push people to the sidelines and drive them to silence.
Disappointment. Grief. Loss.
The reasons for this phenomenon, along with its effects on mental health, are the subject of “The Sad Citizen: How Politics is Depressing and Why It Matters,” a new book by UC Merced political science Professor Christopher Ojeda.
In the book, published in June by The University of Chicago Press, Ojeda combines years of studying the intersection of politics and mental health with fresh data culled from surveys, studies and political polls, along with his own experiments and interviews.
(Ojeda recently talked about “The Sad Citizen” on “Talking Policy,” a podcast by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.)
Depression can compel people to withdraw from the democratic process, Ojeda said, and can sap the collective power of like-minded groups. Populations marginalized by race, gender or income are even more likely to be sidelined as political depression piles atop other societal pressures, he said.
This disengagement can lead to people being increasingly misrepresented by governments, which fosters more depression. It’s a vicious cycle, Ojeda said.
In the book, Ojeda takes a broad view of depression, seeing it as a family of emotions such as disappointment, sadness, despair and melancholy. Whether it is mild disillusionment or major depressive disorder, it affects people’s lives and their ability to take part in activities, including politics, he said.
