This paper examines the coverage of women’s health issues, preventive care and prophylaxis in 19th-century Polish popular medical periodicals, in particular Dziennik Zdrowia dla Wszystkich Stanów [ Journal of Health for all Social Classes] (1801–1802), Przyjaciel Zdrowia [ Health’s Friend] (1861–1863), Zdrowie [ Health] (1877/78–1880), and Lekarz [ The Physician] (1903/04–1904/05). The authors of this study try to find an answer to the question whether those periodicals did succeed in giving women’s health issues the rank and status warranted by their significance.
The presented article points to the issues of self-consciousness and the possibilities of its development. It defines in this context also concepts of self-evaluation, self-respect, self-appreciation, self-recognition, self-confidence and self-realization. In the text, it is emphasized that self-consciousness is related to the awareness of one´s own psychophysical and social identity - I myself and the world and my place in it. An important means for the development of the healthy self-consciousness is also praise. In the conclusion of the article, attention is paid to the psycho-hygiene as prevention of the failure.