Cancer and human behaviour

Abstract

The idea that an individual’s psychological state and environmental stimuli, both physical and social, significantly influence the development of cancer is not new. In fact, some followers of Hippocratic medicine suspected this possibility as far back as 2,000 years ago. However, it was in the 20th century, with the flow of innovative ideas in the scientific field, that this concept gained formal recognition, to the point of forming the basis of a new branch of scientific psychology: oncological psychology.