In the language of medicine, we are accustomed to thinking of active ingredients as the chemicals in drugs that are responsible for the desired therapeutic effects. Paracetamol, for example, contains acetaminophen as an active ingredient: a compound capable of blocking pain impulses and reducing inflammation.
But what if we move this concept from the biochemical laboratory to the human experience? What if we move out of the realm of drugs and into the realm of culture, behavior, and community?
In recent years, public health research has also begun to talk about active ingredients for nonpharmacological interventions: arts activities, mental health programs, or social initiatives. In this context, active ingredients are the active elements of activities-those that “make something happen” in body, mind and relationship.
A theater workshop, for example, may have among its active ingredients self-narrative, contact with the other, and bodily expression. These elements activate psychological and social mechanisms-such as increased self-efficacy, reduced isolationor emotional processing-that in turn generate outcomes: improved mental health, physical well-being, quality of life.
In other words, what happens within an activity is never neutral. The colors blending on a canvas, the words shared in a group, the music resonating in a room — these are all active ingredients that trigger deep, sometimes silent, but measurable transformations.
It is important to recognize these ingredients because they allow us to understand how and why certain activities work. It is not enough to know that “art is good for you”: we need to understand what inside culture is good for, and for whom. This awareness serves not only research, but also the design of interventions that are more effective, more equitable, more capable of responding to people’s real needs.
After all, even a caress, a story or a collective gesture can be as active as a pill. Only, instead of acting on a biochemical receptor, they speak to the human heart.
Carolina Zarrilli – PhD student in Medical Humanities and scientific curator