[The value of places and landscapes for health].

Abstract

The concept of therapeutic landscapes has proven itself empirically in recent decades as an analytical framework for better understanding the significance of specific places and landscapes for health and health-related well-being. It is based on the fundamental assumption that a specific set of ecological, social and cultural characteristics of spatial settings has a measurable effect on health. As a theory, it offers the possibility of providing a conceptual order for the empirical complexity of the phenomenal world. The background in terms of the history of ideas includes salutogenesis, health promotion, the cultural turn and the spatial turn. Approaches to explaining the development of therapeutic landscapes are based on the actor-network theory (ANT) and the concept of mentalising, based on the "theory of mind". While the focus was initially on extraordinary places and healing effects, it is now more about everyday places and diverse health-relevant effects.