ABSTRACT
Modern medicine is confronted with cultural crossings in various forms: The migration wave in Europe has imposed a new awareness of the cultural dimensions of both physical and psychological therapy (Napier et al. 2014). Religious and ideological radicalisation has raised related questions about how to draw the line between pathology and conviction, and how to deal with cultural and religious discontent, also in clinical settings (Kristeva 2016). The Lancet Commission on Culture and Health (Napier et al. 2014: 1607) provided important insights into the cultural dimensions of health and wellbeing; most radically, it pointed out that “the distinction between the objectivity of science and the subjectivity of culture” is “itself a social fact.” When the Lancet commission aims to create awareness about the “effect of cultural systems of values on health outcomes,” however, it implicitly reinforces the ontological divide that caused the problem in the first place.
