b. 26 Jan 1907, Vienna, Austria-d. 16 Oct 1982, Montreal, Quebec
Director, Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, U. de Montreal, 1945-76 (retired)
Hans Selye was born in Vienna, Austria, and educated in Prague, Paris and Rome. He became a famous endocrinologist. After retiring from U de M, he founded the International Institute of Stress in 1977, in his own home. His controversial theory, General Adaptation Syndrome, was based on much experimentation with rats. He said "stress plays some role in the development of every disease." Failure to cope with "stressors" (any stimuli) can result in "diseases of adaptation" (ulcers, high blood pressure, etc.). He was a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Joined staff, McGill U., 1932. First director of Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, U. de Montreal, 1945-76. Founder, International Institute of Stress, 1977. General Adaptation Syndrome: his model suggests that all stimuli are "stressors" which produce a general response of "stress" in the affected person. (Selye later claimed that he was hampered by his inadequate English and "should have called my syndrome the 'strain syndrome.'") For Selye, "stress...[is] the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it." This process has 3 phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Later, Selye, spoke of 2 major types of stress: "pleasant or curative stress" ("eustress") and "unpleasant or disease-producing stress" ("distress"). He also suggested the idea that an entire nation could experience the Syndrome, so that the incidence of all stress-related diseases increases. Author, The Stress of Life, 1956, revised 1976; Stress without Distress, 1974; and autobiography, The Stress of My Life, 1977, 2nd ed. 1979. Recipient many honours, including some 20 honorary degrees. His theoretical model with its biological focus has now been superseded by the "cognitive" models of stress and coping put forward by psychologist Richard Lazarus and others.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1988
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