What can the science of well-being tell the discipline of psychiatry – and why might psychiatry listen?

Abstract

There is a field of knowledge that speaks of the promotion of positive mental health, well-being and happiness yet it may not be well-known to all psychiatric practitioners. Economists, geneticists, positive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists, neuroscientists and sociocultural researchers have all contributed to what might be termed the emerging science of well-being. This article provides a brief introduction to this complex topic. We outline some of the findings, theories and arguments from this comparatively new but burgeoning research area. We also rehearse some critical responses to this field which indicate that both the evidence on well-being and the implications for practice and policy might be less straightforward than researchers sometimes imply. We conclude by suggesting that psychiatrists, as leaders in the field of mental health, might want to consider the implications (positive and negative) of well-being research for the development of their own discipline and professional practice.

Conceptual framework for personal recovery in mental health: systematic review and narrative synthesis

“…In summary, 87 distinct studies were identified. The ten elaborating papers included in the thematic analysis but not in the vote counting were papers 11,15,16,19,26,48, 50, 53, 71 and 73 in online Table DS1.…”

“…First, it allows available evidence to be more easily identified. A recovery orientation has overlap with the literature on well-being, 26 positive psychology 27 and self-management, 28 and systematic reviewing is hampered by the absence of relevant MeSH (Medical Sub-Headings) headings relating to recovery concepts. The coding framework provides keywords for use when undertaking secondary research, and the identification of related terms provides a taxonomy which will be useable in reviews.…”

Understanding how men experience, express and cope with mental distress: where next?

“…Wellbeing is a concept used increasingly across a range of disciplines and has implications for expanding how we consider men’s subjectivities. However, the term is used in diverse and conflicting ways to conceive of subjectivity and the social, and it currently lacks conceptual clarity (Hanlon and Carlisle 2008). In popular media discourse, whereas wellbeing was previously used to describe the ‘body politic’, by the mid‐1980s the move was towards identifying and pursuing valued individual attributes through personal practices (Sointu 2005).…”