CULTURAL STUDIES, MEDICINE AND RELIGION IN THE FIELD OF ANTHROPOLOGY: CONFLICT OR SYNTHESIS?
The paper examines changes in evaluation, diagnostics and therapy caused by the so called “сultural and humanistic turn” in medicine. This turn has interfered with the perception of both humanity scholars and their colleagues from the spheres of sciences and practice, such as medicine, changing it dynamically. The classical clinical approach is gradually giving way under the influence of cultural studies that impose a different semiotic attitude entailing a novel view of the disease patterns (sets of symptoms and syndromes). Cultural turn in medicine involves the study of lifeworld, the umwelt of a man, thus triggering changes in all elements of a classical medical triad of “prevention - diagnostics - treatment”. The very possibility to merge clinical and cultural components distinguishes human medicine from any other type of health care and rehabilitation activity, animal therapy for one.