Which organization coined the term mental health? Physical and mental health of a person: how to be psychologically and physically healthy throughout your life. Personal crisis states

In the psychological and medical sciences, there are quite a lot of concepts that make it possible to assess the functions of the human body at all levels of its organization, the features of the development of a person’s personality and the specifics of his internal states. The most essential, but at the same time quite contradictory, concepts are “mental health” and “psychological health”. The word “health” originally meant “wholeness.” Currently, health is interpreted as the ability to adapt, the ability to resist and adapt, the ability for self-preservation and self-development, for an increasingly meaningful life in an increasingly diverse environment (Lishuk V. A., 1994). The term "mental health" was coined by the World Health Organization in 1979. In the US and UK (and in English-language publications in general), the phrase “mental health” refers to the successful performance of mental functions, resulting in productive activity, establishing relationships with other people and the ability to adapt to change and cope with troubles.

One of the basic concepts of health psychology is the concept of psychological health, which, unlike mental health, is still infrequent. Modern science differentiates the concepts of mental health and psychological health. In psychology, the term psychological health is used when considering issues related to the formation of a psychologically healthy personality. The initiative in formulating and developing the problem of mental health from the standpoint of a phenomenological approach (sanocentric, psychological model) belongs to representatives of humanistic psychology. The concept of “psychological health” was introduced into the scientific lexicon by I.V. Dubrovina. From her point of view, if the term “mental health” relates to individual mental processes and mechanisms, then the term “psychological health” refers to the personality as a whole, is in close connection with the highest manifestations of the human spirit and allows the actual psychological aspect of mental health problems in contrast to medical, sociological, philosophical and other aspects. The term psychological health in this sense is more neutral in perception and does not cause tension. The use of this concept is appropriate for the following reasons. Psychological health is considered as an indicator of the socio-psychological aspect of lifestyle; it characterizes an individual’s perception and assessment of his social well-being, level and quality of life, the degree of satisfaction of needs and the implementation of life plans. Many authors point out the close connection between the concepts of psychological health and mental health, for example, B.S. Bratus identifies three levels of health: psychophysiological, individual psychological and personal, the first refers to mental health, while the second and third - to psychological well-being or psychological health.

Summarizing the views of many authors on the problem of psychological health, we can say that it is an integral characteristic of personal well-being, which includes several components: social, emotional and intellectual aspects of personal development.

Psychological health in general is determined by two characteristics. The first is compliance in the main forms of manifestation of life activity with the principle of optimum or, in accordance with the well-known metaphor, the desire to adhere to the golden mean. One important clarification: this optimal zone is different for each person, and one of the tasks of health psychology is to find it in terms of psychological constants, behavior, and lifestyle. This sign is reflected in the criteria for personal health, and in many statements of philosophers, writers, and human scientists from antiquity to the present day. The second sign of psychological health: effective adaptation, primarily social, socio-psychological and intrapsychic. In this case, what is achieved in other approaches is called harmony with nature, with people and with oneself.

Psychological health criteria are based on the concepts of “adaptation”, “socialization” and “individualization”. The concept of "adaptation" includes a person’s ability to consciously relate to the functions of his body (digestion, excretion, etc.), as well as his ability to regulate his mental processes (manage his thoughts, feelings, desires). There are limits to individual adaptation, but an adapted person can live in geosocial conditions that are unusual for him.

Socialization determined by three criteria related to human health.

· The first criterion is related to a person’s ability to react to another person as an equal (“the other is as alive as I am”).
· The second criterion is defined as a reaction to the fact of the existence of certain norms in relations with others and as the desire to follow them.
· The third criterion is how a person experiences his relative dependence on other people.

Individualization, according to K.G. Jung, allows us to describe the formation of a person’s attitude towards himself. A person himself creates his own qualities in mental life, he realizes his own uniqueness as a value and does not allow other people to destroy it. The ability to recognize and preserve individuality in oneself and others is one of the most important parameters of mental health.

Every person has the possibilities of adaptation, socialization and individualization, the degree of their implementation depends on the social situation of his development, the ideals of a given society at a given specific moment.

These characteristics can be specified using various criteria that allow qualitative and quantitative assessment of the level of psychological health of an individual from different angles. Analysis of texts by domestic and foreign authors who were at the origins of studying the problem of mental (personal) health made it possible to identify the following criteria:

· Integrity. (S.L. Rubinstein);
· Consciousness (S.L. Rubinstein);
· Having your own life position. (S.L. Rubinstein, B.S. Bratus);
· Activity aimed at realizing one’s own internal potential. (S.L. Rubinstein, B.S. Bratus);
· Spirituality, freedom and responsibility (G.S. Abramova, E. Fromm, K. Rogers, V. Frankl);
· Identity with oneself, one’s nature, the experience of one’s “I” (A. Maslow, K. Rogers, J. Bugental);
· Creativity (A. Maslow, K. Rogers)
· The importance of the Other (empathic understanding and acceptance of another person) (K. Rogers);
· Self-creativity (the ability to really become the master of one’s own life, the ability to develop and change) (J. Bugental).

These criteria are closely interrelated with each other and from another point of view can be considered as personal characteristics (for example, the severity of criticality and self-criticism, the ability to self-control, communicative effectiveness, freedom from oppressive dependencies, a sense of humor, etc.) and are consistent to a certain extent with many healthy personality traits:

Modern research in psychological health:

· emphasize its holistic, system-structural nature, including several levels of manifestation;
· consider psychological health in direct connection with the personality, as an integral of its vitality.

An important criterion for psychological health is the nature and dynamics of the main processes that determine the mental life of an individual, in particular, changes in its properties and characteristics at different age stages. Psychological health is influenced by genetically determined qualities (type of higher nervous activity, features of the anatomical and physiological development of sensory systems, severity of motor activity, etc.), i.e. congenital mental characteristics and acquired factors influencing during life (individual behavioral characteristics that developed during the acquisition of personal experience). Psychological health is a certain level of development and perfection of the forms and methods of interaction of an individual with the external environment; a certain level of personal development that allows you to successfully implement this interaction; this is the process and result of the development of the subject in his subjective reality within one individual life.

Thus, we can say that psychological health is undoubtedly related to mental health; it is the latter that creates the basis for psychological health. Mental health is necessary, but far from the only condition for the formation of psychological health. A clear understanding of these concepts, their essential characteristics and features are very important, since it is important to distinguish between the areas of activity of specialists working in the field of protection and promotion of mental health (psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, etc.) and professionals studying psychological health (psychologists, psychotherapists).

Mental health and mental health are actually completely different things. And in case of inferiority on one side or the other, a person’s behavior will change, and this will most likely be noticeable. For this reason, it is necessary to maintain levels of psychological health and mental health.

Definition of terms

In order to answer the question of how mental health differs from psychological health, it is necessary to first understand both of these terms.

Mental health is certain characteristics that allow a person to behave adequately and successfully adapt to the environment. This category usually includes the extent to which the subjective images formed in a person correspond to objective reality, and also evaluates the adequate perception of oneself, the ability to concentrate on something, the ability to remember certain information data and the ability to think critically.

The opposite of good mental well-being are deviations, as well as a variety of disorders and diseases of the human psyche. At the same time, if the psyche is in order, this is not at all a guarantee of mental health.

With a full-fledged psyche and complete adequacy, a person can have severe mental illness. Simply put, a person does not want to live. It may be completely the opposite: a wonderful state of mind, combined with mental disorders and inadequacy.

The definition of psychological health includes not just mental well-being, but also the state of the individual. That is, this is a certain type of well-being in which the mental and personal are combined, a person is doing well in life, while his personality is in a state of growth and readiness to move forward.

Psychological well-being describes the personality as a whole; it relates to several areas at once: cognitive, motivational, emotional, as well as volitional areas. In addition, this includes various manifestations of fortitude.

Mental state criteria

Health is the basis of all human life, a certain guarantee of success and that everything will be fine. It is one of the prerequisites for achieving goals in life. In many cultures, it is not only the value of one individual, but also a huge public asset.

Psychological the fundamentals of physical, mental and social health are usually considered in its two aspects. The criteria for assessing mental well-being are most fully disclosed by A. A. Krylov. They also apply to psychological states.

The scientist identifies criteria in accordance with the way they manifest themselves (various processes, properties). Krylov believes that a person who is mentally well can be characterized by the following properties:

morality (that is, a sense of conscience and honor);
concentration;
equilibrium;
optimistic attitude towards life;
adequate claims;
call of Duty;
lack of touchiness;
self confidence;
lack of laziness;
general naturalness;
having a sense of humor;
independence;
responsibility;
patience;
self-control;
self-respect;
kindness towards others.

Based on these criteria for psychological health and mental health, which were developed by Krylov, it is possible to conclude that the normal psyche, as a certain component of well-being as a whole, includes a set of characteristics that help establish balance and enable a person to perform his functions in society .

A person with a normal psyche is adapted to life in society, and also takes direct part in it.

Criteria for psychological state

In science, the topic of normal psychological well-being was developed in detail by I. V. Dubrovina. The difference between mental health and psychological health is that the first relates to individual processes and mechanisms of the human psyche, and the second is directly related to the individual in general, and is also closely related to the highest manifestations of the human soul, so to speak.

The term makes it possible to highlight problems of psychological and mental health. Dubrovina gives a note that a psychologically normal person is capable of possessing such qualities as self-sufficiency, understanding and acceptance of oneself. All this gives a person the opportunity to develop himself in the context of interaction with the outside world and people in various conditions of culture, economy, ecology and society of our reality.

In addition to all of the above, psychologically normal individuals have such qualities as:

stability of emotions;
maturity of feelings in accordance with one’s age;
coping with one’s own negativity and the emotions it generates;
the most natural manifestation of your emotions and feelings;
the ability to enjoy your life;
the ability to maintain your usual state of health;
adequate perception of one’s own personality;
the closest approximation of subjective images to reflected real objects;
the ability to concentrate one's attention on a specific subject;
ability to memorize information data;
ability to process data using logic;
critical thinking;
creativity;
self-knowledge;
managing your own thoughts.

So, what is the difference between mental and psychological health of a person? The first is a certain dynamic set of properties of the individual’s psyche that are capable of maintaining harmony between the needs of him and society. They are also a prerequisite for human orientation towards fulfilling one's life purpose.

The psychological norm is usually interpreted as the individual’s ability to live, as the strength of this very life, which was ensured by the most complete development, as well as the ability to adapt and personal growth in a changing, sometimes unfavorable, but completely ordinary environment for the majority. All this is a prerequisite for normal psychological well-being.

World Health Organization

What else is the difference between mental and psychological health of a person? WHO gives the following definition of mental: it is a prosperous state in which an individual is able to realize his own potential, is able to cope with the usual stresses and irritants in life, make his own contribution to public life, and carry out his work most productively so that it brings the greatest benefits.

WHO identifies the following criteria:

Awareness (coupled with a sense of constancy) of continuity, as well as the identity of one’s own “I”, both mental and physical.
A sense of identity and constancy of one’s own experiences in situations of the same type.
A critical attitude towards oneself, as well as towards one’s own mental activity and its results.
Correspondence of adequate mental reactions to the frequency and with it the strength of environmental influences, circumstances and various situations in society.
The ability to manage one’s own behavior, taking into account compliance with various social norms, laws and rules.
The ability to plan one’s own activities in life along with the ability to implement these plans.
The ability to change the way one behaves depending on how circumstances and situations in life change.

By the way, there is even World Mental Health Day, which is usually celebrated on the tenth of October. This started in 1992.

Difference between terms in WHO

The WHO distinguishes psychological health from human mental health mainly by the fact that mental well-being is usually attributed to completely separate processes of the psyche, as well as its mechanisms. The psychological, in turn, is usually attributed to the personality itself in general. This makes it possible to separate the psychological aspect of any problem.

The aforementioned Dubrovina introduced the term “psychological health” into the lexicon of science not so long ago. She believes that psychological well-being is an absolutely necessary condition for a person to function and develop fully in the process of their own life.

The connection between the psychological state and the physical state is currently undeniable.

Psychological characteristics of centenarians

Jewett studied psychological types as forms of mental health of people who successfully managed to live to a very advanced age (80-90 years). The research results demonstrated that all these people had the following qualities:

life optimism;
calm on an emotional level;
the ability to feel genuine joy;
feeling of self-sufficiency;
high adaptability to difficult life situations.

Portrait of the desired result

Thus, if you draw up a highly generalized portrait of the inner world of a healthy person based on the characteristics highlighted above, then you can see a person who is creative, spontaneous, enjoying his life, cheerful, open to something new, who never stops learning about himself and his surrounding world, not only using reason, but also using your intuition and sensuality.

Such a person fully accepts his own personality, while realizing the value and absolute uniqueness of the people that surround him. He is also in constant self-improvement and helps other people with this.

Such a person first of all takes responsibility for his own life and learns useful lessons from unsuccessful situations. His life, of course, is filled with meaning, which he himself found.

They usually say about such people that “he is in harmony” both with himself and with the world that surrounds him. From this we can identify a key word to describe the term “mental health”. This word will be "harmony".

Agreement with yourself

A psychologically normal person has various aspects in harmony, which include mental, intellectual, physical and emotional. The criteria by which one can determine how healthy a certain person is are actually quite vague.

The very concepts of mental and psychological health of the individual and their norms are mostly determined by customs, traditions, moral principles, cultural and social characteristics of the community.

The ancient Vikings had such warriors, they were called “berserkers”. During the battle, they were able to fall into a state of some kind of combat trance. Such a person was simply irreplaceable on the battlefield, but outside this field the behavior of such a warrior can hardly be called adequate.

A not too sensitive and even cynical pathologist in his profession is able to realize his potential more than fully, while outside of his working atmosphere he may look somewhat strange in the eyes of other people.

The norm itself is a balance between adaptation to reality and reality itself, this is the task of developing one’s personality and self-affirmation along with a sense of responsibility and some mental energy potential and activity. The norm is also the ability to overcome difficulties on the path of life and accept the challenge of the world around us.

Mental health standards

The human psyche deteriorates with age (after about 80 years, sometimes even earlier) and during illness. Mental well-being is not something constant at all, it is dynamic. The norms for this condition include:

Mental capacity. This is a good intellectual level, the ability to think productively, the desire for a certain positive outcome, while relying on actual facts. This norm also includes self-improvement and imagination.
The concept of morality. It is customary to say about such people that they have a “soul”. They are not at all characterized by moral stupidity. At the same time, such people are characterized by objectivity and fairness. Their will is strong, but without stubbornness. They admit mistakes, but do not torment themselves.
Adaptability to various social situations. Such people come into contact with various segments of the population of various ages. They are characterized by ease in relation to superiors and subordinates, along with a sense of responsibility. They sense social distance well, and their behavior is somewhat spontaneous.
Personal optimism. This is good-natured character and emotional independence. A realistic attitude towards life without fear of risk.
Emotionality, in which there is no unnecessary suspicion or gullibility, while there is freshness of emotional sensations.
Sexuality. This means taking into account the opinions and various wishes of your partner and respecting his personality.

Various states

The state of a person’s psychological health has several levels. First comes the creative (high) level. This is stable adaptability to the environment and the presence of a reserve of strength to overcome stress, plus an active life position.

The last level (low) is called maladaptive. People of this level are characterized by a desire to adapt to circumstances, but at the same time they do not pay attention to their capabilities and desires. Or, on the contrary, they take an “attacking” position, wanting to subordinate the world to their desires. Such people, as a rule, need individual lessons and psychological help.

There is a favorite expression of psychiatrists that there are no completely healthy people, there are only underexamined ones. Data from E. Shaposhnikov indicate that only twenty-five or thirty percent of the population has the full range of normal psychological indicators. Moreover, in certain life situations, even the most “normal” people can react somewhat unusually.

Approximately fifty percent of people balance on the edge of mental norms and certain deviations. With all this, approximately five percent are considered mentally abnormal and require qualified help. These indicators vary slightly in different countries.

How is psychological health different from mental health? There is a phrase: mentally healthy - personally ill. That is, if such a person goes to a psychiatrist, they will not give him any diagnosis, but he is personally (psychologically) unhealthy. And in some areas this will manifest itself.

So, psychological health is a harmonious and positive state of the individual, his thinking and lifestyle. It lies in a person’s ability to hear himself, develop his potential, cope with stress and work productively. Psychological health is inseparable from physical well-being and successful socialization of a person in society.

Psychological and mental health

It concerns not only “me” in relation to “myself”, but also in relation to other people, a person’s life in different social environments (in the family, at work, study). It is also determined by how a person feels during rest, in relation to his body, to what extent he can alternate between work and rest. In each of these areas you can find something that will speak about the well-being or ill-being of an individual.

One of the formulas for psychological health (well-being) is the formula of Sigmund Freud, who said that The main goal of therapy is to help a person learn to love and work. Today's psychoanalysts add that not only to love and work, but also to do it with pleasure.

How is psychological health different from mental health? There is a phrase: mentally healthy - personally ill. That is, if such a person goes to a psychiatrist, they will not give him any diagnosis, but he is personally (psychologically) unhealthy. And in some areas this will manifest itself.

For example, he tries very hard at work, accumulates a huge amount of tension, because he does not find a way to cope with irritation with colleagues, with grievances with his boss. Then he comes home and pours out all the negativity at home: he shouts at his wife, beats his children. All this can be considered psychological distress of the individual.

Determining a psychologically healthy person

Psychological health is interconnected with all areas of life, but if you “dance” from the individual, then We consider a person who has a normal perception of reality to be psychologically healthy: he has no hallucinations, he understands where he is, behaves appropriately in every situation: where necessary, he has fun, where it is necessary to show respect - he shows it, where he needs to be responsible - he fulfills his obligations.

The most important characteristic of a psychologically healthy person is choice.. He does everything based on his conscious choices. In contrast to an unhealthy person who acts spontaneously or with an eye on someone - real or imaginary. (Remember Griboedov: “Ah! My God! What will Princess Marya Aleksevna say!”).

A psychologically well-off person can be quite open, honest, and sincere in communication, which is why he is sometimes not very pleasant to others. Because, unlike psychologically unhealthy people, he does not resort to manipulation, ingratiation, or actions that would cause the reaction he desires from those around him.

Let's say a wife says to her husband: “Would you like to take me to the hairdresser?” The manipulative husband will answer: “Yes, dear.” And then he says to her: “Can I go fishing tomorrow? I drove you yesterday.” She agrees.

A healthy husband honestly says to his wife: “Listen, dear, I don’t want to take you to the hairdresser today, I’m watching football. Could you go yourself?” At the same time, he can quite calmly say: “Tomorrow I’m going fishing.”

Psychologically healthy people are able to establish healthy attachment relationships. We all have attachment traumas that stem from childhood. People who live in harmonious partnerships can heal their wounds and create a family where they will find pleasure, joy, satisfy various needs and realize all the purposes for which a family is intended.

People with attachment disorders most often form various destructive alliances, where one turns into a pursuer and the other into a withdrawer. The most common union of this kind is a pursuer woman who wants something from a man, and a man who is trying to escape from her by all means.

Such marriages can last for years, but they do not bring any pleasure to the participants, destroy their psyche, contribute to the emergence of self-doubt, aggression and various self-destructions, which can be expressed through psychosomatic diseases, nervous behavior, and the inability to achieve their goals. Such couples cripple the psyche of their own children. After all, sons and daughters adopt this model and reproduce it in their own families in the future.

A psychologically healthy person is a responsible person. He is responsible for himself, for his plans and actions, for those people who trusted him. If this is a parent, then he is responsible for his children, if a boss, to some extent, for his subordinates. He values his personality, his autonomy, while respecting and appreciating other people and their choices.

For example, there are often disputes over who is better: men or women. Or reflections on what representatives of the two sexes should be like. A woman, they say, should wear a skirt, be cunning, modest, calm, beautiful, a man - strong, brave, able to be a breadwinner.

A psychologically healthy person is active and has an interest in life. Freud's “love and work” is usually implemented in him. He has a strategy for overcoming difficulties: both family and professional. This man is not an angel, but he always knows who he is. This is what psychology calls a stable, healthy, mature identity or self-image.

Psychologically healthy people usually look for people like them. It is quite difficult for them to live with unhealthy people, just as it is difficult for an unhealthy person to coexist next to someone who has various disorders.

A prosperous person, without being offended, takes into account other people’s opinions, may well not prove his point with foam at the mouth. Such a person offers compromises: “You want to go to the theater, and I want to go to football. Let's go to different places today? Or we’ll agree: today you go to football with me, and tomorrow I’ll go to the theater with you.”

A psychologically healthy person is able to directly state what he wants. He can give in and realize his intention later. He is able to both sacrifice his time and energy (for example, raising children or supporting a partner in need of help), and refuse sacrifice if there is something important to him.

Very often, a sign of ill health is codependency. This is, in fact, one of the troubles of the modern family. We don’t know what it means to respect our boundaries and the boundaries of our partner, children, and employees.

If a person is used to living in a codependent system, it is difficult for him to get out of it. He constantly has to guess what the other person wants, or be offended if his desires are not guessed. Such a person often feels guilty because he did something wrong, not what others expected of him.

All problems “grow” from family dysfunction. What the psychological health of an individual will be is actually determined even before a person’s birth: from whether they expected him or not, wanted him or not, what kind of person he is, how his parents feel about his appearance, how they feel about each other, whether there was a child with his mother until the age of three, or he was sent to his grandmother or to kindergarten, etc.

When a person grows up and gets married, his entire family, his entire past experience “stands” behind him. But it’s never too late for us to have a good present, to change it here and now.

Abraham Maslow, a famous humanistic psychotherapist of the last century, believed that a psychologically healthy person is a self-actualizing person. That is, looking for his purpose, his goal. And he believed that there were only one percent of such people on Earth.

Those who study codependent relationships also write that there are only one percent of healthy people with healthy interdependence. Perhaps these are the same self-actualizing people that Maslow spoke about.

Although, everything is not so pessimistic. In fact, there are many people with healthy attachments, a stable sense of self, quite warm-hearted, deep, wise, aware, choosing, with whom it happens differently, but who really understand what they want from life and achieve it.

And it doesn’t matter what such a person does: whether he teaches children music in kindergarten, whether he invents a perpetual motion machine or simply sweeps the streets. If a person lives in harmony with himself and others, he is happy.

And when you sometimes look into the eyes of old people who have herded a flock of sheep all their lives, you admire how harmonious such people can be, satisfied with their lives. how good their family is, children and grandchildren who respect them.

It is then that you understand that psychological health is the factor that allows a person to feel happy, satisfied, cheerful, and to experience difficulties. They may grieve, but after some time, having overcome crises and losses, they begin to enjoy life. They can be compassionate, help and accept help. Psychologically healthy people can be very different.

Is discontent the scourge of the sons of men?

Dissatisfaction is, unfortunately, a vice of our upbringing. Because while raising us, our parents constantly compared us with someone: “Tanya got an A, and you got a B,” “Vasya ran a hundred meters faster, but Kolya has a better head in physics.”

As children, we are all very happy, but our parents begin to compare us with others, planting the seed of doubt: Are we good enough? The most difficult thing is that because of this, we practically do not know how to enjoy life and accept with joy and pride what we have already done. Because every time the specter of someone doing it better looms before our eyes.

Reasonable Japanese are guided by the principle: do not compare children with each other. They compare the child with themselves: “You’re doing it better now than you were five years ago.” If you compare yourself to yourself, remember what you had to overcome on the way to your results, you can enjoy it. Because you are unique. But as soon as we look at ourselves through the prism of someone else, collapse occurs.

In fact, we are all very simple, and a little is enough for us. Each of us would have enough of a pair of sweaters, skirts, warm shoes, normal food - and we would be happy. But we live in a consumer society, where society constantly forces us to compare ourselves with others.

Love can be received with much less effort. It’s not so important to the wife whether her husband earns 500 dollars or 550. What’s more important to her is that he comes home, kisses her, and asks: “How are you?” or said: “Listen, what cool kids we have!” And she will be happy. But he comes and itches for a long time, tediously, because for an extra 50 dollars he tore all his nerves and veins. And she tries to make dinner as good as possible, because it seems to her that if the dish turns out perfect, her husband will love her more.

What else is important for maintaining mental health?

For psychological health you need to be able to end situations: leaving work, leaving a partner, leaving a destructive relationship - leaving. Completing a gestalt is a very serious matter.. If people knew how to close the doors of the past, realize what they really want, this would greatly contribute to the health of not only an individual family, but also humanity as a whole.

To become psychologically better, to cope with the mental difficulties that have accumulated over life, any person needs a person. It is impossible to pull yourself out of the swamp by your hair, as Baron Munchausen did. Therefore, such people organize self-help groups, read books and look for like-minded people, and go to further study. But they definitely need someone else who will be a mirror of their experiences.

Some, very persistent and purposeful, may try to study literature, listen to audio lectures in order to change their lives. But you still need someone with whom you can discuss your past experience and try to build a new one. Because often a person, alone with himself, mentally walks in circles.

Psychological health is a subtle and ephemeral substrate. This is a rather philosophical question, in contrast to mental health, which is diagnosed by psychiatrists. Mental health is your answer to the question: “Am I happy?” (“Do I live in harmony with myself?”, “Am I doing well in the main areas: family, work, friendship, love?”, “Am I happy with my life?”). If most of your answers are “yes,” then most likely you are a psychologically healthy person. And happy too.

Appreciate yourself and others, be grateful to life for every day that is given to you. Remember that there are only two irreversible points: birth and death. Everything else can be changed by a person. Try to experience emotions with the intensity with which you can: if you are happy, be happy; if you want to be angry, be angry. Because every event must be lived.

And, of course, love. Love is something that can heal us, give us strength and confidence, give meaning and help us not just survive - but live with pleasure. published.

Natalya Olifirovich

Any questions left - ask them

Mental health is one of the most important components of psychological health and conditions for a person’s psychological well-being.

The term “mental health” itself is controversial. First of all, it seems to connect two sciences and two areas of practice - medical and psychological. It is no coincidence that at the intersection of medicine and psychology a special branch arose - psychosomatic medicine, which is based on the understanding that any somatic disorder is always somehow associated with changes in the mental state. Thus, V.A. Sukhomlinsky wrote back in 1974: “Health also depends on what homework is given to the child, how and when he completes them. The emotional connotation of independent mental work at home plays a huge role. If a child takes up a book with reluctance, this not only depresses his spiritual strength, but also adversely affects the complex system of interaction of internal organs. I know of many cases where a child experiencing an aversion to activities had serious digestion problems, gastrointestinal diseases, etc.” .

In some cases, mental conditions become the main cause of the disease, in other cases they are like an impetus leading to the disease, sometimes mental characteristics affect the course of the disease, sometimes physical ailments cause mental experiences and psychological discomfort. Cases may be different, but for us it is important that the mutual influence of spirit and body is recognized unconditionally.

The term “mental health” was coined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The report of the WHO Expert Committee “Mental Health and Psychosocial Development of Children” (1979) emphasized the special role of mental development in child health. The mental health of children is considered as a state of mental well-being, which is characterized by the absence of painful mental phenomena and provides regulation of behavior and activity that is adequate to the conditions of the surrounding reality.

A person’s mental health is determined by his mental development, which continues continuously throughout life and has its own characteristics in each age period.

The sensitive period for the emergence and development of mental health is preschool and school (primary grades) childhood. Childhood is the initial stage, the most responsible, largely determining all subsequent stages of human development as a person. It is at this age that the foundations of mental health are laid, which, in fact, is the fertile soil on which the origins of the personality and individuality of a growing person arise.

L. S. Vygotsky proved that the mental development of a child is a process of his cultural development and that this development depends on the cultural social environment in which his childhood takes place. He asked the question: “How does harmonious and intelligent human behavior emerge from the chaos of uncoordinated movements of a newborn child?” And he answered: “It arises under the planned, systematic, autocratic influence of the environment into which the child finds himself” 12, p. 2421.

According to L. S. Vygotsky, it is “the child’s growing into culture that is development in the proper sense of the word.”

How does a child “grow into culture” happen? What does it mean? This means mastering the child, appropriating culturally given means:

- actions with objects;
- relationships with other people;
- control of oneself, one’s mental activity, one’s behavior.

It follows from this that the conditions of cultural development include not only knowledge about methods of acting with objects in the surrounding world, about relationships with other people, but also knowledge of oneself and one’s abilities, interests, desires, relationships, etc. Mastering culture in the process of informal family education, the child simultaneously masters himself and his behavior, gradually assimilates the experience of social life, social relations, traditions, knowledge, values, culture, gradually accumulates his own experience of relationships, interests, successes and failures, experiences.

Only as a result of all this do human, higher mental functions develop and personality is formed (L. S. Vygotsky), and its gradual socialization and individualization occurs.

It is the full development of higher mental functions, mental processes and mechanisms that forms the basis of mental health. Why?

A born person, in addition to the needs for food, warmth, care, has great basic needs, the satisfaction of which allows him to become a person:

the need to understand the world where he found himself at birth;

The need to establish contacts with people;

the need to understand oneself and take a worthy place in human society and in the world, the need to realize oneself;

The need for warmth of feelings, attention, neediness, the need to love and be loved.

A child can satisfy these needs only with the help of those people in whose circle, in whose environment he found himself at birth.

In each age period of life, based on basic needs, special needs arise in activity, communication, cognition, understanding and emotional acceptance of oneself, the people around them, and the world. The formation of personality is precisely related to the development and satisfaction of the basic needs of a growing person.

Satisfying these needs generates positive emotions and feelings, promotes the child’s development, strengthens his mental health, and has a positive effect on his psychological well-being.

Undeveloped mental functions at any age prevent the satisfaction of these needs, i.e. do not allow a person to fully interact with the world of people, culture, nature, to understand and feel this world, and give rise to deprivations of various kinds.

Deprivation (from the Latin “deprivation”) is a restriction or distortion of a person’s contacts with the environment, which can ultimately lead to various mental deformations, disorders of mental development and, consequently, mental health.

Mental health correlates with the experience of psychological comfort and psychological discomfort.

Psychological comfort is a feeling of psychological well-being; it can be considered as a prevention of not only mental health disorders, but also psychosomatic diseases.

Psychological discomfort or a feeling of psychological ill-being arises as a result of frustration of the child’s needs, creates a deprivation situation and, as a consequence, mental health disorders (fears, anxiety, mental stress, complexes, negative experiences, uncertainty, self-distrust, inadequate reactions, etc. .).

Various forms of deprivation - sensory, emotional, motor, social, etc. - always lead to disruption of the normal functioning of the psyche.

It is very rare that deprivation is caused by the influence of just one factor; almost every deprivation situation is characterized by the failure to satisfy several important needs of the child. Moreover, for different children and at different periods of development, these unmet needs are in different relationships. Therefore, it is so important to establish which mental needs are especially strong during a certain period of a child’s development and what are those needs, the insufficient satisfaction of which is most dangerous for his development.

You can see a complex chain of interdependencies of unfavorable factors (conditions) that lead to a state of psychological distress:

We see that psychological discomfort arises as a result of unmet needs. This creates a deprivation situation, which results in violations of the child’s mental health, which leads him to psychological distress.

All this slows down, distorts the positive path of mental development and personality formation of a growing person, and negatively affects his mental health and psychological well-being.

L. S. Vygotsky not only substantiated the position that the mental development of a child is a process of his cultural development, but also proved under what conditions - psychological, pedagogical, social - this process of cultural development occurs. What are these conditions?

Division into psychological And mental, as a norm and a pathology, is historically understandable, but terminologically unjustified. If they say that a person has mental problems- most often, in fact, they mean psychotic mental disorders, which narrows the concept of the psyche to psychosis, an extreme form of mental disorder. And if they want to say that a person is experiencing universal human difficulties, then they talk about psychological problems, which, strictly speaking, is very strange, because psychological problems can only exist in the scientific sense (yes, science has psychology many problems), but a person can only have mental problems. Talking about a person's "psychological problems" is just as semantically incorrect as talking about "medical problems" instead of "health problems."

Nevertheless, not only in everyday life, but also in science, two concepts have taken root: “human psyche” and “human psychology”. Thus, the word "psychology" has become a defense against the recognition of the disturbing truth that every person is endowed with a psyche. It must be admitted that psychologists themselves greatly contributed to this, avoiding in every possible way the use of the word “psyche”. And the word “psychology” has become too tightly integrated into speech in its second, figurative meaning, that it is no longer possible to abandon this meaning of the word. For example, the phrase “psychological support” cannot be replaced with “mental support”. The word “mental”, however, has acquired a more negative character, and the phrase “mental support” is more likely to evoke associations with “mental treatment”.

By the way, the definition of psychology as the science of the soul is historically understandable, but not justified. The term “soul” (in Greek “psyche”) has an exclusively religious meaning and is not used today among scientific terms in psychology. The soul was “studied” by religious philosophers, and modern psychologists study the psyche, or rather, its manifestations.

However, if someone is frightened by the word “psyche” due to its association with “mental illness,” then he should also be frightened by the word “soul” due to its association with “mental illness.” However, I must admit, the word “mental” is more repulsive, and, obviously, the merit for this is, first of all, psychiatrists.

But if a person is “afraid” of everything related to the psychic, there must be many reasons for this.

Of course, these difficulties and confusion in concepts are associated not only with the historical development of these two sciences of the human psyche, but also with the history of attitudes towards people with mental illness. It is unlikely that psychiatry and psychiatrists could earn trust when, just a few decades ago, such barbaric methods of “treatment” as electroconvulsive therapy and loboectomy were used (remember, for example, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”).

But it’s not even about the horrors of psychiatric clinics that we read about in books and saw in movies. The point is, first of all, in doctors, whose task is to treat, for which it is necessary to study the disease. And doctors who studied mental illness spoke about the psyche only in connection with illness. But worse than that, because... doctors treat patients; anyone who goes to see a doctor who treats mental illness turns out to be, as if right away, mentally ill.

And this is the main frightening meaning of the word “psyche”. And the point is not even that if a person turns to a psychiatrist, or even starts talking about mental problems, those around him immediately classify him as a “crazy person,” so to speak, stick a label on him, although this is very important.

It's scary to think about the mental, because a mentally ill person can almost never notice his mental problems, and we all know this. Of course, psychiatrists know about this, and we know about it too. And we are terrified by the very fact of a visit to a psychiatrist (and, at the same time, to a psychoneurologist, psychologist or psychoanalyst), because we are scared not only by the fact that we may be diagnosed with mental disorders, but to a greater extent by the fact that we won’t even know about it. won't try to tell the truth.

But some people pluck up courage and come to a psychologist, despite the fact that the name of his specialty contains the root “psycho”.

As a rule, people come to a psychologist for advice.

But who is a psychologist to give advice?