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This article draws attention to the relationship between neuroethics, neuropolitics, political psycho-cultures and public and global mental health. In the hegemonic culture of neoliberalism the purpose of life has been reduced to the self-realization in economic and consumerism terms that promotes the hypercompetitive narcissistic or manic self, indifferent to the fate and suffering of others and accommodated to commodification of morals, mental health and well-being. The real public and global mental health promotion is strongly associated with creating a more empathic, less selfish individual and collective mind where people put a greater emphasis on common interests and bioethical values.

The article discusses the impact of contemporary culture on the individual's personality. We used the "psychocultural" approach whose key feature is the amalgamation of theories and methods belonging to psychodynamic and psychosocial studies, as well as those used in the field of media and cultural studies. The idea of a potentially therapeutic effect of culture (therapy culture) can already been seen in Freud's and Lacan's texts, and it is often used in critical analyses of contemporary corporate culture, which is more or less developed in some parts of the world. In their criticisms, many contemporary authors emphasize that modern societies have a tendency towards the weakening of basic commitment, or lack thereof, to a social equivalent of Winnicott's concept of environmental provisions as an inalienable democratic right essential for human emotional and mental progress or emotional wellbeing. The article describes frequent resorting to the so-called manic defences that defensively distort, deny and obscure the awareness that a human being is not the omnipotent source of life, but instead depends on other human beings, and often tries to compensate for loss through various activities. The article describes excessive shopping as an activity that often serves as an attempt to find what was lost, i.e. to fill an emotional void. This solution (resorting to manic defences) is encouraged by contemporary culture, especially through promotional material (e.g. advertising). The main theses of this article are supported by quotations and data from world literature.

Blame games tend to follow crisis, be they at local, national or international level related to political, financial or health issues. COVID-19 crisis from the very beginning has been followed by divisive and disruptive psychosocial and political blame games. Active or passive blaming is an inherent feature of human beings in order to shift responsibilities onto others, single out a culprit, find a scapegoat and pinpoint a target. Finger pointing, blame games and scapegoating are associated with creation of binaries that identify agency as good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral. The scapegoat is expectedly always bad, wrong and immoral, commonly black evil. The detrimental effects of the COVID-19 blame games are seen in a lack of cohesion and coherence in the anti-COVID-19 solving strategies. Fighting the COVID 19 crisis all countries and nations need to join efforts on defeating it and to shift from a destructive blaming and zero-sum type of thinking to a much more creative, systemic and humanistic type. Effective response to COVID-19 is related to sowing the seeds for humanistic self and empathic civilization, rather than blaming, scapegoating and xenophobia.

Aim: To record and measure the nature and severity of stigma and discrimination experienced by people during a first episode of schizophrenia and those with a first episode of major depressive disorder. Methods: The Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC-12) was used in a cross-sectional survey to elicit service user reports of anticipated and experienced discrimination by 150 people with a diagnosis of first-episode schizophrenia and 176 with a diagnosis of first-episode major depressive disorder in seven countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Turkey). Results: Participants with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder reported discrimination in a greater number of life areas than those with schizophrenia, as rated by the total DISC-12 score ( p = .03). With regard to specific life areas, participants with depression reported more discrimination in regard to neighbours, dating, education, marriage, religious activities, physical health and acting as a parent than participants with schizophrenia. Participants with schizophrenia reported more discrimination with regard to the police compared to participants with depression. Conclusion: Stigma and discrimination because of mental illness change in the course of the mental diseases. Future research may take a longitudinal perspective to better understand the beginnings of stigmatisation and its trajectory through the life course and to identify critical periods at which anti-stigma interventions can most effectively be applied.