Economics and Medicine: History of Terminological Interaction

Abstract

The article discusses the use of medical terms in economics. Within the framework of the stated objective, a brief historical excursion into the use of medical metaphors and analogies as evidence and examples in economic theory is given. Often the appearance of medical analogies and metaphors in economics is explained by anthropomorphism - the attribution of human qualities to surrounding objects and phenomena. This also happens with words that undergo semantic changes, while remaining the same in expression. The process of transformation of modern economic terms goes both in the direction of the future and the past, since the transfer of a term is successful only when it is understandable to a large number of specialists in the recipient science. The need to use medical methods in economic research is especially clearly seen in the use of psychological approaches to nonstandard human behavior in the modern interpretation of neoclassicism, supplemented by behavioral economics. The conclusions of the article are that psychological models and their medical interpretations and experiments in economic management objectively cannot claim the level of strict evidence of a similar medical diagnosis, but economic theory, proposing solutions in the field of economic policy, should not abandon medical interpretations of experiment.