Oltre l’efficacia simbolica. Produttività e criticità di un concetto

Abstract

Claude Lévi-Strauss has inaugurated a fruitful tradition of studies on the symbolic dimensions of therapeutic efficacy, which still represents a fruitful source of inspiration today. This paper examines the developments that, from the masterful lesson of the French scholar, have allowed a profound rethinking of the subject, capable of taking into account the role of both: the patient and the social relations in which s/he participates, in promoting the transformation of experience. The conclusion calls for the overcoming of the divide between the analysis of symbolic dimensions and the promotion of the right to health, a split that still characterizes much of the anthropological research on therapeutic efficacy.