Mental illness is a far bigger source of human misery than poverty or unemployment, according to research by Sarah Fleche and Richard Layard. They argue that we need to move beyond a purely materialistic conception of misery ? and call for increased public spending on mental health. Their study finds that dissatisfaction with life can have many causes ? but mental illness is the most important. If people cannot enjoy life, they are just as deprived whether the cause is outside themselves or within.

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22 February 2016     Paper Number CEPCP466

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This CentrePiece article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Causes and effects of wellbeing, Mental health policies