Salutogenesis is an alternative medicine concept that focuses on factors that support human health and well-being rather than on factors that cause disease. The term salutogenesis comes from the Latin "salus" = health and the Greek "genesis" = origin. The term was first used by Aaron Antonovsky in 1979, [Antonovsky, A. "Health, Stress and Coping" (1979)] who studied the influence of a variety of sources of stress on health and was able to show that relatively unstressed people had much more resistance to illness than those who were more stressed. Antonovsky argued that the experience of well-being constitutes a Sense of Coherence (SOC). Though modern medicine has increasingly come to ask about the origin of illness, Antonovsky suggested that an equally important question to pose is: "what is the origin of health?"
This question hearkens back to the discovery of pathogens in the seventeenth century, when a great scientific controversy broke out over whether these were indeed the true causes of illness, or whether illness began when health was no longer being sustained by the body. In the latter case, pathogens would be merely secondary agents. Fact|date=December 2007
Even in recent times, Antonovsky was by no means the first to attempt a reorientation towards health per se: health centers and wellness clinics have been known for some time, and many doctors have intuitively attempted to support the health of their patients. Antonovsky was successful in making new inroads on the conventional medical mindset, however, and salutogenesis has now become part of standard medical discourse. Fact|date=December 2007
Sense of Coherence
Antonovsky defined Sense of Coherence as:[Antonovsky, Aaron. Studying Health vs. Studying Diseas, Lecture at the Congress for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Berlin, 19 February 1990. [http://www.ensp.unl.pt/saboga/soc/pulic/soc_AAconference_berlim_91.pdf available online] from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa] : "a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that one's internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected."]This SOC is the result the collective effect of resources and processes conducive to health. Within the Salutogenic orientation there is a direct relationship between the strength of the SOC and the person's ability to employ cognitive, affective (emotional) and instrumental strategies likely to improve coping, and thereby well-being.
Aaron Antonovsky identifies three inherent prerequisites that determine a person’s abilities to cope as: [Smith DF: "Functional salutogenic mechanisms of the brain." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2002;45(3):319-28.]
*Meaningfulness: The profound emotive experience of life as making sense and thus coping being desirable.
*Manageability: The recognition of the resources required to meet the demands and a willingness to search them out.
*Comprehensibility: The conceptual perception of the world being understandable, meaningful, orderly and consistent rather than chaotic, random and unpredictable.
Areas of Application
Although the majority of texts related to salutogenesis are concerned with issues in the medical fields of healthcare, it does also feature in the related disciplines of psychology and in particular industrial and organizational psychology and philosophy.
Since their origin, naturopathy, homeopathy and anthroposophical medicine have all been strongly oriented towards a salutogenetic approach, that is, on strengthening the body or the human being's natural health and defenses.
References
Further reading
*Antonovsky, Aaron. [http://www.angelfire.com/ok/soc/aberlim.html Studying Health vs. Studying Disease] , Lecture at the Congress for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Berlin, 19 February 1990.
* [http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/2002/oct/oct2002kent.htm Salutogenesis] , Dr. Christopher Kent, The Chiropractic Journal
* [http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Bioe/BioeNova.htm Coping with Existential Threats and the Inevitability of Asking for Meaningfulness] , a philosophical perspective
* [http://www.pixelplexus.co.za/txts/firmLearning.htm#Index Salutogenic perspective on Lifelong Learning in Human Capacity Development (HCD) Industrial Psychology]
