well as
the present points of view on this subject in
relation to the problems possibly resulted or the
treatment policy today practiced.
Key words: self knowledge, psychosomatic
diseases, holistic health, relaxation techniques,
history.


INTRODUCTION
he two main distinguished aspects of our
personal conception about the world is the
knowledge about our selves and the
knowledge of those surrounding us. Among the
qualities we possess, that of the self-image is the
one which gives us in a unique way the so-called
human nature. Only man among all the other living
beings settles himself as a subject of observation,
searches and creates an image of how he really
is
1
. In ancient Delphi the phrase Know yourself
was carved in Apollos oracle. Since then Western
Culture considers self-knowledge as the brightest
jewel of the human strive for perfection
2
. Socrates
claimed that virtue is knowledge and that in every
situation the first and most important knowledge
is that of the cause, what a person starts to
create. If we may talk about ideal virtue then there
should be a goal that the whole humanity must
accomplish and if we are called to gain that virtue
then we must discover the human role. Socrates
accepting the Delphic motto Know yourself and
by setting it as the philosophers and every
persons first duty he seems to believe that the
self is a complicated, undiscovered area
1
.

Since ancient times the combination of body and
soul and their interaction in an illness was intense.
Aristotle in his work About Soul A mentions that:
It seems that the soul passions are connected to
a body. Courage, gentleness, fear, pity, happiness,
boldness even love and hate. Because when those
feelings appear the body suffers in some way too.
Passions are forms that become true through
material
3
.

In fact, today psychological factors are involved in
creating or curing many corporal diseases. It was
not long ago since that scientific discovery was
made while Chinese medicine was based in that
belief 3.000 years ago
4
.

A chronic psychological problem through the
neurovegetative system causes in some organs a
disorder. So as psychosomatic diseases can be
considered those which express through the
neurovegetative system a chronic psychological
problem
5
. Diseases that can be named as
psychosomatic are: ulcer, neurogenous
hypertension, bronchial asthma, ulcerous colitis,
migraine, hyperthyroidism etc
6
.

The image we create about ourselves seems to
affect the data elaboration and our motives for
action and so it is capable of directing and defines
our future behavior. That image is considered as
the main element of our personality and consist
the fundamental factor for our psychological
balance
1
. It is that which defines our attitude
towards issues about our corporal and psychical
health as it can become willingly or unwillingly a
norm that indicates the possibility of disease in a
long term.

James supported that every man has so many
social selves as the social groups that recognize
him and have an opinion about him. The social self
has an obvious connection to recognition by
friends and other people of our environment. He
pointed out the fact that an individual shows a
different side of himself in each person of a social
group; a fact that has as a result the social multi-
T

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self which often is contradictive
1
and possibly this
fight among the social individuals selves can trap
him in an endless inner fight and put him out of
balance.

Statistics about psychological health constantly
show an increase in the number of patients. There
are today about 300.000 patients in 324 state
psychiatric institutes in the U.S.A. while over
200.000 individuals are treated in clinics. About
125.000 chronic depressive patients are in a
desperate need of cure. It is believed that one out
of seven Americans will need some psychological
treatment before their middle age. There are over
1.200.000 emotionally disturbed children and
teenagers between 5 and 19 years old. It is a
terrifying fact that the increasing number of
suicides is referring to the teenagers group
7
.

The communicational and sexual problems, the
corporal symptoms and the inability of expressing
our feelings will possibly lead to a rising fear of
knowing ourselves because self-knowledge will rise
the others expectations and it will not permit us
to stay in the safety of our current situation. Finally
it will lead us to higher responsibility because it
becomes impossible to escape by using the
excuse of ignorance or innocence
1
.


ABOUT SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Self- knowledge is the exact knowledge of the
corporal and ethical- spiritual abilities and
weaknesses of ones self
8
. The reasonable side of
self- knowledge is self perception which is believed
to represent the sentimental view and points out
how much a person accepts and approves of
himself
1
. Coopersmith (1967) defined self-
perception as the personal estimation of ones
self- value which is expressed by the attitude we
show to ourselves. Self-perception is related to the
question posed upon an individuals psychological
identity while self- esteem is related to the
emotional coating. The relationship between self-
perception and self- esteem has been described
by Wells and Marwell (1976): If we take under
consideration that self-perception is a whole of
attitudes towards ourselves, self- esteem could be
defined as the pleat of each of those attitudes or
the whole of these values
1
. A person in his growth
procedure seeks his ideal self.

Freud and Horney are referring to this ideal self by
pointing out the fact that when this becomes the
centre of ones attention the result is neurosis
1
.
The satisfactory agreement between the two
parts of ones self, self-perception and the ideal
self is important when personal happiness and
satisfaction in life are questioned.
The great difference between reality and the ideal
self- image causes stress and this is the main
characteristic of neurotic individuals
1
. Self-
perception is more quickly accomplished through
self observation and objective self control. It needs
virtue and constant exercise to be maintained
8
and
it presupposes self- knowledge according to the
Delphic motto Know yourself:
1
. The realization of
ignorance is the first step in actually gaining
knowledge because nobody seeks knowledge if he
has the self delusion that he has already obtained
it
1
. Socrates in his teaching first introduced the
principles of self- dominion, self- sufficiency,
stability and stable- character as the base for
virtue
9
.

According to Socrates God does not philosophize
because he is the keeper of knowledge. The man
philosophizes because his existence is worn out
and poor. The philosophic principle is the
consciousness of the human deficiency
9
. Through
self- observation man can develop his self-
knowledge. Self knowledge consequently presup-
poses the internal dialogue (Meichenbaum 1979
), an inner dialogue with ourselves. Meichen-
baums main point of view is the following: Due to
the fact that man has the capacity of keeping a
distance from himself so that he can watch
himself, as actually being another person, it is
possible to take a critical view on his own
thoughts, his feelings and his actions. We humans
spend a considerable time of our lives by
observing our thoughts, wishes and feelings and
we often experience internal contradictions trying
to find solutions. This inner dialogue affects the
course of thought and our behavior
10
.

HEALTH
By the term health we define the corporal,
physical, mental, ethical and social human balance.
According to W.H.O.(World Health Organization)
11

health is the situation of total physic, spiritual and
social well- being, not only the absence of a
disease or disability (1980). This term has been
criticized in many ways due to his utopic character
and the impossibility of counting the level of health
as in that way any deviation sets the person in an

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inferior situation
12
. Despite the existence of this
term the medical community in its majority still
thinks that health is the absence of an illness while
social scientists have a different approach and
especially when the meaning of the word
prosperity is involved
13
. In general, health is a
complicated phenomenon which is affected by a
lot of factors the majority of which are connected
with biology, behavior and environment
13
. We
consider that man functions in three basic levels:
corporal, emotional or psychic and the spiritual or
mental level which is the deepest. A correct
definition of the term health should include all
three levels
14
: Corporal health. The individual feels
healthy in his body when he is free of pain and
feels corporal prosperity. In contrast, an illness is
expressed either as a pain or as a weakness
which tends to restrain an individual
14
. Corporal
health can