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Person Centered Psychiatry pp 47–59Cite as

Holistic Framework for Ill Health and Positive Health

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Abstract

Person-centered health care involves the promotion of positive health as well as the prevention and treatment of ill health. Person-centered health care is effective as a result of its holistic approach to the creative cultivation of physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Efforts at health promotion produce weak and inconsistent benefits when it does not address the whole person and engage people to actualize their own goals and values. The most consistent and strong predictor of both subjective well-being and objective health status in longitudinal studies is a creative personality profile characterized by being highly self-directed, cooperative, and self-transcendent. The cultivation of a healthy personality requires the integration of all three aspects of a person (that is, their body, thoughts, and psyche). Such integration depends on a holistic framework that recognizes that no component of a person’s being can be healthy when the other components are neglected because the functioning of the body, thought, and psyche are inseparable from one another. Likewise, specialists can provide useful skill but the long-term benefits of their contributions depend on effective coordination of care within a holistic framework. We suggest that health, happiness, and meaning can be cultivated most effectively by adopting a holistic framework that fosters the integration of physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of people. Health care and promotion is likely to have only weak and consistent benefits in the absence of a holistic approach, particularly failing in preventing chronic disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, Campus Box 8134, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    C. Robert Cloninger MD, PhD

  2. President, Anthropedia Foundation, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Kevin M. Cloninger PhD

  3. Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich MD, MA, MS, PhD

  4. Secretary General, International College of Person Centered Medicine, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich MD, MA, MS, PhD

  5. Editor in Chief, International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich MD, MA, MS, PhD

  6. Former President, World Psychiatric Association, Geneva, Switzerland

    Juan E. Mezzich MD, MA, MS, PhD

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  1. C. Robert Cloninger MD, PhD
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  2. Kevin M. Cloninger PhD
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  3. Juan E. Mezzich MD, MA, MS, PhD
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Correspondence to C. Robert Cloninger MD, PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Psychiatry, New York University Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich

  2. Laboratory Ethics, Professionalism, University of Western Brittany, Bohars, France

    Michel Botbol

  3. Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George N. Christodoulou

  4. Department of Psychiatry, WASHINGTON UNIV SCH MED Department of Psychiatry, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

    C. Robert Cloninger

  5. Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Ihsan M. Salloum

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Cloninger, C.R., Cloninger, K.M., Mezzich, J.E. (2016). Holistic Framework for Ill Health and Positive Health. In: Mezzich, J., Botbol, M., Christodoulou, G., Cloninger, C., Salloum, I. (eds) Person Centered Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_4

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