The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

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The study explores a salient social dilemma of the contemporary global society that is the health paradox. The health paradox is the result of modern medicine and refers to the growing illusion that humans have the right to live not only a life without diseases, but also a life without symptoms of diseases, having thus the right to perfection and harmony in all of their life domains (social, psychological, physical). Such paradoxical consequences of modern medicine imply a growing societal and scientific attention in connection with health. Among these are the following: healthism as a way of life; postmodern medicine; new forms of medical practices and knowledge (self-medication, the spread of medical knowledge among the general public, the presence of medicine in everyday life); new types of health practitioners (a wide array of holistic and alternative approaches in terms of health and medication and to a growing number of lay experts); the individual responsibility and guilt in connection with diseases (this can be conceptualized as the result of the ideology of individualism which determined the neglect of the societal and structural determinants of health and lifestyle); the growing social anxiety in connection with health, diseases and medicine. By summarizing a number of theories and studies, the analysis is focused on the benefits and risks of these phenomena which altogether structure the domain of the so-called healthist ideology.

Key words: healthism, meanings of well-being, medicalization of everyday life, moral responsibility, social anxiety.