The monograph by T. is the result of many years of her research in the field of medical ethnography (ethnomedicine) and ethnobotany. The work compiled a huge array of information about substances (mainly of plant origin, but also of animal and mineral origin) which were used in the treatment process. The ideas of Russians about the causes of illnesses, where supernatural causes (demonic or magical effects) occupied the main place, are scrupulously investigated. The cause of infectious diseases, as well as psychosomatic and neurological (klikota), was considered demonic (demons of diseases, ‘fire serpent’) or magical effects (‘evil eye’, ‘purposeful damage’). The book also tells about the process of treatment, in which the main role was assigned to healers and midwives.
The monograph consists of four chapters: ‘Traditional physiotherapeutic methods of treatment’, ‘Traditional remedies of plant, animal, and mineral origin’, ‘Diseases and their treatment’, ‘Diseases and folk methods of healing’.
The work is of interest not only for researchers of traditional medicine, but also for those who study folk demonological ideas, as well as for those who is interested in various aspects of the interaction of religion and psychotherapy/psychiatry.