Chapter Six—
6. Mental Health
The Standard of Mental Health
One of the prime tasks of the science of psychology is to provide definitions of mental health and mental illness.
Psychological disorders are recognized to be the foremost health problem in the nation. These disorders far surpass
any group of physical diseases (such as heart or cancer) with regard to number of victims, economic costs, and
general devastation of lives. More than half of the hospital beds in this country are occupied by the mentally ill.
More than half of the physical complaints for which patients consult physicians are judged to be of psychological
origin. It is estimated that one out of twelve persons in the population will spend some part of his life in a mental
institution. (Some estimates are one out of ten.) The percentage of persons who turn for psychological help to
therapists in private practice, is many times higher.
But there is no general agreement among psychologists and psychiatrists about the nature of mental health or
illness—no generally accepted definitions, no basic standard by which to gauge one psychological state or the
other.
Many writers declare that no objective definitions and standards can be established—that a basic, universally
applicable concept of mental health is impossible. They assert that, since behavior which is regarded as healthy or
normal in one culture may be regarded as neurotic or aberrated in another, all criteria are a matter of "cultural bias."