ABSTRACT
Just as health of the body is the proper balancing (συμμετρία) of its simplest parts, which we call the elements – I mean hot and cold and dry and wet – in the same way I think that health of the soul should be some proper balancing of its simple parts. You need to lay out what these are, how many they are, and what are their mutual interrelations… . Moreover, disease of the soul will be an equivalent unbalancing of and mutual dissension (στάσις) between those very same parts for which the proper balancing constitutes health of the soul. And these parts are, as Plato said, the spirited, and the rational, and a third in addition to these, the appetitive, so that this likeness between health and disease of body and soul is preserved in every respect. For when the three parts are in harmony with one another and do not conflict in any way, they produce health of the soul, but when they are discordant and in conflict, they produce disease.
