“LIFE FORCE” AND LONGEVITY (BASED ON MATERIALS OF RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS FROM XIX–EARLY XX CENTURIES)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33876/2224-9680/2019-2-18/12

Abstract

A review of scientific and popular literature issued in XIX-early XX century Russia revealed a dependency between a person’s active life span and reservoir for a certain force called “vitality”, “life energy”, or “life force”. The source for this type of energy is the parents’ reserves, which they share with their children at the moment of conception, and this predefines the child’s short or long life. According to the concepts of expenditure and replenishment of life force in the process of living, a person can control his life span. Similar beliefs about “virality” reserves in the organism still exist today.

Citation link:

Koldman S. D. (2019). “Zhiznennaja sila” i dolgoletie (po materialam russkojazychnyh izdanij XIX – nachala HH vv.) “Life Force” and Longevity (Based on Materials of Russian-language Publications from XIX–early XX centuries). Medicinskaja antropologija i biojetika [Medical Anthropology and Bioethics], 18 (2).

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