User:Juheiska/7x4-field in mental health

7x4-field in mental health

The 7x4-field is a tool in processing the question of what affects psychic disorder, negative deviant behavior and disorder in psychic wellbeing. The seven effectors organize in that field following way: 1. LONELINESSES: Phenomena specifically encompassing subjectively experienced isolation. When it is detrimental to mental health it is alienation, anomy (in sociological meaning), separation angst etc. When it is beneficial to mental health it is experiences of being in peace, creative intervals, occasions to clear one´s thoughts etc. 2. MODELS:  Occasions specifically embracing a prospect to learn from models. There may be healthy or unhealthy models for action, and the models may be either preventing or proliferating states of disturbance. 3. STRESSES: Occasions containing primarily all of the following features: 1) Something unpleasant has happened. 2) Unpleasantness is known to continue unless certain action is taken. 3) The above mentioned certain action proves to pose some difficulties. (This definition is applicable to quite a few theories on stress).  It is also proven that in stress in addition to its mental health debilitating effect there is also a facet that  promotes mental health,  for example the tempering effect after overcoming difficulties or the challenge posed by stress. 4.  EXPERIENCING  PUNISHMENT / DISAPPOINTMENT : Situations in which certain behaviour causes unpleasantness, adversities etc.  Punishments have in addition to being a strain on mental health also an effect of edifying and clarifying boundaries that is salutary to mental health. 5.  LOSSES:  Occasions involving losses meaningful to the experiencer. Even losses may have advantages beneficial to mental health, for example on occasions when one has to choose between lesser evils, as may happen in cases of custody of children. It is also a fact that quite a few persons have emphasized when relating their experiences that only after suffering their loss, something new and exiting could happen in their lives. 6. AVOIDANCE / ESCAPE POSSIBILITIES: Here there is a possibility to utilize ways of adjustment that are detrimental to mental health to avoid anxiety in a manner which in the long run adds to it. e.g. cover‑up, belligerence, misuse of stimulants etc. On the other hand here is freedom, chance of release from everyday humdrum, and a possibility for a regression in the service of the ego. 7. CHANGES: Changes in circumstances not involving losses or disappointments, but which nevertheless are fresh and momentous to the experiencer. Here a jeopardy to mental health lies mainly in the fact that one cannot always acquiesce to new experiences. These causes are directed then to cornerstones of mental health, which are following: A) HUMAN RELATIONS: Social development, friendships, camaraderie, acquaintances, comparisons of oneself to others etc. B) PHYSICAL EXERCISE / BODILY FUNCTIONS:  Motor development, actions primarily involving muscular development, movement, body stay‑fit and relaxation programs, physiological functions etc. C) RATIONAL FUNCTIONS:  Cognitive development, actions  primarily concerning daily livelihood, deliberations, planning, studying, housing, transport arrangements etc. D) FUNCTIONS PERTAINING TO OUTLOOK ON LIFE: Emotional, ethical and aesthetic development, functions primarily concerning religion, arts, values, ideologies or such; following the call of God. Crosstabulating categories of effectors to cornerstones of mental health you get the 7 x 4-field relating to mental health work. Sources: World congress of the world federation for mental health (1997) Juhani Heiska: Four cornerstones and seven effectors for many purposes in mental health work. Green Paper 2005: Improving the mental health of the population: Towards a strategy on mental health for the European Union. Heiska, J. (2016) Better Mental Health with 7x4-field. Lambert Academic Publishing.