Hans Selye is known worldwide as the creator of the theory of stress. His books are still very popular. They are referenced by many reputable scientists and popular magazines. We offer you to trace the life path of this outstanding researcher.
Hans Parents
Hans Selye was born in Vienna on January 26, 1907. His father was a Hungarian military doctor who had his own private surgical clinic in Komarno (Slovakia). In childhood, our hero was harassed by his mother, an educated and rather eccentric woman. Maria Felichita (that was her name) forced her son to speak four languages with her family. He easily learned German and Hungarian. The first was native to the mother, and the second to the father. Governesses were hired to teach English and French.
Language learning
The future professor Selje, of course, had no doubt that his mother, from the best of intentions, had examined her son in French grammar in the morning. However, these classes led to the fact that during his life, Hans could not figure out which of the four languages to consider his native. Sometimes in the morning he was very stressed, because he could not immediately understand which one should be spoken. By the way, he was able to experience stress only after he described it. And before that (probably out of ignorance), Hans managed to get married twice.
Two wives of Hans Selye
His first wife was the daughter of a coal tycoon. Apparently, she also experienced the discomfort discovered by Hans, as her husband often disappeared in the laboratories of the university. Because of this, she was always dissatisfied with Hans Selye. After they had a baby, the wife filed for divorce. She even managed to achieve the abolition of the father's name for her daughter Katherine. Because of this, Hans was very worried. He never managed to cope with the disease, the reason for which was that his daughter avoided him in every possible way. But Katherine for some reason did not inherit the illness of her father. She traveled a lot around the world and sent smug letters from various corners of the planet.
Gabrielle, the second wife of the scientist, gave birth to four children. However, in this case, the need to educate all of them brought Selye to a state of horror. After 28 years of living with his wife and, of course, continuous stress, Hans decided to part with her.
Other sources of stress
In addition, other sources of tension took possession of Hans Selye. For example, he could not accurately determine his nationality. Hans spent his childhood and youth in the town of Komarno, located in Austria-Hungary. After the collapse of the state, this town ended up in Czechoslovakia. Selye issued a passport of this particular country. Given the linguistic confusion that was in Hans’s head, it’s easy to imagine how powerful this stress was for him. However, the most terrible thing for our hero was, perhaps, that all his life he could not find a place where he could live and work quietly.
Period of study
Hans Selye entered the University of Prague, the Faculty of Medicine, where he studied since 1924. However, in the clinic of the university there were no conditions to carry out research on how the body responds to various infections. Namely, the student was interested in this area of medicine at that time. After 2 years, Hans decided to transfer to the University of Paris. There were necessary conditions for work, but the scientist did not have a relationship with local professors - he had to return to Prague.
Teaching activities
Hans Selye in 1931 finally received a medical degree. He became a doctor of chemical sciences. In addition, Hans received a Rockefeller scholarship. Now he could conduct his research in the best educational institutions in the United States and not worry about money. Selye went to teach at the University of Baltimore. Here he developed good relations with students and colleagues. Nevertheless, the doctor was unable to cope with the cultural shock .
Later, the professor recalled that he was most annoyed by the parties that the wives of professors arranged for "poor foreign students." Hans could not get rid of the invitations to these events, as well as the stress that they caused. After 3 years, he began to work at the University of Montreal.
It would seem that there were all the conditions for such a nervous professor, including his own laboratory. However, Cellier again experienced irritability and anxiety, which seemed unreasonable. During insomnia, he went over his past and tried to understand, because of which his acquaintances, who were in circumstances similar to him, behaved calmly, and Hans constantly panic. Selye decided to figure it out on a chemical level. After 5 years, the outstanding scientist Hans Selye found the first evidence of the theory of stress.
Stress - discovery of G. Selye
In 1936, the scientist published the first article on the phenomenon of interest to him. In scientific circles, the invention made by Hans Selye was accepted with a bang. Apparently, there were other researchers who were trying to explain the sensations that they sometimes had to experience. But no one dared to give them so much attention, not to mention monitoring at the hormonal level the consequences of all kinds of life troubles. It was Hans Selye who first saw the connection between a sense of anxiety and what is happening at this moment in the human body. As you already know, he was fluent in English, so choosing the necessary definition of stress (translated from this language as “stress”) was not difficult for him. This word made Hans famous throughout the world.
Rat experiments
The experiments that were conducted by Hans Selye at the University of Montreal, were set by him not only above himself, but also above rats. He created difficult living conditions. Unbeknownst to themselves, these animals provided the person with undeniable evidence that stress really exists. At that time, adrenaline was produced in the blood of rats - the "stress hormone" (as he was called by Selye Hans). The scientist suggested that the following main factors affect the strength of experiences - life experience, emotional stability of a particular person, as well as heredity, that is, how the ancestors of a person behaved in difficult situations.
Further experiments made by Selye Hans proved that stress is the cause of many diseases, such as arthritis, asthma, and heart disease. It is accompanied by the release of hormones in large quantities, in particular adrenaline. To these and other interesting conclusions came Hans Selye. The stress of life, however, he continued to experience on himself very often.
Hans's new wife
The scientific recognition that the scientist received compensated him for his unsuccessful personal life. However, now a woman reappeared in his life. Louise made Hans feel difficult. Selye even pleased this, because it was confirmation that stress can cause not only negative, but also positive emotions. Louise again made the professor feel like a failure. She kept asking the question: did the stress inventor manage to overcome it himself? This woman even made the scientist doubt his discovery. The stress theory of Hans Selye seemed to have nothing to do with Louise. For example, she could have breakfast calmly for 3-4 hours in a row or for a long time without money. Household troubles practically did not excite her. The scientist even began to think: "Maybe the rats deceived me?"
Louise was a capable woman. She graduated brilliantly from the University of Sorbonne (Faculty of Medicine), however, she refused her scientific career without the slightest hesitation, since she did not accept a three-month vacation in the summer. However, she happily became the personal secretary of Cellier at his request. Louise loved order, but could feel comfortable even where cleaning was rarely done.
The most paradoxical thing was that her calmness spread to Hans Selye too. He was so comfortable next to her that he forgot about stress. 3 years after meeting Hans Selye decided to marry a woman who had such a beneficial effect on him.
Opening of the Stress Institute
In 1950, our hero opened his institute, of course, stress. However, now he was interested in how to deal with it, and not the reaction of the body to external influences. Hans believed that his wife would help him find the answer to this important question. However, Louise preferred to ride a bicycle or the old Toyota with Hans. Lounging in an armchair, legs on the coffee table, she laughed at the scientist, saying that this is probably the best position for relieving stress.
Hans Selye: books and basic concepts
While Hans and Louise were sunbathing on the roof of the Institute for Stress created by him, his books were translated into 17 different languages. Selye is the author of more than 1700 scientific articles. In addition, he has written 39 books on the nature of stress. Hans Selye's favorite brainchild was Stress Without Distress. This book is still very popular. You are probably curious to know what kind of mysterious concept Hans Selye ("distress") introduced in this work . This is stress that harms the body (as opposed to beneficial eustress). It is caused by prolonged and severe effects. Eustress is caused by the effects of moderate force. It is even necessary to maintain health, as it strengthens and trains the adaptive systems of the human body.
Among other books, “Essays on the General Adaptation Syndrome”, “From Dream to Discovery,” “At the Whole Body Level,” and others stand out. You are probably also interested in another term that Hans Selye used in the title of one of his books (“General Adaptation syndrome"). This is a diagram of the physiological response of our body to stressful situations. It is divided into the following 3 phases: anxiety, counteraction and exhaustion. When stress is prolonged or intense, the body experiences a lot of stress. The symptoms characteristic of the first phase reappear. The human body can no longer cope with them, and one or another physical disorder develops (for example, a stomach ulcer). This is how Hans Selye's adaptation syndrome manifests itself. Thus, stress can cause serious illness. Hans Selye wrote a lot about this. Atherosclerosis, for example, was one of the subjects of his research. Hans Selye proposed his neurogenic (stress) model.
Did Hans manage to find a cure for stress?
The scientist died in 1982. After his death, the theory of Hans Selye was further developed. The results of his research were cited in countless popular journals, as well as in 362 thousand scientific articles. But Hans still failed to find a cure for stress. Is it any wonder, because our life is one continuous stress.