Human Development and Personal Well-Being in Life-Threatening Conditions

Abstract

AbstractIn common with the other disciplines within Western medicine, psychiatry responds to the fundamental human problems of illness and injury. Psychiatry contributes a distinct knowledge base and set of therapeutic interventions to advancing medicine’s principal goals of cure, longevity with chronic illness, rehabilitation, and alleviation of symptoms and suffering. Psychiatric practice historically has been organized around defined categories of suffering which fall within its purview: serious affective and thought disorders, disorders of personality or character, and responses to medical illness or physical injury. Consistent with the problem-based orientation of mainstream medicine, less attention has been devoted to concepts of health and well-being within the context of physical or psychiatric illness. Positive personal experiences, satisfying interpersonal dynamics, personal growth, and well-being are infrequently discussed in medical, psychiatric, and clinical psychology contexts. Important exceptions can be found within existential psychology and developmental psychology. Existential psychology is oriented toward living as fully as possible in whatever circumstances life presents. Developmental psychology recognizes crises as sources of suffering as well as stimuli for personal growth. The perspectives and insights of existential and developmental psychology open therapeutic opportunities in caring for and counseling people with life-threatening conditions that are foreclosed by problem-based medical models. Concepts of personal growth, quality of life, health, and well-being during advanced illness can enhance the specificity of psychosocial and spiritual interventions and contribute to the science and practice of palliative medicine.