"Mark Tindall" <> wrote in message news:<>...

A matter of the whole person? How many parts are there to a whole person?

It depends on which theory you follow.

The Jews believed in two substances (spirit and flesh) which united made a living soul (whole person)

The "tripartite being" (three distinct parts of spirit, soul and body)

is a recent invention unknown to the early Christians.

Others believed that we were made up of earth, fire, wind and water which led to the four "humours" (where Tim LaHaye gets his temperaments from).

Jung speaks about quaternities (groups of four) and calls the whole self (conscious and unconcscious) the psyche.

I think there are essentially two parts - the seen (flesh / body) and the unseen (mind / spirit / soul / psyche) which interact in a way which is still not clear to anyone (including doctors).