The Father of Stress Theory: Dr. Hans Selye

By Shelly James

Hans Selye was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907, and received his education in Prague, Paris, and Rome. In Prague he received his MD from the German Medical School in 1929, and within two years also completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry in Prague and had acquired a Rockefeller Research Fellowship in the Department of Biochemical Hygiene at Johns Hopkins University. From Baltimore he moved to Montreal and joined the biochemical endocrinological research team at McGill University.

In the 1930’s while working at McGill in the Biochemistry Department, Dr. Selye was trying to find a new hormone in the extracts of cattle ovaries. The preparations were injected into rats to see if their organs would show any unpredictable changes that could be attributed to any known hormone. Three changes were observed: an enlargement in the adrenal cortex, the lymphatic system became involuted, and the development of gastrointestinal ulcers. Hans attributed the changes he observed to the new sex hormone in the extracts. However, further research found that all toxic substances, even extracts from the spleen, kidney, and a toxic derivative from the skin tissue, when injected into the rat, produced the same syndrome. The three changes described above are signs of damage and occur when the body is under attack. They became the indicators of stress for Dr. Selye and are the basis for the development of his entire stress concept (Selye, 1976).

Originally Selye used the term stress to name the noxious agents that caused the non-specific reaction. After further research, Selye discovered that his findings were universal signs of damage in the body, and he began to see “disease and health in terms of successful or unsuccessful adaptation by an organic system in response to its environment” (Viner, 1999). In 1936 he gave the name General Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S.), or biological stress syndrome, to the process by which stressors influence the body, or produce the physiological response. The three stages of G.A.S. include 1) alarm reaction, 2) stage of resistance, and 3) stage of exhaustion. G.A.S. was also the first indication that the body’s adaptability is finite. The length of the resistance stage depends on the body’s ability to adapt and the intensity of the stressor. Some stressors can only be withstood for so long (Selye, 1974). Stress is the nonspecific response, independent of the cause, of the body to any demand made upon it.

An example to illustrate Selye’s concept of stress is the business man who is under pressure to please his clients and employees, and the athlete who desperately wants to win a race. Both situations have different stressors, but elicit the exact same biological response.

There were other scientists, such as George Draper, who also saw illness as “the expression of a conflict between a given external or environmental agent and a given human being” (Viner, 1999). It was Selye who first laid claim to finding any physiological reaction that was the same for all organisms experiencing an environmental agent.

Physiologists did not accept Selye’s findings in the beginning, so Hans recruited others as allies. These included the military, industry, psychosomatic physicians, and the general public. Each had different reasons for becoming an ally with Selye based on their pre-existing ideologies. The military was interested because of their problem with battle stress, the psychosomatic physicians were interested in the relations of mind and body, industry looked at their capitalist and social relations, and the general public was looking for an explanation for the troubles of life. All of these allies together forced the scientific community to reassess Stress in the 1970’s. The non-specificity of the Stress theory was the enabling factor that allowed Selye to connect with so many different areas of society. In 1982 Selye died, leaving many questions and agencies to continue his work.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Looking at the description Selye gave of stress, how does it compare to the definitions we use today for the term stress?

2. There were so many different areas of society interested in Selye’s theory of stress. What kind of definitions do you think each individual area used for stress?

3. If Selye’s theory of stress was so popular among other areas of society why was his theory of stress rejected by Physiologists in the beginning?

References:

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume4/222-223.htm

http://www.stressdoctor.com/selye.htm

http://www.healthnewsnet.com/gap.html

Selye, Hans. (1974). Stress without distress. United States of America: McClelland and Steward

Ltd.

Selye, Hans. (1976). Stress in Health and Disease. Boston: Butterworths Inc.

Viner, Russell. (1999). Putting Stress in Life: Hans Selye and the making of the Stress Theory.

Social Studies of Science, 29 (3), 391-410.

Curriculum Fit: Bio 30, Unit 1, Concept 2 in both the knowledge and skills area.