Decision making and semiotics: a view in homeopathy

This paper discusses medical action, homeopathic medical action in particular, from a semiotic perspective. Any doctor – patient relation and communication aims at an action. Action in medicine follows a decision which is determined by the meaning of signs and operations with signs. In their turn, signs are conditioned in their perception and interpretation by the meaning they have to their receivers, both intra- and intersubjectively. The meaning of signs in the medical context relates to reference values established by normative signs, around which semiotic fields are organized. Signs never appear isolated but in configurations, meaningful only from the perspective of some specific coherence. While decision-making is a consequence of meaning, meaning is conditioned by codes predetermined in both the sender and receiver of signs. Each and every medical action has an outcome which might give rise to a new series signs – decision – action. The outcome of medical action functions as a sign subsequent to previous ones, and a new configuration might appear, which allows for new action. Homeopathic signs have as their ultimate referent an individual; these signs are configured in a coherent way using the specific codes. Specific configurations allow for specific decisions and effective prescriptions of remedies when they point out to the individual. Keywords: Medical action; Medical semiotics; Decision-making; Homeopathy.  Decissão e semiótica: um olhar em homeopatia Resumo O presente artigo discute a ação médica, particularmente a homeopática, de uma perspectiva semiótica. Toda relação e comunicação médico-paciente visa uma ação. A ação, em medicina, segue a uma decisão, por sua vez determinada pelo sentido de signos e operações com signos. Os signos estão condicionados em sua percepção e interpretação pelo sentido que tém para seus receptores, tanto intra quanto intersubjetivamente. O sentido dos signos no contexto médico se relaciona com valores de referéncia estabelecidos por signos normativos, ao redor dos quais são organizados campos semióticos. Os signos nunca aparecem isolados, mas em configurações, significantes somente como função de uma coeréncia específica. Enquanto a decisão é conseqüéncia do sentido, este é condicionado por códigos pré-determinados, tanto no emissor quanto no receptor dos signos. Toda ação médica tem um resultados que, por sua vez, pode originar uma nova série de signos - decisão - ação. O resultado da ação mpedica opera como signo subseqüente aos anteriores, e dessa maneira pode aparecer uma nova configuração que leva a uma nova ação. Os signos homeopáticos tém como referente último um indivíduo; esses signos se configuram de maneira coerente graças a códigos específicos. Configurações específicas levam a decisões específicas e prescrições efetivas de medicamentos quando visam o indivíduo. Palavras-chave: Ação médica; Medicina semiótica; processo de tomada de decisão; Homeopatia.  Decisión y semiótica: una visión en homeopatía Resumen Este artículo discute la acción médica, particularmente la homeopática, desde una perspectiva semiótica. Toda relación y comunicación médico-paciente apunta para una acción. La acción, en medicina, sigue a una decisión, determinada por el sentido de signos y operaciones con signos. Los signos, a su vez, están condicionados en su percepción e interpretación por el sentido que tienen para sus receptores, tanto intra e intersubjetivamente. El sentido de los signos en el contexto médico se relaciona con valores de referencia establecidos por signos normativos, alrededor de los cuales se organizam campos semióticos. Los signos nunca aparecen aislados, sino en configuraciones, significantes solamente en función de una coherencia específica. Mientras que la decisión es consecuencia del sentido, éste es condicionado por códigos predeterminados, tanto en el emisor como en el receptor de los signos. Toda acción médica tiene un resultado que, a su vez, puede originar una nueva serie signos - decisión - acción. El resultado de la acción médica opera como signo subsiguiente a los anteriores, y así puede aparecer una nueva configuración, que lleva a una nueva acción. Los signos homeopáticos tienen como referente último un individuo; esos signos se configuran de manera coherente, gracias a códigos específicos. Configuraciones específicas llevan a decisiones específicas y prescripciones efectivas de medicamentos cuando apuntan al individuo. Palabras-clave: Acción de la medicina; Medicina semiótica, la toma de decisiones; Homeopatía.  Correspondence author: Gheorghe Jurj, [email protected] How to cite this article: Jurj G. Decision making and semiotics: A view in homeopathy. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008 [cited YYYY Mmm DD]; 7(23): 103-112. Available from: http://journal.giri-society.org/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/270/346. ÂÂÂ

Fearing the worst yet to come: Derrida and health anxiety

Building from the works of Jacques Derrida, this article explores health anxiety’s aporetic relationship with medicine through a deconstructive approach. I argue that attention to Derrida’s writings (and in particular, his readings of pharmakon and autoimmunity) may prove useful in explaining the cyclical character of health anxiety and its ambivalent response to medical reassurance. What’s more, I demonstrate how structuralist interpretations of health anxiety as a signifier without referent prove insufficient within a Derridean account. Such a reading emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary medical humanities as well as critical reflections on the possible limitations of Western medical semiotics.

The semiotics of breast cancer: Signs, symptoms, and sales

This paper analyses the immunological response of breast cancer patients through the lens of medical semiotics. From this perspective both psychological and physiological symptoms are treated as a set of transitive signs. The symptomatic journey of breast cancer patients was documented through an ethnographic engagement with a breast cancer charity. This journey consists of diagnosis, treatment and remission, where both the physical and psychological trauma maybe irreversible. Equally the genetic disposition of each patient and the variability of the treatment give rise to a plethora of possible immunological responses. The case study organization provided both therapeutic treatment but also sold oncology products to its patients, matching the products’ composition to the specific immunological responses caused by breast cancer treatment, e.g., brittle skins or hair loss, etc. This paper explores how the varied and transient nature of immunological semiosis is identified and commoditized into an economic process. This challenging social context is of interest from a semiotic stand point because it offers a singular paradigm to explain the evolution of signs and symptoms into sales.

Medical Semiotics

Medical semiotics, as a branch of general semiotics, has never really gained a firm foothold in either semiotics itself or medical science. Despite the fact that the discipline of semiotics traces its roots to the medical domain in the ancient world, it has been largely relegated to the margins, with several key exceptions starting with Jakob von Uexküll and more recently Thomas A. Sebeok and the biosemiotic movement. However, there is no evidence that it is a significant and growing autonomous area of research either within biosemiotics or medical practice. The purpose of this paper is to revive interest in medical semiotics examining at the historical principles that would make it highly relevant today in the global village where conceptions of disease and health are in constant flux.

‘Getting’ the Pox: Reflections by an Historian on How to Write the History of Early Modern Disease

<div>This article reflects upon the recent return to linear history writing in medical history. It takes as its starting point a critique of the current return to constructivist ideas, suggesting the use of other methodological choices and interpretations to the surviving archival and textural sources of the sixteenth century pox. My investigation analyses the diagnostic act as an effort to bring together a study of medical semiotics. Medical semiotics considers how signs speak through the physical body, coached within a particular epistemology. There are no hidden meanings behind the visible sign or symptom - it is tranparent to the calculative and authoritative gaze and language of the doctor. It concerns how diseases came into being, the relationships they have constituted, the power they have secured and the actual knowledge/power they have eclipsed or are eclipsing. From such a perspective, “getting the pox” is not a bad thing. A methodological turn to medical semiotics reminds us that the history of disease should be an inquiry both into the grounds of our current knowledge and beliefs about disease and how they inspire our writing, as well as the analytical categories that establish their inevitability.</div>