Embodied, Embedded, Enactive Psychopathology and Mental Health Risks
One of the most important things one can do on social media is, to block and filter dangerous and harmful ideas. There is so much circulated on social media, particularly in the space of psychosocial risk and mental health, that is not just nonsense but dangerous.
How strange in the risk and safety space. we now have all these ‘global thought leaders’ in psychosocial harm, with no expertise in what they espouse. Take for example the following:
There is so much wrong with this image and its semiotic message we couldn’t cover it all in this space. I even hesitate to show such an image because of its dangerous message. However, let’s just start with a few key issues:
- Mental health is not about ‘brain work’
- Being mentally strong is nothing like lifting weights
- The brain has very little to do with mental health
- The brain is not a computational device nor is thinking computational
- Mental health is a wicked problem (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168851010003325)
- Simplistic ideas of resilience are dangerous
- Simplistic ideas of resilience are dehumanising
- Simplistic ideas of resilience are defeating
- Mental wellness is nothing like some ‘brain gym’
- There is no separation between the physical-mental-body-environment
- Mental health issues often involve moral harm
- Psycho-social issues are not about objects/’hazards’.
- Semiotics such as these amplify the stigma of mental health (https://research.library.kutztown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=wickedproblems)
- Semiotics such as this promote heroics and lack empathy
- Semiotics such as this distract from real issues about mental health
- Psychosocial harm is not a safety issue but a human-relational-social issue
If you want to research a comprehensive look at mental health from a holistic perspective then read the following:
- Nielsen (2023) Embodied, Embedded, and Enactive Psychopathology, Reimaging Mental Disorder.
- Fuchs (2018) Ecology of the Brain. The Phenomenology and Biology of the Embodied Mind.
- Colombetti (2014) The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive Mind.
When we think of mental health risks and psychosocial health, the best place to focus is on Everyday Social Resilience (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/everyday-social-resilience-being-in-risk/). For free download.
The best way to help others (https://safetyrisk.net/the-advisor-as-skilled-helper/) as a risk and safety person is to understand holistically what psychosocial and mental health harm are about. And, you won’t learn how to be a skilled helper (Egan) from any safety curriculum nor, from thinking about psychosocial issues as ‘hazards’ (https://safetyrisk.net/what-is-psychosocial-safety/).
It is also important to not encourage or amplify resilience myths such as is presented in this graphic above. If you want to help people in psychosocial and mental health harm, the best thing to do for risk and safety people is usually to refer on to people with expertise in this area.
The last thing people with mental health issues need is, the nonsense language of Safety about zero, heroics and ‘brain work’ (https://safetyrisk.net/holistic-responses-to-psychosocial-harm-free-workshops-on-enactivism-and-risk/).
If you do want to become a genuine skilled helper then perhaps start here: https://www.aipc.net.au/courses/counselling/diploma-of-counselling
Prof. Robert Long
Latest posts by Prof. Robert Long (see all)
- Embouchure, Affordance and Learning in Risk - September 8, 2026
- Following-Leading in Risk, Supplement. Free Download - September 7, 2026
- Safety Culture and the Culture of Safety - September 6, 2026
- Safety, Creating Order Out of Disorder - September 4, 2026
- The Meaning of Risk - September 4, 2026