There’s a phenomenon most therapists have been confronted with, but few explicitly identify or discuss (partly because it’s hard to know what to say about it): the patient who is financially disincentivized from working.
This is what's so often missed in schools. Humans OF ALL AGES need "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world." Kids do better when they are encouraged & supported to make a difference in the world, in their families, in their communities.
YES! The kids aren't stupid. They can tell that 99% of the information being shoved down their throats and regurgitated is not actually going to be useful to them in their actual jobs and lives.
“Empirical research has quietly but inexorably borne out my observations: those engaged in some form of productive work—be it via school, employment, training, or caregiving—consistently demonstrate better therapy outcomes than those who aren’t. This finding remains even after controlling for confounds like socioeconomic status, chronic physical illness, severity of mental health problems at the onset of therapy, and so on. Even individuals with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia show remarkable gains in functioning and quality of life when they are supported in finding gainful employment—far more so than when they are supported in obtaining disability insurance to obviate the need to work.”
This! This is the premise I’m basing my work with teens who are struggling with mental health issues related to social media use.
My thought is that “Personal media bests social media!”
Which is to say that if we can turn paasive media consumers into discerning media priducers (or builders, if you prefer) we can “innoculate” kids against the harmful effects of extensive social media interaction—amd perhaps all interaction via phones.
While going back and forth with some other stuff I'm reading, I came across some very interesting research into the commonalities and – more importantly – differences between a happy and meaningful live. Roy Baumeister studied [1,2] what brought meaning and what brought happiness to people's lives, what connects them and where they differ or even negatively influence the other, and to some extent also, which one is more important: happiness or meaning.
Related to the theme of "Building the Builders", Baumeister (which aptly translates to "Master builder", something I'm sure you might appreciate :-)) came to conclude that "if happiness is about getting what you want, it appears that meaningfulness is about doing things that express yourself"[1] and that ultimately "when we lose a sense of meaning, we get depressed." (idem.)
To link this to this post: creating meaning in life and having a meaningful life is about building. This then leads to the conclusion that, conversely, by building and thus creating meaning in our life, we indeed might have a cure to depression in our hands.
Good stuff, and, I dare say, also a nice tangent to the "Thinking with your hands" perspective I commented about a while ago [4].
[2]: Baumeister, Roy F., Kathleen D. Vohs, Jennifer L. Aaker, and Emily N. Garbinsky. 2013. ‘Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life’. The Journal of Positive Psychology 8 (6): 505–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764.
Gena, I came across an interview with Economist Joachim Voth who earlier this year published a paper that analysed 1500 life stories from the „American Life Stories“ project initiated and implemented by the Roosevelt Administration in the late 1930s.
Their research into that dataset reveals that meaningful work, along with close family relationships and community involvement, significantly contributes to life satisfaction.
Thought you might like it: it immediately reminded me of this article and the underlying argument that work (a.k.a. „building“ in a broader sense) is a core ingredient of meaning.
Lagakos, David, Stelios Michalopoulos, and Hans-Joachim Voth. “American Life Histories.” Working Paper Series, January 2025. https://doi.org/10.3386/w33373.
Thanks so much, Johann- looks like a very relevant paper indeed (and also one of the first academic use cases I’ve seen of using LLMs as a research method, which is exciting in itself!). Will likely end up citing it in my book. :) Much appreciated!!
"Doing work is also how we learn what putting in sustained effort toward worthwhile outcomes actually feels like, and how we learn to love—rather than dread or resent—that feeling."
This hits hard right now. I currently dread and resent this feeling, and have for a while now, to the detriment of my career and marriage and mental health. Intellectually I know this is the number one thing holding me back, and on the other side of the feeling is everything I want in life. I just have to convince my nervous system.
Loved it! Will have to reference later to help explain how my art business on the side isnt about being some kind of workahaulic, but rather a valuable source of meaning im not able to get otherwise.
Isn't this a bit like saying, "people who walk away from car accidents are more likely to recover fully"? It's probably true, but it doesn't mean it makes sense to encourage everyone to try it.
Just to check that I understand the question/critique correctly: are you saying that the "people who are doing work are more likely to benefit from therapy" finding is more correlational than causal, since being able to work implies that you're already in better shape to begin with? This is a very reasonable concern to have about such findings, which is why I also noted that 1) it holds up even when controlling for, e.g., how severely impaired someone is at the start of therapy, and 2) studies that randomly assign individuals with severe mental illness to a supported employment intervention (vs some other standard intervention) show very positive outcomes (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6382127/ ).
Even without this finding, though, I think I'd have other independent reasons for my thesis that doing work - in the very broad sense of "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world" - is essential to (re)building our psychological health and resilience over time.
This is what's so often missed in schools. Humans OF ALL AGES need "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world." Kids do better when they are encouraged & supported to make a difference in the world, in their families, in their communities.
YES! The kids aren't stupid. They can tell that 99% of the information being shoved down their throats and regurgitated is not actually going to be useful to them in their actual jobs and lives.
“Empirical research has quietly but inexorably borne out my observations: those engaged in some form of productive work—be it via school, employment, training, or caregiving—consistently demonstrate better therapy outcomes than those who aren’t. This finding remains even after controlling for confounds like socioeconomic status, chronic physical illness, severity of mental health problems at the onset of therapy, and so on. Even individuals with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia show remarkable gains in functioning and quality of life when they are supported in finding gainful employment—far more so than when they are supported in obtaining disability insurance to obviate the need to work.”
This! This is the premise I’m basing my work with teens who are struggling with mental health issues related to social media use.
My thought is that “Personal media bests social media!”
Which is to say that if we can turn paasive media consumers into discerning media priducers (or builders, if you prefer) we can “innoculate” kids against the harmful effects of extensive social media interaction—amd perhaps all interaction via phones.
This is what TeenedIn is all about!!
While going back and forth with some other stuff I'm reading, I came across some very interesting research into the commonalities and – more importantly – differences between a happy and meaningful live. Roy Baumeister studied [1,2] what brought meaning and what brought happiness to people's lives, what connects them and where they differ or even negatively influence the other, and to some extent also, which one is more important: happiness or meaning.
Related to the theme of "Building the Builders", Baumeister (which aptly translates to "Master builder", something I'm sure you might appreciate :-)) came to conclude that "if happiness is about getting what you want, it appears that meaningfulness is about doing things that express yourself"[1] and that ultimately "when we lose a sense of meaning, we get depressed." (idem.)
To link this to this post: creating meaning in life and having a meaningful life is about building. This then leads to the conclusion that, conversely, by building and thus creating meaning in our life, we indeed might have a cure to depression in our hands.
Good stuff, and, I dare say, also a nice tangent to the "Thinking with your hands" perspective I commented about a while ago [4].
[1]: Baumeister, Roy F. 2013. ‘What Is Better – a Happy Life or a Meaningful One?’ Aeon. 16 September 2013. https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-better-a-happy-life-or-a-meaningful-one.
[2]: Baumeister, Roy F., Kathleen D. Vohs, Jennifer L. Aaker, and Emily N. Garbinsky. 2013. ‘Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life’. The Journal of Positive Psychology 8 (6): 505–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764.
[3]: Rougemont, Denis de. 1936. Penser avec les mains. Paris: Albin Michel. https://www.unige.ch/rougemont/livres/ddr19361100pm.
[4]: https://substack.com/@johannrichard/note/c-57812271
Gena, I came across an interview with Economist Joachim Voth who earlier this year published a paper that analysed 1500 life stories from the „American Life Stories“ project initiated and implemented by the Roosevelt Administration in the late 1930s.
Their research into that dataset reveals that meaningful work, along with close family relationships and community involvement, significantly contributes to life satisfaction.
Thought you might like it: it immediately reminded me of this article and the underlying argument that work (a.k.a. „building“ in a broader sense) is a core ingredient of meaning.
Lagakos, David, Stelios Michalopoulos, and Hans-Joachim Voth. “American Life Histories.” Working Paper Series, January 2025. https://doi.org/10.3386/w33373.
Thanks so much, Johann- looks like a very relevant paper indeed (and also one of the first academic use cases I’ve seen of using LLMs as a research method, which is exciting in itself!). Will likely end up citing it in my book. :) Much appreciated!!
"Doing work is also how we learn what putting in sustained effort toward worthwhile outcomes actually feels like, and how we learn to love—rather than dread or resent—that feeling."
This hits hard right now. I currently dread and resent this feeling, and have for a while now, to the detriment of my career and marriage and mental health. Intellectually I know this is the number one thing holding me back, and on the other side of the feeling is everything I want in life. I just have to convince my nervous system.
You can do it!!
Loved it! Will have to reference later to help explain how my art business on the side isnt about being some kind of workahaulic, but rather a valuable source of meaning im not able to get otherwise.
Isn't this a bit like saying, "people who walk away from car accidents are more likely to recover fully"? It's probably true, but it doesn't mean it makes sense to encourage everyone to try it.
Just to check that I understand the question/critique correctly: are you saying that the "people who are doing work are more likely to benefit from therapy" finding is more correlational than causal, since being able to work implies that you're already in better shape to begin with? This is a very reasonable concern to have about such findings, which is why I also noted that 1) it holds up even when controlling for, e.g., how severely impaired someone is at the start of therapy, and 2) studies that randomly assign individuals with severe mental illness to a supported employment intervention (vs some other standard intervention) show very positive outcomes (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6382127/ ).
Even without this finding, though, I think I'd have other independent reasons for my thesis that doing work - in the very broad sense of "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world" - is essential to (re)building our psychological health and resilience over time.