Is it possible for a person to have zero mental illnesses?

[RisingSun]

In my Abnormal Psychology book, it looks like there are over 100 different mental illnesses listed. With that many possibilities, I'm assuming everyone has at least one mental illness. Do you think it's possible for someone to have not a single mental illness?

[psychologytools]

lol, not in this day and age

[voodoo scientist]

Under the current framework, it is technically possible, because there is a requirement for diagnosis that specifies that any diagnosis must include considerable distress for the patient. If you're not having major problems with a behavior, it's not a symptom - that's how simple it is (supposed to be, at least). That means it's not only technically possible, but that most people at any given time actually have "zero mental illness."

This may change in the future. A major current concern with the upcoming DSM V is the pathologization of normal human behavior. A few weeks ago, a group of over 100 psychologists including the DSM IV Task Force chairman sent an open letter to the DSM V Task Force expressing concern not only over certain changes that are extremely vague, but also a fundamental change in the definition of a symptom that would massively expand it by defining it from a biomedical angle and removing the distress condition.

I consider it an exclusively academic distinction since it's neither constitutionally, legally, ethically or economically viable to force people into psychological treatment in most liberal democracies (and authoritarian regimes don't need science to lock people up), but academically it remains a time bomb that is likely to do a great deal of harm to psychology's credibility and acceptance. Noone will accept a science that pathologizes normal behavior because the idea is fundamentally stupid - if your theory states that almost every member of the dominant and arguably most successful single species on the entire planet are pathologically maladaptive, your theory is almost wrong by definition.

[docjp]

Do you think it's possible for someone to have not a single mental illness?

If you agree that the term "mental" refers to the MIND, then there is no such thing as a "mental illness" because the MIND is never "ill".  What is often observed are peculiar ways in which the MIND protects a person from being exposed to what the MIND holds hidden within itself.  But these actions or behaviors are simply expedient means by which the MIND "vents" energies being generated within itself in various behaviors.
http://about-psychology.com/MIND.html
Peace