Deviation form Ideal Mental Health

Jahoda (1958) identified 6 features of ideal mental health:

• A positive attitude to oneself - being happy with who you are and having self respect and self esteem

• Self- actualisation - Achieving personal growth and progress, realising one’s potential

• Autonomy - Being independent, self-reliant, and able to make decisions for yourself

• Ability to resist stress - Being able to effectively deal with the chalenges of life without excessive stress

• An accurate perception of reality - Being realistic and objective about oneself and the external world

• Mastery of environment - the ability to successfully navigate work, social, and other situations

Someone with ideal mental health would tick all six of these boxes, or deviates significantly from one of them, they would be classified as abnormal according to the deviatin from ideal mental health definition.