Health Psychology: between the pathogenic and salutogenic paradigms

Abstract

Every profession ends up shaping the way its practitioners perceive and, through this, the way they think. It is not surprising that physicians, constantly engaged in patient care, share a certain pessimism. Perhaps for this reason, they have traditionally conceived of health through the lens of disease, embedding within the very concept of health some of the pessimism derived from their familiarity with pathology. Ultimately, the model of health proposed within the medical field has a strong and paradoxical dependence on pathogenesis and the origins of disease. Health has been seen as an endeavor to combat disease; in this view, health consists in the prevention of illness.

In contrast to medical pessimism, there is today the optimism of professionals who, distant from disease, focus solely on health. These practitioners seem not to anticipate the threats posed by illness, as if health were something permanent and stable that, if properly maintained, could not be undermined by the emergence of disease. Yet it is an easily observable fact that disease is always present around humans; despite our care (sorge) for health, it eventually becomes compromised, and not all illnesses can be prevented. Between medical pessimism and the optimism of health professionals, there lies a middle ground: one that, in practice, often manifests within each individual, despite the obvious measures taken to remain healthy.