Austerity increasingly is prescribed as a cure for societies that suffer from living beyond their means. As sensible and necessary debt-reduction certainly is, austerity may even in the literal sense turn out as disease-causing and even lethal surgery. Just as economic crisis, austerity too is linked to increasing rates of physical and mental illness. This paper analyzes how economic crises and subsequent austerity measures cause posttraumatic stress disorders, and how this effect is even increased dramatically by public health systems being under saving-regimes themselves. Since rising illness is confronted with a decrease in medical provision, deteriorating health levels do not only endanger the well-being but also the economic welfare of state and society. Worst, crisis and austerity even may lead to cultural trauma with devastating long-term effects. Thus the paper shows how sustainability-oriented austerity regimes should be designed in order to avoid triggering psychological risk- and instead strengthen protective factors.
