Colucci Francesco Paolo, Montali Lorenzo
Dipartimento di psicologia, Università di Milano-Bicocca, piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano.
Epidemiol Prev. 2003 May-Jun;27(3):180-5.
In this research, we suppose that the Di Bella case showed a separation, that is at the basis of the relation between people and the "official medicine", in an emblematic way: the separation between the reified universe--that is the scientific research with its necessary and universal rules, the medical practice, the medical and governmental institutions--and the consensual universe--the common sense, the emotions and the thoughts of people, of the patients and of their relatives. At the same time, these dynamics of the relationship between science and public opinion are framed in the context of the historical and political Italian situation of the Nineties to explain the origin and the development of the affair. Because of the priority role attributed to the mass-media in building the case, this research analyses all the articles on the Di Bella case published in Panorama and L'Espresso--two magazines chosen because they represent different cultural and political tendencies--by experimenting the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. From our analysis, an ancient culture emerges, that is expressed by the stereotype of the no hope illness and by the repetition of consolidated common places: on one side the irrationality of the masses and the Italian character, on the other side the veneration for the science and the unquestionable trust in the guarantee provided by a foreign hospital or by a foreign research centre. At the same time, a positive role of the public opinion points out, which is able to get some negative sides of the reified universe and to give voice to the needs of the patients and of all common people who have to face with--or are afraid of facing with--the cancer, a prototypical illness which arouses fears and anxieties.
在本研究中，我们认为迪贝拉事件以一种具有象征意义的方式呈现了人与“正统医学”之间关系的一种分裂：这种分裂存在于物化的世界——即有着必要且普遍规则的科学研究、医疗实践、医疗及政府机构——与共识的世界——常识、患者及其亲属的情感和思想——之间。与此同时，科学与舆论之间这种关系的动态变化置于20世纪90年代意大利的历史和政治背景下来解释该事件的起源与发展。由于大众媒体在构建该事件中所扮演的首要角色，本研究通过整合定性和定量方法，分析了发表在《全景》和《快报》上所有关于迪贝拉事件的文章——选择这两份杂志是因为它们代表了不同的文化和政治倾向。从我们的分析中，一种古老的文化浮现出来，它通过绝症的刻板印象以及既定陈词滥调的重复得以体现：一方面是大众的非理性和意大利人的性格，另一方面是对科学的崇敬以及对外国医院或外国研究中心提供的保障的 unquestionable trust（原文有误，可改为unquestioning trust，意为“毫无质疑的信任”）。同时，舆论的积极作用也凸显出来，它能够揭示物化世界的一些负面情况，并为患者以及所有不得不面对——或害怕面对——癌症（一种引发恐惧和焦虑的典型疾病）的普通人的需求发声。
