UDC

159.9.016.12

Authors

Volkov Aleksey Vladimirovich
Petrozavodsk State University
33 prosp. Lenina, Petrozavodsk, 185910, Russian Federation;
e-mail: alexvolkoff@bk.ru

Abstract

Current advances in biotechnology have resulted in the need to analyse anthropological aspects of this technology. This paper aimed to explicate the understanding of the human body, which is used in modern transplantation technologies. The analysis was based on the theoretical framework of phenomenology and psychoanalysis. Empirical data on organ transplantation were used to demonstrate that these technologies are based not only on the mechanistic vision of the body as an object consisting of impersonal and replaceable parts, but also on the phenomenological concept of body image. Further, the author studied the phenomenon of transfer of personality traits from the donor to the recipient, claiming that the hypothesis of such a transfer is a result of an erroneous confusion of neurophysiological and mental processes. The paper demonstrates that an adequate understanding of the phenomenon of “inherited memories” is based on the synthesis of the biological and psychological approaches to this phenomenon. It is shown that since the production of stem cells is based on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and destruction of spare embryos, the use of stem cells to cultivate tissues can have a negative effect on the stability and homogeneity of the recipient’s identity. Taking into consideration the ambivalence of such a concept and object as the human body, we can come to understand the challenges and requirements that modern transplantation technologies are faced with. Transplantation implies that the clinician can successfully work with the intentional sphere of the human mind while the patient develops the ability to switch from one bodily identity to the other (the so-called intercorporeality).

Keywords

body image, recipient, donor identity, transplantation technology

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