Disease, Cure, Health

Abstract

In distinguishing anomaly from the pathological state, biological variety from negative vital value, we have, on the whole, delegated the responsibility for perceiving the onset of disease to the living being himself, considered in his dynamic polarity. That is to say, in dealing with biological norms, one must always refer to the individual because this individual, as Goldstein says, can find himself “equal to the tasks resulting from the environment suited to him” [46, 265], but in organic conditions which, in any other individual, would be inadequate for these tasks. Just like Laugier, Goldstein asserts that a statistically obtained average does not allow us to decide whether the individual before us is normal or not. We cannot start from it in order to discharge our medical duty toward the individual. When it comes to a supra-individual norm, it is impossible to determine the ‘sick being’ (Kranksein) as to content. But this is perfectly possible for an individual norm [46, 265, 272].