John Wayne Mason

John Wayne Mason
Born (1924-02-09)February 9, 1924
Chicago, Illinois
Died March 4, 2014(2014-03-04) (aged 90)
Chicago, Illinois
Nationality US
Fields Physiology, psychoendocrinology, neuropsychiatry
Institutions Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, West Haven VA Medical Center, Yale University School of Medicine
Alma mater Indiana University
Known for Integrative psychoendocrinology
Notable awards

Nomination for Rockefeller Award (1973), Medal of the Pavlovian Society (1985),

President’s Award, American Psychosomatic Society (2000)
Spouse Joyce Ann Towne

John Wayne Mason, M.D. (1924–2014) was an American physiologist[1] and researcher who specialized in the interplay between human emotions and the endocrine system.[2] Mason is regarded as an international leader and theoretician in the field of stress research,[3] where he was one of the field's most prominent voices speaking out against the reigning model of stress promoted by Hans Selye.[4][5]

Challenging the Stress Concept

Hans Selye's original concept of stress as a biological process has had an enormously stimulating effect on many areas of medicine and biology over the past seventy years, and continues to shape how people understand stress today.[6] While many researchers have taken Selye's experiments and interpretations at face value, Mason noticed that Selye repeatedly referred to emotional factors in these experiments as “mere nervous stimuli,"[7] downplaying the role of the mind. Yet Walter Cannon’s prior work with animals, and Mason’s own experiments at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) with both animals and human subjects, suggested that these “mere” stimuli were actually highly significant, and that the psychological and emotional state of the subjects under study required more careful attention.

Over the course of his career at WRAIR, the West Haven VA Medical Center, and Yale University, Mason repeatedly challenged Selye to recognize the many flaws in his biological theory and to accept the importance of psychological factors in stress and disease. Mason and Selye's exchange of arguments and rebuttals in the Journal of Human Stress, [8] received popular press both at the time[6] and more recently[9][10][11] as a crucial turning point in the history of stress as a concept, and as the beginning of experimentally-validated integrative medicine.[12]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. John W. Mason Stress Research Pioneer, dies at 90". The Washington Post. 11 May 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Flaherty, Neva (Nov 10, 1972). "Doctor Links Stress to Illness". The Times-Union.
  3. ↑ Office of the Secretary (July 15 – August 26, 1991). "Emeritus Faculty". Yale Weekly Bulletin & Calendar. New Haven: Yale University. 19 (37): 4.
  4. ↑ Cooper, Cary L. (2004). Stress: A Brief History. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 28–31. ISBN 978-1405107440.
  5. ↑ Sapolsky, Robert M. (2004). Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Holt. p. 253. ISBN 978-0805073690.
  6. 1 2 Trotter, Robert J, (May 31, 1975). "Stress: Confusion over Causes Psychological or Physical". Science News. 107 (22): 356–359. doi:10.2307/3959836.
  7. ↑ Selye, Hans (1950). The Physiology and Pathology of Exposure to Stress. Montreal, Canada: Acta, Inc. p. 1045.
  8. ↑ Selye, Hans (1975). "Confusion and Controversy in the Stress Field". Journal of Human Stress. 1 (2): 37–44. PMID 1235113. doi:10.1080/0097840X.1975.9940406.
  9. ↑ Lazarus, R.S. (1993). "From Psychological Stress to the Emotions". Annual Review of Psychology. 44: 1–21. PMID 8434890. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.000245.
  10. ↑ Bernstein, Andrew (2010). The Myth of Stress. Free Press. ISBN 978-1439159453.
  11. ↑ Long, Tulley. "The Invention of Stress: The Fight over the Concept of Stress in Postwar America". Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Weiner, Herbert (1995). Toward an Integrative Medicine: Classics from Psychosomatic Medicine, 1959-1979. American Psychiatric Press.
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