Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
Strengths
A strength of the concept of deviation from ideal mental health is that it is
very thorough definition. It covers a broad range of ideas across mental
health, and it covers most of the reasons that somebody would seek help
from mental health services or be referred for help. The wide range of
factors suggested in relation to Johada’s ideal mental health makes it a
good tool for thinking about mental health. This is a strength of this idea
as it is very definitive.
Limitations
A limitation to the deviation from ideal mental health is that there may be
two different opinions according to the traits that are typical of different
cultures. Some of Jahoda’s classification of ideal mental health are
particularly specific to individualistic cultures. For example, self-
actualisation has a very big emphasis on personal achievement, and in
many cultures this may be considered self-indulgent because the
emphasis is so much on the individual rather than the family or
community. In contrast, much of the world would see independence from
other people as being a bad thing, typical of individualistic cultures. This
therefore means that the approach is limited as it will not travel well across
the globe, and is a product of cultural context in which it was developed
in, where others may struggle to understand its concepts and theories.
Another limitation to the deviation from ideal mental health is that it sets
an unrealistically high standard for mental health. Not everybody holds all
of Jahoda’s criteria for mental health, and not many people will achieve all
of them at the same time or keep them up for very long. Therefore this
approach would see pretty much all of us as abnormal, which can be seen
in a positive or a negative light. On the positive side, it makes it clear to
people the ways in which they could benefit from seeking treatment to
improve their mental health, like counselling for example. On the negative
side, deviation from ideal mental health is probably of no value in thinking
about who might benefit from treatment against their will. This is a
limitation, as it is an incomplete study of mental health due to the fact that
not everyone holds the characteristics that Jahoda suggests.
Strengths
A strength of the concept of deviation from ideal mental health is that it is
very thorough definition. It covers a broad range of ideas across mental
health, and it covers most of the reasons that somebody would seek help
from mental health services or be referred for help. The wide range of
factors suggested in relation to Johada’s ideal mental health makes it a
good tool for thinking about mental health. This is a strength of this idea
as it is very definitive.
Limitations
A limitation to the deviation from ideal mental health is that there may be
two different opinions according to the traits that are typical of different
cultures. Some of Jahoda’s classification of ideal mental health are
particularly specific to individualistic cultures. For example, self-
actualisation has a very big emphasis on personal achievement, and in
many cultures this may be considered self-indulgent because the
emphasis is so much on the individual rather than the family or
community. In contrast, much of the world would see independence from
other people as being a bad thing, typical of individualistic cultures. This
therefore means that the approach is limited as it will not travel well across
the globe, and is a product of cultural context in which it was developed
in, where others may struggle to understand its concepts and theories.
Another limitation to the deviation from ideal mental health is that it sets
an unrealistically high standard for mental health. Not everybody holds all
of Jahoda’s criteria for mental health, and not many people will achieve all
of them at the same time or keep them up for very long. Therefore this
approach would see pretty much all of us as abnormal, which can be seen
in a positive or a negative light. On the positive side, it makes it clear to
people the ways in which they could benefit from seeking treatment to
improve their mental health, like counselling for example. On the negative
side, deviation from ideal mental health is probably of no value in thinking
about who might benefit from treatment against their will. This is a
limitation, as it is an incomplete study of mental health due to the fact that
not everyone holds the characteristics that Jahoda suggests.
