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The human psyche is very mobile, dynamic. The behavior of a person in any period of time depends on what particular features of mental processes and mental properties of a person are manifested at this particular time.

Obviously, a waking person differs from a sleeping person, a sober person from a drunk, a happy person from an unhappy one. The mental state - just characterizes especially the whining of the human psyche in a certain period of time.

At the same time, the mental states in which a person can be, of course, also affect such characteristics of him as mental processes and mental properties, i.e. these parameters of the psyche are closely related to each other. Mental states affect the course of mental processes, and repeating often, acquiring stability, can become a property of the individual.

At the same time, modern psychology considers the mental state as a relatively independent aspect of the characteristics of personality psychology.

Concept of mental state

Mental state is a concept that is used in psychology to conditionally single out a relatively stable component in the psyche of an individual, in contrast to the concepts of "mental process", emphasizing the dynamic moment of the psyche and "mental property", indicating the stability of the manifestations of the individual's psyche, their fixation in the structure of its personality.

Therefore, the psychological state is defined as a characteristic of a person's mental activity that is stable over a certain period of time.

As a rule, most often, a state is understood as a certain energy characteristic that affects a person’s activity in the course of his activity - cheerfulness, euphoria, fatigue, apathy, depression. The states of consciousness are also distinguished. which are mainly determined by the level of wakefulness: sleep, nap, hypnosis, wakefulness.

Particular attention is paid to the psychological states of people under stress under extreme circumstances (if necessary, emergency decision-making, during exams, in a combat situation), in critical situations (pre-launch psychological states of athletes, etc.).

In every psychological state there are physiological, psychological and behavioral aspects. Therefore, the structure of psychological states includes many different-quality components:

• at the physiological level, it manifests itself, for example, in the pulse rate, blood pressure, etc.;
• in the motor sphere it is found in the rhythm of breathing, changes in facial expressions, voice volume and speech rate;
• in the emotional sphere it manifests itself in positive or negative experiences;
• in the cognitive sphere, it determines one or another level of logical thinking, the accuracy of forecasting upcoming events, the possibility of regulating the state of the body, etc.;
• at the behavioral level, it determines the accuracy, correctness of the actions performed, their compliance with current needs, etc.;
• At the communicative level, this or that state of the psyche affects the nature of communication with other people, the ability to hear another person and influence him, set adequate goals and achieve them.

Studies have shown that the emergence of certain psychological states is based, as a rule, on actual needs that act in relation to them as a system-forming factor.

So, if the conditions of the external environment contribute to the quick and easy satisfaction of needs, then this leads to the emergence of a positive state - joy, inspiration, delight, etc. If the probability of satisfaction of one or another desire is low or absent at all, then the psychological state will be negative.

Depending on the nature of the state that has arisen, all the main characteristics of the human psyche, his attitudes, expectations, feelings, or feelings can change dramatically. as psychologists say, "filters of perception of the world."

So, for a loving person, the object of his affection seems ideal, devoid of flaws, although objectively he may not be such. And vice versa, for a person in a state of anger, the other person appears exclusively in black, and certain logical arguments have very little effect on such a state.

After performing certain actions with external objects or social objects that caused this or that psychological state, for example, love or hatred, a person comes to some result. This result might be:

• or a person realizes the need that caused this or that mental state, and then it comes to naught:
• or the result is negative.

In the latter case, a new psychological state arises - irritation, aggression, frustration, etc. At the same time, the person again stubbornly tries to satisfy his need, although it turned out to be difficult to fulfill. The way out of this difficult situation is associated with the inclusion of psychological defense mechanisms that can reduce the level of tension in the psychological state and reduce the likelihood of chronic stress.

Classification of mental states

Human life is a continuous series of various mental states.

In mental states, the degree of balance of the individual's psyche with the requirements of the environment is manifested. States of joy and sadness, admiration and disappointment, sadness and delight arise in connection with what events we are involved in and how we relate to them.

Mental state - temporary originality of the mental activity of the individual, due to the content and conditions of his activity, personal attitude to this activity.

Cognitive, emotional and volitional processes are complexly manifested in the corresponding states that determine the functional level of the individual's life.

Mental states are, as a rule, reactive states - a system of reactions to a certain behavioral situation. However, all mental states are distinguished by a pronounced individual feature - they are a current modification of the psyche of a given person. Even Aristotle noted that the virtue of a person consists, in particular, in responding to external circumstances in accordance with them, without exceeding or underestimating what is due.

Mental states are divided into situational and personal. Situational states are characterized by a temporary peculiarity of the course of mental activity depending on situational circumstances. They are subdivided:

• to general functional ones that determine the general behavioral activity of the individual;
• states of mental stress in difficult conditions of activity and behavior;
• conflict mental states.

The stable mental states of the individual include:

• optimal and crisis states;
• borderline states (psychopathy, neurosis, mental retardation);
• mental states of disturbed consciousness.

All mental states are associated with the neurodynamic features of higher nervous activity, the interaction of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, the functional connections of the cortex and subcortex, the interaction of the first and second signaling systems, and ultimately with the peculiarities of the mental self-regulation of each individual.

Reactions to environmental influences include direct and secondary adaptive effects. Primary - a specific response to a specific stimulus, secondary - a change in the general level of psychophysiological activity. Research has identified three types of psychophysiological self-regulation, which corresponds to three types of general functional states of mental activity:

• secondary reactions are adequate to primary ones;
• secondary reactions exceed the level of primary ones;
• secondary reactions are weaker than the necessary primary reactions.

The second and third types of mental states cause redundancy or insufficiency of the physiological provision of mental activity.

Let's move on to a brief description of individual mental states.

Crisis states of personality

For many people, individual everyday and work conflicts turn into an intolerable mental trauma, an acute, persistent mental pain. The individual mental vulnerability of a person depends on his moral structure, the hierarchy of values, the importance that he attaches to various life phenomena. For some people, the elements of moral consciousness may be unbalanced, certain moral categories may acquire the status of supervalue, moral accentuations of the personality, its “weak points” are formed. Some people are highly sensitive to the infringement of their honor and dignity, injustice, dishonesty, others - to the infringement of their material interests, prestige, intra-group status. In these cases, situational conflicts can develop into deep crisis states of the individual.

An adaptive personality, as a rule, reacts to psychotraumatic circumstances by a defensive restructuring of its attitudes. The subjective system of se values ​​is aimed at neutralizing the impact that traumatizes the psyche. In the process of such psychological defense, a radical restructuring of personal relationships takes place. The mental disorder caused by psychic trauma is replaced by reorganized orderliness, and sometimes pseudo-orderliness - social alienation of the individual, withdrawal into the world of dreams, addiction to drugs. Social maladaptation of an individual can manifest itself in various forms. Let's name some of them.

The state of negativism is the prevalence of negative reactions in the individual, the loss of positive social contacts.

The situational opposition of the personality is a sharp negative assessment of individuals, their behavior and activities, aggressiveness towards them.

Social alienation (autism) is a stable self-isolation of an individual as a result of conflict interactions with the social environment.

The alienation of the individual from society is associated with a violation of the value orientations of the individual, the rejection of group, and in some cases general social norms. At the same time, other people and social groups are perceived by the individual as alien, hostile. Alienation is manifested in a special emotional state of the individual - a persistent feeling of loneliness, rejection, and sometimes in anger, even misanthropy.

Social alienation can take the form of a stable personality anomaly: a person loses the ability to social reflection, take into account the position of other people, his ability to empathize with the emotional states of other people is sharply weakened and even completely inhibited, social identification is violated. On this basis, strategic meaning formation is violated: the individual ceases to care about tomorrow.

Prolonged and difficult to bear loads, insurmountable conflicts cause a person to experience a state of depression (lat. depressio - suppression) - a negative emotional and mental state, accompanied by painful passivity. In a state of depression, the individual experiences painfully experienced depression, melancholy, despair, detachment from life; feels the futility of existence. The self-esteem of the individual is sharply reduced. The entire society is perceived by the individual as something hostile, opposed to him; derealization occurs when the subject loses a sense of the reality of what is happening, or depersonalization, when the individual loses the opportunity and need to be ideally represented in the life of other people, does not strive for self-affirmation and manifestation of the ability to be a person. Lack of energy supply of behavior leads to excruciating despair caused by unresolved tasks, failure to fulfill the obligations assumed, one's duty. The attitude of such people becomes tragic, and their behavior becomes ineffective.

So, in some mental states, stable personality-characteristic states are manifested, but there are also situational, episodic states of the personality, which are not only not characteristic of it, but even contradict the general style of its behavior. The causes of such states can be various temporary circumstances: the weakening of mental self-regulation, tragic events that captured the personality, mental breakdowns due to metabolic disorders, emotional downturns, etc.

Mental and psychological health

Mental and psychological health are two different things.

Mental health - mental features that allow a person to be adequate and successfully adapt to the environment. Usually, this includes the correspondence of subjective images formed in a person to objective reality, adequacy in self-perception, the ability to concentrate attention on an object, the ability to retain information in memory, and critical thinking. The opposite of mental health is mental abnormalities, mental disorders and mental illness.

Mental health does not guarantee mental health. With the preservation of the psyche, complete mental adequacy, a person can be mentally ill. The soul hurts, I do not want to live. It can be the other way around: mental health, cheerfulness with some mental inadequacy.

And mental health is not only mental, but also personal health. This is a state when mental health is combined with personal health, everything is bright and cool in a person, and at the same time he is in a state of personal growth and readiness for such growth. Psychological health describes the personality as a whole, is related to the emotional, motivational, cognitive and volitional spheres, as well as the manifestation of the human spirit.

mental states

Mental states - a temporary, current originality of the mental activity of an individual, due to the content and conditions of his activity and personal attitude to this activity.

Classification of mental states.

Human life is a continuous series of various mental states. They show the degree of balance of the individual's psyche with the requirements of the environment. The state of joy and sadness, admiration and disappointment, sadness and delight arises in connection with what events we are involved in and how we relate to them. Cognitive, emotional and volitional processes are complexly manifested in the corresponding states that determine the functional level of the individual's life.

Mental states are divided into situational and stable. Situational states are characterized by a temporary peculiarity of the course of mental activity depending on situational circumstances. They are subdivided by us into: 1) general functional, which determine the general behavioral activity of the individual; 2) motivational - starting states of mental activity; 3) states of mental stress in difficult conditions of activity and behavior; 4) conflict mental states.

The stable mental states of a person include: 1) its optimal and crisis states; 2) borderline states (neurosis, asthenia, accentuation, psychopathy, mental retardation); 3) mental states of disturbed consciousness.

All mental states are associated with the neurodynamic features of higher nervous activity, the interaction of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, the functional connections of the cortex and subcortex, the interaction of the 1st and 2nd signaling systems, and, ultimately, with the characteristics of the individual's mental self-regulation.

Features of individual mental states.

General functional states of mental activity.

The most general, basic mental state is the state of wakefulness - the optimal clarity of consciousness, the ability of the individual to conscious activity. The optimal organization of consciousness is expressed in the consistency of various aspects of activity, increased attention to its conditions. Different levels of mindfulness, as already noted, are different levels of organization of consciousness.

The level of optimality of human mental activity depends on internal and external factors, both terrestrial and cosmic. The state of health, time of year, day, different phases of the moon, opposition of planets and stars, the level of solar activity - all these are essential factors of our mental activity.

A person reacts to various significant situations by modifying (originality) of his mental state. The same situations are assessed differently by him depending on his actualized needs and dominant goals.

The physiological basis of mental activity is the optimal interaction of the processes of excitation and inhibition, the functioning of the focus of optimal excitability (in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov), the dominant (in the terminology of A.A. Ukhtomsky), the excitation of a certain functional system (in the terminology of P.K. Anokhin) . The energy potential of the brain is provided by the reticular (network) formation located at the base of the brain, where the primary analysis of the influences coming from the external environment takes place. The activation of higher, cortical centers is determined by the signal significance of these influences.

Mental activity consists in a constant analysis of the objective significance and personal meaning of incoming information and finding an adequate behavioral response to them. Thus, the view of a pine grove is perceived differently by a farmer, an artist, and an engineer who has to lay a highway through it. The highest levels of mental activity are associated with the state of inspiration, meditation, religious ecstasy. All these states are associated with a deep emotional experience of the most significant phenomena for a given individual.

Our perceptions of events and actions depend on our own personal and situational states. In critical conditions, many people have weakened adequate relationship with the outside world - the personality is immersed in the subjective world of "narrowed consciousness".

The greatest working capacity appears in a person 3 and 10 hours after waking up, and the smallest - in the interval between 3 and 7 o'clock in the morning. The general mental state of a person is affected by the comfort or discomfort of the environment, the ergonomic organization of the environment, the motivation of the activity and the conditions for its implementation.

Under the influence of prolonged exposure to mental stress, a state of fatigue arises - a temporary decrease in working capacity due to the depletion of the individual's mental resources. At the same time, the accuracy and speed of the operations performed, sensory sensitivity, meaningfulness of perception are sharply reduced, and there are shifts in the emotional-volitional sphere.

The state of mental stress in dangerous and difficult situations.

The state of mental stress is a complex of intellectual and emotional-volitional manifestations in difficult conditions of activity. When an individual adapts to complex external situations, complex physiological and mental changes occur. In sudden situations (attack, aircraft engine failure, accident, etc.), an emergency energy mobilization of the body occurs, endocrine, vegetative and motor functions are modified. Depending on the acuteness of the situation and individual readiness to overcome it, the mental activity of an individual can be disorganized (a “narrowing of consciousness” occurs) or maximally focused on achieving a better adaptive result.

The mental state of a person also depends on what possible consequences of the situation he anticipates and what significance he attaches to them. The same circumstances can cause different mental states in different people. Separate elements of the situation may acquire special significance due to the mental characteristics of the individual.

Failure to recognize dangerous situations and respond appropriately to them is the cause of many accidents. A dangerous situation is an environment with a high probability of an accident. In some cases, the danger threatening a person can be foreseen, prevented or reduced its harmful consequences. This requires the appropriate development of the prognostic and adaptive capabilities of the individual.

Anticipating a dangerous situation, a person calculates its probability and the possible severity of the consequences. The higher the danger of the situation, the higher the level of anxiety, the more intense the mental self-regulation of the individual, the higher the likelihood of neurotic states, affect and distress.

Danger can be divided into physical and social. And the attitude to these types of danger in different people is not the same. Thus, for most law enforcement officers, the anxiety of not doing their duty and loss of authority is stronger than the anxiety of the possibility of physical injury. The ability of different people to withstand these types of danger is not the same.

The most common cause of accidents is the lack of formation of stress resistance in various typical emergency situations. In extreme situations, the weaknesses of the neuropsychic organization of the individual, his most conservative regulatory properties, begin to play a dominant role.

Studies show that people who are emotionally unbalanced, excitable, impulsively aggressive, people with an extremely high or low level of pretension are more prone to accidents. In the levels of mental overstrain, many inadequate actions are performed when controlling equipment. Two-thirds of aviation accidents are committed as a result of the mental disorganization of pilots and flight control groups in sudden extreme situations and as a result of the imperfection of the "language of communication" of a person with technical means and systems.

In situations of constant difficulty in activity, under conditions of systematic presentation of unsolvable tasks, an individual can form a stable state of learned helplessness. It tends to generalize - being developed in one situation, it spreads to the entire lifestyle of the individual. A person ceases to solve the tasks available to him, loses faith in himself, resigns himself to the state of his own helplessness.

Crisis states of personality.

For many people, individual everyday and work conflicts turn into unbearable mental trauma, acute mental pain. The mental vulnerability of a person depends on its moral structure, the hierarchy of values, the values ​​that it attaches to various life phenomena. For some people, the elements of moral consciousness may not be balanced and certain moral categories acquire the status of supervalue, resulting in the formation of moral accentuations of the personality, its “weak points”. Some are highly sensitive to the infringement of their honor and dignity, injustice, dishonesty, others - to the infringement of their material interests, prestige, intra-group status. In such cases, situational conflicts can develop into deep crisis states of the individual.

An adaptive personality, as a rule, reacts to psychotraumatic circumstances by a defensive restructuring of its attitudes. The subjective system of its values ​​is directed to the neutralization of the impact that traumatizes the psyche. In the process of such psychological defense, a restructuring of personal relationships occurs. The mental disorder caused by psychic trauma is replaced by a reorganized orderliness, and sometimes pseudo-orderliness - social alienation of the individual, withdrawal into the world of dreams, into the pool of narcotic states. Social maladaptation of an individual can manifest itself in various forms. Let's name some of them:

• negativism - the prevalence of negative reactions in a person, the loss of positive social contacts;
• situational opposition of the individual - a sharp negative assessment of individuals, their behavior and activities, aggressiveness towards them;
• social alienation (autism) of a person is a stable self-isolation of an individual as a result of a long conflict interaction with the social environment.

The alienation of the individual from society is associated with a violation of the value orientations of the individual, the rejection of group, and in some cases general social norms. At the same time, other people and social groups are perceived by the individual as alien and even hostile. Alienation is manifested in a special emotional state of the individual - a persistent feeling of loneliness, rejection, and sometimes in anger and even misanthropy.

Social alienation can take the form of a stable personal anomaly - a person loses the ability to social reflection, taking into account the position of other people, her ability to empathize with the emotional states of other people is sharply weakened and even completely inhibited, social identification is violated. On this basis, strategic meaning formation is violated - the individual ceases to care about tomorrow.

Prolonged and unbearable loads, insurmountable conflicts cause a person to experience a state of depression (from Latin depressio - suppression) - a negative emotional and mental state, accompanied by painful passivity. In a state of depression, the individual experiences painfully experienced depression, melancholy, despair, detachment from life, the futility of existence. The self-esteem of the individual is sharply reduced.

The entire society is perceived by the individual as something hostile, opposed to him; derealization occurs - the subject loses a sense of the reality of what is happening or depersonalization - the individual does not strive for self-affirmation and the manifestation of the ability to be a person. Lack of energy security of behavior leads to agonizing despair from unresolved tasks, commitments, unfulfilled debt. The attitude of such people becomes tragic, and their behavior becomes ineffective.

One of the crisis states of personality is alcoholism. With alcoholism, all the former interests of a person fade into the background, alcohol itself becomes a meaning-forming factor in behavior; it loses its social orientation, the individual descends to the level of impulsive reactions, loses the criticality of behavior.

Borderline mental states of the individual.

Mental states adjacent between the norm and pathology are called borderline states. They are borderline between psychology and psychiatry. We refer to these states: reactive states, neuroses, character accentuations, psychopathic states, mental retardation (mental retardation).

In psychology, the concept of mental norm has not yet been formed. However, in order to identify the transition of the human psyche beyond the limits of the mental norm, it is necessary to determine its limits in general terms.

The essential characteristics of the mental norm, we include the following behavioral features:

• adequacy (correspondence) of behavioral reactions to external influences;
• determinism of behavior, its conceptual ordering in accordance with the optimal scheme of life activity; consistency of goals, motives and ways of behavior;
• correspondence of the level of claims to the real possibilities of the individual;
• optimal interaction with other people, the ability to self-correct behavior in accordance with social norms.

All borderline states are abnormal (deviating), they are associated with a violation of any essential aspect of mental self-regulation.

reactive states.

Reactive states - acute affective reactions, shock mental disorders as a result of mental trauma. Reactive states arise both as a result of simultaneous psycho-traumatic effects, and as a result of prolonged trauma, as well as due to the individual's predisposition to a mental breakdown (weak type of higher nervous activity, weakening of the body after illness, prolonged neuropsychic stress).

From a neurophysiological point of view, reactive states are a disruption of nervous activity as a result of an exorbitant effect that causes an overstrain of the excitatory or inhibitory processes, a violation of their interaction. At the same time, humoral shifts also occur - the release of adrenaline increases, hyperglycemia occurs, blood clotting increases, the entire internal environment of the body is rebuilt, regulated by the pituitary-adrenal system, the activity of the reticular system (the system that provides energy to the brain) changes. The interaction of signaling systems is disturbed, there is a mismatch of functional systems, interactions of the cortex and subcortex.

Non-pathological reactive states are divided into: 1) affective-shock psychogenic reactions and 2) depressive-psychogenic reactions.

Affective-shock psychogenic reactions occur in acute conflict situations containing a threat to life or basic personal values: during mass disasters - fires, floods, earthquakes, shipwrecks, traffic accidents, physical and moral violence. Under these circumstances, a hyperkinetic or hypokinetic reaction occurs.

With a hyperkinetic reaction, chaotic motor activity increases, spatial orientation is disturbed, uncontrolled actions are performed, a person “does not remember himself”. The hypokinetic reaction is manifested in the occurrence of stupor - immobility and mutism (loss of speech), excessive muscle weakness occurs, confusion occurs, causing subsequent amnesia. The consequence of an affective-shock reaction may be the so-called "emotional paralysis" - a subsequent indifferent attitude to reality.

Depressive psychogenic reactions (reactive depressions) usually arise as a result of great life failures, the loss of loved ones, the collapse of great hopes. This is a reaction of grief and deep sadness to life's losses, deep depression as a result of life's adversity. The traumatic circumstance steadily dominates the psyche of the victim. The agony of suffering is often aggravated by self-accusation, "remorse", obsessive detailing of a traumatic event. In the behavior of an individual, elements of puerilism (the appearance in the speech and facial expressions of an adult of features characteristic of childhood) and elements of pseudodementia (acquired decrease in intelligence) may appear.

neuroses.

Neuroses - breakdowns of neuropsychic activity: hysterical neurosis, neurasthenia and obsessive-compulsive states.

1. Hysterical neurosis occurs in psychotraumatic circumstances, mainly in individuals with pathological character traits, with an artistic type of higher nervous activity. Increased inhibition of the cortex in these individuals causes increased excitability of subcortical formations - centers of emotional-instinctive reactions. Hysterical neurosis is often found in individuals with increased suggestibility and autosuggestibility. It manifests itself in excessive affectation, loud and prolonged, uncontrollable laughter, theatricality, demonstrative behavior.

2. Neurasthenia - weakening of nervous activity, irritable weakness, increased fatigue, nervous exhaustion. The behavior of the individual is characterized by intemperance, emotional instability, impatience. Sharply increases the level of anxiety, unreasonable anxiety, constant expectation of an unfavorable development of events. The environment is subjectively reflected by the individual as a threat factor. Experiencing anxiety, self-doubt, the individual is looking for inadequate means of hypercompensation.

Weakness, exhaustion of the nervous system in neurosis is manifested in the disintegration of mental formations, individual manifestations of the psyche acquire relative independence, which is expressed in obsessive states.

3. Neurosis of obsessive states is expressed in obsessive feelings, inclinations, ideas and sophistication.

Obsessive feelings of fear are called phobias (from the Greek phobos - fear). Phobias are accompanied by autonomic dysfunctions (sweating, increased heart rate) and behavioral inadequacy. At the same time, a person is aware of the obsession of his fears, but cannot get rid of them. Phobias are diverse, we note some of them: nosophobia - fear of various diseases (carcinophobia, cardiophobia, etc.); claustrophobia - fear of closed spaces; agoraphobia - fear of open spaces; aichmophobia - fear of sharp objects; xenophobia - fear of everything alien; social phobia - fear of communication, public self-manifestations; logophobia - fear of speech activity in the presence of other people, etc.

Obsessive ideas - perseverations (from Latin perseveratio - persistence) - cyclic involuntary reproduction of motor and sensory-perceptual images (this is what, in addition to our desire, "climbs into the head"). Obsessive desires are involuntary inappropriate aspirations (count the sum of numbers, read words the other way around, etc.). Obsessive sophistication - obsessive thoughts about secondary issues, meaningless problems (“Which hand would be right if a person had four hands?”).

With a neurosis of obsessive movements, the individual loses control over the manners of his behavior, performs inappropriate actions (sniffs, scratches the back of his head, makes inappropriate antics, grimaces, etc.).

The most common type of obsessive-compulsive disorder is obsessive doubt (“Is the iron turned off?”, “Did I write the address correctly?”). In a number of acutely critical situations, when a certain danger dominates in the mind, obsessive urges arise for contrasting actions that are opposite to those dictated by the situation (the desire to move forward, standing on the edge of the abyss, to jump out of the “ferris wheel” cabin).

Obsessive states occur mainly in people with a weak type of nervous system in conditions of weakening their psyche. Separate obsessive-compulsive states can be extremely stable and criminogenic.

In addition to the above, there may be other obsessive states that cause inappropriate behavior. So, with an obsessive state of fear of failure, a person is unable to perform certain actions (according to this mechanism, some forms of stuttering, sexual impotence, etc. develop). With neurosis of expectation of danger, a person begins to panic fear of certain situations.

The young woman was frightened by her rival's threats to douse her with sulfuric acid; she was especially terrified at the possibility of losing her sight. One morning, when she heard a knock on the door and opened it, she suddenly felt something wet on her face. The woman thought with horror that she had been doused with sulfuric acid, and she developed sudden blindness. Only pure snow fell on the woman's face, accumulating over the door and falling off when it was opened. But the snow fell on mentally prepared soil.

Psychopathy.

Psychopathy - disharmony of personality development. Psychopaths are people with anomalies of certain behavioral qualities. These deviations may be pathological, but in many cases they appear as extreme variants of the norm. Most psychopathic individuals themselves create conflict situations and react sharply to them, obsessing over insignificant circumstances.

The whole variety of psychopaths can be combined into four large groups: 1) excitable, 2) inhibitory, 3) hysteroids, 4) schizoids.

Excitable psychopaths are characterized by extremely increased irritability, conflict, a tendency to aggression, social maladaptation - they easily lend themselves to criminalization and alcoholization. They are characterized by motor disinhibition, anxiety, loudness. They are uncompromising in primitive desires, prone to affective outbursts, intolerant of the demands of others.

Inhibitory psychopaths are timid, timid, indecisive, prone to neurotic breakdowns, suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorders, withdrawn and unsociable.

Hysterical psychopaths are extremely egocentric - they strive to be the center of attention at all costs; impressionable and subjective - emotionally very mobile, prone to arbitrary assessments, violent affective manifestations - tantrums; suggestible and self-suggestible, infantile.

Schizoid psychopaths are highly sensitive, vulnerable, but emotionally limited (“cold aristocrats”), despotic, prone to reasoning. Psychomotor is defective - clumsy. Pedantic and autistic - aloof. Social identification is sharply disturbed - they are hostile to the social environment. Psychopaths of the schizoid type lack emotional resonance to the experiences of other people. Their social contacts are difficult. They are cold, cruel and unceremonious; their inner motives are obscure and often due to orientations that are overvalued to them.

Psychopathic individuals are extremely sensitive to certain psycho-traumatic influences, they are touchy and suspicious. Their mood is subject to periodic disorders - dysphoria. Tides of malicious melancholy, fear, depression cause them to increase pickiness to others.

Psychopathic personality traits are formed with extremes in the methods of education - oppression, suppression, humiliation form a depressed, inhibitory personality type. Systematic rudeness, violence contribute to the formation of aggressiveness. The hysterical personality type is formed in an atmosphere of universal adoration and admiration, the fulfillment of all the whims and whims of a psychopathic individual.

Excitable and hysterical psychopaths are especially prone to sexual perversions - homosexuality (attraction to people of the same sex), gerontophilia (attraction to senile people), pedophilia (sexual attraction to children). Other behavioral perversions of an erotic nature are also possible - scopophilia (secret peeping at the intimate acts of other people), erotic fetishism (transfer of erotic feelings to things), transvestism (sexual satisfaction when dressing in clothes of the opposite sex), exhibitionism (sexual satisfaction when one's body is exposed in the presence of persons of the opposite sex), sadism (erotic tyranny), masochism (autosadism), etc. All sexual perversions are signs of mental disorders.

Mental retardation.

The terms "mental retardation" and "mental retardation" are synonymous. And since mental processes are inextricably linked with all mental processes and personal formations, it is more correct to use the term "mental retardation."

Each age period corresponds to a certain measure of the formation of cognitive, emotional and volitional processes, a system of needs and behavioral motives, that is, a minimum of basic structures of the psyche.

Age periodization is based on indicators of mental development: preschool age - from 4 to 7 years; junior school age - from 7 to 12 years; middle school age - from 12 to 15 years; senior school age - from 15 to 18 years.

The mental development of an individual occurs unevenly: the formation of individual mental properties can be advanced or slow. The boundaries between the levels of mental development are not absolute (it is impossible, for example, to accurately determine the criteria for mental development by years of life). But in each age stage, a set of signs of mental development is distinguished. In an expert study, it is possible to establish only that age period, which corresponds to the mental development of the individual.

Indicators of mental retardation: uncritical thinking, thoughtlessness of actions, underestimation of the objective conditions of activity, increased distractibility to random stimuli. Separate outwardly attractive objects for mentally retarded adolescents serve as spontaneous stimuli to action, the individual is subject to a situational "field" - field dependent.

A sign of mental retardation is the underdevelopment of the generalization function - operating with the general properties of objects is replaced only by specific connections between them. (Thus, in experiments on the classification method, mentally retarded adolescents do not combine a dog and a cat into one group of animals, “because they are enemies.”)

As noted by B.V. Zeigarnik, in mentally retarded individuals, the single process of reflection is distorted, as it were, from two sides - on the one hand, the individual does not rise above single connections, does not go beyond specific relationships, on the other hand, verbal-logical connections do not rely on specific features of objects - in an individual a large number of random associations arise, he often uses general, meaningless phrases.

The level of mental development is determined by intelligence tests, their age scales.

Mental states of disturbed consciousness.

Consciousness, as already noted, is psychic self-regulation based on the reflection of reality in socially developed forms - concepts and value judgments. There are some critical levels of categorical coverage of reality, criteria for the minimum required level of mental interaction of an individual with the environment. Deviations from these criteria mean impaired consciousness, loss of interaction between the subject and reality.

Signs of impaired consciousness are the disappearance of the subject distinctness of perception, the connectedness of thinking, orientation in space. So, with craniocerebral injuries, acute disorders of the central nervous system, a state of stunned consciousness occurs, in which sensitivity thresholds sharply increase, associative connections are not established, and indifference to the environment occurs.

With oneiroid (dreamy) clouding of consciousness, detachment from the environment occurs, which is replaced by fantastic events, vivid representations of all kinds of scenes (military battles, travel, flights to aliens, etc.).

In all cases of impaired consciousness, there is a depersonalization of the individual, a violation of his self-consciousness. This allows us to conclude that the self-consciousness of the individual, personal formations are the core of conscious self-regulation.

On the examples of mental anomalies and disorders of consciousness, we clearly see that the psyche of an individual person is inextricably linked with his socially conditioned orientations.

Mental states of non-pathological disorganization of consciousness.

The organization of a person's consciousness is expressed in his attentiveness, in the degree of clarity of awareness of the objects of reality. A different level of attentiveness is an indicator of the organization of consciousness. The absence of a clear direction of consciousness means its disorganization.

In investigative practice, when evaluating the actions of people, it is necessary to keep in mind the various non-pathological levels of disorganization of consciousness. One of the states of partial disorganization of consciousness is absent-mindedness. Here we have in mind not that “professorial” absent-mindedness, which is the result of great mental concentration, but general absent-mindedness, excluding any kind of concentration of attention. This kind of absent-mindedness is a temporary violation of orientation, a weakening of attention.

Absent-mindedness can arise as a result of a quick change of impressions, when a person does not have the opportunity to focus on each of them separately. Thus, a person who has come to the workshop of a large factory for the first time may experience a state of absent-mindedness under the influence of a wide variety of influences.

Absent-mindedness can also arise under the influence of monotonous, monotonous, insignificant stimuli, with a lack of understanding of the perceived. The reasons for distraction may be dissatisfaction with one's activity, the consciousness of its uselessness or insignificance, etc.

The level of organization of consciousness depends on the content of the activity. Very long, continuous work in one direction leads to overwork - neurophysiological exhaustion. Overfatigue is first expressed in a diffuse irradiation of the excitation process, in a violation of differential inhibition (a person becomes incapable of fine analysis, discrimination), and then a general protective inhibition, a sleepy state occurs.

One of the types of temporary disorganization of consciousness is apathy - a state of indifference to external influences. This passive state is associated with a sharp decrease in the tone of the cerebral cortex and is subjectively experienced as a painful state. Apathy can occur as a result of nervous overexertion or in conditions of sensory hunger. To a certain extent, apathy paralyzes a person's mental activity, dulls his interests, and lowers his orienting-exploratory reaction.

The highest degree of non-pathological disorganization of consciousness occurs during stress and affect.

Ergonomics is the science of optimizing the means and conditions of human activity.

Anxiety is a diffuse fear that gives rise to a feeling of general ill-being, the impotence of the individual in the face of impending threatening events.

Discussions

Mental vs. Psychological Health: What's the Difference? Interview with Truevtsev D.V.

3 posts

The second criterion is the repetition, the repetition of such states. For example: you are afraid to speak in front of an audience. Once I didn’t speak - it was scary, the second - already a trend, the third - anxiety begins. It is impossible to say from one episode that a person is unhealthy.

The third criterion is avoidance behavior, when a person moves away from society and begins to hide. He decides that today he did not prepare for the test, I will prepare tomorrow. You need to take the coursework urgently, but I'll postpone it, it's okay. When a person decides not to do anything, he becomes very good, calm. But after some time, the same step turns out to be more difficult to do, and then even more difficult. And it turns out that the more a person avoids something, hides, the more difficult it is to overcome it later. As a result, more and more people

The positive dynamics is connected, it seems to me, with this: modern society is largely autonomizing and very strongly individualized. Now in society, the ideal of success is associated with an autonomous and independent personality, but not every person is able to withstand these social requirements. According to the Russian researcher Alla Borisovna Kholmogorova, the extreme polar groups are more depressive in our country - children from dysfunctional families and children from successful families (in elite schools, gymnasiums, the level of anxiety and anxiety is very high).

Psychic vs Psychological: What's the difference?

From time to time we come across such concepts as “mental” and “psychological”, speaking about health, condition, mood. But we do not always understand what they really mean, only assuming their meaning. In fact, these two concepts are different and apply to different human health conditions. Let's see what is the difference between them.

Based on the WHO definition, mental health is a state in which a person can realize their own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and also contribute to their community. That is, these are such mental characteristics that allow a person to be adequate and safely adapt to the environment. The antipode of such a state will be mental deviations and mental illness. It is worth noting here that a person's mental health is not a guarantee of his mental health. And vice versa, having mental health, you can be with some mental disorders.

The German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin proposed a classification of mental anomalies, the absence of which in a narrow sense implies a person's mental health:

1) psychosis - severe mental illness

2) psychopathy - anomalies of character, personality disorder;

3) neuroses - mild mental disorders;

The difference between psychological health and mental health lies in the fact that mental health is related to individual mental processes and mechanisms, while psychological health refers to the individual as a whole and allows you to highlight the actual psychological aspect of the problem of mental health, in contrast to the medical aspect. Mental health involves mental and personal health.

A psychologically healthy person cognizes himself and the world around him both with his mind and feelings, intuition. He accepts himself and recognizes the importance and uniqueness of the people around him. He develops and participates in the development of other people. Such a person takes responsibility for his life primarily on himself and learns from adverse situations. His life is full of meaning. This is a person who is in harmony with himself and the world around him.

That is, the psychological health of a person is a complex of emotional, intellectual, physical and mental aspects.

There is no definite norm for determining psychological health, since it depends on a number of factors: the status of a person, his field of activity, habitat, etc. There are, of course, certain limits within which there is a balance between reality and adaptation to it. The norm is expressed in the ability to overcome certain difficulties and adapt to certain circumstances.

It is worth noting that if for mental health the norm is the absence of pathology and symptoms that prevent a person from adapting to a certain environment, then for psychological health the norm is the presence of certain personal characteristics that contribute to adaptation to the society where he develops himself and promote the development of others. Deviation from the norm in the case of mental health is a disease, in the case of psychological health - the lack of the possibility of development in the process of life, the inability to fulfill one's life task.

The physical and mental health of a person is probably the most important natural resource of mankind in general and of each individual in particular. But, due to the experience of human diseases, both physical, bodily or somatic, and mental (psychological), mental, spiritual and social, the question arises: “How to be psychologically and physically healthy all my life”?

Today on the website of psychological online help http://site you, dear visitors, will learn what is the physical and mental (psychological) health of people, and how to be mentally and physiologically healthy all your life.

That's why if you really want to know how to be healthy, both physically and mentally, then read the article carefully ...

What is physical and mental health

Physics and the human psyche are interconnected, so we will consider physical and mental health as one whole, which is a symbiosis of physiology and psychology.

It is practically no secret to anyone that a mentally and physically healthy person wants happiness and benefits, he also strives for success in life. The patient, in fact, wants nothing and does not need anything, except for recovery and deliverance from mental and bodily suffering.

Consider separately the criteria for mental and physical health of a person

Mental (psychological and emotional) health (spiritual and mental):
1) Mental balance;

2) Psychological harmony and adaptability;

4) Purposefulness, activity and efficiency;

5) Full family and sexual life;

6) The ability to manage their behavior in society;

7) Responsibility for oneself, one's minor children and relationships with loved ones;

8) Personal autonomy, self-development and self-actualization, self-confidence;

9) Independence and naturalness of behavior and expression of emotions (lack of "social mask");

10) Adequate self-esteem, positive emotionality and openness, goodwill and acceptance of others;

11) Self-knowledge, the ability to manage oneself and the ability to enjoy life (be happy) ....

Physical health (bodily, somatic, physiological):
1) Absence of diseases and symptoms of diseases;

2) Body development and fitness;

3) Absence of obvious defects and mutilations;

4) Reproductive and sexual abilities;

5) Full physiological and genetic development;

6) Normal functioning of organs and systems of the body;

7) Normal physical well-being ...

How to be healthy physically and mentally for life

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or physical (mental) defects.

To be physically and mentally healthy, you first need to love yourself (your inner "I") and your body (i.e. do not feel sorry, but love yourself, excluding selfishness and/or narcissism).

Further, take care of yourself, your psyche and somatics, as a person in love takes care of his (her) beloved (s) in the candy-bouquet period (bring this, with the help of trainings and practice, to automatism and do it daily to stay healthy for life).

What you need to do to maintain your physical and mental health

To do this, you are offered simple, but at the same time very effective psychological training and physical exercises that will help you be healthy, successful and happy for the rest of your life.

Trainings and exercises for maintaining mental and physical health

Exercises for maintaining physical health: perform in the morning after waking up and in the evening before bedtime: Use in the morning as a physical exercise, in the evening as a physical discharge.

Exercise 1.
Walking in place or with movement, while the movements of the hands are sweeping with squeezing and unclenching the fingers.

Exercise 2.
Place your feet shoulder-width apart, left hand to the side and up, right hand behind your back, bend and stretch, inhale. Return to the starting position - exhale. Change hand positions and repeat.

Exercise 3
In the same starting position, rise on your toes, arms to the sides and up, bend over, inhale. Return to the starting position - exhale.

Exercise 4
Stand in the starting position, legs apart. Left hand - up, right - on the belt. Spring tilt to the right. Repeat the same on the other side.

Exercise 5
Starting position standing. Swing your left foot back, swing your arms forward, hands relaxed, inhale. Return to starting position - exhale. Repeat the same with the right leg.

Exercise 6
Take the same starting position. Rise on your toes, spread your arms to the sides, inhale. Lunge with your right foot, lean forward, touch the floor with your hands, exhale. Return to starting position, inhale. Perform the same action with the left leg.

Exercise 7
Sit on the floor, hands to shoulders, make three springy bends forward, holding your shins with your hands, exhale. Straighten up, hands to shoulders, inhale. Gradually increase the inclinations, while not bending your legs. Raise your torso and straighten your shoulders.

Exercise 8
In a sitting position, rest your hands behind you. Bending down, go to support lying behind, bend your right leg forward, repeat the same thing, bending your left leg. Pull your socks up while doing the exercise.

Exercise 9
Take the starting position, standing, legs apart. Stretch your arms forward, interlace your fingers. Turn your torso to the left, inhale, return to the starting position, exhale. Lean back, hands behind your head, inhale, return to the starting position, exhale. Repeat everything on the other side.

Exercise 10
Starting position, standing, hands on the belt. Alternate jumps on the right and left foot. Breathing is arbitrary.

When the skill of performing physical exercises to maintain health appears, it is recommended to replace normal breathing, when performing charging-discharging, with diaphragmatic breathing (this will also contribute to the training of internal organs, which will improve metabolism and saturation of organs and tissues with oxygen and nutrients).

Exercises for maintaining mental and emotional health (perform in the morning upon waking up and in the evening before bedtime):

It is recommended to use

Mental health and mental health are actually quite different things. And in case of inferiority on one side or the other, a person's behavior will change, and this will most likely be noticeable. For this reason, mental health and mental health levels need to be maintained.

Definition of terms

In order to answer the question of how mental health differs from psychological health, it is necessary to first understand both of these terms.

Mental health is certain features that allow a person to behave adequately and successfully adapt to the environment. This category usually includes the extent to which the subjective images formed in a person correspond to the objective reality, as well as an adequate perception of oneself, the ability to concentrate on something, the ability to remember certain information data and the ability to think critically.

The opposite of good mental well-being are deviations, as well as a variety of disorders and diseases of the human psyche. At the same time, if the psyche is in order, this is not at all a guarantee of mental health.

With a full-fledged psyche and complete adequacy, a person can have severe mental illness. Simply put, a person does not want to live. It can be quite the opposite: a wonderful state of mind, combined with mental deviations and inadequacy.

Under the definition of psychological health falls not just mental well-being, but also the state of the individual. That is, this is a certain kind of well-being, in which the spiritual and personal are combined, a person is doing well in life, while his personality is in a state of growth and readiness to move forward.

Psychological well-being describes the personality as a whole, it refers to several areas at once: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and volitional areas. In addition, various manifestations of the power of the spirit can be attributed here.

Mental State Criteria

Health is the basis of all human life, a certain guarantee of success and that everything will be fine. It is one of the prerequisites for achieving goals in life. In many cultures, it is not only the value of one individual, but also a huge public asset.

Psychological the foundations of physical, mental and social health are usually considered in its two aspects. The criteria for assessing mental well-being are most fully disclosed by A. A. Krylov. They apply also to the psychological state.

The scientist singles out the criteria according to how they manifest themselves (various processes, properties). Krylov believes that a person who is mentally in order can be characterized by the following properties:

• morality (that is, a sense of conscience and honor);
• concentration;
• equilibrium;
• optimistic attitude towards life;
• adequate claims;
• call of Duty;
• lack of resentment;
• self confidence;
• lack of laziness;
• general naturalness;
• having a sense of humor;
• independence;
• a responsibility;
• patience;
• self-control;
• respect for oneself;
• goodwill towards others.

Based on these criteria of psychological health and mental health, which Krylov deduced, it is possible to conclude that a normal psyche, as a certain component of well-being in general, includes a set of such characteristics that help to establish balance and enable a person to perform his functions in society .

A person with a normal psyche is adapted to life in society, and also takes a direct part in it.

Criteria of psychological state

In science, the topic of normal psychological well-being was developed in detail by I. V. Dubrovina. The difference between mental health and psychological health lies in the fact that the former refers to individual processes and mechanisms of the human psyche, while the latter is directly related to the personality in general, and is also closely related to the highest manifestations of the human, so to speak, soul.

The term makes it possible to highlight the problems of psychological and mental health. Dubrovina notes that a psychologically normal person is capable of possessing such qualities as self-sufficiency, understanding and acceptance of oneself. All this gives a person the opportunity to develop himself in the context of the relationship with the outside world and people in various conditions of culture, economy, ecology and society of our reality.

In addition to all of the above, psychologically normal individuals have such qualities as:

• stability of emotions;
• in accordance with one's age maturity of feelings;
• co-ownership with one's own negativity and the emotions generated by it;
• the most natural manifestation of their emotions and feelings;
• the ability to enjoy your life;
• the ability to maintain a familiar state of health;
• adequate perception of one's own personality;
• the greatest approximation of subjective images to reflected real objects;
• the ability to focus on a particular subject;
• ability to memorize information data;
• ability to process data using logic;
• critical thinking;
• creativity;
• self-knowledge;
• managing your own thoughts.

So, what is the difference between mental and psychological health of a person? The first is a certain dynamic set of properties of the psyche of the individual, which are able to maintain harmony between the needs of him and society. They are also a prerequisite for human orientation towards the fulfillment of one's life purpose.

The psychological norm is usually interpreted as the ability to live an individual, as the strength of this very life, which was provided with the most complete development, and also as the ability to adapt and personal growth in a changing, sometimes unfavorable, but completely ordinary environment for the majority. All this is a prerequisite for normal psychological well-being.

World Health Organization

What else is the difference between mental and psychological health of a person? The WHO defines the mental as follows: it is a prosperous state in which the individual is able to realize his own potential, is able to cope with the usual stresses and irritants in life, make his own contribution to social life, do his work most productively so that it brings the greatest results.

WHO identifies the following criteria:

1. Awareness (together with a sense of constancy) of continuity, as well as the identity of one's own "I" both mental and physical.
2. Feeling of identity and constancy of one's own experiences in situations of the same type.
3. Critical attitude to oneself, as well as to one's own mental activity and its results.
4. Correspondence of adequate reactions of the psyche to the frequency and, along with it, to the strength of the influences of the environment, circumstances and various situations in society.
5. The ability to manage one's own behavior, taking into account compliance with various social norms, laws and rules.
6. The ability to plan one's own activities in life, along with the ability to implement these plans.
7. The ability to change the way one behaves depending on how circumstances and situations in life change.

By the way, there is even World Mental Health Day, which is usually celebrated on the tenth of October. This started in 1992.

Difference of terms in WHO

The WHO distinguishes psychological health and mental health of a person mainly by the fact that mental well-being is usually attributed to completely separate processes of the psyche, as well as its mechanisms. The psychological, in turn, is usually attributed to the personality itself in general. This makes it possible to separate the psychological aspect of any problem.

The aforementioned Dubrovina introduced such a term as "mental health" into the lexicon of science not so long ago. She believes that psychological well-being is an absolutely necessary condition for a person to function and develop fully in the process of his own life.

The connection of the psychological state with the physical at the moment is undeniable.

Psychological characteristics of centenarians

Jewett studied psychological types as forms of mental health of people who successfully managed to live to a very advanced age (80-90 years). The results of the research showed that all these people had the following qualities:

• life optimism;
• calmness on an emotional level;
• the ability to feel genuine joy;
• feeling of self-sufficiency;
• high adaptability to difficult life situations.

Portrait of the desired result

Thus, if we make a highly generalized portrait of the inner world of a healthy person on the basis of the above characteristics, then we can see a creative, spontaneous person, enjoying his life, cheerful, open to something new, not stopping to know himself and his surrounding world, not only using the mind, but also using their intuition and sensuality.

Such a person fully accepts his own personality, while realizing the value and absolute uniqueness of the people that surround him. He is also in constant self-improvement and helps other people with this.

Such a person first of all takes responsibility for his own life on himself, and learns useful lessons from unsuccessful situations. His life, of course, is filled with meaning, which he himself found.

It is usually said about such people that "he is in harmony" both with himself and with the world that surrounds him. From this, a key word can be extracted to describe the term "mental health". That word would be "harmony".

Self-consent

A psychologically normal person has various aspects in harmony, which include mental, intellectual, physical and emotional. The criteria by which one can determine how healthy a certain person is, in fact, seem rather vague.

The very concepts of mental and psychological health of a person and their norms are mostly determined by the customs, traditions, moral principles, cultural and social characteristics of the community.

The ancient Vikings had such warriors, they were called "berserkers". During the battle, they were able to fall into a state of some kind of combat trance. Such a person was simply indispensable on the battlefield, but outside this field, the behavior of such a warrior can hardly be called adequate.

A not too sensitive and even cynical pathologist in his profession is able to realize his potential more than fully, while outside of his working atmosphere he may look somewhat strange in the eyes of other people.

The norm itself is a balance between adaptation to reality and reality itself, it is the task of developing one's personality and self-affirmation, along with a sense of responsibility and some potential of psychic energy and activity. The norm is also the ability to overcome difficulties on the path of life and accept the challenge of the world around.

Mental health standards

The human psyche deteriorates with age (after about 80 years, sometimes even earlier) and during illness. Well-being of the psyche is not at all something permanent, it is dynamic. This state of affairs includes:

1. Mental capacity. This is a good intellectual level, the ability to think productively, the desire for a certain positive outcome, while relying on real facts. This norm also includes self-improvement and imagination.
2. The concept of morality. It is customary to say about such people that they have a "soul". They are not characterized by moral stupidity at all. At the same time, objectivity and justice are inherent in such people. Their will is strong, but without stubbornness. Mistakes are recognized, but do not torment themselves.
3. Adaptability to various social situations. Such people are in contact with various segments of the population of various ages. They are characterized by ease in relation to superiors and inferiors, along with a sense of responsibility. They have a good sense of social distance, and their behavior is somewhat spontaneous.
4. Personal optimism. This is the good nature of character and emotional independence. Realistic attitude to life without fear of risk.
5. Emotionality, in which there is no extra suspicion or gullibility, while there is a freshness of emotional sensations.
6. Sexuality. This means taking into account the opinions and various wishes of your partner and respecting his personality.

Various States

The state of psychological health of a person has several levels. First comes the creative (high) level. This is a stable adaptability to the environment and the presence of a reserve of strength to overcome stress, plus an active life position.

The last level (low) is called maladaptive. People of this level are characterized by the desire to adapt to circumstances, but at the same time they do not pay attention to their capabilities and desires. Or, on the contrary, they take an "attacking" position, wanting to subordinate the world to their desires. Such people, as a rule, need individual lessons and psychological help.

There is a favorite expression of psychiatrists that there are no completely healthy people, there are only underexamined. The data of E. Shaposhnikov indicate that only twenty-five or thirty percent of the population has a complete set of normal psychological indicators. At the same time, in certain life situations, even the most "normal" people can react somewhat unusually.

Approximately fifty percent of people balance on the verge of mental norms and various deviations. With all this, approximately five percent are considered mentally abnormal and require qualified assistance. In different countries, these figures vary slightly.

Mental health is one of the most important components of psychological health and the conditions for the psychological well-being of a person.

The term "mental health" itself is ambiguous. First of all, it connects, as it were, two sciences and two areas of practice - medical and psychological. It is no coincidence that at the intersection of medicine and psychology a special branch has arisen - psychosomatic medicine, which is based on the understanding that any somatic disorder is always somehow associated with changes in the mental state. So, V. A. Sukhomlinsky wrote back in 1974: “Health also depends on what homework is given to the child, how and when he performs them. A huge role is played by the emotional coloring of independent mental work at home. If a child takes up a book with reluctance, this not only depresses his spiritual powers, but also adversely affects the complex system of interaction of internal organs. I know many cases when a child, experiencing an aversion to classes, was seriously upset by digestion, gastrointestinal diseases, etc. .

In some cases, mental states become the main cause of the disease, in other cases they are, as it were, an impetus leading to the disease, sometimes the characteristics of the psyche affect the course of the disease, sometimes physical ailments cause mental experiences and psychological discomfort. The cases may be different, but it is important for us that the mutual influence of the spirit and the body is recognized unconditionally.

The term "mental health" was introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO). The report of the WHO Expert Committee "Mental health and psychosocial development of children" (1979) emphasized the special role of mental development in the health of the child. The mental health of children is considered as a state of mental well-being, which is characterized by the absence of painful mental phenomena and provides adequate regulation of behavior and activity to the conditions of the surrounding reality.

The mental health of a person is due to his mental development, which goes on continuously throughout life and has its own characteristics in each age period.

The sensitive period of the origin and formation of mental health is preschool and school (primary grades) childhood. Childhood is the initial stage, the most responsible, largely determining all subsequent stages of human development as a person. It is at this age that the foundations of mental health are laid, which, in fact, is the fertile soil on which the origins of the personality and individuality of a growing person are born.

L. S. Vygotsky proved that the mental development of a child is a process of his cultural development and that this development depends on the cultural social environment in which his childhood passes. He asked the question: “How, then, from the chaos of uncoordinated movements of a newborn child, does a harmonious and reasonable human behavior arise?” And he answered: “It arises under the planned, systematic, autocratic influence of the environment into which the child enters” 12, p. 2421.

According to L. S. Vygotsky, it is precisely “the child’s growing into culture is development in the proper sense of the word.”

How does a child "grow into culture"? What does it mean? This means mastery of the child, the appropriation of culturally given means:

• - actions with objects;
• - relationships with other people;
• - possession of oneself, one's mental activity, one's behavior.

From this it follows that the conditions for cultural development include not only knowledge about the ways of acting with objects of the surrounding world, about relationships with other people, but also knowledge of oneself and one's abilities, interests, desires, relationships, etc. Mastering culture in the process of informal family education, the child simultaneously masters himself and his behavior, gradually learns the experience of social life, social relations, traditions, knowledge, values, culture, gradually accumulates his own experience of relationships, interests, successes and failures, experiences.

Only as a result of all this, proper human, higher mental functions develop and the personality is formed (L. S. Vygotsky), its gradual socialization and individualization takes place.

It is the full development of higher mental functions, mental processes and mechanisms that forms the basis of mental health. Why?

A born person has, in addition to the needs for food, warmth, care, great basic needs, the satisfaction of which allows him to become a man:

the need for knowledge of the world where he got at birth;

The need to establish contact with people;

the need to understand oneself and take a worthy place in the society of people and in the world, the need to realize oneself;

The need for warmth of feelings, attention, need, the need to love and be loved.

The child can satisfy these needs only with the help of those people in whose circle, in whose environment he fell at birth.

In each age period of life, on the basis of basic needs, there are special needs for activity, communication, knowledge, understanding and emotional acceptance of oneself, people around, the world. The formation of a personality is precisely connected with the development and satisfaction of the basic needs of a growing person.

Satisfaction of these needs generates positive emotions and feelings, contributes to the development of the child, strengthens his mental health, and has a positive effect on his psychological well-being.

Undeveloped mental functions in any age period prevent the satisfaction of these needs, i.e. do not allow a person to fully interact with the world of people, culture, nature, understand and feel this world, and give rise to deprivations of various kinds.

Deprivation (from Latin “deprivation”) is a restriction or distortion of a person’s contacts with the environment, which can eventually lead to various deformations of the psyche, mental development disorders and, consequently, mental health.

Mental health correlates with the experience of psychological comfort and psychological discomfort.

Psychological comfort is a feeling of psychological well-being; it can be considered as a prevention not only of mental health disorders, but also of psychosomatic diseases.

Psychological discomfort or a feeling of psychological distress arises as a result of the frustration of the child’s needs, creates a deprivation situation and, as a result of this, a mental health disorder (fears, anxiety, mental stress, complexes, negative experiences, uncertainty, distrust of oneself, inadequate reactions, etc. .).

Various forms of deprivation - sensory, emotional, motor, social, etc. - always lead to disruption of the normal functioning of the psyche.

Very rarely, deprivation is caused by the influence of only one factor; almost every deprivation situation is characterized by the dissatisfaction of several important needs of the child. At the same time, in different children and at different periods of development, these unmet needs are in different relationships. Therefore, it is so important to establish which mental needs are especially strong at a certain period of a child's development and what are those needs whose insufficient satisfaction is the most dangerous for his development.

You can see a complex chain of interdependencies of adverse factors (conditions) that lead to a state of psychological distress:

We see that psychological discomfort arises as a result of unsatisfied needs. This creates a deprivation situation, resulting in a violation of the mental health of the child, which leads him to psychological distress.

All this slows down, distorts the positive path of mental development and the formation of the personality of a growing person, negatively affects his mental health and psychological well-being.

L. S. Vygotsky not only substantiated the position that the mental development of a child is a process of his cultural development, but also proved under what conditions - psychological, pedagogical, social - this process of cultural development occurs. What are these conditions?

- Hello, how are you?

- Thanks, everything is fine.

How often in our lives do we pronounce these words without thinking about what “health” is. For most people, this concept means the absence of bodily ailments or serious diseases. But health is not only a good physical condition and well-being, it is also the emotional, psychological well-being of a person, it is such a way of contact with the world in which a person feels satisfied and happy. This is the harmony of external and internal, a balanced state of a person that allows him to successfully function in the world.

This is about psychological health of a person , which should be distinguished from mental health .

Mental well-being (health) - this is a stable functioning of the psyche, which allows a person to be adequate to the requirements of society. Inadequate behavior implies mental disorders and diseases. That is, mental and psychological health are completely different and not complementary concepts. With the complete preservation of the psyche, a person can feel long-term internal discomfort and a feeling of apathy, irritation, low mood and depression. Conversely, a person who is cheerful in spirit and in a good mood can remain mentally inadequate.

In this way, mental health - this is adaptability and personal well-being: good mood, a tendency to act rather than worry, acceptance of oneself and others, altruism, creativity, responsibility, autonomy, etc. At the other extreme are destructive (aimed at destruction) personal manifestations that interfere with positive experiences and contribute to dissatisfaction with life in general. These are features such as a tendency to act from a "victim's position", to blame, to feel resentment, frequent mood swings, inability to control one's emotions and desires. A psychologically unhealthy person acts according to stereotypes, is not ready for changes, inadequately perceives the assessments of others and his own successes and failures.

However, psychological health should not be identified with the positive properties and qualities of a personality, because the very norms of positive and adaptive personality traits in different cultures and societies can be different. For example, aggressiveness in our society is perceived as a destructive quality that negatively affects the psychological health of a person, while the aggressiveness of the warriors of a tribe is a necessary condition for its survival and is perceived by other members of the tribe as a positive and approved quality.

That's why mental health - this is not a model of an ideal person and not a state of bliss, this is the interaction of “movement towards people” and “movement towards oneself”. A psychologically healthy person is aware of what is happening to him, feels the integrity and independence of his existence, feels the support of others and provides help himself.

In fact, this is a person who does not perceive the world and other people as a constant threat, he does not spend energy on protection from the evil world, but use it for self-development. By creating harmony within himself, he successfully realizes his potential.

Just as we take care of our body, we also need to take care of our soul. To be physically healthy, we lead an active lifestyle, go to the gym, watch our diet, etc. To be psychologically healthy, you also need to work, only this work is on yourself. This is self-knowledge, cultivating the ability to make decisions and the ability to highlight alternative ways of acting, readiness for change, efficient use of one's resources, taking responsibility for any choice made.

Of course, in order to move in the right direction and develop, you must first of all know yourself, your weaknesses and potential resources. Methods of cognition and research of personality, character, intellectual sphere, system of interpersonal relations, etc. will help you with this. Read more .

The knowledge gained can be used to build life plans and perspectives that promote personal growth and self-actualization, to realize your own capabilities and evaluate real life achievements, which will ultimately have a beneficial effect on your psychological health and emotional well-being.