Hahnemann's cases

[robin9168]

Oh dear, Ive thrown the cat amongs the pigeons now. Actually I
am not a Sam basher at all even though it is clear i am going to
be labelled one from now on. Im just trying to be pragmatic.
What I meant about his cases is that any homeopathic
educational institution would expect higher standards of case
taking, analysis and follow up than we see in most of H's cases.
The frequecy with which he changes remedies and the basis for
his prescriptions is often amazing - constipation - plumbum etc.
To me his cases do not reflect the high ideals he expresses in
the Organon. I also think that many modern readers read his
cases through Hahnemann coloured spectacles. If I presented
cases like that to Homeopathic Links it would ruin my reputation
forever.

I think Ill take cover now......

[muthu kumar]

Robin-
I feel sorry to see that with each posting you are getting deeper
into this morass...

Looking at your posting I am reminded how my Professor of Medicine
used to practice. As medical students we are taught how to take the
case. Generally our case sheet would run to a few pages and each
detail would be in the case taking form. Even with this the Professor
would look for a detail which most of us would have missed. This
particular professor, an excellent clinician, had such a grasp of
clinical presentations, he would walk into the waiting room look at
the patients for a couple of minutes and tell us the diagnosis or
something close to it. He did not need the 5 pages for arriving at a
diagnosis. We know if WE presented cases like this we will be failed
but would not dream of finding fault with his method which was
arrived after countless years of close study.

Hahnemann who had personally proved all the medicines of original
materia medica and who probably knew more about these than we would
ever know in our life time. Do you not understand that he is
qualitatively different from us? HE is the founder. It is HIS legacy
that we are following. Personally if I could even practice with
quarter the amount of his conviction, erudition and application I
would the best that there is.

Coming back to his cases, he did not believe in publishing Clinical
Cases. He introduces the first 2 cases he presented thus:

"The request of some friends, halting half-way on the road to this
method of treatment, to detail some examples of this treatment, is
difficult to comply with, and no great advantage can attend a
compliance with it. Every cured case of disease shows only how that
case has been treated.

The internal process of the treatment depends always on those
principles which are already known, and they cannot be rendered
concrete and definitely fixed for each individual case, nor can they
become at all more distinct from the history of a single cure that
they previously were when these principles were enunciated.

Every case of non-miasmatic disease is peculiar and special, and it
is the special in it that distinguishes it from every other case,
that pertains to it alone, but that cannot serve as a guide to the
treatment of other cases. Now, if it is wished to describe a
complicated case of disease consisting of many symptoms in such a
pragmatic manner that the reasons that influence us in the choice of
the remedy shall be clearly revealed, this demands details laborious
at once for the recorder and for the reader. In order, however, to
comply with the desires of my friends in this also, I may here detail
two of the slightest cases of Homeopathic treatment"

This is how he presented his cases - not for getting published in
Homeo Links or some journal , not to market his new way so that he
can get a seminar chance but because he had to against his
will....Totally different from the 10 or whatever cooked up cases
people present for getting admission to any society.

At least half the cases that are presented in Homeo Links do not
represent true Homeopathic case taking- if women wearing particular
glasses get Naja ( esp. if they are wearing dresses that look like
snake skin) and if this gets published in Homeo Links - I am certain
Hahnemann would not lower his status by publishing in it...Any way
that is another story - ain't it?

I do not consider you a Sam Basher; but please UNDERSTAND his
background, the time he practiced, the ideas that he brought forth
and the materia medica that he gave us and the philosphy he espoused
before throwing any more cats and dogs amongst the pigeons...
-- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "robin9168" wrote:

[Caro Andujar]

I won't label you as a Sam basher:-)
It's an interesting argument.

--- robin9168 wrote:
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[Shannon Nelson]

))
Robin, this makes sense to me!
How many of us keep case notes suitable for submission--c'mon, really
now!
Presumably Hahnemann's cases were written for pragmatic reasons--to jog
his own memory; to keep track sufficiently that *he* could recall what
had gone on, and why. Why on Earth should we assume they'd be written
up with full reasons and explanations? And surely that *is* what we'd
expect from academic write-ups?

The point I *think* Robin was trying to make with that remark is (?)
simply that there's only so much we can learn from working notes; a lot
will be guesses and assumptions. (???)
Shannon

[Simon King LCPH MARH]

Most of the students or graduates I see would argue that those 10 cases
ARE against their will
Simon

[David Little]

At 04:16 AM 6/21/2005, you wrote:

Pragmatism comes from showing both sides of an issue, weighing the
evidence in a balanced fashion, and integrating the essence. It seems that
some of the words chosen are rather "cat-like" and it is clear that some of
us are considered "pigeons". Some persons seem almost jealous of Hahnemann.
Show him a respect and quote his works and you are likely to get chewed on!
Very few of Hahnemann's casebooks have been translated into English.
Almost all of his cases are in German and French. Which cases are your
speaking about? What folios are they from? What period of Hahnemann's
career do they come from? How many of Hahnemann's cases have you studied?
Can you present the complete case and symptoms around the Plumbum
prescription you quoted? What are your references and sources of
information? Is this all based only the case fragments and opinions found
in Rima Handley's book? If so, you haven't even seen 10 full cases.

I have studied 100s of Hahnemann's cases on microfiche firsthand.
Although they represent the birth of homeopathy not its adulthood, I have
learned some very valuable things from studying these cases. I have been
particularly benefited by the Paris casebooks in the areas of posology,
dose adjustment and case management. The same can be said of the Organon,
the Chronic Diseases, and the Lesser Writings. I also study the works of
Boenninghausen, Jahr, Hering, Lippe, Allen, Kent and Boger as well as
contemporary authors. A person who sees nothing in the historical material
usually has not done much serious research or does not have the background
to understand what they are looking at.
You are well aware of what you are doing. Try to shock, make a token
apology, then try to shock again. On top of this is the use of words like
"holy book", "fundamentalism" and "Hahnemann colored spectacles" in an
effort to devaluate the research and clinical experience of others. This is
starting to look like a crusading iconoclast that wishes to break what he
considers the "heathen idols" of others and convert them to his own
religion. Much of what is going down reminds me a bit of Don Quixote
chasing windmills.

Sincerely, David Little

---------------
"It is the life-force which cures diseases because a dead man needs no more
medicines."

Samuel Hahnemann

Visit our website on Hahnemannian Homoeopathy and Cyberspace Homoeopathic
Academy at
http://www.simillimum.com
David Little © 2000