Advances in wellbeing in the MENA region: Accentuating the positive

Abstract

While positive psychology is a relatively new science, the notion of wellbeing itself is not novel and has always existed across all societies throughout history. In this chapter, we trace the origins of contemporary civilizations across the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region from ancient (c. 9200 BCE) to modern times (2018 CE) and explore their notions of social and political wellbeing. The region's past is characterized by remarkable intellectual and past social accomplishments, especially during the "Islamic Golden Age" (8th-14th centuries CE). Coming up to the modern era, we then highlight original data spanning the period of 1970-2011 to summarize the major drivers of the region's social development and wellbeing as well as the challenges it confronts, particularly considering newpolitical and military developments emerging in the region.