ABSTRACT
Behavioral and psychological experiences involving stress are proposed to us by our patients every day, but the more simple aspects have been studied more in animals than in humans, and it is well documented that reactions to weaning, overcrowding, hierarchic challenge, exposure to unfamiliar surroundings, isolation, anger, frustration, and helplessness provoke a precise flight-fright response in animals. The same and other similar situations are everyday experiences for modern humans (1), whose various responses may be psychological and/or physical. Since stress can be caused by environmental as well as psychological factors, it is easy to perceive that there is a relationship between everyday stress and defense mechanisms and disease susceptibility and that the physical and psychological spheres are often both involved in the process. The result is a unitary concept of human pathology, and the problem is to determine the entity of the emotional component in any disease. The body (soma) and the mind (psyche)
constitute a single unit, and physicians should do the utmost to consider and treat them as such.
