Is there a difference between psychical and physical

[Q. C. Locatus Barbatus]

Salvete!

What I would like to hear from our other philosophers here: is there a difference between psychical and physical? e.g. a 'psychical' disease. Isn't is physical too? Is the difference between psichical and physical just a matter of classification or is there a difference in real life too?


Valete,

Locatus

[Quintus Pomponius Atticus]

Salve Locate,

In my opinion, a strict distinction between the two is completely outdated. On the one hand physical damage to the brain, e.g. after an accident, can result in the loss or degradation of certain psychical faculties (e.g. speech), while on the other hand "psychical" illnesses such as depression are known to have serious effects on our "physical" constitution, e.g. stomach cramps, insomnia etc. Even being nervous about something already makes your blood pressure go up considerably and I think that's just the proverbial top of the iceberg : in the next few decades, I expect many more links between the physical and the psychical constitution to be found, hopefully resulting in a better, more holistic treatment. In fact, looking at it from that way, modern medical science is in a sense reverting to Hippocrates old intuition that our organism must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts.

Vale !

Atticus