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my early training
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- I began my work in homeopathy in l935 when I was a House Physician at the Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital. In the wards all patients received homeopathic remedies. Those who had been operated on would not only be considered surgical cases, but also medical-homeopathic ones. There were busy out-patients' clinics which I attended, being instructed by an experienced homeopathic physician.
I was able to integrate homeopathy within a holistic approach. This involves all aspects of the body, the mind and the spirit which are, characteristic of a particular patient, for instance his type of pain, his response to heat and cold, his sleep pattern and his emotional response to being ill.
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the different views of the homeopathic
doctor and the medical scientist
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- This psycho-somatic view of illness is not so difficult for the homeopath as for the medical scientist. For medical science is tied to Descartes' division of the universe into two realms, a physical and a mental realm, which means that there is no recognition of a joint dimension of body and mind.
The homeopath avoids this division because he does not treat either bodies or minds in isolation, but treats both with the same remedy. This important step is possible because remedies are prescribed for sick people. These remedies had been given to healthy volunteers and their effects on these people's bodies and minds had been recorded, constituting the homeopathic materia medica which is a register of the psychosomatic details of all available homeopathic medicines. The law on which this practice is based is called the law of similars: the similarity between the whole sick patient and the whole healthy volunteer is the basis of a cure.
Thus, for instance a sore throat which a volunteer experienced after taking Belladonna will be cured by Belladonna in a patient who suffers from a sore throat provided the pain is worse when swallowing liquids. But if the patient tells the homeopathic doctor that a cold drink relieves his painful throat, the prescription would not be for Belladonna but for the bee venom Apis. A volunteer who has swallowed Apis has recorded that the pain, produced by taking bee venom, was markedly relieved by cold drinks.
Thus the homeopath includes in the choice of his remedy, details of the patient's suffering which the scientifically-minded doctor ignores, prescribing for instance the same antibiotic for all cases of bacterial tonsillitis.
Let us assume that the patient who complains of a sore throat runs a high temperature and that he or she also suffers from feverish hallucinations, seeing frightful images. This information would greatly increase the indication for Belladonna and if this remedy were given, both the bodily and the mental suffering would be relieved. The patient would recover bodily and mentally because he was given the most similar remedy which is homeopathically available.
If, on the other hand, the patient tells the homeopath that he feels indifferent or apathetic, such information, apart from that of a relief of pain by swallowing cold water, would strengthen the case of prescribing Apis which would benefit the physico-mental illness.
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combining therapies
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- As a Natural Therapist I would assist such patients' recovery by discouraging them from taking such drinks as tea, coffee and milk, but would encourage them to drink fruit juices. I would also use cold compresses on their trunk which stimulate the skin to eliminate toxins through perspiration. The Apis patient would respond to the stimulus of cold water much better than the Belladonna patient who does not like to be touched. In the second case I may use only a cold compress around the neck as a less drastic application.
Treating bodily and mental conditions with a psycho-somatic homeopathic remedy is not yet full holistic treatment. This includes a consideration of the patient's spiritual freedom, or the way he or she meets the challenge of the illness.
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the spiritual dimension of illness
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- Most cases of tonsillitis do not present serious spiritual problems, as patients recover from their illness so that they are able to deal with the responsibilities of their lives.
But there are exceptions. A patient may not regain his composure when the temperature has become normal. He may tell the homeopath that he has no confidence to face professional and domestic duties, because the severe attack of tonsillitis has uncovered some spiritual weakness. A scientifically-minded doctor would diagnose depression and order an anti-depressant which is the remedy for all sorts of depression. But the homeopath has a more specific remedy, Anacardium (a special kind of nut) which enables depressed people to gain confidence which they need to face life once more. But if the depression were to manifest itself by a dread of people and a wish to be left alone, another homeopathic remedy would be used: Ambra Grisea (which is derived from the secretion of the whale).
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the long-term effectiveness of homeopathy
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- In cases of chronic diseases, the effect of a single dose of a homeopathic remedy may last for weeks or even months, whereas in scientific medicine, drugs have to be repeated daily as the mechanistic effect is short-lived. The prolonged duration of the drug effect is explained in homeopathy as the result of an activation of the vital force, which I had accepted as very powerful after having studied works by Driesch, Bergson, Smuts and J.S.Haldane and which I later interpreted in Kantian terms as an Idea, with the aid of which our mind judges phenomena as purposive.
What is more difficult to accept is the efficacy of a remedy that has been so highly diluted that no molecule of the particular substance is present in the sugary powder, swallowed by the patient. The efficacy of these ‘high potencies’ cannot be explained by the laws of chemistry, but homeopaths have proved their curative effect by using control studies with inert substances.
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arguments for and against the
"high potency" of homeopathy
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- Obviously the use of these dilutions causes a very strong prejudice against homeopathic medicine. All efforts to seek the efficacy of such preparations in the medium in which the remedy was placed, seem to me to be unconvincing. If a wave vibration, specific for every remedy (whose numbers are infinite), is considered to be the answer, it would be necessary to identify all such specific vibrations - a task which has never been undertaken. I have given an answer to this problem in my book Medicine for the Whole Person, where I demonstrated that the problem of high homeopathic potencies can be solved by the use of Kant’s Theory of knowledge and I also quoted Sir James Jean’s application of the Kantian approach.
This solution has very wide consequences: it puts homeopathy in a position which is unique in the world of modern science. Its representatives do not as a rule study Kant. They claim to be ‘realists’, and they consider that they know and deal with the objects which they observe and influence. My homeopathic colleagues are at heart scientific realists and not Kantians. Therefore they ignore my explanation of the efficacy of high potencies. Of course, I stand firm and remain isolated.
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Hahnemann’s early ideas on homeopathy
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- Hahnemann, who pioneered homeopathy, did not only formulate the law likes should be cured by likes. In his book on Chronic Diseases he claimed that in chronic diseases a specific treatment that eliminates a ‘miasma’ is necessary. Writing in an era which did not know bacteriology, he postulated the existence of three such infections, responsible for chronic hereditary disease.
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the three ‘miasmas’
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- The most important miasma was named psora. Hahnemann maintained that seven-eighths of all chronic diseases were caused by it. It showed itself on the skin and this appearance was identified as scabies, an infection with the acarus mite. The suppression of this external manifestation was said to be responsible for the internal psora. It was supposed to be transmitted by heredity. The list of the psora symptoms includes nose bleeding, cough, pain in various parts of the body, skin eruptions and psychological states such as fear, irritability, changes of mood. An account of the remedies which counteract the psora occupies forty pages in his book and is headed by Sulphur to which 46 other remedies are added. They were selected from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Remedies from the animal kingdom were also included.
The second miasma is sycosis. It is related to gonorrhoea and is to be treated by high potencies of two drugs, Thuja and Nitric acid. Only in the case of the third miasma, syphilis did Hahnemann make the correct assumption of hereditary transmission, but his theory does not convince modern doctors that a single dose of mercurial preparation can cure this disease.
This historical account of the introduction of specific anti-disease remedies by Hahnemann still has its relevance when modern homeopaths apply the knowledge of bacteriology: they use the secretions of tuberculosis, syphilis, influenza and other infectious diseases to prepare high potencies which are prescribed either to ward off these infections or to eliminate their after-effects. This part of homeopathy is a bridge to scientific medical immunology. Children are being treated with highly diluted toxins of measles, whooping cough, influenza and other diseases to make them immune against such infections in later life. The bridge also leads to the treatment of allergic diseases and the use of a high potency of pollen extract that has been shown to be successful in the treatment of allergic rhinitis (hay fever).
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my work as a homeopathic doctor
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- My personal clinical experiences with homeopathic medicine took place after I started a practice in London in l936. In the same year I was appointed to attend out-patients at The Children's Homoeopathic Dispensary in Shepherds Bush, a working-class district.
Here I could make use of the knowledge which I had gained in the Children’s Hospital in Germany. I also applied some dietetic Natural Therapy principles, giving information to the mothers on how to feed their children whole foods.
My next clinical experience occurred at the main homeopathic hospital, The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, where I was appointed an Assistant to the Skin Department. I was now able to study the manifold relationships between the skin, the rest of the body and the patient's mind and spirit.
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links between the skin, the body,
the mind and the spirit
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- The homeopathic remedy unites all the dimensions of the patient's personality. A spotty face deprives the boy or girl of self-confidence. A high potency of Pulsatilla (Wind Flower) provides courage to cope with the embarrassment, while some other remedy clears the skin. Skin lesions cannot heal if the patient keeps scratching, and this habit may express aggressiveness against the world which has been turned against the self. Hepar Sulphuris (derived from calcium sulphide) leads to a less angry mood and to a smooth skin.
A woman who is afraid of being a failure as a musician, may recover from a rash on her face when Phosphorus, in high potency, has given her confidence and success in her career.
Itching may express a feeling of despondency, which was the case in a man whose boss never acknowledged his good work. He had the courage to complain to the Head of his firm of such lack of appreciation after he had been given Arsenicum album, which helps people to overcome their timidity. He was re-assured of his position and stopped scratching after having gained his dignity.
A woman's nettle rash, causing violent scratching, was explained as the result of insecurity in her marriage. Her husband was a widower, who did not realise how much his second wife needed reassurance of the strength of their relationship. When both husband and wife were seen and treated homeopathically as a couple, the husband’s love for his second wife was liberated, the homeopathic remedies Arsenicum album and Ignatia (St. Ignatius Bean) having acted to facilitate the expression of love.
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my conclusions about these therapies
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- I had now achieved such wholeness in my medical practice, which I had not been able to realise earlier in my life. When I started my training in Germany, I had failed to deal with a man who was asthmatic in the Berlin Hospital. He felt his breath had been taken away by his ‘scoundrel son-in-law’, and no orthodox remedies relieved him. Now I felt I know how to deal with illness where body, mind and the spirit are involved.
After a number of years I was put in charge not only of the skin department at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital but also of a medical department. Eliciting details of a patient's subjective life was necessary in order to find the right remedy, but the experience of illness was also to be understood as a call to realise life's potentialities.
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some interesting cases
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- A woman who had recovered from an ulcer in her stomach was still suffering from intense abdominal pain. The reason for this was severe tension of her mind which was translated as tension in her intestines. A remedy, derived from bowel secretions, Dysentery Co, relieved both tensions and led to creative fulfilment of her personality.
Another female patient's heavy legs and general weariness were symbolic of her heavy feeling of depression. Sepia (juice of cuttlefish) lifted her out of a downward movement, not making it necessary for me to act beyond providing encouragement.
After having mastered the prescriptions of homeopathic remedies, I was introduced into the study of a further holistic ally: Acupuncture and related Acupressure, interpreted in terms of Western scientific medicine, to which I added the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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