Digest Number 291

[Cl.Mennel]

Dear Andrew, dear Piet, dear Soroush,
dear Co-Minutusists,

your misunderstandings seem to be linguistically caused:
There is no one to one equivalant in translation, as Dr Ardavan clearly
states in his article on minutus website.

1. If you look up "Beschaffenheit" which is the term used in Hahnemann's
Organon, you will find some of the following terms in any German-Enlisch
dictioary: 'compostion, constitution, nature, qualities, dispostion,
make-up, state'.

2. If you, however, look up "constitution" in the English-German
dictionary, you definitely won't find "Beschaffenheit", but rather one
of the following terms: 'Verfassung, Satzung, KONSTITUTION; GESUNDHEIT;
Aufbau, Zusammensetzung, Einrichtung'

3. Hahnemann's German is not the German of today, it is the German
Goethe and Schiller wrote, the German of 1800, but a language develops
(even German!)
Therefore I looked up "Beschaffenheit" in Deutsches Wörterbuch by Jacob
und Wilhelm Grimm, Bd.1
And there the following Latin equivilants are given: conditio, qualitas
(qualificatio)

4. Hahnemann says Aphorism § 5 of The Organon:

"Leibesbeschaffenheit" is not "Kostitution" in German. The first could
be described as state of the body, physical qualities. The latter is
more or less an equivilant to the English 'constitution' (politically,
philosophically)

5. So using the term 'constition' causes a lot of trouble. Constitution
has got something to do with the concept of temperament (See Dr
Ardavan's article)

6. In § 6 of his Organon Hahnemann says:

"Der vorurteilslose Beobachter - die Nichtigkeit übersinnlicher
Ergrübelungen kennend, die sich in der Erfahrung nicht nachweisen
lassen,- nimmt, auch wenn er der scharfsinnigste ist, an jeder einzelnen
Krankheit nichts, als äußerlich durch die Sinne erkennbare Veränderungen
im Befinden des Leibes und der Seele, KRANKHEITSZEICHEN, ZUFÄLLE,
SYMPTOME wahr, das ist, Abweichungen vom gesunden, ehemaligen Zustande
des jetzt Kranken, die dieser selbst fühlt, die die Umstehenden an ihm
wahrnehmen, und die der Arzt an ihm beobachtet. Alle diese wahrnehmbaren
Zeichen repräsentieren die Krankheit in ihrem ganzen Umfange, das ist,
sie bilden zusammen die wahre und einzig denkbare Gestalt der
Krankheit."
Message: 10

And not to forget § 5
4. exciting cause (Veranlassung)
5. fundamental cause (Grundursache)
6. state of body,
7. emotional and spiritual tendencies,
8. occupation, habit, way of living,
9. social and domestic environment,
are to be taken in consideration.
We consider percivable states of mind as well, changes of body and mind
(German "Seele" is mind, soul in English)

The most important point is that we observe the patient,
thus we find symptoms, phenomena, deviations etc.
The most important word is "unprejudiced" (vorurteilslos).
According to my concept and understanding of the Organon, one has not
got a fixed set of constitions to fit the patient in nor has one got to
pin the patient down to a certain temperament. Those had been the
straitjackets Hahnemann freed us from.

Alle diese wahrnehmbaren Zeichen repräsentieren die Krankheit in ihrem
ganzen Umfange, das ist, sie bilden zusammen die wahre und einzig
denkbare Gestalt der Krankheit."

Those signs are objectively perceptible, by the practitioner as well as
the diseased and other onlookers.
It's the objectivity that's stressed. Everyone can see it, homeopahty
has nothing to do with the occult, the techings of former centuries (the
medicine before Hahnemann), it's not an ideology (like anthoposophic
medicine), it is a science based on emprirical studies and clinical
research.

Those tendencies are part of experience and case study, they help to
find the correct remedy.

Hahnemann's Organon § 80
...Die Psora, jene wahre GRUND-URSACHE und Erzeugerin fast aller übrigen
häufigen, ja unzähligen Krankheits-Formen...

Look at § 80 and § 81 Organon
"...welche Menge von Umständen zur Bildung dieser großen Verschiedenheit
chronischer Krankheiten (secundäre Symptome der Psora) beizutragen
pflegen, auch außer der unbeschreiblichen Mannigfaltigkeit der Menschen
in ihren angebornen Körper-Constitutionen, welche schon für sich so
unendlich von einander abweichen, daß es kein Wunder ist, wenn auf so
verschiedne, vom psorischen Miasm surchdrungene Organismen, so viele
verschieden, oft dauernd von innen und von außen enwirkende
Schädlichkeiten auch unzählbar verschiedne Mängel, Verderbnisse,
Verstimmungen und Leiden hervorbringen ..."

§ 81

The fact that this extremely ancient infecting agent has gradually
passed, in some hundreds of generations, through many millions of human
organisms and has thus attained an incredible development, renders it in
some measure conceivable how it can now display such innumerable morbid
forms in the great family of mankind, particularly when we consider what
a number of circumstances1 contribute to the production of these great
varieties of chronic diseases (secondary symptoms of psora), besides the
indescribable diversity of men in respect of their congenital corporeal
constitutions, so that it is no wonder if such a variety of injurious
agencies, acting from within and from without and sometimes continually,
on such a variety of organisms permeated with the psoric miasm, should
produce an innumerable variety of defects, injuries, derangements and
sufferings, which have hitherto been treated of in the old pathological
works2, under a number of special names, as diseases of an independent
character.

Here again: Psora is the reason of manifold diseases, due to
circumstance and CONSTITION; constition is not a fixed set of traits and
features, but open concept to Hahnemann. He uses constitution as
description of the bodily condition and disposition. There are a variety
of constitons as there are diversity of men.

Sorry, Hahnemannian Homeopathy prescribes according to oberservation,
"all these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent".
Constitution in the sense of the state of the body and its changes, may
be one of these signs.
No It's not, look at § 82 Organon
" ... for settling the indication in each case of chronic (psoric)
disease he is called on to cure, the duty of a careful apprehension of
its ascertainable symptoms and characteristics is as indispensable for
the homœopathic physician ..."

The peculiarity "love of thunderstorms" is but one of many possible
charactericitcs, there are many rubrics to phosphorus. Misguided would
be only he who prescribed phos. only due to that peculiarity. On the
other hand "loves to watch thunderstorms" is bell.-p., carc., lyc., sep.
Anyway, thanks
your emails inspired me to have a close look at the "Organon" again.

All the best
Claudia

[isali ben-jacob]

Well stated claudia. I appreciate your thoughtful response.

Cl.Mennel@t-online.de wrote:

[Piet Guijt]

claudia wrote:

nothing
Claudia,

Thanks for sharing your linquistic insights with us.

To me 'emotional and spiritual tendencies' implies a full psychological
picture of the patients innate and aquired features, including temperament.
These are mental general symptoms.
Same for 'state of body', these are physical generals.
You said: "all these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole
extent".
but also: 'And not to forget § 5', but now you do.

Sorry,

Piet Guijt