Introduction and Definitions

How can we improve the mental health of the whole population? We define mentally healthy behaviors as those conducive to happiness of both oneself and others; the two goals tend to be positively correlated. We define psychoeducation broadly, as interpersonal influence affecting psychological skills. At present, psychotropic drugs and psychotherapy take center stage regarding methods of improving mental health. This book will argue that straightforward teaching of psychological skills, i.e., psychoeducation (using all the methods that educational science has discovered), has great promise for improving public mental health; it should receive at least as much effort and attention as the other two methods. We will argue that we already have pretty good ideas on which competences constitute mental health, and how to impart them—a major task is scaling what we know. Among the knowledge to be imparted is not only how people can become more mentally healthy themselves, but also how they can create mental-health-friendly environments for others.