On the Problem of Investigation of Social and Cultural Stereotypes of Relation to Health and Illness

The urgent problems of the difficulty of scientific definition of such dialectic notions as "health" and "illness" are considered. On the material of different sources the alternative scientific approaches to the investigation of health and illness phenomena are separated and analyzed. The faults of these approaches are exposed. The problem states the importance of the investigation of social and cultural stereotypes of relation to health and illness and the strategies of such investigations are discussed.