On the significance of Galen���s concept of Hegemonikon

Galen has produced an unprecedented description of the structures and the physiology underlying psychic phenomena both in terms of volume as in terms of empirical and conceptual precision. In his medical work the cultivated physician from Pergamum tried to expose the influence that bodily constitution and its mixtures -highly dependent on the influence of “external” elements on the living organism such as diet and climate- have on psychic activities and functions. This influence is particularly conspicuous in mental illnesses and can disturb or impair normal activities and functions such as coordination of sensory data; memory cognitive and social abilities whose cause and development in the organism can be clearly diagnosed. The path of disease comes to affect the commanding part of the soul [Hegemonikon] that the physician takes as the coordinating centre of appetites desires and thoughts. There is however a complex set of dysfunctions which aren’t necessarily pathological that Galen appreciates outside this strict framework inheriting and revaluating the stoic tradition which equates passions with diseases of the soul.