The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined health as “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Mental Health deals with one’s emotional and psychological well-being. It can also be defined as a state of successful performance of mental functions, in terms of thought, mood and behaviour.
Mental health is conceived of as a complete state in which not only Individuals are free of psychopathology, but, also, they are flourishing with high levels of emotional, psychological and social well-being.
The notion of Positive Mental Health
The positive health has been described in terms of concept of adaptive functioning that is one’s ability to reach goals. Thus Individuals might have a complete or Incomplete mental health. These Individuals have been described as those flourishing and languishing in life, respectively. This would mean that one might be free from all types of mental disorders and yet be having less than adequate or optimum mental health. Thus, an individual who is free from all the diagnosable mental disorders might not still be at the best possible level of psychological functioning. An Interpersonal conflict, worries due to some social obligation, less than complete satisfaction with life can all bring her or his psychological wellbeing lower than the optimum level. Complete mental health is more functional and adaptive than moderate mental health. The positive health not only contributes to the effective functioning of multiple bodily systems when the Individual is disease free it also helps him or her to keep free from succumbing to disease and promotes recovery when disease strikes. A commonly made mistake is that of equating the usual or the average with normal. On the other hand, the concept of health in it’s Ideal state is closely related to the concept of well-being. For example, those lying on the upper crest of a blood pressure distribution in a population are unlikely to be having their blood pressure closer to the healthy range. This concept of health as the set of common states is closely related to the statistical concept of normalcy. This notion of positive health is also in keeping with the concept of holism which characterises health as the absence of any defect in the pattern of interactions within the organism and between it as a whole and its environment.
The positive Psychological functioning consists of different attributes namely:
1.Self-Acceptance 2. Positive relations with others
3. Personal growth 4. Purpose in life 5. Environmental
Mastery 6. Autonomy
Dimensions of positive Well-being
Added to the positive psychological functioning are the dimensions of positive social well-being, which include:
Social coherence, Social actualisation, Social acceptance, social Integration and Social contribution.
Thus a mentally healthy individual should:
- Be in touch with her or his own identity and feelings.
- Be oriented towards the future and remain fruitfuly invested in life.
3. Have a psyche that provides resistance to stress.
4. Possess autonomy, perceive reality without distortion,
yet possess empathy and
5. Be able to work, to love, to play, and to be efficient in
problem solving.
Mental Health as Positive Psychology
The science of positive Psychology looks beyond what goes wrong in individuals, families, groups and Institutions and aims at what is right and how it could be made even better. It aims at mapping the domain of human optimal functioning. Positive psychology sees positive mental health as an amalgam of four components viz. talents, enablers, strengths and outcomes.
By understanding the factors that build strengths, outline the contexts of resilience, ascertain the role of positive experiences, and delineate the function of positive relationships with others, positive psychology contributes to how all of these factors contribute to physical health, subjective well-being, functional groups.