Re: classical homeopathy
Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 8:19 pm
Dear Mr Winston,
Thank you for this explanation. You wrote:
I found this interesting piece in Hahnemann. "Some acute epidemic diseases
are particular acute miasms that recur in the same manner and are therefore
known by a traditional name...[i.e. a "disease label"] They are diseases
that recur often in a rather similar way, such as the levantine plague or
asiatic cholera [both "disease labels"], etc..." So, here he is suggesting
that the epidemic diseases may recur as the same disease; and he is using
the same names for them each time.
Then he goes on to say: "Since 1801 physicians have been confusing a kind of
purpura miliaris (roodvonk) that came from the west with scarlet fever, even
though they [the diseases] have quite different signs. Scarlet fever found
its preventative and curative means in Belladonna, while roodvonk found its
preventative and curative means in Aconite. In recent years the two diseases
sometimes seem to have combined themselves into an eruptive fever of its own
kind, for which neither Belladonna nor Aconite alone is exactly
homeopathically fitting [to the disease]." From what I gather from this, he
is saying that unless the disease mutates into a different form, then the
same remedies will always tend to work. So, it seems again that he is
fitting generalised remedies to a disease label, and only altering the
prescription if it is a different disease (or if the disease has been
misdiagnosed).
[Anna]> >Furthermore, Hahnemann says "Thus, in the year 1813, one patient
would be
[JW]>What you are discussing is the treatment of "epidemic disease."
Yes, that is exactly what Hahnemann did, in the quotation I had given. This
depends on being able to identify the disease from certain elements that may
vary slightly from patient to patient. But once that identification is made
and the disease known and "labelled", if we may say, then the choice of
remedy is fairly automatic. So it's not that we are treating the individual
patient, we are treating the disease as variously represented from
individual to individual, using a very narrow band of remedies for the
disease. Likewise, Hahnemann used copper for cholera, which is very
interesting as in mineral therapy this is well known as a traditional cure.
It doesn't seem as though the individual is taken into account here either,
or the "individual epidemic".
I also found that Hahnemann says similar things about the treatment of
chronic disease. "Just so, only upon a far larger scale, it is with the
Psora. This fundamental disease of so many chronic maladies, each of which
seems to be essentially different from the others, but really is not, as may
readily be seen from the agreement of several symptoms common to them which
appear as the disease runs its course, and also from their being healed
through the same remedy."
This seems to tally with Dr Ramakrishnan's method, where he tends to use the
same remedy all the time for a given thing, e.g. Lycopodium for lung cancer
/ Hekla lava and Symphytum for bone cancer / Hydrastis for cancer of the
stomach, pancreas and upper intestinal tract. It also tallies, it seems
(dare I say it???) with the Dr Reckeweg system where certain groups of
remedies are known to address certain diseases and are applied on a general
basis with excellent results.
The question has to be, then, did Hahnemann really "treat the person, not
the disease" as is so often claimed? It seems very clear from much of what
he said that his goal was to identify the disease through the individual,
using certain common hallmarks of that disease as his pointers. Then, based
on experience of which remedy would cure a certain disease, he would
generally resort to that same remedy for all cases of a given disease, only
altering the prescription if he saw that the disease had changed or mutated.
So perhaps according to Hahnemann, the disease label, as understood in terms
of homeopathic cure, is a perfectly valid guide?
Warmly,
Anna
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Thank you for this explanation. You wrote:
I found this interesting piece in Hahnemann. "Some acute epidemic diseases
are particular acute miasms that recur in the same manner and are therefore
known by a traditional name...[i.e. a "disease label"] They are diseases
that recur often in a rather similar way, such as the levantine plague or
asiatic cholera [both "disease labels"], etc..." So, here he is suggesting
that the epidemic diseases may recur as the same disease; and he is using
the same names for them each time.
Then he goes on to say: "Since 1801 physicians have been confusing a kind of
purpura miliaris (roodvonk) that came from the west with scarlet fever, even
though they [the diseases] have quite different signs. Scarlet fever found
its preventative and curative means in Belladonna, while roodvonk found its
preventative and curative means in Aconite. In recent years the two diseases
sometimes seem to have combined themselves into an eruptive fever of its own
kind, for which neither Belladonna nor Aconite alone is exactly
homeopathically fitting [to the disease]." From what I gather from this, he
is saying that unless the disease mutates into a different form, then the
same remedies will always tend to work. So, it seems again that he is
fitting generalised remedies to a disease label, and only altering the
prescription if it is a different disease (or if the disease has been
misdiagnosed).
[Anna]> >Furthermore, Hahnemann says "Thus, in the year 1813, one patient
would be
[JW]>What you are discussing is the treatment of "epidemic disease."
Yes, that is exactly what Hahnemann did, in the quotation I had given. This
depends on being able to identify the disease from certain elements that may
vary slightly from patient to patient. But once that identification is made
and the disease known and "labelled", if we may say, then the choice of
remedy is fairly automatic. So it's not that we are treating the individual
patient, we are treating the disease as variously represented from
individual to individual, using a very narrow band of remedies for the
disease. Likewise, Hahnemann used copper for cholera, which is very
interesting as in mineral therapy this is well known as a traditional cure.
It doesn't seem as though the individual is taken into account here either,
or the "individual epidemic".
I also found that Hahnemann says similar things about the treatment of
chronic disease. "Just so, only upon a far larger scale, it is with the
Psora. This fundamental disease of so many chronic maladies, each of which
seems to be essentially different from the others, but really is not, as may
readily be seen from the agreement of several symptoms common to them which
appear as the disease runs its course, and also from their being healed
through the same remedy."
This seems to tally with Dr Ramakrishnan's method, where he tends to use the
same remedy all the time for a given thing, e.g. Lycopodium for lung cancer
/ Hekla lava and Symphytum for bone cancer / Hydrastis for cancer of the
stomach, pancreas and upper intestinal tract. It also tallies, it seems
(dare I say it???) with the Dr Reckeweg system where certain groups of
remedies are known to address certain diseases and are applied on a general
basis with excellent results.
The question has to be, then, did Hahnemann really "treat the person, not
the disease" as is so often claimed? It seems very clear from much of what
he said that his goal was to identify the disease through the individual,
using certain common hallmarks of that disease as his pointers. Then, based
on experience of which remedy would cure a certain disease, he would
generally resort to that same remedy for all cases of a given disease, only
altering the prescription if he saw that the disease had changed or mutated.
So perhaps according to Hahnemann, the disease label, as understood in terms
of homeopathic cure, is a perfectly valid guide?
Warmly,
Anna
_________________________________________________________________
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http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger