What does it mean to be a healthy person and what should psychotherapy be focused on?
American psychotherapist Nancy McWilliams adheres to 16 general mental health groups.
According to McWilliams, modern methods of psychotherapy are too focused on working with symptoms, which leads to a loss of a holistic perception of the mental health of patients. For example, a client who introduces new patterns of behavior into her life may detect anxiety, but the overall dynamics indicate an improvement in mental health - i.e. sometimes in the process of therapy, the symptoms worsen, but this does not always indicate a regression. manifestations may come and go, but in the course of therapy it is necessary to observe something more pronounced.
The first three elements of mental health, according to McWilliams, are legal. Most people who seek the help of a psychotherapist have at least one problem because of this.
1. The ability to love. The ability to get involved in a relationship, to communicate with another person. Love him the way he is: with all the necessary and virtues. Without idealization and depreciation. It is the ability to give rather than take. This also applies to the bound love for children, and partner love between a man and a woman.
2. Ability to work. This applies not only to the profession. This is primarily about the ability to create and create something that is valuable for a person, family, society. It is important for people to realize that what they do has meaning and meaning for Others as well. It is possible to bring something new, creative potential into the world. Teenagers are often prone to allergies.
3. Ability to play. Here we are talking about both the direct meaning of "play" in children, and the ability of adults to "play" with words, symbols. This is an opportunity to use metaphors, parables, humor, symbolize this experience and enjoy it.
I think that here one can recognize and enjoy the symbols of culture - literature, cinema - as symbols that generalize and mediate experience.
4. Ability to organize secure relationships. Unfortunately, there are people who come to psychotherapy who meet in aggressive, dangerous, dependent - frequent, unhealthy relationships. And one of the goals of psychotherapy is to help them fix it. Unfortunately, violations of injustice are common. The good news is that the ownership type can be changed. As a rule, psychotherapy is well suited for this (from 2 years or more). But it is possible to change the type of privileges and in the presence of a stable, secure, long-term (more than 5 years) relationship with a partner.
5. Autonomy. People who turn to psychotherapy often have a lack of it (but a great potential, since they still came to therapy). People don't do what they really want. They don't even direct them to "choose" (listen to themselves) what they want. At the same time, illusory autonomy can be shifted to other areas of life. For example, patients suffering from anorexia often regulate whatever they think is possible, choosing their own weight instead of their desires.
6. Constancy of oneself and the ability to remain whole. It is the ability to stay in touch with all who have their own qualities. as emotions, and not causing stormy joy. It is also a propensity for conflict and is not prone to splitting. This is facilitated by the integration of everything that is given by nature, and that which I successfully improve in myself. One of the occurrences of this case may be an "attack" on the body, when it is not unconsciously perceived as part of itself. It becomes something that can be starved or cut off, etc.
7. The ability to recover from stress, or His strength (here we mean the conscious part of our personality - what we are talking about "I"). If a person has enough of His strength, then when he comes out of stress, he does not get sick, he does not use one tough defense to get out of it, he just does not break down. He is best suited to the new situation.
8. Realistic and reliable self-assessment. Many people are unrealistic and at the same time overestimate, have inflated and self-injurious demands on themselves. The opposite situation (typical for the USA) is also possible - a reverse, unreasonably high self-esteem. Parents inspire their children by wanting to get the very best, including the "best" children. But such unfounded praise, associated with his essence of love and warmth, instills in children a sense of emptiness. They are not likely who they really are, and it seems to them that none of them knows. They often occur, as there have been offenses about suspicion of oneself, although in fact they have not earned it.
9. System of value orientations. It is important that a person has technical ethical standards, their meaning, while being flexible in following them. In the nineteenth charge of "moral insanity", which is now called rather
10. The ability to endure the intensity of emotions. To endure emotions means to be able to stay with them, to feel them, while not acting under their influence. It is also the simultaneous ability to stay in touch with both emotions and thoughts - your rational part.
11. Reflection, the ability to look at yourself from the outside. The ability to remain ego-dystonic (this means maintaining the ability to question one's thoughts, feelings and interpretations, to be able to move away from them, not to consider them the only starting point), to look at oneself as if from the outside. Reflective people are able to see what exactly their problem is and, accordingly, deal with it in such a way as to solve it, helping themselves as effectively as possible.
12. Differentiation, separation from others. With this ability, people are able to understand that Others are completely separate individuals, with their own characteristics, personal and psychological structure.
Such people also see the difference between the fact that they feel offended after someone's words and the fact that in fact the Other person did not want to offend them. Resentment is rather caused by their personal, personal experience and personal characteristics.
13. Wide variability of protective mechanisms and flexibility in their use. This means that we are able to handle ourselves in very different ways, effective, because. we apply them appropriately to the situation. Therefore, somewhere we sublimate, somewhere we isolate ourselves from what is happening, and somewhere we apply intellectualization.
14. Balance between what I do for myself and what I do for my environment. This is about the opportunity to be yourself and take care of your own interests, while taking into account the interests of the partner with whom you have a relationship.
15. Feeling of vitality/feeling alive. The ability to be and feel alive. Winnicott wrote that a person can function normally, but at the same time be as if inanimate.
16. Acceptance of what we cannot change. This is about the ability to sincerely and honestly be sad, to experience grief in connection with the fact that it is impossible to change. Accepting our limitations and mourning what we wish we had but don't have.
Thus, each person may have these 16 elements of mental health to varying degrees. In its most general form, this list represents a global goal for psychotherapy.
And, of course, the listed mental health criteria are not an unambiguous strict standard, but rather a guideline, which, however, everyone has the right to choose for himself. After all, we are talking about very subtle matters. And Nancy herself, when asked what is still the norm, laughingly answered: "Oh, if I only knew!"