JONATHAN COOK: In praise of work, a basic human need
As well as putting food on the table, work is associated with health, dignity and love
Sigmund Freud suggested the two cornerstones of our humanness are to love and to work. That about sums up the source of human health and resilience. Babies deprived of maternal love fail to thrive physically and can actually die. Older children and adults may live, but die internally and interpersonally without love as essential support for humanness.
It is intriguing to think of work as a source of mental health on a par with love. We treat work as an economic variable but underestimate its contribution to mental health and thriving, even though the corrosive effects of long-term unemployment are well documented...
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