Hahnemann on Chronic Diseases Introduction In

In the first few pages of his work on chronic diseases, Hahnemann set forth his thoughts on traditional allopathic practice and his belief that homeopathy represented a great advance, a great gift from God. To him, allopathy was characterized by the draining nature of its remedies which, if they worked, were likely to cause new diseases in the remediation of old ones. Homeopathy, however, was viewed as resolving the root problem in chronic disease and actually healing the patient. The intention in the following pages is to explore this theory of chronic disease, including developing theory and some key terms.

The language that Hahnemann used was not always clearly defined at the first usage. However, it is possible to gain a gradual understanding of his meaning as it developed through the works.

Some are more clear, however. For example, one of the frequently used terms is psora, which represents one of the original maladies that Hahnemann identified as a prior cause of other kinds of problems and symptoms. This psora is a general term for an eruption on the skin which caused itching to the patient at one time. This could be herpes, or other problems. The psora is the original malady that caused his patients to develop numerous chronic complaints that were not usually traced back to the incident of eruption and itching. For Hahnemann, it is the psora more than either the sycosis or syphilis, which

Related Essays

HOMEOPATHY & PAIN Introduction This research pap .... 7-8). Hahnemann and his colleagues spent 50 years with their .... With chronic diseases that are incurable, homeopathic medicine can alleviate pain and possibly .... (5367 21 )

Alternative Forms of Health Care .... as alternative practitioners at treating chronic diseases such as .... Hahnemann found that ingesting the cinchona bark caused .... is cured by "the introduction of a .... (2554 10 )

al itch disease. Hahnemann (1998) further elucidated the connection of this internal itch disease to the development of many chronic disorders. The psora was not only represented by itching blemishes on the skin, but by a number of secondary manifestations which are generally viewed as entirely separate disorders or problems. These secondary manifestations include a number of eruptions or growths, including sarcomas, warts, and curvatures of the spine. This, of course, is a major point in thinking about Hahnemann's theory and its development. How did he arrive at the conclusion that the internal psora also resulted in all these various maladies? In his book, Hahnemann (1998) indicated that not only did he observe many maladies and their treatments, he observed which of the various manifestations were healed by the antipsoric medicines. Since they were healed by these medicines, they seemed to him to be related, and to be fundamentally manifestations of the same basic internal psora. He made analogy with the typhus in which different patients showed different symptoms from the same disorder. This, he indicated, was similar to the case of the internal psora. It is important to stop here and clarify, as did Dimitriadis

Category: Medical - H