On the last flight readings of the Institute of Humanitarian Historical and Theoretical Studies, participants discussed the interaction of sciences about nature and sciences about a person. Why did humanities become interested in natural sciences and what contribution they can make in their study, says Professor HSE Elena Vishangenkova.
Why humanities study medicine
On the last flight readings of the Institute of Humanitarian Historical and Theoretical Studies, participants discussed the interaction of sciences about nature and sciences about a person. Why did humanities become interested in natural sciences and what contribution they can make in their study, says Professor HSE Elena Vishangenkova.
Why natural sciences
The interaction of humanities with non-humanitarian sciences is a common "umbrella" for researching our institute in recent years. It allows you to track the state of research space in Russia and the world, since today it is a very popular direction. But since everything in one conference does not drive, we divided this umbrella topic to segments. Last year, focused on dialogue with "accurate" and "natural" sciences. In the following – it will be about scientific revolutions. And in 2016, we focused on medicine.
Medicine as a science of man is very close to the socio-humanitarian sphere, we have one object of research – a person. But at the same time, we traditionally enjoyed methods close to art and culture, and they are methods of natural and accurate sciences. But today, science is so arranged that we cannot deal with social or cultural history in its pure form, we can no longer be exclusively historians or exclusive sociologists. At the method level, such a weft occurs that there is no longer possible to talk about disciplinary and even interdisciplinary: for each object, the scientist collects his own method and its theory from the set taken from various disciplines. We create a toolkit that is suitable for a specific object. And, of course, a dialogue with specialists in the history of medicine and natural sciences is necessary for such work.
Sixth flight readings. Deputy Director of Igiti Elena Vishangenkova and director of Igiti Irina Savelyev.
Medicalization and pathological slope of modern culture
Modern culture is extremely medicated. Without special education, we read esoteric medical texts, check the recommendations of doctors on the instructions for drugs, we carry out our states with descriptions on the Internet, intensively monitor the discoveries of pharmacologists and genetics, we assimilate the professional vocabulary, and then we use it in the spheres of social relations.People operate with specific medical concepts, defining them the world around themselves.
We are accustomed to hearing about bipolar disorder, depressions, hysteries, seizures. It seems that mental and mental illnesses from the hidden turned into trendy. There was a demand for panic attacks, on neurodermatitis and even diabetes. Specialists talk about the pathological binding of modern culture, building identity on painful features.
Some complain about degenerate youth, others – about the cruelty of the world of healthy people
And this sharply changes the behavioral models and generation relations. Unlike the digital generation of young people, their parents and the progenitors brought up on Soviet ideals who cultivated sports and militarized bodies in which "Healthy Spirit" was kept. It seems that today we live in the paradoxical situation of multidirectional installations and contradictory ideas about the norm. Some complain about degenerate youth, others about the cruelty of the world of healthy people. In response to discrimination against persons with disabilities and extremes, anti-bisps arose. Yes, and about biovista (that is, the ways to suppress and coercion through bodily practices) are no longer only philosophers.
Changes are not only society, but also medicine. It is governed by new cultural norms and social agreements. For example, slowly, but still breaks the familiar style of communication of doctors and patients. Sociologists and anthropologists have made a lot of effort to show the suppression, coercion and dominance through a medical language, its terms, and latin-speaking recipes, the atmosphere of therapeutic institutions.
Thus, medical problems are firmly included in the circle of socio-humanitarian sciences, and in turn – their research is reflected on the activities of practitioners.
Specificity of historical medicine view
Medicine is an experienced science and therefore closely related to history. Its development went through observations and the creation of small "stories". For example, Russian Lekari have taken the history of disease written by them ("sorrowful sheets"). Participant of flight readings – Elena Berger – once published an interesting article about the stories of disease. They contained not only the descriptions of bodily illnesses, but also family stories, testimonies of social conflicts, details of everyday life, ethnic and religious rituals. The doctor's reputation was the higher, the more such stories were in his personal archive. Experienced doctors visited these texts to medical schools and hospitals. Based on their analysis, a generalization was made and science was developed.
Not only humanities drift towards accurate and natural sciences, but representatives of the latter actively seize the arsenal of sociology, philology and history
Doctors have always created a "big history" of medicine. It was a way to comprehend the dead-end branches of its development.People operate with specific medical concepts, defining them the world around themselves.
We are accustomed to hearing about bipolar disorder, depressions, hysteries, seizures. It seems that mental and mental illnesses from the hidden turned into trendy. There was a demand for panic attacks, on neurodermatitis and even diabetes. Specialists talk about the pathological binding of modern culture, building identity on painful features.
Some complain about degenerate youth, others – about the cruelty of the world of healthy people
And this sharply changes the behavioral models and generation relations. Unlike the digital generation of young people, their parents and the progenitors brought up on Soviet ideals who cultivated sports and militarized bodies in which "Healthy Spirit" was kept. It seems that today we live in the paradoxical situation of multidirectional installations and contradictory ideas about the norm. Some complain about degenerate youth, others about the cruelty of the world of healthy people. In response to discrimination against persons with disabilities and extremes, anti-bisps arose. Yes, and about biovista (that is, the ways to suppress and coercion through bodily practices) are no longer only philosophers.
Changes are not only society, but also medicine. It is governed by new cultural norms and social agreements. For example, slowly, but still breaks the familiar style of communication of doctors and patients. Sociologists and anthropologists have made a lot of effort to show the suppression, coercion and dominance through a medical language, its terms, and latin-speaking recipes, the atmosphere of therapeutic institutions.
Thus, medical problems are firmly included in the circle of socio-humanitarian sciences, and in turn – their research is reflected on the activities of practitioners.
Specificity of historical medicine view
Medicine is an experienced science and therefore closely related to history. Its development went through observations and the creation of small "stories". For example, Russian Lekari have taken the history of disease written by them ("sorrowful sheets"). Participant of flight readings – Elena Berger – once published an interesting article about the stories of disease. They contained not only the descriptions of bodily illnesses, but also family stories, testimonies of social conflicts, details of everyday life, ethnic and religious rituals. The doctor's reputation was the higher, the more such stories were in his personal archive. Experienced doctors visited these texts to medical schools and hospitals. Based on their analysis, a generalization was made and science was developed.
Not only humanities drift towards accurate and natural sciences, but representatives of the latter actively seize the arsenal of sociology, philology and history
Doctors have always created a "big history" of medicine. It was a way to comprehend the dead-end branches of its development.Сегодня история медицины является влиятельной дисциплиной. Долгое время она существовала в форме героического рассказа о великих лекарях и их открытиях. В этом же виде история медицины еще недавно преподавалась первокурсникам врачебных факультетов, дабы преисполнить их гордостью за профессию.
But now the situation is changing. Не только гуманитарии дрейфуют в сторону точных и естественных наук, но представители последних активно овладевают арсеналом социологии, филологии и истории.
На мой взгляд, сегодня единственное заметное отличие не-медицинских историков медицины состоит в поставленных вопросах и более широких контекстах. Когда мы изучаем врачебное сословие, то нас интересует не только внутреннее развитие этой группы, но и участие в преобразованиях страны, то есть обретенная медиками способность быть экспертами — например, оценивать деятельность чиновников и целых институций сохранять здоровье жителей, добиваться изменений в законодательстве.
Последователи культурной истории изучают меняющиеся представления о здоровье и болезнях (в том числе «благородных», таких как подагра, и «постыдных», таких как венерические заболевания или эпилепсия). Также как медики, историки изучают способы диагностики и лечения, санитарные нормы разных эпох, но редко делают из своих наблюдений рассказ о научном прогрессе. Как правило, гуманитариям более интересна низовая медицинская культура, народные способы лечения, качество жизни обывателей.