Significance of Mental Health Education in Ideological and Political

Education

Youli Kang

Vocational and Technical College, China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, 637000, China

Keywords: Mental health education, ideological and political education, relation, significance, combined routes.

Abstract: As an important aspect of ideological and political education, mental health education is significant in the

cultivation of university students’ correct philosophy, sense of worth and social concept. For a long time,

due to people’s lack of recognition over mental health education and ideological education, universities

cannot clearly define the relation between mental health education and ideological education. Some

universities have not conducted teaching combining mental health education with ideological education, so

the significance of mental health education in ideological and political education cannot be fully

demonstrated. In quality education reform, universities are gradually finding out the significance of mental

health education, clearly defining the relation between mental health education and ideological education.

Much more attention has been attached to the significance and value of mental health education in

ideological education. Combining the ideological and political education, universities can cultivate students

with correct philosophy, sense of worth and social concept, making them better face competitions and

challenges in the society.

1 INTRODUCTION

Ideological and political education in universities is

an important link in the cultivation of university

talents. With the deepening of education reform,

ideological and political is gradually breaking

controversial constraints and combined with mental

health education and thanksgiving education,

facilitating students’ comprehensive development of

morals and intelligence. Mental health education can

effectively reconcile students’ negative mood and

enhance their recognition towards society and life as

well as their political consciousness, which is

significant for the development of ideological and

political education (Pan Yuqun, 2010). The key to

demonstrate the significance of mental health

education in ideological and political education is to

define the relating between the two kinds of

education and objectively treat them, facilitating

their combination in students’ moral education. It is

helpful for the improvement of students’ social

competitive abilities as well as mental and body

health, thus cultivating more excellent talents for

China’s construction of socialism.

2 RELATION BETWEEN

MENTAL HEALTH

EDUCATION AND

IDEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

2.1 Relation between Mental Health

Education and Ideological

Education

As human-oriented education, mental health

education and ideological education are related to

each other. Firstly, mental health education is

consistent with ideological and political education in

contents. Mental health education is to enhance

university students’ mental health level and cultivate

their good qualities such as self-confidence, self-

respect and self-improvement, promoting their

healthy development and enabling them to be pillars

of the nation. Ideological and political education is

based on Marxism-Leninism, Maoism and Deng

Xiao-ping Theory (Yanhua, 2013). It helps

university students enhance their political

awareness, scientific and correct socialist concepts,

social adaptive abilities as well as cultivate their

perfect personality, thus enabling them to shoulder

205

Kang Y.

Signiﬁcance of Mental Health Education in Ideological and Political Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0006447202050208

In ISME 2016 - Information Science and Management Engineering IV (ISME 2016), pages 205-208

ISBN: 978-989-758-208-0

205

the duties of socialist construction and contribute to

the prosperity of China. Secondly, mental health

education is consistent with ideological and political

education in ideological direction. Through

education, some negative, paranoid and degenerate

thoughts of students can be eliminated, facilitating

the cultivation of correct outlook on life, great belief

and good quality. It can also firm students’ socialist

faith and achieve the goal of quality education, thus

cultivating more talents with both political integrity

and professional competence for the society.

Thirdly, mental health education and ideological

education have mutual constraints and influence

(Yang Nan, 2013). The deficiency of mental health

education is not beneficial to the release of negative

sentiment. Gradually, extreme thoughts can be

formed, leading to the deviation of students’

philosophy, sense of worth and social concept. The

improvement of mental health education can provide

ideological education with good mental background.

In good mental environment, students can improve

their ideological awareness and their political points

of view, and political consciousness can be scientific

and correct. Meanwhile, ideological education

provides mental health education with strong

ideological support, facilitating students to form

correct outlook on life, sense of worth and social

concepts. Under this influence, students’ moral

qualities and abilities to resist negative thoughts and

frustration can be enhanced. Therefore, students will

keep positive and optimistic philanthropic spirit. In

brief, mental health education facilitates the

continuous improvement of students’ mental health.

2.2 Misunderstanding of Mental

Health Education and Ideological

Education

The significance of mental health education in

ideological education should be demonstrated

through scientific and correct education channels.

Currently, people do not have enough recognition

towards mental health education and ideological

education, influencing the combination of them and

the significance of mental health education. Firstly,

the incomplete recognition of mental health

influences the enhancement of ideological education

level. In university teaching, some people think that

mental health education refers to psychological tests,

psychological diagnosis and psychological

counseling, which aim at solving students’ mental

problems and facilitating the harmonious

development of universities. Therefore, mental

health education can not be penetrated into

ideological education, and effective combination of

two kinds of education can not be realized. In this

case, students can not have resonance with education

goals in thoughts and emotions, hindering the

enhancement of students’ ideological awareness and

further development of university students’ mental

health. Then, they can not accept social morality and

social situation, and their mentality and thoughts are

still in a fragile stage. Secondly, the importance of

these two kinds of education is often ignored.

Ideological education is the base for the cultivation

of students’ view of world, outlook on life and sense

of worth, and it plays an important role in guiding

the formation of these views, an indispensable link

in modern talents cultivation. Mental health

education is the guarantee of university students’

mental health and a necessary method to cultivate

students on optimistic spirits and talents with both

political integrity and professional competence. If

university students ignore the importance of

ideological education, they can hardly form firm

believes, and their view of world, outlook on life and

sense of worth can easily be influenced by the

outside world. The ignorance of mental health

education can also influence students’ moral and

intellectual development. In teaching practice, many

people think that universities in China do not have

mature methods and theories of mental health

education, which is the biggest obstacle for the

combination of mental health education and

ideological education. Thirdly, teaching practices

overly emphasize the differences between mental

health education and ideological education and

ignore the relation between them. For example,

when some university students are faced with

pressures (job-hunting, separation or failed

examination), they go to extremes (such as

committing suicide and crimes), bringing negative

social influences. These tragedies seem to be caused

by bad mental quality, but they are the results of

deficiency in thanksgiving education and ideological

education. A person who knows thanksgiving will

not end his or her life selfishly and leave problems

to others. On the contrary, a man with good morality

can wisely face frustration and difficulties rather

than avoid challenges. Therefore, ideological

education has a close relation to mental health

education.

ISME 2016 - Information Science and Management Engineering IV

206

ISME 2016 - International Conference on Information System and Management Engineering

206

2.3 Considerations on the Role of

Mental Health Education in

Facilitating Ideological Education

The significance of mental health education to

ideological education needs to be demonstrated

through the combination of these two kinds of

education. In ideological education, mental health

education should be emphasized to scientifically

recognize its importance and eliminate

misunderstandings of mental health education and

ideological education. Then, these two kinds of

education can be closely related to cultivate high-

quality talents with both political integrity and

professional competence for the society. Firstly,

clear definition of differences and unity between

mental health education and ideological education

can better demonstrate their positive significance.

For example, mental health education does not

belong to the domain of social ideology. However, it

offers students with spiritual base to correctly

recognize the society, which is beneficial for the

development of ideological education. Secondly, it

is necessary to emphasize the role of humanistic

concern in mental health education and ideological

education. We should combine these two kinds of

education with humanistic concern, instilling correct

thoughts to students and guiding their morality with

models. Thirdly, the complementation of mental

health education and ideological education can

positively solve students’ problems and timely

relieve their bad emotions, thus enhancing their

abilities of social adaptation and social competence.

3 ANALYSIS ON THE POSITIVE

SIGNIFICANCE OF MENTAL

HEALTH EDUCATION TO

IDEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

3.1 Necessities of Mental Health

Education

Talents are the coral powers for both enterprises’

competitive and state construction. The sustainable

and steady development of a country needs

contributions of talents. Universities are important in

cultivating talents. The talents cultivated by

universities directly influence a country’s

development prospect and competitive power under

global environment. Mental quality is the guarantee

for a person to fully demonstrate his or her talents.

The contribution of a person to the country and the

society depends on his or her moral level to some

extent. Morality guides a person to develop along

positive direction. Nowadays, university students are

faced with many problems, such as study,

employment and life planning, which can easily

arouse bad emotions like anxiety, depression, and

stubbornness. Meanwhile, some university students

are not mature and they are easily influenced by

harmful atmosphere of the society, such as violence,

fighting and salacity, causing the eruption of

emotions. Then, some extreme events and past

redress consequences can be caused. Therefore,

mental health education is an effective way to

reduce these risks. By purifying students’ thoughts,

their negative emotions can be relieved and mental

problems can be solved, which is significant for

students to become useful for the society.

3.2 Importance of Mental Health

Education in Ideological Education

Mental health education gives students positive

energies and guides them to bravely and confidently

face life and have positive attitude, cultivating good

qualities like confidence, self-improvement,

calmness and high-efficiency. These qualities can

help them enhancing their abilities of social

adaptation and competence. Meanwhile, mental

health education facilitates the formation of perfect

personality, which is a necessity for the cultivation

correct sense of worth, outlook on life and social

concept and is useful for enhancing the effectiveness

of ideological education. On the one hand, mental

health education satisfies the requirements of quality

education and is a key to improving students’

ideological awareness as well as mental quality,

facilitating students’ all around development of

moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetics and labor

education. On the other hand, mental health

education is beneficial for the enhancement of

students’ morality and the effect of ideological

education, breaking controversy and better

demonstrating its role combined with social

practices. Therefore, mental health education is a

key for students to have both ability and political

integrity and demonstrate their talents and it has an

important role in ideological education.

3.3 Channels for the Combination of

Mental Health Education and

Ideological Education

The demonstration of the significance of mental

health education in ideological education is an

Significance of Mental Health Education in Ideological and Political Education

207

Signiﬁcance of Mental Health Education in Ideological and Political Education

207

important linkage for the reform and development of

university ideological education. With the deepening

of quality education reform in universities, the role

of ideological education can be better demonstrated

through the following aspects. Firstly, ideological

education should be combined with mental health

education. On the one hand, we should transform

concepts and positively develop the significance of

mental health education in ideological education,

enabling students to keep good qualities of

optimism, self-respect, self-discipline and self-

improvement. On the other hand, details about

ideological education should be emphasized to

cultivate students with abilities and spirits to

overcome difficulties and frustration, enabling

students to have comprehensive development in

body, mentality and intelligence. Secondly, we

should integrate mental health education into

ideological education and solve their mental puzzles,

promoting humanistic spirits and caring students on

their study, employment, love and interpersonal

interaction. Students’ mental problems should be

timely discovered to eliminate negative emotions,

avoiding the accumulation and deterioration of

negative emotions. We should also guide and inspire

students to step out puzzles and find their life

coordination, contributing to social progress.

Thirdly, we can establish a mental health education

platform among universities to broaden the scope of

ideological education in universities, providing

service for moral education. For example, we can

collect some information and analyze the changes of

students’ mentality through QQ groups and

psychological counseling rooms, timely discovering

problems and solving problems. In addition, we

should emphasize the concealment of information

platform to encourage students to open their mind

and release their puzzles, hesitation and inhibition.

Meanwhile, as long as these mental problems can be

correctly responded and guided, students will rebuild

their confidence and self-improvement so as to

better recognize and enhance themselves. In a word,

mental health education is significant for ideological

education and the combination of these two kinds of

education is needed.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Mental health education has provided good

environmental basis for ideological education and

facilitated the effectiveness of ideological education.

Likewise, ideological education has also influenced

mental health education. Universities teachers

should have objective and scientific recognition on

the importance of mental health education and

ideological education. They are also supposed to

combine the characteristics of these two kinds of

education and integrate ideas of quality education,

enabling them to show their unique role in talents

cultivation. Meanwhile, the effective combination of

these two kinds of education can enhance students’

political awareness and cultivate their optimistic

spirits and thoughts. With the ideological education,

students can release their negative emotions and

constantly improve their personality, thus

establishing correct outlook on life, sense of worth

and social concepts. Therefore, students can better

show their talents and make contributions to the

society and the construction of socialism.

REFERENCES

Pan Yuqun, on the Combination of Mental Health

Education and Ideological and Political Education,

Journal of Anhui Agricultural University(Social

Science Edition), 2010(05):102-105.

Yanhua, Interpretation of the Necessary Link between

Ideological and Political Education and Mental Health

of Students, Journal of Hubei Correspondence

University, 2013(01):45-46.

Yang Nan, Mechanism on Ideological and Political

Education and Mental Health Education, Journal of

Jilin Teachers Institute of Engineering and

Technology, 2013(02):25-26.

ISME 2016 - Information Science and Management Engineering IV

208

ISME 2016 - International Conference on Information System and Management Engineering

208