Hans Selye

Hans Selye (Selye Jnos, 1907 - 1982), was a Canadian endocrinologist of Austrian-Hungarian origin. His mother was Austrian; his father was Hungarian. He did much important theoretical work on the non-specific response of the organism to stress. While he did not recognize all of the many aspects of glucocorticoids, Selye was aware of their role in this response. Some commentators considered him the first to demonstrate the existence of a separate stress disease, the stress syndrome, or General adaptation syndrome. To grossly oversimplify to the point of circular argument, Selye discovered and documented that stress differs from other physical responses in that stress is stressful whether the one receives good or bad news, whether the impulse is positive or negative. He called negative stress distress and positive stress eustress.