19th December, 2023

Today, the founder of the concept of Salutogenesis would become 100 years old. Aaron Antonovsky was born on the 19^th of December 1923, and raised in New York. He earned his PhD in sociology at Yale University in 1953. In 1960 he immigrated to Israel. During his time as Professor for Medical Sociology at Ben Gurion University, he developed the concept of Salutogenesis. On the 7^th of July 1994, he passed away in Jerusalem.

On his 100^th anniversary, we want to thank Aaron Antonovsky for the important scholarly and practical contribution he made to health and social science. He himself considered Salutogenesis to offer nothing less than a paradigm shift. By questioning the “origins of health” rather than of disease, he opened a completely new perspective on whole human beings, their resources, successful coping with stressors, and positive health development. Still today, people are highly intrigued by the empowering nature of this new paradigm.

By offering the comprehensive salutogenic model of health and the well validated, core concept of sense of coherence as a global orientation to life, Aaron Antonovsky enabled researchers to systematically study the origins of health in various contexts. Equally, the salutogenic orientation has guided many practitioners in promoting coherence, health and wellbeing in numerous population groups and settings.

Salutogensis as an established field of research and practice

The salutogenic model of health was first introduced in Aaron Antonovsky’s books, Health, stress, and coping (1979) and Unraveling the mystery of health (1987). Following several years of theoretical and empirical developments, the attractiveness and relevance of this concept are reflected in the first and second edition of the Springer Handbook of Salutogenesis. This open access Handbook shows the origin and the rich academic advancements of Salutogenesis, as well as their broad practical applications in health care and everyday life, in challenging and thriving contexts.

The first edition was among the three most often downloaded of all Springer open access publications (2.4 million downloads). The second edition has been accessed 1 million times.

Beyond the Handbook, an active research society indicates the establishment of a scientific field. In 2017, the members of the IUHPE Global Working Group on Salutogenesis founded the Society of Theory and Research on Salutogenesis (STARS). STARS has over 2200 members from 89 different countries. They apply Salutogenesis to diverse fields, including health care, everyday life, education, the life course, intercultural topics, migration, and politics. The upcoming 7^th International Conference on Salutogenesis is another demonstration of an active scientific field and will likely boost the number of countries represented in STARS to 100 – reflecting 100 birthday candles for Aaron Antonovsky!

Postponed anniversary celebration in times of conflict

The Global Working Group on Salutogenesis had prepared a webinar for the anniversary date to celebrate Aaron Antonovsky and his important contributions. However, we feel that it is not the time to celebrate in “pathogenic” times of severe conflict in Israel, where Salutogenesis originated. Currently, important scholars continuing the work of Antonovsky and the whole population in Israel are exposed to severe trauma and insecurity.

We strongly condemn the brutal, cruel, inhumane attacks of Hamas on people living in Israel. We deeply understand Israel’s need for safety from further attacks by Hamas, which – like ISIS – has been declared a terrorist organization, posing a threat not only to Western societies, but also to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are used by Hamas as a human shield. At the same time, while we condemn Hamas for preventing the Red Cross from transferring medical supplies to Israeli hostages, we look with worry at the suffering and deaths of civilians, and urge for continuous human aid to innocent Palestinians.

Salutogenesis for peaceful societies

We remind ourselves that in 1948 after the Second World War when the State of Israel, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and WHO were established, the preamble of the WHO Constitution stated: “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. The health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest co-operation of individuals and States.”

Following these statements, we believe that Salutogenesis can guide the way forward. Salutogenesis provides a deeply human perspective on how individuals, groups and whole populations can experience and create coherence and thus health and wellbeing for all.

Shifra Sagy, Adi Mana, and their teams in Israel have been working on how to open up the perspective and empathy for the others as fellow-humans with similar needs and feelings, working with Jews and Palestinians.

As a Global Working Group, we are committed to continue this work on various levels. We invite all STARS members to reflect on how they can contribute to building more coherent, peaceful and healthy societies. We deeply thank Aaron Antonovsky on his 100^th birthday, for providing Salutogenesis as one way to pursue this vision.

December 19^th 2023

The Global Working Group on Salutogenesis

Watch one of the rare video recordings of Aaron Antonovsky

In this video, Aaron Antonovsky explains how he came to the salutogenic question of the “origin of health”. The video was recorded in August 1992 by Bengt Lindström during a lecture in the “Second European Training Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion (ETC PHPH) Course” at The Nordic School of Public Health, Göteborg, Sweden.