[Developing a health mind-set--description of caritative health promotion]

This investigation describes health promotion from a caring science perspective. Caring is defined as an act of "caritas" c.e. love and mercy (Eriksson 1991). The investigation is theoretical and comes as a result in a model for health education. The model will be empirically tested in the future further on. The research method is qualitative and descriptive consisting of three processes: the abductive, deductive and inductive. This method was created by Charles Peirce (1839-1914). The inductive process will be implemented by testing the model. Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. The abductive hypothesis of this investigation is formed in the following way: "the kind of mood od mind, the kind of health". Main emphasis has been in examining the meaning of the mood of mind for ones health and the possibilities to develop it. The following question were asserted; 1. What is meant by the mood of mind? 2. What attributes are required in order to talk about health's mood of mind? 3. What are the possibilities of developing the mood of mind as a way for health education? The result of this investigation is presented as a model for health promotion. The model is upbuilt by the caritative elements featuring belief, hope, love and the concept of virtue. The model shows the consequences for a human beings daily living. In the case of having too much belief a human being may develop some kind of health fanatism. In the case of having too much belief a human being may develop some kind of health fanatism. In the case of having too much hope a human being puts forward the decisions about health for tomorrow. In the case of having too much love it may lead to a irresponsible lifestyle. An assumption is that a balance between belief, hope and love leads in choosing health, planning for health and living in health.