ABSTRACT
Just as the relationship between mind and body has long been thought to be both complex and close, so has the relationship between physical and mental health. Mental, or psychological, health is usually taken to be a state of emotional, cognitive and behavioural well-being. Mental ill-health involves the malfunctioning of these aspects. In the past century or so more and more physical diseases have been recognized as having a strong psychological component to them. These are now known as psychosomatic illnesses, from the Latin psyche (mind) and soma (body).
