Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

Question 1

What is DFIMH and who made the characteristics and when?

Answer 1

Marie Jahado (1958) identified 8ideal mental health characteristics, based on the idea that mental heath can be defined with a checklist.

Question 2

What are the eight characteristics on the mental health list?

Answer 2

We have no symptoms of distress
We are rational and can perceive ourselves accurately
We self actualise (strive to reach our potential)
We can cope with stress
We can have a realistic view of the world
We have good self esteem and lack guilt
We are independent of other people
We can successfully work, love and enjoy our leisure

Question 3

What are the three strengths to DFIMH?

Answer 3

• using checklist should increase objectivity of diagnosing issues
• should increase reliability of diagnosis and make it easier for therapists to talk to each other about defining ‘mentally healthy’
• Jahado believed the criteria were much more positive as they focus on what could be right, rather then looking for things that could be wrong.

Question 4

What are the four limitations of DFIMD?

Answer 4

-vague, how can one of the characteristics be measured?
-many people lack at least some of the characteristics of good health, meaning lots of people would be classed as having a mental issue if all categories were used.
-most of the criteria related to the culture the person is from
-culture changes overtime, some behaviours that wouldn’t have been described as abnormal in past would be now, e.g religious visions 100 years ago seen as acceptable but now would be a symptom of psychosis.