Social Construction of a Healthy Persolnality: Reasonable Dilemmas and Pseudoscientific Approaches

This article comprehensively examines the problem of social construction of a healthy personality, which, in the context of numerous socio-political upheavals, under the influence of external destructive factors, becomes particularly relevant.

The concept of “personality”, in contrast to the ethically neutral concept of psychophysical and spiritual individuality, it includes a moment of self-determination in the social world. A personality is always characterized by its inherent semantic structure (a system of views, values, ideas), revealed in actions and deeds that are somehow connected with a broader social environment – society and are formed under its influence. Modern social sciences consider personality as a structural integrity of biological, mental and social properties, which gives rise to the identification of several components within the framework of an integral personality structure: biological, mental and social. Similarly, the category of “health” has physical, mental, social and spiritual components that lend themselves to social construction.

The author cites the data of a sociological study conducted by him, according to which both the physical, mental and spiritual health of modern Russian students cannot be considered good. In this regard, he discusses discussions about how it is possible to construct a completely healthy personality, or to restore to it any of the lost components of health using a variety of methods and technologies that differ significantly in their scientific validity and social orientation. Undoubtedly useful methods of strengthening both physical and mental health include those aimed at strengthening the body’s defenses, its self-regulation systems and stress resistance. Thus, such fairly common and scientifically based methods as relaxation and coping, auto-suggestion, creative visualization and common sense therapy seem quite appropriate. In our opinion, pseudoscientific and sometimes destructive methods include extrasensory perception (psychic healing, telekinesis and psychokinesis), karmic medicine, including biofield correction and neuro-linguistic programming. All these methods, as well as the consequences of their application in terms of possibilities in constructing a healthy personality, are discussed in detail in thе article.

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