This chapter is concerned with the ways that clinical psychologists think about or conceive psychological illness and wellness, and especially how they conceive the difference between psychological wellness and illness. Although the illness metaphor prescribes a certain way of thinking about psychological problems, the illness ideology goes beyond this and tells to what aspects of human behavior one should pay attention. Psychoanalytic theory, with its emphasis on hidden intrapsychic processes and sexual and aggressive urges, provided a fertile soil into which the illness ideology deeply sank its roots. The socially constructed illness ideology and associated traditional psychiatric diagnostics schemes have led to the proliferation of “mental illnesses” and to the pathologization of human existence. In the dimensional approach, psychological disorders are simply extreme variants of normal psychological phenomena and ordinary problems in living. The positive psychology ideology emphasizes goals, well-being, satisfaction, happiness, interpersonal skills, perseverance, talent, wisdom, and personal responsibility.
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