Creative selves

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From the course by The University of Sydney

Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health

183 ratings

The University of Sydney

Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health

183 ratings

In today’s world, mental illness and distress are common and these account for a significant burden of disability within our community. At the same time, there is a growing interest in understanding and enhancing positive mental health and wellbeing; particularly from developments in the fields of positive psychology and mental health promotion. Positive Psychiatry is a new term (Jeste et al 2016) that describes a dual approach to mental health, where we build strengths, supports and healthy lifestyles as well as treating illness and distress. In this course, we will explore different aspects of good mental health as well as provide an overview of the major kinds of mental disorders, their causes, treatments and how to seek help and support. The course will feature a large number of Australian experts in psychiatry, psychology and mental health research, and we will also hear from “lived experience experts”, people who have lived with mental illness, and share their personal stories of recovery. We take an evidence-based approach to a range of strategies that anyone can use to enhance their own mental health and that of others, from exercise and relaxation techniques through to the role of love, relationships and 'good' types of work. We cover topics from creativity and yoga through to psychiatric medications and psychotherapies.

From the lesson

Module 3 - Love and Work

Mental health has sometimes been described simply as the capacity to love and to work. Psychiatry still uses similar concepts today. In this module, we talk about love and work, and introduce the complementary ideas of rest and play. We hear about attachment theory, social connections and the ancient wisdom of Australian Aboriginal views on wellbeing. We discuss the importance of contributing and here you find out whether or not work is good for you.

Attachment and mental health11:42

Creative selves7:35

Autonomy and connection2:25

Meet the Instructors

Sonia Kumar
Psychiatry Course Coordinator
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

[MUSIC]

Mental well-being depends on an ongoing relationship of renewal with

the environment.

As social beings, humans depend on communication and

relationships with others for their well being.

The individual mind is dependent on communication through language,

using symbols to understand and participate in the world.

From the beginning of life, humans have the ability to communicate.

Babies are able to cry to express other emotions, to take turns,

and respond musically to the rhythm and pitch of conversation.

They do all of these things in relationship with parents or

carers who engage with their baby in communication and play.

It's a process that allows the baby to use the environment through other people

as a means of growth.

The human genome provides many potentials for each individual, but

requires interaction with a good enough environment of responsive carers.

This way, the infant can develop the capacities that will allow him or

her to become a fully participating member of the human community.

Compared with other species, human babies are highly dependent on adults.

They take many years to develop the skills to care for themselves.

Infants are not born with a sense of self.

This develops over time as part of our second nature.

It depends on early learning.

The sense of self arises through the experience of feeling

during communication and exploration.

These aspects of mental life take time to become established.

A sense of self is a positive achievement reflecting a sense of value in

the individual.

Positive and

negative emotions need to be processed differently through early relationships.

These relationships soothe distress on the one hand, and

amplify a sense of aliveness in the infant on the other.

This contributes to the sense of value in the infant, establishing a space for

learning from others known as the Zone of Proximal Development.

At birth, we are thrown into the human world, a world where one has a place

in a complex matrix of relationships that has great meaning for each individual.

Human beings, like all other species, operate within the physical world,

but humans are unique in that we also operate in a symbolic sphere.

This is to say,

that humans grow inside a world of language as well as the physical world.

They are able to participate emotionally and physically from the very beginning.

Feelings and emotions are a component of all human experience,

acting as an in-built value system that allows the infants and

adults to asses their experience,

selecting interactions that promote aliveness and growth.

This can be described as using your gut feeling or instinct or intuition.

The types of feelings that arise for each person as they engage with

others in the broader environment become characteristic for each individual.

Over the last few decades,

research has reexamined the role of feeling in mental life.

A sense of aliveness is central to well being and the development of mental life.

All living organisms seek to explore the environment in order to find what

they need to survive and thrive.

This tendency has been called the seeking system.

And is part of an innate repertoire that for

humans extends to the relational and symbolic aspects of life.

This underpins the yearning for connection, and the search for

meaning that characterize human lives.

It also means that a large part of mental life,

in health, is oriented towards the future.

A sense of meaning is not fixed or external to individuals but

is created through communication, relationships, and building skills.

Reality is confirmed by the recognition and

response of others in communicative exchange, that is, in a conversation.

This is one reason why people seek help for mental disturbances.

They have a need for

re-grounding their position through a safe and validating relationship.

A sense of self can become disorganized through trauma, stress or illness.

And healing relationships are needed to restore the self.

For a long time, play was seen as a matter for children.

This view has changed in recent decades.

Play takes two forms.

Physical play is shared in common with other mammal species and

is probably crucial to the development of a broad emotional range and

a sense of urgency and confidence in demanding physical activities.

Another kind of play characteristically human is symbolic play, where the child,

safe in the knowledge of having a secure base with a carer not too far away,

will happily play with toys and other objects in the environment,

often talking as he or she plays.

The toys come to represent aspects of the child's imagination and

have a symbolic rather than simply a literal value.

This kind of play helps the child develop a strong sense of their inner world,

which gives rise to the capacity for

reflection in the sense of ownership of mental life.

A sense of self is not fully present until these capacities have developed.

Play is now seen as necessary for creative engagement throughout life.

For these developments to occur, the infant depends upon a responsive

environment, where there is interactive play between infant and carer.

This is a situation which generates a particular kind of pleasure that

neither could gain alone.

It is these relationships that help generate personality and social character.

In situations of trauma there can be a deficit in this type of relationship that

means that the individual doesn't have the opportunity to gain a sense of his or

her own value and capacities in relation to others.

Psychotherapy seeks to use this model of affective development,

emotional development, to provide a containing and responsive relationship

where the patient can be recognized, validated, and responded to.

In doing this, the therapist will bring something new into the relationship,

something from the therapist's self.

In this process of working with what is given by the patient and contributing

something new is a strategy that actively promotes the growth of a healthy self.

A person can then develop the ability to integrate difficult experiences into

an overall affirming narrative and life experience.

We seek to reestablish the zone of proximal development.

[MUSIC]

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