This chapter follows on closely from Chapter 3. Having introduced a basic framework for understanding psychological functioning, I want to show how this framework can be extended to a conceptualisation of psychological wellbeing and distress. As with Chapter 3, I want to spend some time describing this theory, because the kind of progressive society we envision is so deeply rooted in how we think about others and ourselves. Indeed, the question of what we mean by human wellbeing – implicitly or explicitly – is right at the very core of progressive concerns: we cannot help to create a society that is better for people unless we know what ‘better’ is.

The aim of this chapter, then, is to show how we can conceptualise wellbeing and distress in a way that can underpin a progressive vision for society. This is, first, by providing theoretical and empirical support for the view that distress, and its amelioration, is dependent on social and economic factors (like poverty and oppression), as well as psychological ones (like experiencing a traumatic childhood). This means that, to create a world in which more people thrive more of the time, we need to address socioeconomic inequalities. However, contra to a classical Marxist analysis, I also want to show that there can be other, more psychological, ways of understanding and addressing distress; and that, actually, socioeconomic and psychological understandings do not need to be opposed, but can be part of a single, integrated framework. Second, I want to develop a conceptualisation of psychological wellbeing and distress that, as we will see in Chapters 5 and 6, allows for the identification of common, systemwide principles of optimal and suboptimal functioning – whether at the level of the individual, the community, or the planet. That these principles – such as cooperation, taking responsibility, and openness to diversity – are strikingly similar to currently existing progressive values offers strong support for a progressive standpoint, and its capacity to form the basis for a better society.

Chapter 3 outlined three basic propositions from my book Integrating counselling and psychotherapy, and this chapter is based around a further four. First, that psychological wellbeing – the ‘richer’ and ‘fuller’ life – is the realisation of our fundamental needs and wants, while psychological distress is the failure to realise them.