‘If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out’ (Matt. Chap. V, v.29).

Patients who present to the general practitioner with eye pain are frightened that they may have a serious disease which might lead to loss of the eye, or vision or both. Yet most cases of eye pain remain medically unexplained and may be referred to as functional syndromes or somatoform disorders. This does not mean, however, that it is all in the mind. The so-called functional symptoms occur in the context of emotional arousal, and the contemporary way of understanding emotions recognises that they are both biological and psychological at the same time. In this theoretical framework most functional somatic symptoms can be explained by the physiological mechanisms that mediate emotional arousal.