Paper short abstract:

Faced with public health concerns, one of which is the promotion of the therapeutic solution of self-medication with a minimum of risks, anthropology must maintain its critical posture in order to understand the individual practices at work in this field.

Paper long abstract:

One public health concern is that of promoting, ensuring or improving people's health with a minimum of risks. This is why, today in France, the promotion of self-medication as a therapeutic resource goes hand in hand with recommendations from both public authorities and health professionals, with a view to reducing associated risks and the uncertainty involved, and to laying down the conditions of such recourse. What is anthropology's role in this context? Is it to work with the public health system to ensure that these conditions are respected and to contribute towards the resolution of risks? Or is it to maintain its critical approach, by focusing the spotlight on patients, professionals, public authorities and the discourse of public health authorities? It is the latter option which must be chosen if we want to understand individual responses to public policies on this issue. I will here underline the methodological approach and epistemological posture that anthropology must adopt in order to ensure a specific contribution, i.e. in order to reveal the social behaviours which are really at work in the field of self-medication, the ways in which individuals manage the risk associated with this recourse, and the meaning that these practices take on.