Bram Vervliet, KULeuven – The Psychology of Poverty

Room : P02

Poverty claims lives. It leads to premature death, hinders personal development, undermines physical health, and triggers mental disorders. The stress caused by financial scarcity is chronic and extremely heavy. Despite the strong resilience shown by many people living in poverty, it remains a profound experience of vulnerability, invisibility, and powerlessness. It is therefore not surprising that poverty has psychological consequences. A context of scarcity affects how people feel, think, and act. As a result, people in poverty sometimes make more rational decisions than those from wealthier backgrounds, but at other times less rational ones. This creates a psychological trap that makes it even harder to escape poverty on one’s own. Moreover, poverty is a breeding ground for risk factors associated with mental disorders: chronic stress, sleep problems, stigma, violence… Anxiety and depression are up to three times more common among people living in poverty. We will see that mental disorders and poverty reinforce each other, deepening the trap. I will argue that only a combined intervention of poverty reduction and psychotherapy can lead to sustainable outcomes.