Defining Wellness across World Cultures

Abstract

The many implications of the concept of wellness across history and geocultural dimensions are examined before arriving at a contemporary and generally accepted definition. The role of culture and its different components is carefully examined as an active engine of wellness, making it clear that the impact of such components vary in connection with the context and nature of societies in the different world regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, America, and Australia/New Zealand. Consensus around the main features of wellness is the objective of an extensive discussion section that examines specific and broad terminologies in the global health and global mental health scenarios. This leads to the notion of a Culture of Health, articulated as both the main support of wellness across cultures, and as an expression of the human rights movement applied to health issues around the world. Wellness represents as well a prominent objective of public health policies advocating multidisciplinary and integrated approaches to health and mental health, strengthened by a substantial cultural context and cultural perspectives.