The subject of mental health is debated now more than ever, while the consequences of the COVID pandemic have included the term “the epidemic of mental illness” into public vocabulary. The goal of this thesis is to link the current globally dominant paradigm of neoliberal capitalism with said epidemic. The first chapter connects data concerning the distribution, rise and demography of mental illness from sciences akin to social philosophy with socio-economic principles upon which capitalism, especially in its contemporary neoliberal form, rests. Social inequalities, unequal distributions of mental illnesses, poor work conditions, existential uncertainties, austerity measures, the divide between the Global north and the Global south and a materialistically-individualistic culture are shown to be key causes of the mental illness epidemic, and those same phenomena are then shown to be an indispensable part of the capitalist regime. The end of the first chapter is dedicated to the mental health system, its theory and practice, as part of the capitalist superstructure. The second chapter more thoroughly inspects psy-professions, primarily psychiatry, as part of the ideological superstructure of capitalism, and shows psy-knwoledge manifests as a hegemonic type of power, playing a key part in capitalism. The concept of mental illness is shown to be a historical contingency without empirical legitimacy, and psy-knowledge statements are delegitimized by deconstructing the established biopsychosocial model of psy-sciences. The need for the existence of such a concept is thus systematized into a financial, depoliticizing and normalizing function. By historical and discursive analysis, it is shown that mental illnesses are primarily a strategic concept resulting from the need to include the neurodivergent population into the workforce as well as regulating the general population. The third chapter is dedicated to bringing this subject into the classroom as a corrective to the psychological teaching of mental illness and as a jumping off point for lectures on critical theory of the second part of the twentieth century.