The youth mental health crisis and the subjectification of wellbeing in Singapore schools

The news of a 16-year old teenager hacking a 13-year old boy to death in a toilet unprovoked in a secondary school in Singapore shook the whole nation in July 2021. In this article, we analyze the institutionalizing responses to the growing sense of youth mental health crisis in Singapore, catalyzed by River Valley High School incident, as the subjectification of wellbeing. We argue, firstly, that the national schools have become the main site for the production of networked surveillance and internalization of wellbeing. We examine the inclusive production of subjects characterized by varying levels of wellbeing in a rehabilitative social system exercising authority and control. Secondly, we argue that a totalizing system of surveillance and internalization is emerging in a technocratic heterotopia. We conclude by discussing interdisciplinary and intersectional alternative approaches emerging from the heterotopic space of the school.