Putting stress in life: Hans selye and the making of stress theory

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 391-410

  Viner, Russell ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0033243179     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631299029003003     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. George P. Chrousos and Philip Gold, 'Introduction', in Chrousos et al. (eds), Stress: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Implications, Papers from the First World Congress on Stress (Bethesda, MD, 2-7 October 1995), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 771 (29 December 1995), xv-xviii, at xv.
2. George P. Chrousos and Philip Gold, 'Introduction', in Chrousos et al. (eds), Stress: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Implications, Papers from the First World Congress on Stress (Bethesda, MD, 2-7 October 1995), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 771 (29 December 1995), xv-xviii, at xv.
3. Hans Selye, The Stress of Life (New York & London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1956).
4. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), and Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). My work is also informed by social-worlds and arena theory: see, for example, Adele Clarke and Theresa Montini, 'The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 42-78. For a discussion of biology in inter-war society, see Donna Haraway, 'The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology', Radical History Review, Vol. 20 (1979), 206-37, and Stephen J. Cross and William R. Albury, 'Walter B. Cannon, L.J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy', Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 3 (1987), 165-92.
5. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), and Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). My work is also informed by social-worlds and arena theory: see, for example, Adele Clarke and Theresa Montini, 'The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 42-78. For a discussion of biology in inter-war society, see Donna Haraway, 'The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology', Radical History Review, Vol. 20 (1979), 206-37, and Stephen J. Cross and William R. Albury, 'Walter B. Cannon, L.J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy', Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 3 (1987), 165-92.
6. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), and Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). My work is also informed by social-worlds and arena theory: see, for example, Adele Clarke and Theresa Montini, 'The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 42-78. For a discussion of biology in inter-war society, see Donna Haraway, 'The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology', Radical History Review, Vol. 20 (1979), 206-37, and Stephen J. Cross and William R. Albury, 'Walter B. Cannon, L.J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy', Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 3 (1987), 165-92.
7. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), and Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). My work is also informed by social-worlds and arena theory: see, for example, Adele Clarke and Theresa Montini, 'The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 42-78. For a discussion of biology in inter-war society, see Donna Haraway, 'The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology', Radical History Review, Vol. 20 (1979), 206-37, and Stephen J. Cross and William R. Albury, 'Walter B. Cannon, L.J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy', Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 3 (1987), 165-92.
8. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), and Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). My work is also informed by social-worlds and arena theory: see, for example, Adele Clarke and Theresa Montini, 'The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and Technological Contestations', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 42-78. For a discussion of biology in inter-war society, see Donna Haraway, 'The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology', Radical History Review, Vol. 20 (1979), 206-37, and Stephen J. Cross and William R. Albury, 'Walter B. Cannon, L.J. Henderson, and the Organic Analogy', Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 3 (1987), 165-92.
9. This story can be found in nearly all of Hans Selye's popular works, such as The Stress of Life (op. cit. note 2), The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1952), The Stress of Life, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), Stress in Health and Disease (Boston, MA & London: Butterworth, 1976), and Stress without Distress (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975).
10. This story can be found in nearly all of Hans Selye's popular works, such as The Stress of Life (op. cit. note 2), The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1952), The Stress of Life, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), Stress in Health and Disease (Boston, MA & London: Butterworth, 1976), and Stress without Distress (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975).
11. This story can be found in nearly all of Hans Selye's popular works, such as The Stress of Life (op. cit. note 2), The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1952), The Stress of Life, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), Stress in Health and Disease (Boston, MA & London: Butterworth, 1976), and Stress without Distress (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975).
12. This story can be found in nearly all of Hans Selye's popular works, such as The Stress of Life (op. cit. note 2), The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1952), The Stress of Life, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), Stress in Health and Disease (Boston, MA & London: Butterworth, 1976), and Stress without Distress (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975).
13. This story can be found in nearly all of Hans Selye's popular works, such as The Stress of Life (op. cit. note 2), The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1952), The Stress of Life, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), Stress in Health and Disease (Boston, MA & London: Butterworth, 1976), and Stress without Distress (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975).
14. Hans Selye, 'A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents', Nature, Vol. 138 (4 July 1936), 32; see also Selye, op. cit. note 2, 30, and Selye (1952), op. cit. note 4, 32-33.
15. Hans Selye, 'A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents', Nature, Vol. 138 (4 July 1936), 32; see also Selye, op. cit. note 2, 30, and Selye (1952), op. cit. note 4, 32-33.
16. Hans Selye, 'A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents', Nature, Vol. 138 (4 July 1936), 32; see also Selye, op. cit. note 2, 30, and Selye (1952), op. cit. note 4, 32-33.
17. George Draper, 'Statement of Purpose and Organization of Medical Anthropology in the Department of the Practice of Medicine of the Presbyterian Hospital and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University' (2 June 1936), 2, quoted by Sarah W. Tracey, 'George Draper and American Constitutional Medicine, 1916-1946: Reinventing the Sick Man', Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 66 (1992), 53-89. My discussion of American Constitutional Medicine is largely drawn from Tracey's paper.
18. George Draper, 'Statement of Purpose and Organization of Medical Anthropology in the Department of the Practice of Medicine of the Presbyterian Hospital and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University' (2 June 1936), 2, quoted by Sarah W. Tracey, 'George Draper and American Constitutional Medicine, 1916-1946: Reinventing the Sick Man', Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 66 (1992), 53-89. My discussion of American Constitutional Medicine is largely drawn from Tracey's paper.
19. Walter B. Cannon, 'Stresses and Strains of Homeostasis', American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 189 (January 1935), 1-14 (based on the 1934 Mary Scott Newbold lecture to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia).
20. Latour, Science in Action (1987), op. cit. note 3, 103-44.
21. Latour, Science in Action (1987), op. cit. note 3, 103-44.
22. John W. Mason, 'A Re-evaluation of the Concept of "Non-specificity" in Stress Theory', Journal of Psychiatric Research, Vol. 8, Nos 3/4 (August 1971), 323-33, at 323.
23. Hans Selye, Stress (Montréal: Acta Inc., 1950).
24. Roger Guillemin, 'A Personal Reminiscence of Hans Selye', Experientia, Vol. 41, No. 5 (15 May 1985), 560-61, quotes at 560, 561.
25. On the threats to psychobiology after World War II, see Haraway, op. cit. note 3.
26. From the Introduction to the Society for Psychomatic Research, The Nature of Stress Disorder, Papers from a Conference held at the Royal College of Physicians, London, 1958 (London: Hutchinson, 1958), xi-xii.
27. Mason, op. cit. note 9, 323.
28. Sandor Szabo, 'The Creative and Productive Life of Hans Selye: A Review of his Major Scientific Discoveries', Experientia, Vol. 41, No. 5 (15 May 1985), 564-67, at 566.
29. Guillemin, op. cit. note 11, 561.
30. Selye, The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (1952), op. cit. note 4, 185-86: Selye is quoting from Claude Bernard, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (Genève: Les Éditions du Cheval Ailé, 1935), 358.
31. Selye, The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (1952), op. cit. note 4, 185-86: Selye is quoting from Claude Bernard, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (Genève: Les Éditions du Cheval Ailé, 1935), 358.
32. Selye, The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome (1952), op. cit. note 4, 185-86: Selye is quoting from Claude Bernard, Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale (Genève: Les Éditions du Cheval Ailé, 1935), 358.
33. For an introductory survey, see Selye, op. cit. note 2, 219, 233-42, 247-49 (italics in original).
34. Ibid., 225 (italics in original).
35. Selye, Stress in Health and Disease (1976), op. cit. note 4, 1168.
36. Selye, Stress in Health and Disease (1976), op. cit. note 4, 1168.
37. William Graebner, 'The Unstable World of Benjamin Spock: Social Engineering in a Democratic Culture, 1917-1950', Journal of American History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (December 1980), 612-29; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Loren Baritz, The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1960).
38. William Graebner, 'The Unstable World of Benjamin Spock: Social Engineering in a Democratic Culture, 1917-1950', Journal of American History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (December 1980), 612-29; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Loren Baritz, The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1960).
39. William Graebner, 'The Unstable World of Benjamin Spock: Social Engineering in a Democratic Culture, 1917-1950', Journal of American History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (December 1980), 612-29; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Loren Baritz, The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1960).
40. See Cross & Albury, op. cit. note 3; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Graebner, op. cit. note 21; and Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 96-150.
41. See Cross & Albury, op. cit. note 3; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Graebner, op. cit. note 21; and Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 96-150.
42. See Cross & Albury, op. cit. note 3; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Graebner, op. cit. note 21; and Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 96-150.
43. See Cross & Albury, op. cit. note 3; Haraway, op. cit. note 3; Graebner, op. cit. note 21; and Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 96-150.
44. Selye, Stress without Distress (1975), op. cit. note 4, 89.
45. Selye, Stress without Distress (1975), op. cit. note 4, 89.
46. Selye, The Stress of Life, revised edition (1978), op. cit. note 4, face page.
47. Selye, The Stress of Life, revised edition (1978), op. cit. note 4, face page.
48. Early books on Stress in military situations include Irving R. Janis, Airwar and Emotional Stress (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951), and Roy R. Grinker and John P. Spiegel, Men under Stress (London: Churchill, 1945).
49. Early books on Stress in military situations include Irving R. Janis, Airwar and Emotional Stress (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951), and Roy R. Grinker and John P. Spiegel, Men under Stress (London: Churchill, 1945).
50. Symposium on Stress (Washington, DC: US Army Medical Service Graduate School, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1953), 3-4.
51. Ibid., 90.
52. Guillemin, op. cit. note 11, 561.
53. Selye (1952), op. cit. note 4.
54. Selye, op. cit. note 2, xi.
55. For a sample of the rhetoric about Selye which appeared frequently in the popular press, see note 59, below.
56. Selye, op. cit. note 2, 282.
57. Selye, Stress in Health and Disease (1976), op. cit. note 4, 33.
58. Selye, Stress in Health and Disease (1976), op. cit. note 4, 33.
59. See Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, 88-89.
60. Selye (1976), op. cit. note 4, 33.
61. For expositions and summaries, see Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, esp. 84-91, and Selye (1976), op. cit. note 4, 32-34.
62. For expositions and summaries, see Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, esp. 84-91, and Selye (1976), op. cit. note 4, 32-34.
63. Ibid., 32.
64. Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, 89.
65. For the proceedings of the first of this series of six symposia, see Lennart Levi (ed.), Society, Stress and Disease, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).
66. See the prefatory statement by Dr David Hamburger [President of the US Institute of Medicine], 'An Outlook on Stress Research and Health', in Carl Eisdorfer (ed.), Report of Committee to Study Research on Stress in Health and Disease of the National Research Council (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981), xi-xxi.
67. Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, 22; see also R.P. Saxena (ed.), Hans Selye Textbook of Stress (Laindon, Essex: International Society for the Prevention of Stress, 1980).
68. Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, 22; see also R.P. Saxena (ed.), Hans Selye Textbook of Stress (Laindon, Essex: International Society for the Prevention of Stress, 1980).
69. For a list of Selye's scientific publications in this period, see Szabo, op. cit. note 15, 566-67.
70. Haraway, op. cit. note 3.
71. Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe, 'The Social Readjustment Rating Scale', Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol. 4 (1967), 189-94. For a review of the psychological literature on Stress research, see Eugene S. Paykel, 'Methodological Aspects of Life Events Research', ibid., Vol. 27, No. 5 (1983), 341-52.
72. Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe, 'The Social Readjustment Rating Scale', Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol. 4 (1967), 189-94. For a review of the psychological literature on Stress research, see Eugene S. Paykel, 'Methodological Aspects of Life Events Research', ibid., Vol. 27, No. 5 (1983), 341-52.
73. Hamburger, op. cit. note 40, xi.
74. Eisdorfer (ed.), op. cit. note 40, 2-3.
75. Ibid., Chapter 1.
76. See, for example, Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1, especially the first paper, Irwin J. Koplin, 'Definitions of Stress and Sympathetic Neuronal Responses', 19-30.
77. See, for example, Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1, especially the first paper, Irwin J. Koplin, 'Definitions of Stress and Sympathetic Neuronal Responses', 19-30.
78. Hans Selye, quoted in Saxena, op. cit. note 41, 256. Selye is referring to the American Institute of Stress, founded in the 1970s.
79. Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1; see also Nicholas P. Plotnikiff, Anthony J. Murgo, Robert Faith and Joseph Wybran, Stress and Immunity (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1991); Gaëtan Jasmin and Marc Cantin (eds), Stress Revisited 1: Neuroendocrinology of Stress (Basel: Karger, 1991).
80. Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1; see also Nicholas P. Plotnikiff, Anthony J. Murgo, Robert Faith and Joseph Wybran, Stress and Immunity (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1991); Gaëtan Jasmin and Marc Cantin (eds), Stress Revisited 1: Neuroendocrinology of Stress (Basel: Karger, 1991).
81. Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1; see also Nicholas P. Plotnikiff, Anthony J. Murgo, Robert Faith and Joseph Wybran, Stress and Immunity (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1991); Gaëtan Jasmin and Marc Cantin (eds), Stress Revisited 1: Neuroendocrinology of Stress (Basel: Karger, 1991).
82. See, for example, 'Wylie W. Vale: Recipient of the 1994 Hans Selye Award', in Chrousos et al. (eds), op. cit. note 1, xiii-xiv.
83. Donald Meichenbaum and Matt E. Jaremko (eds), Stress Reduction and Prevention (New York & London: Plenum Press, 1983), 'The Stress Literature: Implications for Prevention and Treatment', 1-4, at 1.
84. Selye, op. cit. note 2, 41 (italics in original).
85. For an exposition of the idea of obligatory points of passage', see Latour (1984), op. cit. note 3, 43-49.
86. Ibid., 60, 69.
87. Selye (1975), op. cit. note 4, 91.
88. Latour (1987), op. cit. note 3, 103-44.
89. Meichenbaum & Jarenko (eds), op. cit. note 52, 1 (italics in original).
90. See the entry for Hans Selye in Marjorie Dent Candee (ed.), Current Biography (New York: H.W. Wilson & Co.), Vol. 14, No. 6 (June 1953), 56-58, at 56: '. . . stress, a concept which "promises to take its place with the medical milestones of Pasteur, Koch, Behring, and Ehrlich" (Look, March 27, 1951)'.
91. See the entry for Hans Selye in Marjorie Dent Candee (ed.), Current Biography (New York: H.W. Wilson & Co.), Vol. 14, No. 6 (June 1953), 56-58, at 56: '. . . stress, a concept which "promises to take its place with the medical milestones of Pasteur, Koch, Behring, and Ehrlich" (Look, March 27, 1951)'.
92. Selye, op. cit. note 2, 193.