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Chapter

Chapter
Selfhood and Society
DOI link for Selfhood and Society
Selfhood and Society book
Selfhood and Society
DOI link for Selfhood and Society
Selfhood and Society book
ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on leaving the active human subject out of the picture is a significant mistake, as mental health challenges can be understood as being, in large part, reflections of existential challenges that individuals face. It describes a deterministic model that denies human agency will be counterproductive – that is, will contribute to mental health problems, rather than to mental well-being. The traditional approach to selfhood is to think of the individual as having a relatively fixed personality on a journey through life. The idea that our personality is relatively fixed is known as “essentialism,” based on the notion that we each have a basic “essence,” an underlying reality that defines who we are. Social problems are generally understood to be problems that affect society itself and not just a certain number of people within it.