Mental Health Promotion: Understanding Violence and its Impact on Mental Wellbeing

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION1
Part A
Violence is discussed as the intentional or unintentional use of physical force in order
to inflict harm, either physical or mental, on an individual or a group of individuals.
According to the World Health Organisation, violence is defined as the "the intentional use of
physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a
group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury,
death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation." (WHO, 2009). Globally, there
are thousands of cases of violence that are being reported on an hourly basis. According to a
comparative study, from 1.13 million deaths due to violence in 1993, in 2013 the number rose
to 1.28 million (Abubakar, Tillman & Banerjee, 2015) where roughly, 842,000 cases were
attributed to that of suicide, 405,000 were attributed to pure interpersonal violence and
31,000 were attributed to war and collective social violence. Violence has also been reported
to have severe lifelong complications in terms of physical as well as mental and social
wellbeing, hindering the positive development of a person. Another study (Mortal, 2015) also
reported that in 2013, the maximum number of cases of death due to violence was attributed
to assault by firearm (180,000 cases) followed by death due to sharp objects (114,000) and
personal violence attributed to other causes (110,000). There are a variety of factors that
influence the act of violence. It has been stated that the impetus behind violence can be
triggered from a range of personal, psychological, social, cultural, political as well as regional
factors (Arendt, 1970) whereas violence between peers can result from interpersonal conflict
and disagreement, violence at home (domestic / family violence) can result from unstable
relationships, history of drug abuse, power differences as well as financial crises.
There are two main types of violence that can be identified in current context namely
physical and mental (Gutmanis et al., 2007). While the former is focused on how the acts of
violence inflicts damage on a person or a group that can be identified and display visible

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION2
marks of the act, mental violence is usually not openly identified and can only be
characterised by behavioural and attitudinal changes in the person.
The World health Organisation has divided violence primarily into three categories
namely Self-directed violence, interpersonal violence and collective violence (WHO, 2009).
Self-directed violence refers to the kind of violence that an individual inflicts on himself /
herself under a variety of influences. Self – directed violence can be inflicted as a coping
mechanism where the individuals, in their attempt to cope or make peace with a certain
disturbing situation, can inflict derogatory harm on themselves (WHO, 2009). The severity of
such inflictions can range from minor cuts and bruises inflicted on oneself to major
potentially lethal acts like suicide. Self abuse using drugs and alcohol is also identified as a
form of self directed violence. Self inflicted violence can also result from multiple external
factors like being blackmailed by someone else to inflict harm upon oneself or being bullied
into committing acts of self directed violence. Even though physically, they are considered
self inflicted, in a narrower context, these fall under the category of mental abuse by an
external factor (Krug et al., 2002). Self inflicted violence can also root from instances of
pleasure where it has been identified that some people find pleasure in the pain that is being
inflicted upon them (Tesser et al., 1988).
Collective violence is identified as the act of violence where more than two
individuals are involved in the act. It is subdivided into two major types, namely Structural
Violence and Economic violence (Arendt, 1970). In contrast with the other two types of
violence, the act of collective violence is usually identified to involve a larger motive where
the violence is committed by individuals or state under the intention of obtaining a reward, a
set outcome, setting an example (most political acts of violence) or a larger state / politically
driven motive. A collective act of violence usually underpins specific socio – political
agendas like crimes committed by organised groups (terrorist organisations), mob violence

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION3
and particular ideological activist groups (Mortal, 2015). Religious interferences have also
been identified to cause a wide gamut of collective violence. Most acts of major collective
violence has been attributed to political outcomes. Warfare and related acts of violence are
identified as the most common aspect of collective violence (Mortal, 2015).
In contrast, interpersonal violence is an act of violence that usually involves two
individuals where one is usually the perpetrator of violence on the other (Black et al., 2011).
He cases of interpersonal violence can range from minor incidents like beating up a partner or
a family member, a peer or an acquaintance or even a stranger, to major acts like murder.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is an identified characteristic of this kind of violence.
Intimate partner violence is a big concern for a lot of developing and developed societies and
countries in the world (Campbell, 2002). It is known as one of the most common forms of
domestic violence against women. In general it involves abuse of various kinds, which find
their expression in the form of a lot of sexual, emotional and physical tones.
IPV finds its importance in the mental health context also from the fact that the
victims of IPV, generally women, suffer a decline in physical and mental health over time.
They also end up developing mild to severe forms of anxiety and stress over time, which in
turn give rise to chronic health problems (Golding, 1999). According to various research
studies, the effect of a period of abuse can stay long, in fact even till much after the violence
has stopped. Compared to women with no history of abuse, it is seen that women with a
history of abuse actually are prone to higher levels of depression, anxiety and different kinds
of phobias (Coker et al, 2002).
Taking a look at violence in general itself and its relationship with mental health
issues, we see significant observations which go against common beliefs. Our common
beliefs about mental health issues in general is that ones that suffer them are potentially
dangerous while we expect that those with a violent record might have a few mental disorders