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| Mental Health |
As with religion, social scientific and psychiatric research can target
one or more of many possible aspects of mental health.
Mental health be defined either ‘negatively’ by the absence of
mental illness, or ‘positively’ by the presence of features said to be
characteristic of mental health.
Mental health as absence of one or more specific psychiatric illnesses
is an approach often taken in studies of religion. In the chapters
that follow, different psychiatric conditions, and their relations
to religious factors, will be discussed. The book will not examine
the so-called “organic” disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease,
for which there is a probable organic basis. It focus rather on the
commoner psychiatric disorders, and those which have involved
markedly religious features or implications. Each of chapters 2 to 7
will begin with an attempt at defining the psychiatric condition under
discussion.
A more positive view of mental health involves the presence of positive
states. This approach recognises that there is more to health than
the absence of illness, and attempts are made to assess positive states
or traits – usually psychometrically, by questionnaire-type methods.
Measures include general positive well-being (e.g. Seligman, 2002),
spiritual well-being (e.g. Ellison, 1983) and specific virtues and
other positive states (Seligman, 2002). Chapter 8 examines positive
states.
Throughout this book the aspect of religion and mental health
assessed or under discussion in any particular study will be
described.
