Can Mental Health Be Viewed as a Public Social Problem?

Abstract

We can define the concept of mental health not just as a health phenomenon, but also as a social and psychological one. Defining mental health separately from mental illness places it into the concept of public health, which exceeds the medical definition of the determination of a "mental illness." The anthropology of health defines the medical treatment as a social practice, which takes into consideration a person's social context, the differences between genders, and the connection between personal and social. It accents the characteristics of social systems, values, and manifestations of social crises through basic concepts and discourses, such as gender and culture. Besides the consideration of health and disease, it also enables the consideration of a person in a highly industrialized society and of a culture as a totality. The phenomenon of destructive ways of manifesting psychic crises (within the presented case study research) implies that mental health should be seen as a social problem.