This article analyses the importance of the passions of the soul for the ideal of health, held by the Portuguese physician (Dr. Francisco da Fonseca Henriques) who was called in to treat King John V of Portugal. In his text entitled "Medicinal anchor to maintain life with health" (1721) he holds that passions are among the principal determinants for maintaining health. He also describes the passions as related to excess, to the absolute limits of the body, and to death.
Passions; health; medicine of the soul; psychopathology