Abstract

My presentation is to offer an alternative approach to mental health. My relativity theory of sustainable wellbeing posits that under conditions of high degree of suffering, our existential wellbeing is relative to our decision to activate the spiritual dimension of seeking ultimate meaning. According to Viktor Frankl (1978), ultimate meaning entails both the quest for self-transcendence and faith in God or the supernatural realm.

We are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis which cannot be resolved by the medical model or the health sector alone. We need to rethink mental health not in terms of health versus illness but in terms of the quality of life or total wellness. This broader holistic framework calls for total mobilization; all sectors in society need to be involved in promoting mental health, such as the workplace, school, family, religious institutions, and a new cultural narrative of behavioral economics (Wong, Ho, et al, 2022).

This new cultural narrative identifies two main barriers towards full engagement of our spiritual dimension. Firstly, secularism (Ertit, 2018; Sotillos, 2022): Religious beliefs have survived as a robust survival mechanism (Austin, 1980; Ken, 2019) but the increase in secularization may contribute to decline in religious beliefs and practices such as prayer and religious coping (Pargament, 1997; Smith, 2018), which are especially important for cancer care (Vallurupalli et al., 2012) and palliative care (Richardson, 2014).

Secondly, the dominant paradigm of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (e.g., Freud’s Pleasure Principle, Neal Miller’s model of approach-avoidance conflict): This paradigm certainly works well for survival at the subhuman animal level, but this prevailing negative attitude towards any kind of suffering or discomfort is a hindrance to human adaptation in a digital world (Wong, Cowden et al., 2022). We now have a coddled generation (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018) which may not be prepared to face the inevitable reality of suffering.

In order to overcome these two obstacles to seeking ultimate meaning, we need to recognize suffering as the missing link to wellbeing (Fowers et al., 2017; Soper, 2020; Wong, 2022). Suffering, like gravity, is inescapable. All our attempts to be happy are doomed to fall short when we fail to learn how to cope with stress and suffering effectively (Wong, 1993).

We also need to recognize that suffering is a trigger to meaning (Frank, 1946/1985; Wong & Weiner, 1981) and meaning is the most effective antidote to suffering (Wong, 2015). Under conditions of high degree of suffering, such as cancer or trauma, nothing short of ultimate meaning is needed for survival and healing (Wong, 2021; Wong & Laird, in press). My presentation focuses on how to experience existential wellbeing in palliative care (Wong & Yu, 2021) through meaningful living and meaningful suffering by activating one’s spiritual dimension.

(This keynote was presented with Tim T. F. Yu)

References

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Cite

Wong, P. T. P., & Yu, T. T. F. (2023, February 17). A relativity theory of sustainable wellbeing [Virtual presentation]. 2nd Global Virtual Summit on European Public Health & Healthcare, London, UK.