BALKANISTIC WORLDS

Author: bforum1992@gmail.com

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116565

    Sławomir Łotysz, PhD

    Professor,

    Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy

    of Sciences

    [s.lotysz@gmail.com], ORCID: 0000-0003-4426-6401

    The Fear of AIDS in Late Socialist Poland[1]

    Abstract: The emergence of AIDS in the early 1980s, a new deadly disease that attacked the human immune system, caused panic around the world. The fear of AIDS led to the stigmatisation of its victims and even to acts of violence against them. Much of the blame for the spread of panic lay with the media, which hysterically portrayed AIDS as the plague of the twentieth century or the wrath of God. Even the mainstream media perpetuated prejudices against the two main risk groups – men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users. The lack of reliable health education, which failed in many countries, exacerbated the situation. Fear of AIDS arrived in Poland from the West before HIV itself. The article argues that the Polish media exacerbated the panic surrounding AIDS in Poland in the late 1980s. Unverified information and fear-mongering predictions found fertile ground in a society marked by a low-levels of health education and widespread mistrust in the efficiency of the national health service. The communist authorities failed to stem the tide, even though they had a powerful tool at their disposal – censorship.

    Keywords: AIDS; health; censorship; media; public fear.

    [1] This article resulted from the research project MEDEP – ‘Media and Epidemics: Techniques for the Popularisation of Public Health Knowledge in the 20th and 21st Centuries’. Project MEDEP is supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom, and the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development & Innovation Funding, Romania, under the CHANSE ERA-NET Co-fund programme, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no. 101004509. National Science Centre grant no. 2021/03/Y/HS3/00283.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116539

    Judit Sándor, PhD

    Full Professor,

    Central European University, Vienna – Austria

    [sandorj@ceu.edu], ORCID: 0000-0003-0134-4414

    Mária Éva Földes, PhD

    Assistant Professor,

    Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management,

    Erasmus University Rotterdam – the Netherlands,

    [foldes@eshpm.eur.nl], [foldese@ceu.edu], ORCID: 0009-0001-9181-1858

    Medicalization of Death and Dying in Post-War Hungary and the Netherlands. Taboo and Transparency in Legal Thinking

    Abstract: Medicalization of death and dying after World War II represented a significant shift in both Eastern and Western Europe, with implications for medical law and ethics. Death and dying became subjects of medical decisions and interventions. Increasingly, death occurred in hospitals and was preceded by various medical procedures aimed at prolonging life, sometimes artificially. Along with the process of medicalization, families and communities became less involved in the last phase of their loved ones’ lives. In this paper, we explore the repercussions of this process in two post-war societies that took very different paths in addressing doctors’ involvement in end-of-life decisions: Hungary and the Netherlands. The Netherlands is widely known for granting access to physician-assisted dying, including euthanasia and assisted suicide, following decades of legal cases, empirical reports, and legislative changes. In Hungary, although the issue has surfaced repeatedly in public discussions, it still constitutes a medical and legal taboo. Patient autonomy in Hungary developed much later and the legal progress has stagnated since 1997. Patients can refuse certain types of treatment, but only through a bureaucratic procedure. To understand the sharp contrast between the current laws in the two countries, we trace and compare legal developments and ethical thinking in both jurisdictions. We examine changes in the approach to the patient-doctor relationship, the role of information disclosure, patient autonomy, transparency, and the obstacles to these. Our analysis shows that striking the right balance between doctors’ professional responsibilities and patients’ rights remains a challenge in both countries.

    Keywords: medicalization; end-of-life decisions; Hungary; the Netherlands; law; ethics.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Source of Funding: The research is within the ERC Project “Taming the European Leviathan: The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good” (LEVIATHAN). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 854503).
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116523

    Alexandra Barmpouti, PhD

    Independent researcher

    [alexandrabarbouti@gmail.com], ORCID: 0000-0002-0345-6295

    https://oxfordbrookes.academia.edu/AlexandraBarmpouti

    DIY Abortion in Context (late 20th – 21st Century)

    Abstract: Reproductive choices are strategic life choices. The decision to continue or interrupt a pregnancy is influenced by personal lifestyle, beliefs, and values, notwithstanding social biases and politics. The choice of the method to achieve an induced abortion might be complex. The national legal context can be crucial to one’s decision-making regarding surgical or medical abortion, and in which setting. After the introduction of the abortion pills misoprostol and mifepristone, there has been a steady increase in demand for medical abortion, either with professional assistance or in a do-it-yourself (DIY) way.

    In this article, I will focus on what influences a pregnant person to choose a self-managed medical abortion. I will discuss aspects of the legal, social, and political contexts that favour such a choice, along with the personal motives. Although the state’s population policies regarding the availability and access to contraception and abortion impact individual decision-making, the final decision is multifactorial.

    We will examine diverse European national contexts concerning abortion and contraception to demonstrate that self-managed medical abortion is supported by women regardless of whether they live in countries with liberal abortion legislation. The historical period under consideration will begin in the late 20th century and continue into the 21st century. The selection of this time frame is based on a series of significant and transformative events that took place during this period, including the demographic repercussions of the Second World War, the introduction of oral contraceptives, the reform of abortion laws, the fall of Communism, and the advent of medical abortion pills.

    Keywords: abortion; self-managed abortion; self-care; self-control; reproductive autonomy; reproductive choices.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116508

    Ivana Dobrivojević Tomić, PhD

    Principal Research Fellow,

    Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade – Serbia

    [ivanadobrivojevic@hotmail.com], ORCID: 0000-0001-5210-3288

    Between Ideals and Reality: Contraception in Socialist Yugoslavia

    Abstract: This study examines the evolution of contraception in Yugoslavia, focusing on the state’s policies, medical perspectives, and societal attitudes toward birth control. It explores how government initiatives and prevailing cultural norms influenced the acceptance of contraceptives and identifies the factors that led to the population’s hesitancy in adopting them. It draws upon sources from the Archives of Yugoslavia, the Croatian State Archives, and the Archives of Serbia, as well as selected periodicals and relevant medical, demographic, and historiographical literature.

    Keywords: Yugoslavia; socialism; contraception; counselling centres; abortion; educational campaigns.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116494

    Ina Dimitrova, PhD

    Associate Professor,

    “Paisii Hilendarski” University of Plovdiv – Bulgaria,

    Faculty of Philosophy and History

    [ina.dimitrova@uni-plovdiv.bg], ORCID: 0000-0002-5227-915X

    “Everything for the Benefit of Man, Everything for the Sake of Man!”[1]: Genetic Counselling in Socialist

    Bulgaria

    Abstract: This paper examines the process of introduction and popularization of genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis in socialist Bulgaria, and the efforts of human genetics experts to “bring these practices closer to the population”. In keeping with the preventive spirit of the socialist model of public health, these practices were declared to be forms of “prophylaxis” – a term that largely obscures and mitigates the fundamental moral dilemmas associated with the fact that, in this context, “prophylaxis” often meant selective abortion. This practice, with its clear eugenic implications, has long been a focal point of critique from bioethicists, disability activists, and academics. Drawing on both scholarly and popular publications by leading Bulgarian geneticists, as well as on archival documents, the paper traces how this preventive undertaking unfolded, how it was framed by experts, and what images of disability were mobilized to promote these practices and to responsibilize socialist citizens in the sphere of reproduction.

    Keywords: genetic counselling; disability; selective abortion; socialism; prophylaxis.

    [1] The full quote reads: “The prophylactic activity of medical-genetic counselling is the fullest expression of the aspiration to realize the call “Everything for the benefit of man, everything for the sake of man!” (Georgieva, 1988: 79).

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116482

    Katarzyna Jarosz, PhD

    Assistant Professor,

    International University of Logistics and Transport, Wrocław –

    Poland

    [katarzynojarosz@gmail.com], ORCID: 0000-0001-5910-2165

    Small Museums, Singular Figures – Curating Medical Breakthroughs in Public Exhibitions

    Abstract: This article investigates how three small, independent European medical museums use person-centred narratives to construct national and cultural understandings of medical innovation. Focusing on the Semmelweis Medical History Museum (Budapest), the Pharmacy Museum (Lisbon), and Livets Museum (Lund), it explores how biographical storytelling, object selection, and spatial design work together to produce emotionally engaging exhibitions that serve broader symbolic purposes. The study combines field research conducted between 2020 and 2025 with literature analysis, interpretive reading of exhibition strategies, and visual docu-mentation.

    The article identifies three main curatorial strategies shared across the museums: presenting scientific progress as a singular achievement; using the scientist as a synecdoche for national identity; and drawing on cultural memory to create local emotional resonance. In each case, a central historical figure – Ignaz Semmelweis, Maria Odette Santos Ferreira, or Nils Alwall – is positioned as both an innovator and a symbol of national values. The exhibitions frame their stories through emblematic objects and simplified narratives that foreground personal dedication while omitting scientific collaboration, failure, or international complexity.

    These findings highlight how small medical museums operate not only as educational institutions but also as sites of memory and identity formation. They translate historical knowledge into accessible, emotionally powerful stories aligned with national narratives. The article concludes that while these strategies are effective in public engagement, they also reflect selective curatorial choices. It calls for future research on museums in underrepresented regions to further understand how biography and national identity are constructed in medical heritage displays.

    Keywords: history of medicine; medical museums; Livets Museum; Pharmacy Museum; AIDS; medical humanities

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Slava Savova, PhD Candidate

    Researcher, „Medical Anthropology” Unit,

    Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic

    Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 

    [slava.savova@iefem.bas.bg], ORCID: 0009-0001-8883-3511

    Re-Ottomanizing Modernity: Domesticating

    Balneology in Early to Mid-20th-Century Bulgaria

    Abstract: The decades after Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule (a continuous process beginning in 1878) were marked by the construction of a new national identity across multiple terrains: the state apparatus, political alliances, the social and cultural realms, and most visibly – the built environment. Bulgaria’s transformation during this period is described as simultaneously de-Ottomanization and Europeanisation (Lory, 2015), connoting the erasure or replacement of one system of governance by another. By looking at two important instruments of the modernizing state – healthcare and hygiene, I demonstrate that rather than abrupt replacement of the “Oriental” by the “Western”, a gradual adaptation took place, with resilient cultural practices often persisting in less visible ways. I focus on several case studies of Ottoman public baths and the tensions emerging around the control over thermal waters. While this natural resource was seen by authorities and citizens as a catalyst for urban renewal, such aspirations often clashed with the perceived symbolic dissonance of existing infrastructures dating from the Ottoman period. I argue that the heterogeneous solutions produced by this friction blur the modern/archaic, hygienic/unclean, Western/Oriental binaries and illustrate how Bulgaria’s modernization was a non-linear process of adaptation and absorption of preceding cultural practices, which aligned modern technology along the contours of pre-existing ecologies of care and healing.

    Keywords: architecture; Balkan nationalisms; Balkans; balneology; de-Ottomanization; Europeanization; healthcare; hygiene; modernization; public baths; water.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Source of Funding: The research is within the ERC Project “Taming the European Leviathan: The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good” (LEVIATHAN). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 854503).
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116423

    Inxhi Brisku, PhD Candidate

    Researcher, „Medical Anthropology” Unit,

    Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic

    Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

    [inxhi.brisku@iefem.bas.bg], ORCID: 0000-0002-9080-4808

    The Dialectics of Marxism and Neo-Freudianism:

    Ideological Dogmatism and the Limits of Criticism in Socialist Albania

    Abstract: This article analyses the book Neofrojdizmi: filozofi e njeriut të tjetërsuar [Neo-Freudianism: The Philosophy of the Alienated Human] (1989) by Artan Fuga, in which Freudianism and Neo-Freudianism are criticized from the standpoint of Orthodox Marxism. By situating Fuga’s book in the political and ideological context of 1989 and comparing it to an earlier work by Viktor Riska and Marianthi Zoto (Neo-Freudianism: One of the Theoretical Bases of Bourgeois Liberalism, 1974), the article investigates whether there was any ideological evolution between generations of Albanian philosophers. The analysis shows that, despite the softer political climate of the late 1980s, Marxist dogmatism continued to shape the treatment of Freudian and Neo-Freudian ideas. Ultimately, the article argues that the rigid ideological framework of Albanian Marxism-Leninism left little room for theoretical synthesis or critical engagement with alternative schools of thought, including psychoanalysis. This contributes to a broader understanding of philosophy, political thought, and ideological continuity in socialist Albania.

    Keywords: psychoanalysis; Marxism-Leninism; ideology; intellectual history.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Source of Funding: The research is within the ERC Project “Taming the European Leviathan: The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good” (LEVIATHAN). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 854503).
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116390

    Tiago Pires, PhD

    Postdoctoral researcher, “Medical Anthropology” Unit

    Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic

    Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

    [tiago_pires@ymail.com; tiago.pires@iefem.bas.bg],

    ORCID: 0000-0003-2351-5165

    Anthropology and Psychoanalysis in Ernesto de Martino’s Ethnopsychiatry

    Abstract: This paper aims to understand how Ernesto de Martino’s work became the epistemological basis of ethnopsychiatry in Italy, especially through the dialogue between anthropology and psychoanalysis. Demartinian theory can be considered as a foundation for cultural readings of subjectivity and ways of expressing and managing psychological suffering. In this article, I will analyze some of his publications regarding the mythical-ritual aspects of the Italian South (Meridionalist trilogy), specifically his book entitled “La terra del rimorso” (The Land of Remorse), published in 1961. De Martino is not only recognized for his historical contributions to ethnopsychiatry and transcultural psychiatry, but also as a forerunner in the Italian context of what I call a “decolonization of mental health”.

    Keywords: Ernesto de Martino; ethnopsychiatry; anthropology; psycho-

    analysis.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Source of Funding: The research is within the ERC Project “Taming the European Leviathan: The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good” (LEVIATHAN). The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 854503).
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17116360

    Klejd Këlliçi, PhD

    Associate Professor

    University of Tirana – Albania

    Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Sciences

    [k.kellici@gmail.com], OCRID: 0000-0001-8877-3590

    Hygiene Campaigns and State Penetration in the Sixties in Socialist Albania

    Abstract: This paper discusses hygiene campaigns in socialist Albania from the early 1960s up to 1970. During this period, communist authorities undertook a series of hygiene campaigns aimed at improving the living conditions of the population, especially in rural areas. These campaigns were directed by state agencies and carried out in schools, factories, and public spaces. Their principal aim was education and the prevention to health hazards, particularly during a time marked by increased urbanization, industrialization, and collectivization. This paper employs the theoretical concept of state penetration, understood here as the state’s capacity to brake and reform traditional or resilient forms of premodern organization. In the Albanian case, the authorities pursued a series of reforms aimed at breaking and reforming the family structure to align with broader efforts of industrialization and modernizations.

    In addition to state agencies, other organizations were tasked with implementing such campaigns – most notably the Union of Albanian Women (Bashkimi i Grave të Shqipërisë). This article focuses in particular on the methods used by U.A.W.’s local chapters and women activists to conduct hygiene campaigns. Focusing on the organization’s role in these efforts reveals a wide range of instruments the state deployed to penetrate and shape women’s lives, as well as the intimate space of the home.

    Keywords: hygiene; state penetration; women; emancipation.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.