This thesis investigates changing conceptions of mental health concerning significant shifts and influences since psychology was established as a discipline. It considers some early conceptualizations of mental illness including somatogenic, supernatural; and psychogenic origins while tracking how far practices concerning mental health have gone ranging from primitive remedies to modern approaches in treatment. In addition, this study covers prominent people such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Aaron Beck, who have made noteworthy contributions to conceptualizing mental health and mental illnesses. This text also covers criticism from postmodern theorists like Michel Foucault, Thomas Szasz, and Erving Goffman who all took issue with orthodox psychiatry and the medicalization of mental health problems. An examination of the historical classification of mental disorders is also discussed in this thesis, including how the DSM has developed from its first edition to DSM-V, while homosexuality, transgenderism, and ADHD were pathologized and redefined as an effect. The role of societal norms, economic factors, and wider socio-cultural context on mental health perception is examined. For example, psychiatry was used for political repression in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the influence of capitalism, family structure changes, and pharmaceutical companies are confounding influences further complicating issues in understanding mental health. Finally, the study looks at the intricacies surrounding 21st-century mental health such as the rise of social media, urbanization, and failing economy, but also a growing awareness of psychological matters advocating for a cultural cross-continental view on this subject that recognizes different social dynamics like family, religious and economic status. It calls for revisiting contemporary discourses about mental well-being and questioning if existing definitions contribute to the attainment of an individual’s well-being.