France now has a National Council on Mental Health. This body is chaired by Alain Ehrenberg, a sociologist and emeritus research director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). This article is a transcript of the speech he delivered at the Council’s inaugural meeting, presided over by Ms. Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs and Health, on October 10, 2016. In his speech, the researcher emphasizes that mental health issues are no longer merely specialized problems within psychiatry and clinical psychology, but that they also pertain to general issues of social life, which they “cut across from one end to the other.” In other words, mental health is a social phenomenon; it is part of health and also of social life. It is not only a matter of illnesses to be treated, but also of ailments in which social relationships are involved in one way or another; this is the case, for example, with suffering in the workplace. Psychological distress used to be a reason to seek treatment; it has now also become a reason to address disrupted social relationships. For Alain Ehrenberg, public action today—whether in the realm of mental health or the fight against inequality and poverty—is a social investment, insofar as such action “does not consist merely of compensating for damage, but of reducing future risks.”