CHAPTER 5. SEMIOTICS OF BODY

5.1. Secondary meaning of intraceptive sensations

As we have tried to show, the generation of a separate specific somatic sensation cannot be derived from the present situation and, as a subjective phenomenon, goes far beyond a simple reflex act. Becoming a phenomenon of consciousness, the elementary sense includes a hidden categorical network, only in the cells of which it acquires its subjective existence. In this case, of course, it also accepts all the inconsistencies in the design of this network, which imposes fundamental restrictions on perception and serves as a source of specific errors. Despite the fact that this complication, at first glance, multiplies the number of possible distortions, this price must be paid for the birth of subjectivity, which allows one to free oneself from the unnecessary abundance of particular manifestations of reality, distinguishing universal principles in them, and dramatically increasing the adaptive capabilities of the individual.

However, in reality, the situation is even more complicated and the system of intraceptive meanings is not the only source of influence on the perception of bodily manifestations. The meaning of individual sensory qualities can occur not only at the level of perceptual universals, the latter themselves can serve as material for meaning.

Thus, physicality in the context of the disease has a special quality: painful sensations mean not only themselves, but also that, in principle, they are not affected - a disease. They are deployed not only inward, i.e. they represent not just sensory tissue, which has received the meaning in terms of the bodily space of internal organs, modalities, intensity gradations, etc., but also without the disease. Although the unfolding of bodily sensations outside does not always occur only in categories of illness, they can be interpreted in a different way (even pain can be assessed as a sign of special note, a special state, for example in religious rites), we will focus on the problem of the connection between bodily sensations and diseases. Such an assumption, without changing, in my opinion, the content of the situation, will allow us to consider it more clearly.

The secondary meaning is generally similar to what was usually described as the intellectual level of the internal picture of the disease, the evaluation stage of its formation and is well described in the patho psychology. The formation of a secondary designation of bodily sensations is associated with the assimilation of views on diseases that exist in culture, their causes, mechanisms, and the resulting treatment methods. Ethnography and the history of medicine demonstrate various forms of such representations. Despite their archaic nature, the lack of a logical substantiation in them, from a modern viewpoint, they are structurally little different from natural scientific explanatory principles typical of the modern European culture.

From a semiotic point of view, the concepts of diseases can be interpreted as classical myths described by R. Bar Tom on sign models (1989). Consider the semiotic approach in more detail.

Its use for the analysis of physicality is possible because the values ​​are studied in it, regardless of their content. In accordance with the tradition that goes from F. de Saussure, the sign is not reduced to the language system, navigation signals, gestures of politeness, ceremony, fashion, etc., are also semiotic systems, where the main principle is the relationship between the signified and the signifying. R. Barth specifically emphasizes that although it is usually said that the signifier expresses what is meant, in reality the situation is somewhat more complicated - in each semiotic system there are not two, but three different elements. These three elements, respectively, are the signifier, the signified and the proper sign, which is the result of the connection of the first two elements. The signifier becomes the sign of the signified, entering into the seven otic relationship with the latter. Some confusion of the problem lies in the fact that there is really (substantively) only one element - the signifier. However, by participating in the act of naming and becoming familiar, it acquires new meaningful functions.

For greater clarity, we turn to any of the examples of R. Barth. Take a simple dark stone. There are many ways to make it meaningful. One thing is significant - it is worth giving it a definite signified (for example, it would mean a death sentence by secret ballot), as a stone becomes not a mere stone, but a sign. In terms of analysis, three elements can be distinguished: a “pebbled-down” death stone can with good reason be decomposed into stone and death; both of these phenomena existed separately before uniting and forming a third object, the sign. The difficulty lies in the fact that this sign is essentially the same stone, but you cannot mix stone as a signifier and a stone as a sign: “the signifier itself is devoid of content, the sign is informative, it bears meaning” (Barth, 1989, .77). Transformation into a sign completely transforms the signified, but this transformation is carried out in the semiotic sphere, from the physico-chemical point of view nothing happens to the signified.

This formal scheme is universal and can be filled with various contents. In our case, it can describe the relationship between an individual sensory sensation (or sensory tissue) and a bodily construct. For example, in a certain way localized modal specific sensation means pain in the heart.

The most important thing is that the relation of the signifier and the signified can be transformed in a special way, giving rise to a secondary semiological system, named by R. Barth mythological. “In the myth we find the same three-element system ... But the myth is a special system and this feature consists in the fact that it is created on the basis of some sequence of signs that exists before it; the myth is a secondary semiological system. The sign ... of the first system becomes only signifying in the second system. ... Material carriers of the mythical message (the language itself, photo graphy, painting, advertising, rituals, any objects, etc.), no matter how different they may be in themselves, as soon as they become an integral part of the myth, are reduced to the function of denotation; all of them are only the source material for the construction of the myth; their unity lies in the fact that they are all endowed with the status of language means. Whether it is a sequence of letters or a drawing, for myth they represent

sign unity, global sign, final result, or the third element of the primary semiological system. This third element becomes the first, i.e. part of the system that the myth builds over the primary system. There is a kind of shift of the formal system of primary values ​​by one scale mark ” {Barth, 1989, p. 78).

Thus, in a myth, two semiotic systems coexist in parallel, one of which is partially built into the other. Firstly, it is a language system (or other means of representation) that plays the role of an object language, and secondly, the myth itself, which can be called a metalanguage and which the object-language arrives at. The myth is understood by R. Bart, not as a thing, a concept, or a specific idea, but as a universal method of secondary meaning. The substantial form of the myth does not matter at all, it is not the subject of the message itself that is important, but how it is communicated. Although later in connection with the criticism of his understanding of the myth from many semiotics R. Barth refused to reduce it only to the secondary semiotic system and interpret it as a metalanguage, nevertheless, in my opinion, this concept is well applicable to understanding the specifics of the secondary meaning playing in the structure of everyday consciousness, the principal role (Ulybina, 1998), and therefore, with certain reservations, we will adhere to the terminology of R. Barth in this text.

Analyzing the metalanguage, one can, in principle, not be very interested in the exact structure of the object language, in this case only its role in the construction of the myth is important. Therefore, it is right to use this approach to any object language (written text, verbal language, music, painting, or, in our case, physicality). It is important that it is a sign system, ready to build a myth. The essence of the myth is not determined by what it narrates, nor by its material carrier (see: Barth, 1989, p. 79).

Re-formulating the proposed model to the problem of physicality, one can modify the Bart scheme of the “mythological” as shown in Figure 2. Here the sign (the said bodily sensation), which is an association of sensory tissue and the bodily construct, becomes meaningful in the mythological scheme of disease and, turning outward, turns into symptom 1.

-1 It should be stipulated that this is not an objective symptom that cannot be reduced to subjective sensations for modern medicine, namely, a subjective phenomenon — a sensation that means illness and has become its sign, i.e. a symptom.

Consider a simple situation as an example: a patient coming to the doctor says that he has a stomach ache. This message is not as simple as it seems at first glance and, at least, ambiguous. First, the patient reports a certain sensation of a certain intensity and modality, more or less localized in his body. In addition, the fact of going to a doctor suggests that this feeling means not only itself — a painful sensation in a certain part of the body — as well as the fact that it is not a normal state, that it has a certain reason and must be affected. . A “sick stomach” is a message not only about the definition of a patient's feeling at a given time and place, but also a message that something is going on with a patient that goes beyond a known fact.

In different cultures and epochs, the volume and prevalence of the myths of the “disease” change significantly, but as soon as we go beyond the primary semiotic system, considering a specific body sensation as meaning something more general, we instantly fall into the sphere of myth. At the same time, the objective fidelity of the myth is not significant: the term “myth” does not fit any assessment in the semiological approach, characterizing only the method of communication between constructs of different levels. From this point of view, the scientific explanation itself is also a version of the myth ( Malinowski , 1926; Lotman, 1965; Meletinsky, 1976; Golosovker, 1987). The mythological structure is especially characteristic of everyday consciousness, and in emotionally significant areas, it is human nature to think more mythologically than rationally. In my opinion, psychology in general hypertrophies rational knowledge (in its pure form is actually observed only in special laboratory conditions or in specific scientific activity), without noticing that in ordinary life a person is a being far from rational. Inconsistency, combination of opposites, ambiguity, logic of desire are errors that should not only be recognized as inevitable imperfection or ignored, but rather made the subject of psychological research itself, for error speaks about the essence of mankind often more than any formally correct performance. Everyday consciousness is more like a multi-layered structure that unfolds in parallel in many layers and, in the absence of necessary contradictions, does not require unambiguous output, paradoxically smoothing recurring contradictions in the most fantastic way. At the mythological level of everyday consciousness, a person resolves contradictions at the level of “bricolage”, a kind of “homemade” well described by C. Levi-Strauss (1983). “Bricolier” is similar to an ordinary person in that it adapts all means at hand to the resolution of that different situation, taking little care of the purity of the style, but trying to recreate a consistent picture of the world. Elements of scientific knowledge coexist with the most fantastic and ridiculous ideas, logic - with elements of magic, participation, metaphor, external similarity, and science-like theories can actually be nothing but scientific or medical folklore, science - fiction (Ulybina, 1998 ).

5.2. Effect of secondary signage on intraceptive sensations

The most significant thing in all this is that the secondary meaning is not indifferent to the primary sensations on which it is built and parasitic. Having become a symptom, the bodily sensation does not change outwardly only; it is built according to other laws and contains within itself what is inaccessible to it naturally. Being meaningful in myth, it is two-faced: on the one hand, it is a bodily sensation, filled with concrete experiences, and on the other, it is a hollow form — a sensation deprived of its own history, which means the concept of illness. In its first quality it can be felt, felt, it has a sensual reality, has its own value and content, which, in principle, are self-sufficient. It already contains a ready-made meaning, suggests some “own history”, correlation with experience, categorical decision, etc.

In the second quality, as meaning in the mythological system, it turns into a hollow parasitic form. By becoming a symptom, the bodily sensation loses its spontaneity, it becomes depleted. The wealth of specific content is relegated to the background, subject to the logic of the myth of the disease. As its element, the bodily sensation loses its own significance, but does not die, but, by necessity, exists, nourishing a myth. It remains for the myth to be something like a repository of specific events, which can always be borrowed, so that the myth (the concept of the disease) can “put roots” in real physicality and, having absorbed it, take on the appearance of nature in its concrete “indisputability”.

The myth of the disease deforms the natural side of bodily sensation, not destroying it, but cutting back, alienating it. Meaning in the myth of the disease is open in two directions, it is the result of the primary meaning of the sensory fabric and the beginning of the myth. This leads to duality and constant “flickering” of the form and background of the sensation-symptom, demonstrating alternately rational and sensual, mediated and direct, arbitrary and natural. It is impossible to confront the mythical and the real in body sensation, because it is the single point for them in which they never find themselves at the same time. As a result, the question of the truth, the “corroboration” by the physical reality of the conceptual myth of the disease is extremely confused. The myth is very difficult to “verify” from the point of view of truth, “... nothing prevents it from maintaining an eternal alibi; the presence of two sides of the signifier always allows him to be in another place ” {Bart, 1989, p. 89). Body sensation is always on hand to become meaningful to a myth; the signifier is always here to “obscure” a particular bodily sensation. Trying to catch the myth, we find only the result of the combination of the signifier and the signified - the bodily sensation that has become a symptom, and taking it as a natural given, we do not notice the transition to the area of ​​mythological.

The trick is that the mythology of corporeality is hidden from the simple-minded observer: the myth appears in the guise of reality, but on closer examination this reality turns out to be false, borrowed.

However, losses in spontaneity are partially offset by the inclusion of physicality through the concept of the disease in the accumulated public experience. The concept introduces a “new event”, time, epoch, people, history, principles of the structure of the world.

and so on. In this sense, the myth is an open system that constantly catches everything new that appears in the public consciousness. Another thing is that the mythical concepts are unstable and do not always represent what they look like. Many scientific medical ideas in the ordinary consciousness are refracted into absolutely incredible fantastic theories, and the new-fangled "Indian medicine" is closer to the ballet "La Bayadere" than to the real India. “... When moving from meaning to form (in our case, from a specific bodily sensation to a signifying symptom. - A. T.), the image loses some amount of knowledge, but instead absorbs the knowledge contained in the concept. In fact, the ideas contained in the mythological concept are vague knowledge, formed on the basis of weak, fuzzy associations ... this is in no way an abstract, sterile essence, but rather a condensate of unformed, unstable, obscure associations; their unity and coherence depend primarily on the function of the concept ” {Bart, 1989, p. 84).

Incorporating into the secondary semiotic system of myth, feelings can either change their quality or be generated from above by the myth itself, which needs sensory reinforcement and orienting itself to the search for suitable sensations. The modification and generation of sensations necessary to confirm the myth are carried out primarily through the selection or assimilation of the corresponding signifieds of the primary semiotic system, i.e., bodily constructs. Since sensation, becoming the content of consciousness, is necessarily cast in the form of corresponding categories, their actual set, depending on the assumptions and expectations of the subject, will determine the quality of the experience of bodily sensations. Entire medical schools or methods that have survived to this day, such as, for example, Ayurvedic, anthroposophical and Tibetan medicine, naturopathy or acupuncture, are based on very specific ideas about the structure of the body and reveal symptoms in their adherents that correspond to these ideas (Eberman, 1925; Chattopahyaya, 1961; Kapur, 1982; Hi-gel, 1983; Bazarom, 1984; History of Chinese Philosophy, 1989). There is a large amount of ethnographic literature devoted to the description of various mythological models and structures of the body {Antonovich, 1877; Robbins, 1959; Healing, Magic and Religion, 1985; Carry, Feher, 1980). It is important that, regardless of the degree to which these models correspond to reality, they are always confirmed by subjective bodily sensations. Evidence of this is the cultural-historical pathomorphosis of symptoms, the dominance of hysteria, neuroses and hypochondriacal syndromes of complaints in the clinic, corresponding to the prevailing medical theories.

As more modern examples, we can name the diseases of third-year medical students, demonstrating symptoms of the forms of pathology they are studying, or the phenomenon of iatrogenesis. Many diseases that did not manifest themselves in any way, after the diagnosis is established, begin to acquire sensory tissue. Thus, when tumor formations are accidentally detected, patients experience localized painful sensations in a certain way. The stability of such sensations is associated with the already noted difficulties in checking and correcting them. The richest phenomenology of secondary generation of bodily sensations within the framework of overvalued ideas and primary hypochondriacal delusions is described in psychiatry (Huber, 1957; Rothstein 1961; Ladee, 1966; Lopez-Ibor, 1972; Eglites, 1977; Smulevich, 1987). Not so pretentious, but also very vivid cases are found in mentally healthy people. For illustration, we will cite two clinical observations.

Patient K.A.E., 47 years old, diagnosis: cancer of the uterus, condition after combined treatment. The patient was admitted to the oncology center with complaints of intolerable unpleasant sensations in the abdominal cavity, associated, in the patient's opinion, with the progression of the oncological disease.

An objective examination did not reveal any pathological changes. An anatomical variant of the location of the abdominal aorta close to the abdominal wall is noted. Having palpated the aortic pulsation, the patient decided that it was a metastatic lesion of some vessels. There was a fear of rupture of the vessels, accompanied by the appearance of unbearable painful sensations in the abdomen.

Patient O.A.O., 23 years old, practically healthy. The patient was admitted to the oncology center with complaints of pain in the abdomen on the left, radiating down the abdomen along the rectum and up to the heart. The projection of the pain does not correspond to the anatomical location of the organs. He considers himself ill for about 5 years, when painful sensations in the abdomen appeared after a large meal. Shortly before this, the patient's father died of rectal cancer, which in his (the patient's) opinion served as evidence of a hereditary oncological disease in himself. During the examination, accelerated passage of food in the small intestine was revealed, which apparently served as a source of intraceptive sensations.

These cases show how much the most innocent and fleeting intraceptive sensations can be developed under the influence of the acquired concept of the disease. Despite the absence of any objective grounds, these patients were convinced for many years of their mortally dangerous disease, misleading numerous doctors.

An interesting case of the same kind is given in the book by E. B. Tylor "Primitive Culture": "It is not only vision that leads to the deceptive realization of a dream, a fantasy, a fantastic image. To confirm them, all the external senses seem to conspire. Let us point out the following striking example. There is an irritating skin disease, gradually covering the body with lichen, like a belt. It is not difficult to understand the workings of the imagination which ascribes this disease to some writhing serpent, and I remember a case in Cornwall where the family of a sick girl watched with horror to see if she would be completely girdled with this reptile, since, according to the superstition, the patient would die if the head and tail of the serpent came together. But the significance of this fantastic notion is reflected still more fully in the account given by Dr. Bastian “ , a physician was suffering from an extremely painful illness, and it seemed to him as if a snake was coiled around him, and this idea reached such a reality in his mind that in a moment of extreme suffering he could see the snake and feel its hard scales with his hands” (Taylor, 1989, p. 143).

5.3. Semiotic mediation of intraceptive sensations on the model of medical ritual

The influence of the concept of disease on bodily sensations is especially clearly manifested in a special phenomenon - ritual treatment. Ritualism is such a characteristic feature of folk medicine that it is impossible to find a single medical system where it would be absent. The phenomenon of ritual treatment demonstrates the influence of a symbolic action that is objectively unrelated to the cause-and-effect characteristics of the disease and is united with the latter only in the consciousness of the individual. Nevertheless, this action, devoid of direct expediency and serving only as a designation of certain semiotic relations, leads to a subjective and sometimes objective improvement in the condition of patients. This effect is obvious even to those who are skeptical about unscientific medical systems, and if it did not exist, then magical techniques would not have been so widespread at all times and on all continents. Trying to remove this contradiction, scientific medicine sought a natural-materialistic basis in rituals. In this case it was implied that it is not the ritual itself that heals (this is impossible), but those specific material actions (phytotherapy, physical methods) that are associated with it. The actual magical part in this understanding is nonsense, a lack of logical thinking, backwardness and either has no practical value at all, or, at best, carries unclear psychotherapeutic functions of calming the patient. There is a certain sense in such an approach, but, unfortunately, it does not solve the problem completely. The effectiveness of "natural" treatment, taken out of the ritual context, is significantly reduced, while one magical action clearly improves the patient's condition. "In all... cases, therapy (as far as we know, often effective) is difficult to explain: when it is directed at the diseased organ, it is too crude and concrete (usually it is pure deception) to have any effect on the internal organs, and when it consists of repeating ritual rites, often very abstract, it remains unclear on what its curative effect is based. Usually, in order to get rid of the difficulties associated with explaining this effect, we say that we are talking about psychological treatment. But this term remains devoid of content until we understand how certain psychological ideas can positively influence strictly defined physical disorders" (Levi-Strauss, 1983, p. 170). It is difficult to show more clearly that the solution to this problem is possible only at the psychological level. The effectiveness of ritual treatment will remain a mystery if we consider the disease, symptom and bodily sensation as natural physiological processes, and will become a solvable problem if we understand them as complex semiotic formations. Let us turn to a specific example of ritual treatment given by K. Levi-Strauss in his work “The Sorcerer and His Magic” (Ibid.). This is a ritual performance of a special chant by a shaman during a difficult birth. The chant describes the journey of some small creatures through the patient’s body, which are the cause of the disease, which ends with the shaman’s victory over them. This is a purely psychological method of treatment, since the shaman does not touch the patient’s body and does not give her any medicine, but at the same time clearly and directly speaks about the pathological condition and what causes it. The meaning of this chant is as follows: it translates the patient’s vague sensations into clearly localized

understandable and, by giving her the language, turns an affectively charged situation into a safe, non-threatening situation. “... The song represents a kind of psychological manipulation of the diseased organ and ... recovery is expected from this manipulation” {Ibid., P. 170). This is a concrete example of the influence of myth on the primary sensory tissue, modifying which, the shaman greatly facilitates the sickness of the patient.

However, having understood their torments, the patient not only resigns herself, she recovers. This can be easily explained in cases of functional diseases, when any psychological factors act as the primary cause of the disease. But diseases, although numerous, do not exhaust all cases of pathology. There are no fewer organic diseases with a primary lesion of the material substrate. In this case, the treatment with ritual can be understood only by recognizing that the disease, at least in humans, is not just a disease of any organ, but above all its reflection in the consciousness of the subject. In other words, it cannot be presented to him except as an inner picture of the disease. In the logic of the development of the disease, two sides should be distinguished: the objective, subordinate to the natural laws, and the subjective, associated with the laws of the mental. Only in the abstract limit do they completely coincide, in reality, they can diverge quite significantly. So, even with an objective progression of the disease, patients who believe in the effectiveness of the treatment they are conducting (often completely inadequate) can feel subjective improvement for a long time. (I had to observe this phenomenon quite often in oncological patients.) The limits of such a disagreement are truly amazing: fanatical followers of therapeutic starvation, despite an obvious threat to health and life, nevertheless sometimes feel a continuous improvement, even in lethal outcomes. Religious rites are very painful actions are not perceived as such.

On the contrary, if some condition is signified as a disease, and the treatment is perceived as impossible or insufficient, then even with an objective cure, the patient will continue to consider himself ill. This can happen if the disease really did not exist at all. The "evil eye", "spell" associated in the mind of the subject with the disease, cause the corresponding somatic sensations. The extreme expression of such a connection is Wood — death, resulting from a spell, witchcraft, or breaking taboos (Reikovsky, 1979; Levi-Strauss, 1983). A person who considers himself an object of witchcraft charms, is convinced, in full accordance with traditional beliefs, that it is doomed and really dies soon. Cases of recovery from Voodoo-death with the help of European medicine methods are possible only if the patient considers the magic of the white man to be the strongest.

Objective fidelity of the myth underlying the treatment method is not of fundamental importance. The most fantastic and ridiculous medical techniques find their dedicated followers. This is precisely the non-specific factor that provides any therapeutic (including psychotherapeutic) definition of success, especially in terms of immediate results. As in the case with the shaman: “the fact that the shaman’s mythology does not correspond to reality is irrelevant: the patient believes in her and is a member of a society that believes in her. Evil spirits and helper spirits, supernatural monsters and magical animals are part of a coherent system on which Aboriginal ideas about the universe are based. The patient accepts their existence or, more precisely, never questioned him. What it cannot reconcile with, is the suffering that falls out of the system, seem arbitrary, something alien. The shaman, with the help of myth, recreates a harmonious system, having found an appropriate place for this suffering ”( Levi-Strauss, 1983, p. 176). The success of any psychotherapist is largely determined not by the “truth” of the theory he uses, but by completely different qualities: authority, persuasiveness, artistry, subtle “patient feeling”, ability to make him turn into the myth he proposes. The healer’s fame itself is a ready-made myth that helps to give persuasiveness to the proposed treatment, and, in a certain sense, the “great healer” is great not because his method helps better than others, but rather, on the contrary, the method cures precisely because the healer considered "great."

Of great importance is also the readiness of the public consciousness to perceive myths of a certain kind, the conformity of the myth of the patient and the myth of the doctor. Even K. Levi-Strauss noted that the birth of psychoanalysis and the consolidation of its position as a scientifically based method of treatment led to the formation of a special “psychoanalytic” culture in the European public consciousness of the beginning of the century, the emergence of a “psychoanalytic patient” articulating his complaints “psychoanalytic” in a way. Psychoanalysis is akin to shamanic practice: “in both cases, the goal is to bring internal conflicts and hindrances that until then were unconscious, either because they were suppressed by other psychic forces, or because (as in the case of childbirth), in both cases, that the processes taking place, by their nature, are not mental, but organic or even mechanical. Similarly, in both cases, internal conflicts and internal hindrances disappear not because of the fact that the patient gradually acquires real or supposed knowledge of them, but because this knowledge makes it possible for a special kind of experience in which conflicts are realized in such a sequence and in such a plane that contributes to their unhindered flow and resolution ... From the fact that the shaman does not analyze the psyche of his patient, it can be concluded that the search for lost time, which is sometimes they are triple as a basis for the therapy of psychoanalysis, they are only modifications (the value of which cannot be neglected) of the basic method. The definition of this method must be independent of the origin of the myth, individual or collective, since the mythical form prevails over the content of the prose ” (Levi-Strauss, 1983, p. 176, 182). Not surprising in this connection are the equal successes of countless psychoanalytic (and other psychotherapeutic) schools.

On the other hand, the lack of assimilation of the proposed myth, such as the underdevelopment of the natural-science paradigm in traditional societies, leads to a significant decrease in the effectiveness of European medicine in them (Kapur, 1982; How a traditional healer ..., 1982; Hegel, 1983; Coppo, 1983) . As a result, in Nigeria, for example, 70% of patients continue to use the services of folk healers, even with the possibility of accessing scientific medicine ( Chiwuzie et al., 1988). In these cultures, the treatment offered by European medicine has no basis for the formation of an adequate myth.

Understanding this point allows you to avoid many misunderstandings associated with the interpretation of the role of objective factors in various therapeutic procedures. A doctor who takes the mythological reality as the true reality risks fighting “in the wrong field”. This relatively innocent fallacy becomes serious when the immediate positive subjective effect of treatment hides long-term results, and patients lose the time needed for pathogenetic treatment. The danger of such confusion is great because, having received confirmation of his method by improving the patient's subjective condition, the doctor begins to believe in the objective nature of the method, misleading both himself and the sick, and numerous scientific institutions. This misunderstanding is even more expensive for the researcher. So, until recently the actual idea of ​​studying the mythological television treatment is quite obvious A. M. Kashpirovsky objective methods recalls an attempt to explain the effect of the Bible on believers by the chemical properties of the paper on which it is printed.

A classic example demonstrating the influence of myth on those forest sensations is the placebo effect. In essence, this is nothing but a variant of ritual action: the preservation of all attributes of treatment according to the scheme of natural science medicine (taking a dummy under the form and in the form of a drug, the patient has more or less developed ideas about the essence of the drugs, experience their use) in the absence of the most important - the actual drug. The ritual of placebo treatment is interesting in that it can be modeled under experimental conditions, allowing you to isolate and evaluate the various factors involved in its formation. However, before we start discussing the results of such studies, let us consider in more detail the mythological schemes related to the concepts of health and disease. This will make it possible to move from speculation to concrete facts and will enable us to detect a logical pattern in their diversity.

5.4. Classic and modern myths of illness and health

The mythology of the disease varies greatly throughout human history. But it is rather a substantial historical and ethnographic diversity, in which stable structural archetypes can be distinguished.

Myths about illness and death are among the most common and ancient. At the center of such myths is the fundamental idea of ​​diseases as something external and alien. The explanation is built on the contrary. The disease is opposed to a normal healthy state as something that is not peculiar to man, introduced from outside and does not depend on it. The first people did not get sick and did not die until any divine ordinances were violated or sins were committed. In the biblical tradition, this is the fall of Adam and Eve; in Indian mythology, death is created by Brahma in order to break the world from overpopulation.

Alien disease is an uncontrollable phenomenon with its own activity independent of the person. Objectification of a disease is a natural psychological consequence of a violation of the normal, automated course of any processes or the impossibility of arbitrary regulation of activity. A person becomes sick when he cannot cope with his condition and needs help. At the same time, this impossibility allows us to distinguish the disease from being creative, licentiousness or bad habits. In the last three cases, the person does not want to “pull himself together,” and in the first case he can not do this.

In ancient and modern folk medicine, natural causes of disease are extremely rare and even in these cases they are far from etiological. Traditional healers in Zaire explain various diseases of pregnant women by the fact that the worm, which is wound up in the body, gnaws the fruit, and in the opinion of the Mali doctors, any disease is an imbalance between heat and cold (How does a traditional healer ..., 1982; Koppo 1983). Although these are very specific and realistic reasons, they are nothing more than imaginary. Only a small circle of diseases was due to natural causes and rational methods, as a rule, treated only minor injuries and skin lesions. The natural explanation was understood to be simpler, and surgeons dealing with such "visible" diseases referred to the lower castes of the medical class (Foucault, 1998). Diseases that have no obvious visual signs (diseases of internal organs or mental diseases) were explained irrationally {Yangni-Angate, 1982; Baro , 1990). The causes of such diseases are the action of evil spirits, witchcraft, the penetration of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic creatures into the organism. The personalized incarnations of the disease include Nav and Morin in Slavic mythology, Sabdag in Tibetan, Kutys in Udmurt, Giltina in Lithuanian, and thousands of other deities or spirits.

This view follows from the general ideas of the ancient man about the structure of the world, originally filled with living beings, which are the cause of everything that happens. The concept of the living precedes the concept of the dead, and for the primitive consciousness of the dead nature does not exist, and the course of events is determined by the actions of these creatures. Causality is understood as the result of someone's will, not “how”, but “who”, and it does not expect the discovery of a universal impersonal law (Frankfort et al., 1984).

The new time has significantly modified the idea of ​​the causality and personification of the disease, leaving their rudiments and giving rise to new myths. In mechanistic materialism, ideas about the human body appeared as a complex mechanical device, and the disease began to be understood as its clogging or malfunction. It is interesting that the complexity and structure of such a mechanism were directly borrowed from the most common mechanical devices of their time. In the XVIII - XIX centuries. Mannequins, watches were the favorite analogues, and in our time - automobile motor, which served as a model for “pollution”, “accumulation of slags”, “overpressing”, “obstacles”, etc. Plumbing and hydraulic explanations of the body's work are extremely popular. . One should expect the appearance of analogs with computers, nuclear reactors and other new equipment. The first examples of this kind have already appeared as a method of “coding” from alcoholism according to A.R. Dovzhenko. The idea, which was absolutely incredible in its absurdity, nevertheless fell on the ground prepared in everyday consciousness, giving rise to numerous followers who extended the idea to “coding” from trouble and grief. The success of the method generated from its authors (exactly the same as in the case of the Levi-Strosovsky shaman Kvesalid 2) the conviction of its truth, and in accordance with the traditions of objectivism - the desire for theoretical justification from the standpoint of neurophysiology.

Samples of such a plumbing understanding of the body's work have found a place in the regular publications of the journal Svet. Man and Nature ”, offering its readers a variety of options for healing and“ cleansing the body ”: from“ grounding ”to“ dry starvation ”.

As an example of this kind of myth, one can consider Arinchin’s small publication “Gomokibernetika”, published in 1990 with 200,000 copies under the signature of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR. It differs from other similar ones only by lapidary and special straightforward presentation. "Gomokibert netik", by definition, the author, "is the art of management

-2 This is a passage from the native biography of a native named Kvesalid in Kwakiutl, recorded by Franz Boas ( Boas , 1930). Questalid did not believe in the power of the sorcerers and, prompted by the desire to reveal their deception, achieved initiation into shamans. He was taught to feign fainting, nervous seizures, induce vomiting, sing magic songs, use the "seer", i.e. spies who are obliged to eavesdrop on private conversations and secretly report to the shaman information about the source and symptoms of the diseases with which one or another tribesman suffered. Having established himself in his worst suspicions, Kvesalid decides to continue his investigation, but unexpectedly faces the fact that his deceitful methods bring the obvious therapeutic effect and the loud glory of the great shaman, which causes him to rethink his attitude towards witchcraft (Levi-Strauss, 1983).

health and longevity, based on new scientific data on the role of skeletal muscles in the human presence and blood circulation ". The main cause of the disease is that due to the fact that the person became erect, the inflow of venous blood from the capillaries of the lower extremities was disrupted. As the author points out, “... as a result of the research, the muscles turned out to be primarily suction-injection micropumps — independent peripheral microheart”. The goal of homo-cybernetics is “to make all assistants of the heart work,” since they rested during sleep, and the heart continued to work. In the process of sleep, the blood supply to the organs is reduced, and the formed elements of the blood, red blood cells and white blood cells, are deposited in the liver and spleen. The blood becomes thinner, and it is easier for the heart to push it through the vessels. After awakening, it is necessary to transfer the blood cells stored in the “depot” into the bloodstream, “rinse”, “massify” the internal organs, put the “heart helpers” into operation. It is terrible to even imagine what a mass of new intraceptual sensations await a person who decided to follow these tips!

Creation in the 19th century. Virchow's cellular theory and Pasteur's work in the field of microbiology have opened to the ordinary mind a new kind of zoomorphic creatures: bacteria, microbes, viruses. Described by L.N. Tolstoy in "Fruits of Enlightenment" mythological understanding of microbiological theories has survived to this day: it seems to the average person that getting rid of diseases lies in total sterilization of the body, the ideas of "normal", "pathogenic" and "conditionally pathogenic" flora are unpopular and understandable only to people with a medical education. Natural forces, previously personified in the form of divine beings, have recently been "reincarnated" in the form of "biofield", "karma", "chakras", "vital forces", understood in a completely mythological-mechanical spirit.

Close to mythological ideas about diseases is their natural complement: ideas about health. The identification of health with a real concrete object manifested itself in widespread myths about the existence of an object - the carrier of health. This connection was understood purely materialistically: it is difficult to imagine a greater materialist than the ancient man who believed that by eating the heart of a lion, one could acquire its courage. The main character of the Kyrgyz epic "Manas" drinks the blood of a killed enemy for this purpose. Gilgamesh - the hero of the Sumerian epic - receives eternal life by eating the fruit of the "plant of life". Obtaining "life force" served as the reason for "headhunting" as a place of its residence among the Naga Indians (Shinkarev, 1988). We can also name "living water" and "rejuvenating apples" in Slavic fairy tales, "Indunn apples" in the Younger Edda, "Hesperides apples" and "ambrosia" in Greek mythology, "amrita" and "mandrake" in Indian mythology, "Nart garden apples" in the Nart epic, "active water" in psychics, vitamins, microelements, bifidobacteria and "nutrients that penetrate into the very roots" in modern advertising.

Specific carriers of health often materialized in the form of medicines containing either health itself or some active substance that defeats disease. Elements of these beliefs can be traced from the "panacea" of the ancients to modern "immune stimulants".

Substantial or personified ideas about diseases and health are so widespread that such a form can be considered a feature of human consciousness. One of the possible reasons for this is the existence of various "phantoms of language" - traps of verbal thinking. L. Wittgenstein associated this phenomenon with the influence of "grammatical hypnosis". It manifests the grammatical practice of fixing functional realities in nouns, giving rise to false ideas about their nature (Wittgenstein, 1964). Nouns encourage the search for specific objects, something substantial (Ryle, 1949; Kozlova, 1989).

The immediate cause of the disease followed from general ideas about causality. If the disease is controlled by higher beings, then they send it when it is necessary to punish a person for something. The specific guilt can be different: insulting the gods, violating a taboo, disobedience, failure to fulfill any obligations, or, finally, simply the bad character of the divine beings responsible for the disease. Batonebi - a group of spirits in Georgian mythology - bring infectious diseases when they are not treated with due respect, so in families where there are sick people, it is necessary to prepare treats and gifts for them. Ved-ava - the mistress of water in Mordvin mythology - can send diseases, and to pay her off, you need to throw money or grain into the water. Idomeneo - the grandson of the Greek king Minos - after the campaign against Troy got caught in a storm and made a vow to Poseidon to sacrifice the first person he met. This person turned out to be his son. The angry gods sent a pestilence. Sending "pestilence", plague, cholera, leprosy as punishment for sins is a recurring theme in many mythologies.

With the understanding of causality as an impersonal law in the New Age, theories of "punishment", retribution for guilt are sharply reduced. Diseases are included in spontaneous events that are not purposefully controlled by anyone or anything. Their course does not depend on man and all that remains for him to do is to try to avoid them. The elements cannot be controlled directly, but precautions can be taken. At the same time, fragments of faith in the possibility of direct divine influence remain. Such are prayers for the sending of recovery, addressed to miraculous images. Divine power can change the course of events, interrupting the cause-and-effect relationship, and a “miracle” will occur. Christ himself performed such miracles, healing the sick and reviving Lazarus. A “miracle” is a rare event, by its very content going beyond the framework of reality governed by the law of causality, a visible violation of the rule, the existence of something that cannot exist. The concept of a “miracle” presupposes the possibility of breaking through the boundaries of this law. In this case, the ritual, as a symbolic action, materializes irrational relationships, allowing mutual

interact with the material and the ideal according to the laws of "other causality". The effectiveness of the ritual is determined not simply by the relationship of a specific action with the cause of the disease, but by the entire area of ​​mystical ideas. In this case, the ritual may even lose its directly understandable connection with its goal, and logically understandable expediency is replaced by faith in the possibility of supernatural influence.

In ordinary cases, treatment methods consistently implement in practice ideas about the essence of the disease. Only from a modern point of view they are absurd and meaningless. If the disease is caused by an angry deity, then it is completely logical to appease him by making a sacrifice. During the shamanic ritual, the shaman or his spirit assistants fight with the spirits of the disease, and if the former win, the patient recovers. The use of spells, special dances and ritual actions becomes understandable and justified. Their goal is to appease evil forces, or scare them away from the patient, neutralizing their hostile actions.

"To ensure a long life, the Chinese resort to complex witchcraft. They capture the magical power... from the seasons, things, people. The conductor of these favorable effects is none other than a shroud... Many Chinese prepare a shroud for themselves during their lifetime. Most of them entrust the cutting and sewing of it to unmarried girls and young women, counting on the fact that since the dressmaker will live for many years, part of her life force, of course, should go to the shroud and thus postpone for many years the moment when it will be used for its intended purpose. They prefer to sew the clothes of the deceased in a leap year, since it seems obvious to the Chinese that a shroud sewn in a long year will have a greater ability to prolong life... Since such clothing is intended to prolong the life of the owner, he often, especially on special occasions, puts it on so that the beneficial effect... will affect him to the fullest extent. First of all, he will not fail to wear it on his birthday, since common sense encourages the Chinese to create a reserve of vital energy on their birthday, which is spent during the rest of the year" {Frazer, 1980, pp. 46-47).

Mechanistic theories of disease logically justify specific methods of treatment: "flushing", "cleansing", "strengthening", etc. A large number of different "diets" are based on such views, excluding "harmful" elements from the diet, according to the authors, therapeutic fasting, "flushing" the body with a large amount of mineral water or enemas, removing "toxins", special physical exercises. Diet becomes a logical continuation of such attitudes and real therapeutic activity. "Grounding" serves as a way to rid the body of "excess ions", and the use of "active" water helps stimulate the body. The author of the already mentioned “homo-cybernetics”, in full accordance with the need to “massage” the internal organs, recommends “continuously moving your toes”, “contracting the gluteal muscles and anus”, “massaging the ear canal against atherosclerosis” and other “various movements of the body”.

Magical, ritual techniques, with the exception of mystical ones, have a completely natural justification, although mythopoetic thought is built on special prelogical laws: speculation is not limited by the rules of inference of truth; reality is no different from appearance; a part of an object can carry the functions of the whole and be it; a name, a sign is a full-fledged part of the object, belonging to it to the same extent as objective qualities. Therefore, the classical versions of sympathetic magic described by J. Frazer, despite their apparent illogicality, are not at all irrational.

Homeopathic, or imitative, magic is based on the principle of similarity and allows manipulation of an image or name to achieve a therapeutic effect. "One of the great advantages of homeopathic magic is that it makes it possible to carry out a course of treatment not on the patient, but on the doctor himself; seeing how the latter writhes in pain before him, the patient is freed from all signs of the disease" (Ibid., p. 27). In folk medicine, there are still magical techniques for treating measles and rubella with red objects, and jaundice with yellow ones. Residual traces of homeopathic magic in our time are found in the principles of homeopathic medicine, in the practice of psychics who diagnose and conduct treatment based on photographs of patients and home plans. Biofield correction using "non-contact massage" is a striking example of the unexpected revival of magical techniques. The point of this procedure is that the psychic massages or corrects the biofield he feels, which should affect the work of real organs. It is interesting that the massage and correction are carried out with the same movements as a real massage, including in some cases “shaking off” the “bad” biofield from the hands. Apparently, it is assumed that the biofield can somehow “stick” to the hands and

has a certain mass that allows it to be shaken off.

The same principle was contained in the idea of ​​the television sessions of A. M. Kashpirovsky and A. V. Chumak, amazing for the modern reader, but until recently riveting enormous attention. Even without going into a discussion of whether they possess any special abilities in reality, it is possible to endow their television image, which is an object of a fundamentally different kind, with these abilities only from the position of homeopathic magic, which does not distinguish between an object and its sign.

Another version of sympathetic magic is contagious. The principle of its action is that objects that were in contact remain in a sympathetic unity, acquiring the necessary healing properties. Nails or hair can be used for treatment, and the procedures performed on them will be passed on to their owners. The principle of contagious magic underlies treatment by the method of "laying on of hands", "holy water", etc. It also substantiates the healing effect of various sacred objects, carriers of "healing power", which received their properties through participation in some extraordinary event or contact with higher powers: the "holy grail" from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, which heals diseases, the spear with which he was pierced on the cross, the shield of David, amulets, charms, the ashes of paper on which a saying from the Koran was written, etc. Contagious magic substantiates the influence of miraculous powers, materializes vague ideas that are poorly absorbed by ordinary consciousness.

Even the "healer" of our time A.V. Chumak requires material carriers in the form of water, newsprint, cream, etc. to transmit the “healing powers.”

Based on general considerations about the origin of diseases, the question of who should perform the treatment is also decided. For diagnosis and treatment, a person is needed who has been in contact with spirits, who understands and is able to interpret their instructions, “read” the symptom, having penetrated the affairs of the gods. A classic example of such diagnosis is “fortune telling.” “For a modern educated person, to throw lots or a coin means to count on chance, i.e., on the unknown. <...> An uncivilized person thinks that the lots or dice, when they fall, are not randomly arranged according to the significance that he attaches to their position. He is invariably inclined to assume that some spiritual beings hover above the fortuneteller or gambler, mixing the lots or turning the dice in order to force them to give answers” ​​(Taylor, 1989, p. 71). The same civilized "fortune telling" underlies the justification of the accuracy and truth of medical diagnostics by the fact that it is carried out with the help of a computer. In this case, the "animate" computer acts as a higher being, possessing inaccessible knowledge and "producing" diagnostics.

It is quite natural that the closer the doctor is to the gods and understands them better, the easier it is for him to fulfill his duty. The set of necessary qualities is determined primarily by the nature of the disease. If it is the result of the action of evil forces and spirits, then, naturally, the doctor must be admitted to their circle and know how to deal with them. If the disease is cured miraculously, then the doctor must somehow be introduced to the world of miracles. In any case, it is necessary to confirm the right to such an important activity in any society as medical practice.

This is most easily solved by classifying the doctor as a member of the same divine forces that are responsible for the disease itself. In the Greco-Roman pantheon, Apollo himself and his son Asclepius were doctors, and the goddesses Hygeia (daughter of Asclepius) and Salus were responsible for health. One of the main gods of ancient Indian mythology, Varuna, was also a doctor. In Chinese mythology, the god Yao Wang is the patron of pharmacists and doctors. Real doctors received their abilities either from the main