Culture, adaptation, and patterns of disease

The sick patient, rather than the disease process itself, should occupy the central focus of the physician's attention. Such an approach recognizes the interaction of physiologic and emotional forces in the occurrence of disease. It allows for a consideration of the contributory role of emotions in the precipition of physical illness and a recognition that physical illness may produce emotional sequelae of relevance to the total clinical problem. It is an approach which views man as an adapting animal, whose environment may play a crucial role in his adaptation and his disease. Only with such a perspective of man and disease can the principles of medical treatment be realistic.