As the culture of aggressive ambition no longer looks like a successful strategy for survival, we must come to terms with the fact that being ‘ordinary’ does not equate to failure

The recession has affected people not only in financial terms but has highlighted psychological problems workers face in trying to achieve extraordinary success. In the third article of her continuing series on public policy, work, and mental health, Elizabeth Cotton criticises a work culture that demands fantastic abilities to the detriment of ordinary people.
The bubble has well and truly burst but this time is a psychic one. The age of narcissism and infantile omnipotence has been shattered in the current economic crisis, in which previously ‘untouchable’ people have found themselves unemployed. With UK unemployment figures hovering around 8 per cent, it seems the culture of aggressive ambition no longer looks like a successful strategy for survival.