Autor omawia zjawisko homeopatii, jej doktryny i praktyki terapeutyczne powstałe w dobie kryzysu medycyny europejskiej przełomu XVIII i XIX stulecia oraz jej niezmienności w kolejnych wiekach. Jest to ewenement w historii medycyny, gdyż w XIX i XX w. zmieniła się nie tylko sama medycyna, lecz cała kultura medyczna Europy. Społeczna koncepcja zdrowia i choroby nie zawsze była zbieżna z jej akademicką wizją, a tam, gdzie wizje świata i człowieka oraz zdrowia i choroby były odmienne, homeopatia stawała się obiektem gwałtownej krytyki, a jej dziejową rolą było prowokowanie pytań granicznych na styku kilku dyscyplin, opartych na nieakceptowanej na ogół przez środowiska naukowe koncepcji zdrowia i choroby. W dyskursie homeopatia stała się symbolem kryzysów.

The author considers the phenomenon of homeopathy as one of the most interesting developments in the history of medicine. The doctrine and therapeutic practice related to it appeared during the age of crisis in the European medicine at the turn of the 18th and 19* centuries. It has survived two centuries with very little modification of its theoretical foundations and almost no corrections of its treatment procedures, always perceived as controversial among physicians. Such immunity to any changes in a relatively long period is the main feature that makes homeopathy one of the most fascinating phenomena in the European medical culture. Various processes which were taking place in the 19* and 20* centuries changed not only medicine but the whole medical culture of Europe, including the ideals of the medical sciences, biomedical paradigms, standards of scientific rationality. Changes could be seen in the perception of diseases and in various "visions of man and the world" related to them. The concept of health and disease among ordinary people was not always identical to that held by the academic circles. Homeopathy balanced between the world of medicine and social circles which did not belong to it. The cultural sources for its survival were derived from both of them but their proportions and intensity of each of them changed in different periods of its history. When their "visions of man and the world" or those of health and disease differed, homeopathy became the object of violent critique. The historical role of homeopathy was to provoke "borderline questions", on the intersection of several disciplines, based on the concepts of health and disease which were not accepted by academic circles. In such discourse it became the symbol of crises.