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Every form of ill‐health, physiological and psychological, can (probably) be defined in terms of disturbances in one or another category of homeostasis or one or another category of homeorhesis, of a kind that temporarily or permanently impairs capacity for survival to some degree.

For example, physiological ill‐health can be defined:

either

1 as a disturbance in morphological or physiological homeostasis that temporarily or permanently impairs capacity for survival,

or

1 as a disturbance in morphological or physiological homeorhesis that temporarily or permanently impairs capacity for survival.

An example of (i) is measles. In the short run it can cause disturbances of various forms of physiological homeostasis. In the longer term the organism may become either better adapted (e.g. immune) or less well‐adapted (e.g. brain damaged), or both. In either case there is a permanent shift of developmental pathway.

An example of (ii) is rickets which causes disturbances of morphological homeorhesis in an unfavourable direction.

Not infrequently the acute phase of illness represents a disturbance of homeostasis, and the persistent sequelae a disturbance of homeorhesis. Rickets is one example. Another is a badly mended fracture that leads to disturbances of growth in other parts of the body.

So long as a disturbance of any of these kinds lasts, it is likely to be experienced as painful or uncomfortable, and as handicap.

It seems probable that all forms of psychological ill‐health can be defined in terms analogous to those applied to physiological ill‐health but with reference to personal‐environmental and representational homeostasis and homeorhesis.

For example the distress of separation or bereavement can be viewed as due to a disturbance of personal environmental homeostasis; delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder as constituting disturbances of representational homeostasis. Depression is usually associated especially with disturbance in representation of self.

The more chronic conditions can be viewed as disturbances of homeorhesis. Thus, phobias, addictions and sexual anomalies constitute disturbances in personal‐environmental homeorhesis. The same is true of psychopathic personality. Thought disorder constitutes a disturbance in representational homeorhesis.

Other forms of psychological ill‐health can be defined in a contrary way, namely, in terms of representational homeostasis that has been so rigid that necessary revision or working models of environment or of self are blocked. Examples are the various pathological variants of responses to loss.

It is not the purpose of this essay, however, to pursue matters of ill‐health further.