The concept considered in health psychology and psychosomatics is often defined as the inclusion of a disease, as a significant event in life, in the complex hierarchical system of the mental sphere of a person. In Soviet psychology, the following are distinguished: positive, negative, and ambivalent s.b. Positive meaning is acquired when the disease contributes to the realization of certain motives; A negative meaning arises when an illness prevents the realization of motives. A number of studies study the meanings that the patient puts into his disease: for example, illness as an opportunity, illness as an escape from problems, illness as punishment, illness as overcoming, etc.