HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

A Evolving Lens. 

Historically medicine and science has been underpinned through the seeking of what is it that causes disease as opposed to supporting what it is that nourishes and enriches health. In pioneering work introduced in 1979 by Aaron Antonovsky, a professor in medical sociology, who proposed an alternate viewpoint to the medical basis for the treatment of disease by eradicating the cause by supporting the emergence of health. His work was published in the book ‘Health Stress and Coping’ that sought to understand how some survivors of the halocaust could later go on to thrive. The foundations of other health professions have also been based on similar principles such as Osteopathy, who’s founder AT Still an MD, urged that it was the objective of any doctor to look for health rather than disease and who championed the idea that health was existent within disease.

As an approach salutogenesis cuts through the binary distinctions of ‘health’ and disease, urging these two states exist within the same dynamic continuum. The founder of the health practice Osteopathy, AT still also championed the idea of health being existent within disease and that it is the object of any doctor to look for ‘health’ as opposed to disease.

This viewpoint on health can feel revolutionary in its capacity to destigmatise those with ‘disease’ or pain, offering the opportunity for understanding, as opposed to when seen within the disease, deficit lens, shame or judgement and a needing to fix.

Salutogenesis offers a chance to see potential, a mind expanding approach to supporting health and disease. It unites seemingly disparate influences of our health under a wider umbrella, that is considered of a persons lived experience and how it shapes them. It incorporates a more holistic and nuanced appreciation of how health is created and supported. It involves seeing the person rather than the disease, an inclusive and considered approach to how we care.

24. April. 2025.

References and Further Reading.

Antonovsky, A. (1979) Health, Stress, and Coping. Jossey-Bass Inc., San Francisco