Health and disease

the holistic approach

Ruth Mäcklin

pp. 107-117

in: Tristram Engelhardt, Stuart Spicker (eds), Mental health: philosophical perspectives, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

The attempt to view disease in a generic sense — as an attribute of living forms, with special focus on its adaptational significance — is an approach that deserves acclaim and further study. It is somewhat difficult, however, on first hearing Dr. Fabrega's position on the importance of viewing disease as a symbolic category, to see the connections between this point of view and current debates about how to conceptualize and categorize mental health and mental illness. It is perhaps easier to imagine how the development of what he calls "ethnomedical science" [5] might contribute to the ongoing debate about whether there are any universal characteristics of illness — mental or otherwise — or whether the nature and varieties of human diseases are relative to the cultures in which they exist. But a close look at the details of Dr. Fabrega's position reveals several links between his proposal to view disease in a generic sense and the development of an adequate theory of mental health.