ABSTRACT
It has been my experience, both in laboratory experiments and in clinical studies, that the term stress has not been useful. In fact, it often seems to inhibit rather than facilitate communication either among scientists or between investigators and patients. There are a number of reasons for this difficulty: First, the term is ambiguous since it means different things to different investigators; and second, there are a number of incorrect premises implicit in most concepts of stress. In this chapter I review, briefly, several of the conceptual ways in which the term has been used and how this usage has led to confusion; then I consider some of our laboratory research findings which bear on the concept of stress as it has been used by a number of investiagtors; and finally, I suggest some alternative strategies for addressing the experimental and clinical issues to which the concept of stress often is applied.
