Mental Health – As Positive Psychology

Psychology is not entirely about studying what can go wrong for people, their pathologies, weaknesses and damage but is also about strengths and virtues at subjective, individual and group levels. Treatments are viewed as fixing the broken but can be about encouraging and nurturing what is best.

Mental health as a Utopian ideal goes back to Aristotle, so is not a new concept. In the last 60 years the view is that Mental Health requires the dual goal of using medication and clinical psychology to remove pathology and educational interventions to enhance above average functioning.

Mental Health and Positive Personality revolves around the perspective we are self organizing, self directed, and adaptive beings. Thus there is a focus on:

• Human Virtues and Character Strengths. These can act as buffers against mental illness. The virtues include Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance and Transcendence.
• Subjective Well-being. This refers to what we think and feel about our lives and has cognitive and affective components. It is a scientific term for what most of us call happiness.
• Optimism. Optimism mediates our experience of external events and our interpretation of them. It involves cognitive, emotional, and motivational components.The positive attributional style serves as a treatment for depression and can lead to positive mental states.
• Happiness. Factors such as faith, economic growth and income, and close personal relationships need to be considered.
• Self determination. We all have 3 basic psychological needs – competence, belonging, and autonomy. The satisfaction of these needs gives rise to optimal well being and development.
• Mature defences. Mature functioning requires creative and proactive problem solving and solution application which gives rise to successful and joyful lives.
• Exceptional Performance and Excellence. We all need examples and advice on how to reach richer and more fulfilling lives. Play, creativity and and peak experiences are important in this area. It was Abraham Maslows concept of Self Actualisation that drew attention to  talents, capacities, and potentialities.
• Wisdom. Wisdom involves the cognitive and motivational rules we use to organise knowledge in the pursuit of both individual and collective excellence. It is the best subjective beliefs and laws of life that we have accumulated over the generations. Wisdom is defined as an expert knowledge system that dealing with the practical issues of existence.
• Positive Health
• Insight
• Flow
• Hope
• Interpersonal Skills

It is the goal of positive psychology to help people to enhance their functioning to above average.