The Quintessence of Hahnemann’s Organon

[Sheri Nakken]

The Quintessence of Hahnemann’s Organon

http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/essence.htm
The Quintessence of Hahnemann’s Organon
Peter Morrell
2002

The essence of the Organon mostly resides in the
first 82 aphorisms, and when these are correctly
summarised we can begin to get a clearer overview
of the entirety of Hahnemann’s medical thinking.
This short article attempts to give precisely
such a view. Initially, a summary of the Organon
will be attempted, followed by a short discussion
of the main points it conveys.

Hahnemann’s Organon (first published 1810), was
clearly modelled on some profound philosophical
works and he seems to have regarded its aphorisms as sacrosanct:

“..the 'Organon of the Art of Healing' - is
presented in sections after the manner of
a legal code. [its]... sections manifest the
notable and intimidating terseness of legal
paragraphs, which, despite their unequivocal and
final character, can scarcely be understood
without prolific commentaries. Many authoritative
minds have expounded them, and have read into
them profound significance or nonsense, according
to their own estimate.” [Gumpert, 133]
Summary of Organon [Part 1]
Aphorism 1 states that mission of the physician
is to heal gently and safely, to place the
patient in greater freedom: “to establish freedom
should be the aim of the physician, and if a
physician’s work does not result in placing his
patient in freedom he cannot heal the sick,”
[Kent, 1900, 79] Yet, the medicine of today has
indeed “reduced the patient’s autonomy to a
therapeutic choice of drugs or surgery,”
[Diamond; 11] which stands as a chilling
indictment of its claim to cure disease, which is
nothing other than a sorry state of medical
dependency masquerading as true cure. This woeful
situation obviously flies in the face of Kent’s
insistence that cure should: “leave the patient
in freedom always.” [Kent, 1900, 160-1]

The purpose of medicine Hahnemann envisaged, and
which he described in his Organon: is “to restore
the sick to health…[Organon, Aph. 1]…rapid,
gentle and permanent restoration of health…in the
shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way,
[Organon, Aph. 2]…it is only this spiritual, self
acting (automatic) vital force, everywhere
present in his organism, that is primarily
deranged by the dynamic influence upon it of a
morbific agent inimical to life…[Organon, Aph.
11] for it is the morbidly affected vital force
alone that produces disease, [Organon, Aph. 12]
[and cure must remove] all such morbid
derangements (diseases)…by the spirit-like
(dynamic, virtual) alterative powers of the
serviceable medicines acting upon our spirit-like
vital force, [Organon, Aph. 15]…[for] it is only
by their dynamic action on the vital force that
remedies are able to re-establish and do actually
re-establish health and vital harmony.” [Organon, Aph. 16]

Aphorism 2 states that cure must be mild,
safe, gentle and permanent. Aphorisms 5 and 6
declare that a disease must be viewed as a
totality, not as a small part of the patient.
Aphorism 7, one of the most important in the
entire book, states that all diseases are caused
by derangements in the vital force.

"Let it be granted now...that no disease...is
caused by any material substance, but that every
one is only and always a peculiar, virtual,
dynamic derangement of the health..." [Organon, Introduction, 10]

All disease is construed as a "dynamic
aberration of our spiritlike life," [Close, 67];
"a perverted vital action," [Close, 70]; "disease
is the suffering of the dynamis," [Close, 72];
"disease is primarily a morbid disturbance or
disorderly action of the vital force," [Close,
74]. Close is most emphatic in insisting that
disease is "not a thing, but only the condition of a thing," [Close, 70].

Aphorism 8 states that the disease is gone
when the symptoms are removed; and that
obversely, the cause is gone when the disease is
removed ­ we can assume these are both gone when
either one is removed gently and safely.
Aphorisms 9 and 10 state that the organism is
ruled over by a spiritual autocracy or vital
force. Aphorisms 11, 12 and 17 declare that
disease is solely a derangement in the vital force.

"In the healthy condition of man, the
spiritual vital force [autocracy], the dynamis
that animates the material body [organism], rules
with unbounded sway..." [Organon, Aph. 9]

"The champions of this clumsy doctrine of
morbific matters ought to be ashamed that they
have so inconsiderately overlooked and failed to
appreciate the spiritual nature of life, and the
spiritual dynamic power of the exciting causes of diseases." [Organon, 9]

"...homeopathy...can easily convince...that
the diseases of man are not caused by any
substance, any acridity...any disease matter, but
that they are solely spirit-like [dynamic]
derangements of the spirit-like power [the vital
principle] that animates the human body." [Organon, xxix]

Aphorism 18 declares that disease must also be
viewed as a totality [holism]. Aphorisms 13, 15
and 16 declare that disease and the deranged
vital force are two names for the same thing, and
that disease cannot be viewed as an entity.
Aphorism 14 states that both cause and cure of
disease are internal, not external to the patient.

“I am convinced that diseases are subdued by
agents which produce similar affections."
[Organon, 4th edition, New York, 91].” [Bradford, 42, 1st edition]

Aphorisms 16, 19 and 22 state that only
medicines like the disease is truly curative.
These aphorisms outline the ‘law of similars.’
Aphorisms 20 and 21 declare the spirit-like
nature of the drug in both its curative and its
health-deranging action. Aphorism 23 states that
any system employing medical contraries is an
uncurative system. Aphorisms 24, 25, 27 and 28
declare the absolute superiority of similars in
medicine. Aphorism 26 declares that displacement
by similars is curative. Aphorisms 29 and 43-47
declare that only displaced diseases based on
similars have been truly and fully cured without
leaving any residue of disease cause in the
organism. Aphorisms 32-35 and 50-51 state that
only drugs employed for disease displacement are
curative if they are employed correctly ­ i.e. by
law of similars. Aphorisms 36-42, 48 and 54-57
all declare that dissimilar diseases and contrary
drugs are similarly uncurative.

“Many examples might be adduced of diseases
which, in the course of nature, have been
homeopathically cured by other diseases
presenting similar symptoms...” [Organon, Aph 46]

“...after the primary action of a medicine
that produces in large doses a great change in
the health of a healthy person, that its exact
opposite, when, as has been observed, there is
actually such a thing, is produced in the
secondary action by our vital force.” [Organon, Aph.65]

Aphorism 52 states that aggravations are more
likely from using similar drugs, which can
inflame the symptoms of disease. Aphorism 53
speaks of mild and gentle nature of true cures.
Aphorism 58 states that medicine based on
anti-pathic methods may palliate and give
temporary symptom relief, but such treatment of
parts and disease labels is not effective in the
longer run or for disease as a totality. Aphorism
59 explores the primary and secondary effects of
drugs. Aphorisms 60 and 62 say that only
suppression, not cure, ensues from the use of
contraries [allopathy]. Aphorism 61 states that
safe true cures are only obtained through similar
[homeopathic] drugs. Aphorism 63 medicines
derange the vital force ­ that is their
spirit-like power [provings] and is called the
primary action. Aphorism 64 says the body mounts
a counter-attack against this primary attack and
this reaction is mounted by the vital force and
comprises the secondary effect of a drug.
Aphorisms 65 and 66 explore with detailed
examples the primary and secondary actions of
drugs. Aphorism 67 - only homeopathy is truly beneficial to health.

Aphorism 68 says that only very small doses of
drugs are required to stimulate and mimic the
curative secondary effects that the vital force
can mount to throw off a disease or a drug.
Aphorism 69 declares that allopathy is an
uncurative medical system. Aphorisms 70-72 give a
summary of all the points made so far in the
Organon. Aphorism 73 considers acute disease and
aphorisms 74 and 77-79 consider chronic diseases.
Aphorisms 80-82 consider the three miasmatic
chronic disorders as dyscrasias. The rest of the
book comprises supplements about taking the case
and other matters, without making any
substantially new points to those above.
Therefore, the above points comprise the core of homeopathic philosophy.
Discussion
The Organon concentrates on discussing three
major themes and much of its verbiage can be
condensed down into such a discussion. It first
makes statements about the nature of disease [as
a totality]; second, it makes statements about
the nature of the organism [being ruled over by a
governing totality or vital force]; thirdly, it
tells us about how a disease totality can be
removed or cured gently, permanently and
non-suppressively; fourthly, this leads on to
certain conclusions about the nature of the
organism [confirms vitalism] and the nature of
drugs [confirms attenuation]. The core of the
Organon therefore revolves around the nature of
the organism, the nature of disease and the
nature of drugs and how all three can achieve true cure.

Because disease is a totality, that must be
treated and cured as a totality [not via parts],
so disease is depicted as a derangement of the
vital force. Thus, all physico-chemical
approaches to disease are doomed as non-curative
and suppressive because they deal only with
effects and not causes and they therefore fail to reach the core of the matter.

Consequently, we can say that if disease is a
derangement of the life force as stated [i.e.
miasms], then no chemical or material approach
can [a] cause disease and cure disease.
Clearly also, disease cause, being immaterial in
nature, is resident in the immaterial vital force
and not in the cells or tissues per se. That
attenuated remedies alone can achieve the safe
and gentle removal of disease rests upon the
totality of their impact on the organism
[provings] and upon the similarly immaterial
nature of disease cause and potentised drug. If
poisons and pathogens can cause disease, it is
because of their health-deranging impact on the
vital force, i.e. by the strong immaterial
essence they carry, rather than upon any direct
physico-chemical effect, they induce.

"...the old school of medicine believed it
might cure diseases in a direct manner by the
removal of the [imaginary] material cause..." [Organon, 4]

"These [allopathically conceived disease
entities]...were all idle dreams, unfounded
assumptions and hypotheses, cunningly devised for
the convenience of therapeutics...the easiest way
of performing a cure would be to remove the
material, morbific matters..." [Organon, 7]

"The organism is indeed the material
instrument of life, but it is not conceivable
without the animation imparted to it by the
instinctively perceiving and regulating vital force..." [Organon, Aph. 15]

“That which we call disease, is but a change
in the Vital Force expressed by the totality of
the symptoms.” [Kent, 1925, 661]

The best way to gain a complete and pure
understanding of the whole topic is to consider
the flow of argument that Hahnemann, Close, and
Kent present to their readers and to boil it down
to its basic points. Close examination of these
arguments and reflection upon their respective
claims and contentions, reveals a powerful and
consistent thread that runs through them all.
This thread concerns the nature of disease as a
totality; the impact of drugs as a totality
[provings]; the mode of cure, i.e. disease
removal that is gentle, safe, permanent and
non-suppressive [similars and small doses] and
therefore, as a consequence, the most likely
natures of the organism [viz, vital force], of
disease [viz, deranged vital force], of drugs and
their mode of use in cure [viz, similars and case totality].

It is in this meticulously constructed core of
argument, of the Organon and its interpreters,
that unambiguously points to the immaterial
nature of life phenomena [in health and disease]
and their governance [vital force], of drugs, of
disease and of cure. In that respect, it becomes
very clear that the cause and the safe and
complete cure of disease cannot be achieved by
any material or chemical agencies that are
brought to bear upon the organism, but solely via
attenuated drugs acting upon an immaterial
governor of the organism [vital force]. This is
certainly the main thrust of the first 80 or so
aphorisms of the Organon. This entirely
substantiates a vitalist position re disease,
organism and drug and therefore a vitalist view
of the nature and cure of disease. It all hangs
together very neatly ­ it is an impressive piece of seamless logic.

By these remarks, and their frequent and
emphatic repetition, Hahnemann makes it
unambiguously clear that he regards homeopathy as
a vitalist system of medicine in a direct line
with previous similar systems such as those of
Stahl [1660-1734], van Helmont [1577-1644] and
Paracelsus [1493-1541]. Having already ruled out
such factors as efficient means of curing
disease, Hahnemann could then have been led, by
his own reasoning, towards the idea of adopting
immaterial drugs. Aph 52, concerning aggravations, also led him there.

For not immediately obvious reasons, Hahnemann
also spends a lot of time discussing two further
topics of central importance. One is the way
similar diseases can neutralise each other [Aph.
26, 29, 43-7], and the other concerns the primary
and secondary effects of drugs [Aph. 59, 63-66].
The first of these is probably much more
important than it first looks. For example, his
comments about one disease displacing another
similar disease, in the same person, could also
have suggested to him that only one disease as a
totality can safely displace another as a
totality and that partial displacements, by
partially dissimilar diseases [poorly-matching
non-totalities] are unsuccessful and, at times,
suppressive. His observation of similar diseases
displacing each other could also have suggested
to him that a disease is an immaterial entity
rather than a material entity. It could have
suggested that displacement of a disease by a
similar immaterial disease entity is a parallel
to the use of a similar drug-induced artificial
disease, bearing a similarly immaterial nature to
the original disease [i.e. true homeopathy]. This
would mean that the displacement of an
essentially immaterial true disease by a similar
drug-disease is successful because they are both
attenuated totalities, not simply because they are similar.

Therefore, we can see that these phenomena not
only suggested totality [holism] and similars,
but can also be seen to underpin the notion of
the drug as an immaterial entity. In this sense,
this phenomenon could have suggested
potentisation [increasing the immateriality of a
drug] to him as well. This could have led him to
think about how to attenuate medicines in order
to bring them to a level of similarity to the
immateriality of the vital force and the disease
entity that has ‘invaded’ it. This perspective
would contribute towards solving a mystery about
the origins of potentisation, which seems to be
an idea very original to Hahnemann and with few
if any precedents. Even if this was not an idea
that ran through his mind, we can at least see
that the two ideas are confluent and harmonious
with each other. What we must remember is that
the idea that immaterial things cause and cure
disease is incompatible with the notion that
material factors can cause and cure disease.
Repeatedly, and vociferously, Hahnemann reinforces this single point.

In any case, it is hard to see how he could
have accepted both his well-known immaterial
[vitalist] views on disease cause and cure and to
then accept material views as well. It is hard to
see how he could have made these two opposing
sets of ideas fit comfortably together. It would
have been a turbulent ‘marriage of opposites.’
Moreover, having gone to such pains to emphasise
that vitalism, similars and small doses rule the
organism in health and disease, why would he then
adopt any materialist theory like bacteria and
infections. It seems profoundly discordant to the
system he has so carefully laid out.
Quintessence of Organon, Part 2 [Aph 83-290]

The rest of the Organon adds some new material
about taking the case, mental sickness and
provings, but does not add a great deal of
substance to previously stated ideas; it embarks
on an extended tour of ancillary topics and
revisits some familiar ones. Yet, even in this
excursion, the same old point keeps cropping up ­
such as small doses, single drugs, case totality,
rare and peculiar symptoms. These are covered in
depth in Aph 1-82, but Hahnemann uses every
opportunity to reiterate them for added emphasis,
wheeling them out like old friends to add
substance to other discussions. The really new
material compared to the first section we
examined, is the material about taking the case,
about provings, about epidemics and local
diseases and various aspects of mental sickness,
lifestyle factors and regimen and a few further points about drug dosage.

Aph 83-91 cover taking of the case; more on this
follows in Aph 96-99. Aphorisms 92-95 consider
acute and chronic diseases. Aphorisms 100-103
consider epidemics of various kinds and how they
should be treated homeopathically. Aphorisms
102-104 consider disease as a totality [an
expansion of Aph. 18], and more on this is then
added in Aphorism 169. Aphorism 105 considers the
level of similarity that must pertain between drug and disease.

In many parts of the Organon Hahnemann states
“the law of similars,” [Organon, Aph. 110]. He
declares the errors of previous medical systems:
"from the earliest beginnings until now, the
materia medica has consisted only of false
suppositions and fancies, which is as good as no
materia medica at all." [Organon, Aph. 110] and
the false therapeutic basis upon which they
rested: "the...virtues of medicines cannot be
apprehended by...smell, taste, or appearance...or
from chemical analysis, or by treating disease
with one or more of them in a mixture..." [Organon, Aph. 110]
Provings
Aphorisms 106-110, 111-114, 116-123 and 125-149
consider the details of provings and how they should be undertaken.

“...in experiments with moderate doses of
medicine on healthy bodies, we observe only their
primary action...wherewith the medicine deranges
the health of the human being and develops in him
a morbid state of longer or shorter duration.” [Organon, Aph. 114]

The use of provings data is then taken up and
examined in greater depth by Aphorisms 142 and
151-157. This is a major aspect of the second half of the Organon.

Hahnemann was not the first to try drugs on
the healthy organism. One of the first was,
“Anton Stoerck, on June 23 1760, rubbed fresh
Stramonium on his hands to see if, as the
botanists said, it would inebriate him. It did
not, and he then rubbed some in a mortar, and,
sleeping in the same room, got a headache. He
then made an extract, placing it on his tongue.
He wished to know if the drug could be safely
used as a remedy. Stoerck says that if Stramonium
disturbs the senses and produces mental
derangement in persons who are healthy, it might
very easily be administered to maniacs for the
purpose of restoring the senses by effecting a
change in ideas. Crumpe, an Irish physician,
tried drugs on the healthy, and published a book
in London on the effects of Opium in 1793, three
years after the first experiments of Hahnemann.
Hahnemann refers in The Organon to the Danish
surgeon, Stahl, who says: 'I am convinced that
diseases are subdued by agents which produce
similar affections." [Organon, 4th edition, New
York, 91, quoted in Bradford, 42, 1st edition]

“Here we have on the one hand the action of
disease upon the healthy, and there the action of
drugs upon the healthy. We find one a duplicate
of the other. Is this not peculiar?” [Kent, 1925, 678]

“It is only after a careful and complete study
of the finer provings of drug and the same of the
finer features of disease that a law can be demonstrated. [Kent, 1925, 682]

“Disease is a proving of the morbific
substance. It is not true that there is one law
for disease and another for drug effects, but the
degree of susceptibility governs.” [Kent, 1925, 668]

“Remedies operate as by contagion. He caught
the disease, and catches the cure.” [Kent, 1925, 643]

“When you give a remedy be sure that the
nature of the remedy and the nature of the
disease (as well as the symptoms) agree.” [Kent, 1925, 672]

Aphorism 116 considers idiosyncrasy in drugs
and diseases and how this important information
might be of use in therapeutics.

"If one has tested a considerable number of
simple medicines on healthy people in this way...
then one has for the first time a true materia
medica: a collection of the authentic, pure,
reliable effects of simple medicinal substances
in themselves; a natural pharmacopoeia..." [Organon, Aph. 143]

Hahnemann's contention that many otherwise
medicinally inert substances can be converted
into powerful medicinal agents by potentisation,
in line with the maxim that "everything that can
hurt is something that can heal."[Burford]
Indeed, Shakespeare once observed: "in the infant
rind of this small flower, poison hath residence
and medicine power," [Shakespeare] and although
it is self-evident that "drugs, in crude
form...[do] have the power to make even well
people sick," [Close, 54] yet this line of
argument ignores the more subtle dimension of
sickness, and those "agents, material or
immaterial, which modify disease." [Close, 59-61]

Aphorism 124 considers further aspects of the
single remedy. This point is further expanded in
Aphorisms 273-4 and 287. Aphorisms 158-163
consider the homeopathic aggravation and how it
is to be avoided and subdued. Aphorisms 164-168
consider peculiar and idiosyncratic symptoms and
their usefulness. Aphorisms 170-175 consider
one-sided diseases, points taken up in more depth in 185-6 and 194.

Aphorisms 176-183 consider how the remedy should
be selected; aphorisms 195-200 and 202-203
consider local diseases and their treatment.
Aphorisms 204-6 consider chronic diseases as
aspects of the miasms. Aph 207-9 considers
certain accessory and lifestyle factors in
sickness and its cure. Aphorisms 214-230 consider
aspects of mental sickness. Aphorisms 231-236
consider intermittent and alternating diseases;
237-244 considers homeopathic treatment of
fevers. Aphorisms 245-260 consider case
management and removing any obstacles to cure.
Aphorisms 261-3 consider the value of regimen.
264-72 and 275-86 considers dosage. Aphorisms
288-294 consider Has views on Mesmerism;
aphorisms 289-90 consider parts of the body
susceptible to drug doses e.g. tongue and skin.
Discussion

As we have seen, this much longer second part of
the Organon considers a range of topics, the most
important of which concern provings, case taking
and mental sickness. New material is presented on
these topics. However, the basic foundation of
all three are to be found in Part 1 already
discussed, where the impact of a drug as a
spiritual, health-deranging [morbific] force was
outlined to form the underpinning basis of
provings. Likewise, taking the case, as a topic,
rests in itself upon previous comments made about
case totality and mental and emotional aspects of
sickness also made in part 1. Even mental illness
as a distinct topic in its own right, can be
guessed-at on the basis of his previous remarks.
Therefore, little is completely new in this
second part of the Organon compared with the first 82 aphorisms.
Sources
Thomas L Bradford, Life and Letters of Hahnemann, Jain, 1895 1986 Edition

George Burford, Dr Clarke Memorial Meeting
[Obituaries], Brit. Homeo. Jnl, January 1932, 135

Stuart Close, The Genius of Homoeopathy, Lectures
& Essays on Homoeopathic Philosophy, Delhi: Jain reprint, 1924

W John Diamond MD, The Clinical Practice of
Complementary, Alternative and Western Medicine, Washington: CRC Press, 2001

Martin Gumpert, Hahnemann - The Adventurous
Career of a Medical Rebel, L B Fischer Publ.
Corp., New York, 1945, [Translated From The German By Claud W Sykes]

Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of Medicine,
Dudgeon/Boericke Translation, Combined 5th/6th
Edition, 1842, 1921, Jain Reprint

James T Kent, Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy,
California: N Atlantic Books, 1900, 1980

James Tyler Kent, Lesser Writings, New Remedies, Aphorisms and Precepts, 1925

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3

Sheri Nakken, former RN, MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com/ &
http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/
ONLINE/Email classes in Homeopathy; Vaccine
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