The dangers of this dialectical process are, on the one hand, extending
oneself in such a way that self-identity is reduced or destroyed, and on
the other hand, experiencing various degrees of inability to extend and
alter oneself. Thus tension exists in facing possible threats to self-identity
(and to one’s health, physical and/or psychological) in the course of seek-
ing to realize one’s identity.
Nietzsche’s point that what is healthy depends on a particular
person’s nature^86 is echoed in Ingmar Pörn’s “Equilibrium Model of
Health,” which presupposes self-identity as a determinant of health. By
‘equilibrium’ Pörn means the balance of an individual’s capacities and
goals. To determine the criteria for a person’s health, Pörn says, requires
choosing among interpretations of “functioning well,” for instance, func-
tioning as one’s cohorts do, to meet one’s basic needs, or to satisfy one’s
aspirations. Pörn selects the third interpretation, and defines health as
follows:
Health is the state of a person which obtains when his repertoire [of
abilities] is adequate relative to his profile of goals. A person who is
healthy in this sense carries with him the intrapersonal resources that
are sufficient for what his goals require of him.^87Health, in Pörns’s view, depends on the mutual fitness of a person’s pro-
file of goals and his repertoire of abilities. Illness, then, is the state where
the repertoire is inadequate to the person’s goal profile. Impairments, in-
juries, and diseases are characterized in Pörn’s model as states, changes,
and processes,respectively, which are abnormal due to their tendencies to
restrict repertoires of desired action. On this basis, one is ill only if one’s
repertoire is restricted relative to one’s own goals. Pörn sees health in re-
lation to a person’s ability to do the things that the person holds as goals.
If goals are taken to represent steps in the evolution of a person’s nature,
then working toward goals is a means of articulating one’s self-identity.
To be healthy is to conduct and cultivate oneself in accord with the truth
of one’s Self-nature.
Identityis the link between medical and religious therapeutics as an-
alyzed by Halbfass. Regarding a verse in the Caraka-samhitÓ ̄a concerning
the fourfold medical paradigm—cause, diagnosis, cure, and prevention
of disease—[CS 1:9.19], Halbfass observes that the verse:
... does not mention “health” as such; instead it refers to the “nonre-
currence of diseases” (roga ̄Ónam apunarbhava ̄ Óh). While this is a negative
manner of expression and presentation, it also contains a remarkable
absolutist claim. It is obviously reminiscent of the claims and ideas of
76 religious therapeutics