ABSTRACT
As currently conceived, positive mental health includes personal well-being (rather simply being the absence of mental illness), but current definitions of mental health are ambiguous and confusing. Services still focus on ‘treatment’ and ‘pathology’, with insufficient regard for the social causes of woes. Evidence concerning positive mental health is mostly founded on self-report scales of happiness, satisfaction, or quality of life. It is argued that the methodology of this research is weak, and the results of research using the measures not easily interpretable. With regard to programmes to foster well-being, the positive psychology movement has inspired several initiatives. Their results only partially support the premises on which they are based, and positive psychologists are unable to provide a credible explanation for persistent and obdurate woes. Policies to enhance well-being have been promoted nationally for a variety of reasons (as an intrinsic good, as prevention of mental ill-health, and for their potential cost-saving benefits). It is argued that the findings of well-being research are not yet sufficiently well-understood to provide a sound basis for investing in individual therapy as a means of raising the well-being of the population as a whole.
