In Mental Capital and Wellbeing, Cooper et al provide a road map of how society can optimally harness the creativity and mental capacities of its individual members if they (countries and persons) are to be competitive in the globalising, technology- and market-driven world of the 21st century. This is an excellent compendium of papers written to inform policy and practice at the levels of government, industry, academia and the professions in medicine, health and the social sciences.

The volume presents the Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project (a UK project in the Government Office for Science) set up to advise the government and the private sector on how to achieve the best possible mental development and well-being for everyone in the UK (www.foresight.gov.uk). The project sought to generate an understanding of the science of mental capital and well-being and a vision of the size and nature of future challenges. Analyses of strategic options for addressing the future challenges were conducted and an action plan developed. For background, the project drew upon current research and commissioned reviews of the state of the art of science in medicine, biology, psychiatry, psychology, technology and social science.

Mental capital is defined as ‘the totality of an individual's cognitive and emotional resources’, and mental well-being as ‘a dynamic state in which the individual is able to develop their potential, work productively… build positive relationships… and contribute to their community’ (p. 10). Mental capital is likened to financial stock that can be nurtured and accumulated throughout life, but which also alters through life in a trajectory-like fashion. Mental well-being facilitates optimal and judicious use of the capital so that it is not depleted. The papers in the volume detail the best available evidence of how best to nurture and accumulate mental capital at the level of the individual and community, and how to best put these to judicious use, mindful of subsisting challenges and likely future ones (i.e. drivers of change; e.g. an ageing population, technology innovations in the workplace, immigration, changes in the physical environment, the global burden of depression). Five broad areas are subsumed under mental capital and well-being: mental capital and well-being throughout life, learning through life, mental health and ill health, well-being and work, and intellectual disabilities. The book is organised in sections around the five themes, plus a section for cross-cutting reviews and a conclusion section.

I enjoyed the rigour of the papers, which along with use of strengths–deficits and cost–benefit analysis models, and an integrative and multidisciplinary approach to policy recommendations, help the book deliver on its stated aims. The plea made by the editors for a global effort towards building evidence on the cost-effectiveness of mental capital and well-being interventions charts the way for future work. I would have preferred a more integrated consideration of spirituality as a mental resource. The adoption of a utilitarian and materialist framework is bound also to cause some disquiet. Littlewood raises these and other related issues in his chapter titled ‘Comparative cultural perspectives on wellbeing’. Overall, this is a masterful effort at foretelling using facts and scientific evidence.