how to say “mental health” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-1.m4a” /]בְּרִיאוּת הַנֶּפֶשׁ
When I was in psych school, I would read about דיכאון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-2.m4a” /] – depression and get depressed. I’d hear a lecture about התמכרויות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-3.m4a” /] – addictions and start searching for my own.
As the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, טראכט גוט, וועט זיין גוט[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-4.m4a” /] – in Hebrew, תחשוב טוב, יהיה טוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-5.m4a” /] – think positive (good), it will be positive. So in this post I’ll focus instead of on mental illness (מחלת נפש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-6.m4a” /], for those who need to know), I’ll focus on mental health – well, at least on the linguistic level.
Yesterday we saw that the Hebrew word for mind is נפש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-7.m4a” /]. Thus mental health or the health of the mind is בריאות הנפש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-1.m4a” /].
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בריאות-הנפש-8.m4a” /]קב”ן בצבא הוא קצין בריאות הנפש, בדרך כלל פסיכולוג.
A “kaban” in the military is an officer of mental health, usually a psychologist.
The fact that נפש means mind as well as soul to me underscores the intensely personal experience of mental health or its opposite.
