Masha Gessen’s article on the issue of early death and depopulation in the Russian population is an interesting exploration of the root causes of this phenomenon; particularly when she quotes Eberhardt’s analysis that “…we would never expect to find premature mortality on the Russian scale in a society with Russia’s present income and educational profiles and typically Western readings on trust, happiness, radius of voluntary association, and other factors adduced to represent social capital.” The idea that the reason for Russia’s problems lie in some aspect of the population’s psyche, or the mental health of Russian society, is fascinating to me. That said, many studies have reinforced the connection between physical health and mental health, so this is less unbelievable than simply surprising, considering the number of people who must be affected by mental health issues for such a significant trend to appear.
It’s here that I take some issue with the idea that the explanation for Russia’s issues goes “beyond science”, in that neuroscience/psychology and its effects on very concrete bodily functions, hormones, etc. are not beyond science at all. Therefore, from my perspective, this article certainly brings to light Shapiro’s claim about “problem-oriented research” versus “method-oriented” in the sense that Eberhardt’s analysis was likely enabled and enhanced by some atypical and creative research, but does not sway me significantly to believe that there is some “truth beyond science”
I certainly find the conclusions towards the end to be a bit out there. While the idea that people die of hopelessness is certainly compelling, and makes for good headlines, we need a great deal more research in neuroscience to be able to really investigate that conclusion. To me, this just seems like a classic correlation does not equal causation moment. Soviet Russia in it’s early years especially was without doubt a harsh, depressing environment, but that isn’t enough to convince me that people are dying of broken hearts.
Post-Soviet, not Soviet*
I agree that the relationship between mental health and physical health is both quantifiable and scientific. If data is the determinant of whether something is scientific, a “scientific” follow-up study could include pyscological or neurological analyses. However, Gessen’s final claim isn’t that Russians die of mental illness, but that Russians die of hopelessness and of “broken-hearts”. These claims are much more abstract and, as a result, harder to justify as scientific.