No abstract

The concepts of health and disease have an impact on the efficiency of the medical system. Currently, there are no unanimously accepted definitions of health and disease, despite the fact that many investigations have attempted to capture their essence. Most of the available research about the concept of disease relies on the evidence-based disease concept of the modern medicine. That concept differs from the lay concept of disease or illness. In this research we use the cognitive linguistic approach to concepts, taking into consideration the way in which human mind processes the surrounding reality. Those processes are based on the universal principles because of the embodiment of cognition. Consequently, concepts are to some extent independent of time and culture. We have selected three premodern sources with sufficient information about disease to ascertain whether they have similarities in the comprehension of the disease. The first source is “Huangdi Neijing” “Suwen” part, from Chinese ancient medicine, the second one is “Hippocratic Corpus” from ancient Greece, and the third is “Otok” by Josip Lovretić from 19th century eastern Croatia. They are products of very different cultures and historical periods. Conducting comparison of features related to disease in the three sources, we have recognized that body, change, process and control are related to the common shared attributes critical for the concept of disease.

Human behavior is governed by concepts. Concepts are cognitive representations of reality. Cognitive linguistics suggests that there are cognitive models affecting the formation of concepts in human mind, such as cognitive metaphor and a prototype model. We used the example of an ancient procedure – trepanation in order to show the connection between the procedure and the concept of the skull as a container, which is a metaphor. Most important concepts in medical systems are health and disease. There is no agreement about their exact definition, although there have been many studies focusing on that. Based on the previous research, we suggest possible benefits from approaching the disease as a prototype category. In all studies so far there have always been consistencies in rating entities qualifying as a disease which is a feature of a prototype category – membership gradience. Entities perceived as diseases by respondents in studies so far have not been the same, but they share certain features. It is more likely for an entity to be considered a disease if it can lead to death, for example. In our opinion there are common core features determining disease as a cognitive category. Further cross-cultural studies could answer what features an entity needs to have in order to be considered a disease.Stressing such features could improve patients’cooperation when a new disease appears.