Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines the alternative health culture among Russian-speaking residents in Germany with a Soviet or post-Soviet background. My research reveals a prevalent low level of trust in the German healthcare system and government, viewed as a rational adaptation strategy to uncertainties. This distrust is exacerbated by significant differences in healthcare systems and difficulties in accessing medical care, leading individuals to adopt unconventional practices such as self-diagnosis and importing medications. Ultimately, my research highlights a distinct culture of health that emerges from these alternative approaches to care.

Paper Abstract:

In my paper, I would like to discuss the alternative health culture developed by Russian-speaking people in Germany. My research focuses on individuals from the Russian-speaking community with a Soviet or post-Soviet background currently residing in Germany and their attitudes toward the German healthcare system. The data I have collected indicates a prevalent low level of trust among this group in the social system and the government. I view such distrust as a rational adaptation strategy to frequent crises and uncertainties, leading to the habitual circumvention of formal rules and a destabilization of the classical biomedical narrative, accompanied by a shift in doctor-patient roles.

This distrust is worsened by significant differences between healthcare systems in post-Soviet countries and Germany, along with difficulties in accessing medical care due to system overload. Shadow exchanges, importing prescription medications from other countries, self-diagnosis, self-prescribing therapies, and trips to third countries for treatment that may not always be appropriate - these practices, which are “unwritten” and remain invisible, can be interpreted negatively on one hand, while on the other hand, they (unexpectedly) prove to be effective in some situations.

As a result, my research participants resort to an alternative culture of caring for their bodies and health. This culture emphasizes not the dichotomy between traditional and non-traditional methods of treatment, but rather the emergence of a distinct shadow reality of medical practices.