[Holistic health and specific disease].

Health and disease are cardinal concepts in all medical activity. There are two main theories of the conceptual structure of medicine. The reductionist theory defines the concept of disease as deviation of bodily or mental functions, while the holistic theory tries to establish a positive concept of health. The reductionist theory claims to be essensialistic, descriptive and objective, while the holistic theories are supposed to be nominalistic, normative and subjective. A presentation of the theories show that both positions involve conceptual difficulties.