High-Level Wellness for Man and Society

THE AWAKENED INTEREST of public health circles in full-time local health departments and in the family and community programs of health maintenance is an indication that health workers are becoming more "health oriented." This shift in emphasis is in accord with the frequently quoted fundamental objective expressed in the Constitution of the World Health Organization, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." To most of us, this concept of positive health is "seen through a glass darkly," because our eyes have been so long turned in a different direction, concentrating fixedly on disease and death. When we take time to turn our gaze in the opposite direction, focusing it intently on the condition termed good health, we see that wellness is not just a single amorphous condition, but rather that it is a complex state made up of overlapping levels of wellness. As we come to know how to recognize these levels objectively, more or less as we now diagnose one disease from another, we will realize that the state of being well is not a relatively flat, uninteresting area of "unsickness" but is rather a fascinating and ever-changing panorama of life itself, inviting exploration of its every dimension. It is my thesis, therefore, that both medicine and public health must undertake a multiple and thoroughgoing exploration of the factors responsible for good health. Without prejudice to the importance or the continuation and support of existing medical and health programs involving preventive, curative. or rehabilitative research and activities, it seems clear that many of today's and tomorrow's problems call for the stimulation and development of a new major axis of interest directed toward positive health-one strong enough to activate physicians, health workers, and others in devoting a substantial segment of their time, resources, and creative energies toward understanding and culturing good health in a positive sense.