The Mental Health Continuum: From Languishing to Flourishing in Life

Abstract

Think about how we describe someone who is mentally ill or who seems a bit "odd." They are crazy, insane, mad as a hatter, psycho, mental, off his rocker, loony, abnormal, non compos mentis, nutty as a fruitcake, cuckoo, daft, unhinged, bananas, loco, whacko, out of her mind, or deranged. He has bats in his belfry. A screw loose. She's lost her marbles. The list is endless. Now think about how we describe someone who is mentally healthy. The list is a lot shorter. He or she might be described as mature or self-actualized or well-adjusted. There aren't a lot of options, and they lack the pizzazz of the first list. Maybe that is why we devote much less attention to mental health than to mental illness. Maybe because so little attention has been devoted to mental health, we don't have a rich vocabulary to talk about it. It is probably a little of both, and it is probably also a result of the general acceptance of the medical model of mental illness. The medical model holds that when something is wrong with an individual the clinician's role is to fix the problem, to cure the person, to eliminate the symptoms. Then the person is normal again. Normal means that there is nothing wrong. The fact that we call it mental "illness" and talk about "cure" and "symptoms" suggests that madness is analogous to if not identical with physical disorder. In applying the medical model to mental illness, a clinician's goal is to remove a problematic behavior or set of ideas that is interfering with a person's ability to live "normally." When this is done, the person is okay, they are normal. Is this as good as it gets? Some psychologists have given attention to thinking about what it means to be something beyond "okay."

The relationships among perceived work stress, subjective well-being, and depression: Proactive coping as a mediator

“…In this study, subjective well-being is a three component structure, including emotional well-being (EmoWB), psychological well-being (PsyWB), and social well-being (ScoWB). The emotional well-being was named by Keyes (1998Keyes ( , 2002Keyes ( , 2005, and its content was consistent with the subjective well-being which proposed by Diener (1984Diener ( , 2000 including positive affect and life satisfaction. The psychological well-being has six concepts, namely self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth (Ryff, 1989(Ryff, , 1995Ryff & Keyes, 1995).…”

“…The psychological well-being has six concepts, namely self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth (Ryff, 1989(Ryff, , 1995Ryff & Keyes, 1995). The social well-being means having the good function in the interpersonal society and community (Keyes, 1998(Keyes, , 2002(Keyes, , 2005Keyes & Magyar-Moe, 2003). It measured by five contents, namely social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence (Keyes, 1998).…”

Doctoral students’ well-being: a literature review

“…This Flourishing scale—previously referred to as the Psychological Well-being Scale—measures socio-psychological prosperity, focusing on social relationships—which are viewed as a complement of SWB. The term “flourishing” is understood to mean the presence of mental health, which according to Keyes is synonymous with SWB (Keyes, 2002) whereas Ryff and Singer (2000) developed a lifespan theory of human flourishing, understanding well-being as “the striving for perfection that represents the realization of one’s true potential” (Ryff, 1995, p. 100).…”

Towards a science and practice of resilience in the face of pain

“…This involves, among other things, the capacity to experience high life satisfaction, be self-determining and independent, experience and build positive social ties and interactions, accept the self in all its aspects, and understand and contribute fruitfully to society. The ability to simultaneously experience high levels of emotional, psychological and social well-being has been coined 'flourishing' (Keyes, 2002;2005). Perhaps the most important sustainability outcome in the context of chronic pain that is part of the pursuit of optimal wellbeing or flourishing, is the extent to which one is able to engage with meaningful, values-based activities and goals in the presence of pain (McCracken and Yang, 2006;Sturgeon and Zautra, 2010).…”