ABSTRACT
A movement that developed through a number of related fields, including Health Education and Community Development, and that, eventually, became explicitly aligned with and developed further through generic health promotion, is increasingly moving toward a distinct professional identity. Research reflects the interests of an individual mental health promotion specialist and, possibly as a result, the major proportion of this research is person-centered. The inherent weakness in a significant proportion of the "research" in mental health promotion was demonstrated, and in many instances, research defined as qualitative was simply methodologically unsound research. The relationships between mental health service providers and Mental Health Promotion Specialists have often been, at best, fragile. Mental health promotion only exists in a coherent and integrated way, in its current construction as a profession, at the level of practice and that a distinct theoretical position is either temporarily unavailable or, indeed, may be ultimately impossible.
