| Summary: | "Mental health is an individual and personal matter. It involves a living human organism or, more precisely, the condition of an individual human mind. A social environment or culture may be conducive either to sickness or health, but the quality produced is characteristic only of a person; therefore, it is improper to speak of a "sick society" or a "sick community." In speaking of a person's mental health, it is advisable to distinguish between attributes and actions. The individual may be classified as more or less healthy in a long-term view of his behavior or, in other words, according to his enduring attributes. Or, his actions may be regarded as more or less healthy--that is, appropriate--from the viewpoint of single, immediate, short-term situation. Standards of mentally healthy, or normal, behavior vary with the time, place, culture, and expectations of the social group. In short, different peoples have different standards. Mental health is one of many human values; it should not be regarded as the ultimate good in itself. No completely acceptable, all-inclusive concept exists for physical health or physical illness, and, likewise, none exists for mental health or mental illness. A national program against mental illness and for mental health does not depend on acceptance of a single definition and need not await it. Many scientific investigators have thought about the psychological content of positive mental health. A review of their contributions reveals six major approaches to the subject: a. Attitudes of the individual toward himself; b. Degree to which person realizes his potentialities through action; c. Unification of function in the individual's personality; d. Individual's degree of independence of social influences; e. How the individual sees the world around him; and f. Ability to take life as it comes and master it. One value in American culture compatible with most approaches to a definition of positive mental health appears to be this: An individual should be able to stand on his own two feet without making undue demands or impositions on others. The need for more intensive scientific research in mental health is underscored"--Book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
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