Mental Health and Quality Education

Abstract

Although in terms of their meaning and extended connotations there are distinctions between the two concepts of mental (or psychological) quality (xinli suzhi) and mental health (xinli jiankang), the connection between the two is obvious. Specifically we can say that the two are connected in a cause-and-effect relationship. In other words, a sound mental quality is an important foundation for maintaining a healthy state of mind, or a state of mental health. Conversely, a healthy state of mind is also a basic condition for nurturing sound mental qualities. Normally there are the following basic criteria and standards for determining whether a person is mentally healthy. First, the person should possess the normal capacity for cognition, be capable of reflecting on external matters objectively, and make correct judgments and reason deductively. Second, the person must have a stable and generally optimistic mood and outlook, and healthy and positive sentiments or feelings. Third, the person must have normal behavioral reflexes and a strength of will and determination, as well as a relatively strong ability to withstand and endure setbacks. Fourth, the person must have normal capacity for interacting with and relating to other people; he or she must be able to get along with the people around him congenially and maintain good interpersonal relationships. Fifth, the person must have a correct sense of himself and be realistically and honestly self-critical while maintaining an appropriate measure of self-respect and confidence in himself. The realization of these criteria depends on the cultivation of a variety of mental and psychological qualities in a person. For example, the formation of a correct sense of self is an important sign of mental health; at the same time the formation of such a correct sense of self has to be based on one's ability to evaluate and even criticize oneself objectively. A person's ability to evaluate him- or herself and to be self-critical is a funda-mental mental quality. It is only when a person can make an honest and realistic self-assessment that he can form a correct sense of him- or herself and thus have self-respect, self-love, confidence, and learn to strengthen and improve oneself, and, furthermore, maintain a healthy state of mind characterized by an optimistic outlook, a sense of drive for progress, enthusiasm and willingness to move forward. Conversely, if a person is unable to assess and evaluate him- or herself objectively, then, whether his self-assessment is too high or too low, it will lead to a deviation from the norm in his self-concept. If one has, for example, an excessively high estimation of oneself, it could produce unhealthy personality traits such as arrogance and self-importance, looking down on everybody and everything. On the other hand, underestimations could lead to other types of unhealthy characteristics such as excessive self-deprecation, timidity, and withdrawal. All these could hinder the development of a person's potential and latent abilities, as well as lower his or her adaptability to the environment.