Minutus

Dear Colleagues and students,

There has been a questioning of the idea of portraits, patterns and
themes of symptoms. Some have said that Hahnemann only listed the symptoms
of diseases and found remedies with those symptoms but is this the whole
story? Many times individuals point to aphorism 6 where Hahnemann speaks of
the unprejudiced observer but often ignore the last sentence which speaks
of the "Gestalt of the disease". Vide aphorism 6.

"The unprejudiced observer, even the most sharp-witted one knowing
the nullity of supersensible speculations which are not born out in
experience - perceives nothing in each single case of disease other than
the alterations in the condition of the body and soul, disease signs,
befallments, symptoms, which are outwardly discernible through the senses.
That is, the unprejudiced observer only perceives the deviations from the
former healthy state of the now sick patient, which are:

1. felt by the patient himself,
2. perceived by those around him, and
3. observed by the physician.

All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its entire extent;
that is, together they form the true and only conceivable *gestalt of the
disease.*"

Organon of the Medical Art, Hahnemann, O’Reilly 6th Edition, Aphorism 6.

In this aphorism Hahnemann states that the unprejudiced observer uses
the totality of all the observable phenomena because they make up the only
conceivable Gestalt of the disease. Langenscheidt’s Dictionary defines
Gestalt as a form, shape, figure or character. Chambers Dictionary offers a
form, shape, pattern, organized whole or unit. The Gestalt-qualities are a
visible field pattern that gives a phenomenon its character. The German
savant, Goethe (1749-1832) included essence, archetypes, Gestalt-qualities,
and the doctrine of similar correspondences in his studies of nature.
Hahnemann, a contemporary of Goethe, integrated a similar perspective into
homœopathic philosophy.

Gestalt-qualities are a visible pattern that demonstrates the
qualities of the invisible essence (Wesen) of a phenomena. For example, no
one has ever really seen sub-atomic particles like a quark but through
their Gestalt-phenomena that appears during experiments scientists have
come to certain conclusions about their nature. We can not see the mistuned
vital force but we can see its energy pattens through the signs,
befallments and symptoms of the body and soul. This implies much more than
the simple recording of symptoms without understanding their meaning or
looking at them as a pattern made up of individual parts. Gestalt-qualities
make up patterns, themes and portraits that gives insight into the
character or nature of a phenomena. A disease-Gestalt is not a list of
independent symptoms fragments that have no meaning. They are symptom
patterns that give a disease state its natural character and offer insights
into its Fund (Fundamental Esse).

Plato spoke of the energy of pure Ideas manifesting as form in the
material world. Ideas are an invisible essence and forms are their dynamic
appearance. The German savant, Goethe (1749-1832) integrated the ideas of
the essence, archetypes, Gestalt-qualities, and the doctrine of similar
correspondences in his studies of nature. Hahnemann, a contemporary of
Goethe, integrated a similar perspective into homœopathic philosophy. Jung
applied Goethe’s archetypes and the doctrine of similar correspondences to
the study of the personal and collective unconscious. Jungian psychology
teaches that the Gestalt-qualities are innate archetypal patterns that
display their energy as individual and collective experiences. Gestalt
psychology appeared in Germany as a revolt against the atomistic outlook of
the orthodox schools. It begins with the idea that the whole is more than
the sum of its parts into which it can be logically analyzed. The Austrian
physician, Edward G. Whitmont M.D., applied Jungian psychology to the study
of the homœopathic materia medica. This philosophy and terminology is well
established in certain schools of thought in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. This same philosophy forms the basis of Homoeopathy.

I hope this provides some insights,
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

Dear David,

very much indeed I appreciated your mail
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 13:09:10 +0530
From: David Little
Subject: The Gestalt of the Disease
May I add a few annotions:

You wrote:
(...)

There is a wonderful story that might make clear some slight differences
between Goethe, Schiller and Plato - Schiler beeing closer to Plato than
Goethe.
(Don't worry I'll come back to Hanhnemann and § 6 Organon.)

Having recently detecteted the "Urpflanze" (the true essential and
original plant, the underlying nature which is manifested in the
form/character of all plants) Goethe took a stroll together with his
friend Schiller round Weimar to tell him what he had seen.

Goethe says to Schiller, "I've seen the 'Urpflanze'," and describes his
vision.
Schiller answers: "Herr Geheimrat (privy concillour), you haven't seen
the 'Urpflanze', you have seen the Idea of the 'Urpflanze'."

Well, Goethe didn't bother much, be it the 'Urpflanze' or be it the Idea
of the 'Urpflanze', it didn't make much difference to him, neither did
it prove his vision wrong - but to Schiller it mattered.

(I love this story - it sets things right - me being on Schiller's side,
of course. Coming back to the philosophical concept I want to line out
some basic ideas - according to my understanding which is based not only
on European philosophy, but is strongly influenced by Indian concepts.)

In German you got the words "Idee" (idea), "Wesen" (nature) and
"Gestalt" (character)
Every manifetation in the material world comes from the casual plane,
the sphere of ideas (as Plato recognized as well, see especially his
parable in "Politeia", 'The State'). Thus the first manifestation of
God's thought or the cosmic conscience is the idea, being settled on the
casual plane. The second layer or step of manifestation is the astral
plane. Thus you get the "Wesen" (nature). In the material world you get
the "Gestalt" (character), which is how the idea through the nature is
materialized, i.e. represented on the earthly plane.

Thus Schiller interpretated Goethe's astral vision according to his own
concept and saw it as a manifestion of the world of ideas, the casual
plane.

Back to Hahnemann and his § 6.
You wrote:
The latter being part of the world of ideas, the casual plane.

What is according to Hahnemann is
are as you state correctly the "Gestalt", the entire phenomena, the
pattern, the character of a disease.
As you have said it is important to go from the analytic level to the
sythetic - putting the pieces that fall into place together. Thus you
get a picture of the disease, its nature. By doing that you sometimes
get a notion of what is the idea, as you said, the fund (fundamental
esse), which according to my interpretation is a notion of the
underlying idea of the disease as well as the essential being (esse) of
the patient - hardly to be seperated and difficult to perceive.
As we have not yet developped clairvoyance, the the only thing we can do
- as homoeopaths - is to be as unprejudiced as we can and to perceive
"the alterations in the condition of the body and soul, disease signs,
befallments, symptoms, which are outwardly discernible through the
senses.
That is, the unprejudiced observer only perceives the deviations from
the
former healthy state of the now sick patient." (§ 6)
And by doing that we get to the nature of the disease, the picture of a
remedy. (Kent's a great master here.)
As you have said about C.G. Jung:

That's to say perception, questioning, and repertorisation is the basis,
but not all of homoeopathy, it is followed by the synthesis, the
recognition of the remedy picture.
Every once in while everyone of us has noticed that while taking down
notes or while repertorizing one gets the notion of what remedy it could
be, and all of sudden one finds the pieces falling into place till one
gets a picture, the picture of a remedy. And that's intuition and
knowledge working together, which is developped by experience (and given
by the grace of God), or as you've said:

By the way --- a word on Schiller.

You mentioned Goethe (1749-1832) as being a contemporary of Hahnemann
(1755-1843), but Schiller (1759-1805) I think was much closer to
Hahnemann in his way of thinking and living.

Schiller was forced by the Duke Karl Eugen to study medicine. Like
Hahnemann he detested the medical methodes of his days, and turned his
back on medicine fled his home county to become a playwrite, poet and
historian.
The Organon is stylistically very similar to Schiller's prose writings
(lectures and essays), more especially as far as the presentation of
argument and the train of thought are concerned. As far as their theory
of knowledge and philosophical concept are concerned both, Hahnemann and
Schiller, stand in the tradition of Kant (1724-1804), the German
philosopher, whose demand "aude sapere" (venture to know) is the
subheading of the Organon.

Well, it does, and I hope my annotations be of some interest, too.
Yours faithfully,
Claudia

At 03:44 AM 7/14/2002 +0200, you wrote:
Dear Claudia,

As I understand it Goethe wrote on the natural sciences, philosophy and
psychology as well as literary works. What do you know about this?
Hahnemann seemed to be quite up to date on philosophy, etc.. Rima Handley
wrote:

"In particular, Hahnemann drew inspiration from the new generation of
German authors, among them Kant, Schelling, Goethe and the whole school of
“Naturphilosophie” with its view of the energetic nature of the Universe.

A Homeopathic Love Story, The story of Samuel and Melanie Hahnemann,
Rima Handley, page 89.

Schelling and Scheller different or the same? Hahnemann was well
acquainted with Goethe’s writings and Goethe was well aware of Hahnemann’s
work. Goethe wrote:

Hahnemann, that rare collection of philosophy and learning whose
system must eventually bring about the ruin of the ordinary receipt-crammed
heads, but is still little accepted by practitioners, and rather shunned
than investigated."

Zerstr Blatter, Goethe, Volume II.

Goethe developed the idea of an archetypal pattern taking shape in a
myriad of similar experiential phenomena. The similarities found through a
comparative study of phenomena reveal the image of an underlying invisible
archetype. Goethe used comparative anatomy to classify specimens based on a
Gestalt-pattern of similar characteristics. By similar correspondences he
was able to develop an image of the archetypal plant, animal and human
being. Goethe used these principles to postulate the existence of an
intermaxillary bone in human beings from his study of animals. This was
later proved correct by modern science.

As far as Indian philosphy, I am a student who has lived in India for
24 years. Vedanta, the Upanishads and Yoga have had a big influence on
world thought since 6000 B.C. Jung's Self comes from the Atman and his five
components of consciousness were inspire by the five bodies of Yoga.
Vedanta a source for material on the causal, astral and physical levels.
Thank you for the information on Idee, Wesen and Gestalt. Can you give me
some sources? I would like to integrate this in my coming book.
Yes, his work with similars is the reason I said this. Did Schiller work
with similar also?
Thank for this. Can you give me some sources or an key example of Schiller
writings?
Yes, very interesting. Could you please define "Gestalt" from German
dictionaries? Also I have heard that the term Gestalt can sometimes be used
when describing Mythological archetypes like Hermes. What can you tell me
about this?

Sincerely, David
---------------
"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

Dear David,

it's a pleasure to me to exchange messages with you, a person not only
highly educated, but endowed with a deep spiritual understanding of
human nature and thought.

This email refers to:
You wrote:
Goethe was the greatest amateur ever seen. He was an expert in many
fields of knowledge which he learnd autodidactical as well as
penetrating into different subject matters not only through thought, but
through observation and contemplation. Goethe demanded that science
should excite all the powers in man such as "sinnliche Empfindung"
(sensual sensitivity), "Phantasie" (fantasy), and "Ahnung" (premonition)
as well as "exakte Beobachtung" (precise observation) and
"mathematisch-logisches Denken" (mathematical, logical thinking). Based
on his experience of nature as being an organic unity of "Stoff"
(matter) and "Geist" (spirit), Goethe very determinantly refuted
Newton's theory of light being measurable and refractionable.

Goethe declined to accept Newton's theory. The world of phenomena was to
him not only the deceptive appearance of a hidden abstract truth, but it
was truth itself in its sensually perceivable form. (see Hahnemann § 6
"Gestalt") In the not further deductible "Urphänomen" (archetypical
original phenomenon) the "Anschauung" (perception, notion) of the
"Gesetzlichkeit des Seienden" (law of being) is revealed imminently. All
partial phenomena of a certain field of knowldge have to be traced down
to the underlying "Urphänomen" (archetypical phenomenon), Goethe
demands. (see Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Zur Farbenlehre, 2 vol., 1810,
passim)

I love that book, it's so heart-warming and scientifically profound as
well.
Schelling (1775-1854), a German philosopher of the Idealistic era on the
threshold to the Romanic movement.
His theory was that the differences of subject and object, of real and
unreal, of nature and spirit are dissolved in the absolte, being the
identity of ideal and real. According to Schelling the this absolute
("Urgund" prima causa, first reason) is perceivable imminently through
inellectual perception and in art, which unites all seperating. In the
objects of empirical reality either spirit or nature is prevail. As a
result of this, the realm of nature as well as the realm of spirit
(which is history to him) form a range of development, whose levels of
development are related only by their common "Urgrund", the absolute.
Thus a certain level of development has not originated from another
level of development, but the absolute has brought them directly into
being to unfold itself completely.
(Yuck! wasn't easy to get that blurred stuff into proper English without
writen pages.)

Thus when Hahnemann says in § 6 "the nullity of supersensible
speculations which are not born out in
experience" he refers to Schelling and his teachings. It's no wonder
that Hahnemann declined Schelling's cloudy specutlations, which are, in
contrast to Goethes theories, not based on experience and observation.

Of they are: Schiller (1759-1805) is (apart from Goethe) the other great
poet of the "Weimarer Klassik" the prime of German literature in the
years round 1800.
As far as homoeopathy is concerned Schiller's writings are of minor
interest (apart from the points I've lay out in the previous message),
for Schiller concentrated on history, philosophy and aesthetic theories
in his theoretical writings. Schiller is famous for his plays "Maria
Stuart", "Don Carlos", "Kabale und Liebe", "Wallenstein" and "Wilhelm
Tell" just to name a few.

Goethe wrote:
Wow! Didn't know that.
The minor writings are not included in my Complete Works of Goethe, thus
I couldn't find the original quote in German. Sorry!

Of course as far as science is concerned Goethe and Hahnemann have quite
similar attidues, thus it is no wonder that Goehte appreciated
Hahnemann's teachings, although both never met.
You can find this in J.W. Goethe, "Dem Menschen wie den Tieren ist ein
Zwischenknochen der oberen Kinnlade zuzuschreiben", Jena 1786.
It's difficult for me to give sources, because what I've written is
based on all I've read, mainly I follow the teachings of Paramahanse
Yogananda, as far as the different planes are concerned and how they
manifest, most can be found in Yogananda's book "The Autobiography of a
Yogi".
I got "Deutsches Wörterbuch" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (the biggest
which can be compared to the OED) if you want I can scan the 7 pages on
the term "Geatlt" and send them to your privat mail address. Do you
prefer bitmap (more precise) or word document (contains some spelling
i.e. scanning errrors)?
Yes that's true, but only in the collocation "mythologische Gestalt"
mythological figure, mythological character. "Gestalt" stands here and
only here for 'figure', 'person'.

Dear Claudia,

Thank you so much for this discussion and the time you have put into
it. I always value speaking to like minded German colleagues, I am please
you have a good knowledge of German philosophy.
Thank you for this. Hahnemann also refuted the Newtonian idea that the
motion of permanent atoms is the source of all energy. This is very clear
in his notes on the dynamis in the Organon, etc..
Is this a paraphrase or quote or just a similar view with Schelling and his
teachings?
Can you get to this in library so we can see if he says more on the subject
of homoeopathy?
Yes they both believed in similar correspondences and the as if method. The
late Dr. Whitmont, the Jungian psychologist and homoeopath notes this in
his works.

I referred to the use of the term Gestalt in reference to mythological
beings like Hermes.
Yes. thank you. This has become an important aspect of Jungian
psychology and similar fields. These mythological Gestalts are universal
archetypes in Jung's work. So the application of this concept takes on a
greater meaning in psychology than just a person or figure. It represents
the dynamic pattern of the mythological archetype as such as well as the
shell and core of complexes.

Now, I would like to ask you about Hahnemann's use of the words
"Arzeneimitte Bilder" when speaking of the Gestalt of the symptoms of a
homoeopathic remedy. Doctor Whitmont felt that is was the origin of
investigating the portrait of a medicine. What do you think about this and
can you help us with the German meanings, derivations and philosophy behind
this statement.

It is important to get an understanding of the philosophy behind the
Organon and how it is applied to medicine and psychology.

Sincerely, David

---------------
"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