ABSTRACT
Mental health is predominantly a euphemism for mental illness. This is widespread in legislation, social policy, medicine, psychiatry, sociology and psychology as well as in practice. Such ambiguity has its roots, first, in the fear of the unknown and the irrationality (unreason) of insanity, secondly, in the historical, legislative response to lunacy, thirdly, in the medicalisation of madness, and, finally, in liberal and even radical notions of mental illness. Expanding on these four themes, mental illness is briefly considered in order to clear the ground for discussion of the main concern of this book - mental health and its promotion. A definition of the field of mental health is offered, through discussion of various definitions of mental health. A conceptual framework for understanding the different definitions and their implications is introduced (and further developed in Chapter 2).
