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That much is what he calls psychic affirmation. Beyond that lies psychic flourishing rather than simply psychic affirmation (14748). Positive emotional states (moods and emotions, mostly) are defined by giving examples drawn from ordinary usage and from positive psychology: joyfulness, high-spiritedness, peace of mind, etc. Inevitably, then, the mental health agenda within positive psychology will be aligned loosely with the eudaimonistic tradition in naturalistic ethics. The definition is given in the first of the nine principles about health that are said to be basic to the happiness, harmonious relations and security of all peoples (World Health Organization, 2011). The books proposed research agenda for positive psychology is nominally fitted to those virtues but proceeds directly to the study of the strength and weakness of character traits under each heading, their affective dimensions, and the situational factors that influence both traits and associated affect. This lack of clarity and consistency has often meant that systematic work on the positive side of the health ledger has been postponed. ), will be necessary for sustaining the preponderance of the positive central affective experience that is definitive of happiness on the emotional state account. The level of health and virtue that even the most diligent, wise, and fortunate people regularly reach is well below the ideal. But when such things become popularized as standard treatments, and when such standards bear a suspicious resemblance to independently motivated social norms that underlie racism, sexism, homophobia, or other forms of oppression, programs designed to pursue positive health can do widespread damage. This is not necessarily inconsistent with the World Health Organizations definition: state as it occurs in that text could in principle be understood to include both traits and occurrent conditions. This, indeed, appears to be their essential characteristic. With this, we are firmly back in standard territory. Or the ways in which immunization programs come to be regarded as optionala matter of individual risk assessment and choice, along with other lifestyle choices, rather than strictly health-related ones. Third, the relevant states are often pervasive: they are frequently confused and nonspecific in character, tending to permeate the whole consciousness, and setting the tone thereof. For basic justice, however, a more modest goal is needed, and I will argue in later chapters that restricting our attention to the areas of health in which we can document the causal connections that create downward or upward spirals allows us to set an appropriate goal for basic justice.