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Content: doi: 10.1002/wps.20231
PMCID: PMC4471980
PMID: 26043341
Toward a new definition of mental health
Silvana Galderisi,1Andreas Heinz,2Marianne Kastrup,3Julian Beezhold,4and  Norman Sartorius5
Silvana Galderisi
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy
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Andreas Heinz
2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Marianne Kastrup
3Competence Center for Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychiatric Center Ballerup, Hellerup, Denmark
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Julian Beezhold
4Hellesdon Hospital and Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
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Norman Sartorius
5Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes, Geneva, Switzerland
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1Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy
2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
3Competence Center for Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychiatric Center Ballerup, Hellerup, Denmark
4Hellesdon Hospital and Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
5Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes, Geneva, Switzerland
Copyright© 2015 World Psychiatric Association
This article has been cited byother articles in PMC. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (1). This definition, while representing a substantial progress with respect to moving away from the conceptualization of mental health as a state of absence of mental illness, raises several concerns and lends itself to potential misunderstandings when it identifies positive feelings and positive functioning as key factors for mental health. In fact, regarding well-being as a key aspect of mental health is difficult to reconcile with the many challenging life situations in which well-being may even be unhealthy: most people would consider as mentally unhealthy an individual experiencing a state of well-being while killing several persons during a war action, and would regard as healthy a person feeling desperate after being fired from his/her job in a situation in which occupational opportunities are scarce. People in good mental health are often sad, unwell, angry or unhappy, and this is part of a fully lived life for a human being. In spite of this, mental health has been often conceptualized as a purely positive affect, marked by feelings of happiness and sense of mastery over the environment (2–4).