What is Mental Health?

/Home/Medical Conditions/Mental Health - Description

What is Mental Health?
July 25, 2006
About.com

It has always been easier to define mental illnesses than to define mental health. In the United States the American Psychiatric Association has traditionally been the organization to define mental disorders (beginning as early as 1917 when it was known as The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions of the Insane). More recently many have recognized that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. Even though many of us don't suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, it is clear that some of us are mentally healthier than others. The study of the characteristics that make up mental health has been called "positive psychology."

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.