Homeopathy Book Reviews

Rational Homeopathy by Hans Weitbrecht

Written by Siegfried Letzel

Siegfried Letzel reviews Hans Weitbrecht’s book – Rational Homeopathy.

rational-homeopathyRational Homeopathy

Author: Hans Weitbrecht

First Edition 2014

Reviewed by Siegfried Letzel

Published by Gold Rose Publishing

ISBN: 978-3-93900-101-0

Hardbound

No. of pages: 159

€ 42.00 + postage

 

‘Rational Homeopathy’ by Hans Weitbrecht is another book focusing on the principles, tools and practice of homeopathy. It is one book among the many being published since the days of the appearance of this medical art. Among all of them, this work is outstanding in its approach and realization.

Mr. Hans Weitbrecht is a scholar in homeopathic matters. He has studied precisely all the works of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, his contemporary students and his followers in order to get acquainted with Hahnemann’s practice of homeopathy during his Paris’ days. He studied the published casebooks of Hahnemann and went further to dive into unpublished, handwritten casebooks which are under the care of the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart, Germany.

Hans Weitbrecht found that there were discrepancies between some of Hahnemann’s teachings and his practice of homeopathy with patients. As a homeopath, Weitbrecht has learned to adopt Hahnemann’s practical work in his own practice and developed it to a degree, that the therapeutic outcome is exceptional. This method is not mentioned in any publication worldwide. Under the urging of his own students, the author of the book finally agreed and wrote this work, containing an ‘Organon’, which has been cleared of everything deviating from the true focus of homeopathy.

The first section offers the aphorisms with the philosophical basis, which is the corpus of homeopathy. The book then continues with a study guide recommending literature adding to this solid base. Next, it covers the most needed tool for the successful work of a homeopath, the study of Materia medica. This is not a chapter to be memorized, but rather explains how to build reliable knowledge of the remedies used in treatment. This is followed by a chapter displaying the experiences Weitbrecht has gathered in twenty years of applying Q-potencies, a range of potencies which Dr. Hahnemann only found during his very last years in Paris and which he finally presented in the last edition of his Organon of Medicine. A chapter is also dedicated to C-potencies, which are the most common series of potencies used worldwide. Finally, the book presents clinical cases, which demonstrate rational homeopathy working on patients.

The reader will receive the essence of pure homeopathy with this book. There are no interpretations, there is no guesswork. This book is a collection of facts, which will guide students toward the establishment of an effective clinic, without any sidestep away from the inherent reliability of the method. Read this book, study according to this guide and become a homeopath who is deeply satisfied with the results.

Of the many writings of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, the Organon of Medicine has always been the focus of every serious homeopath. In the course of six editions, Hahnemann developed his medical art to such a degree, that it could remain an efficient treatment for patients for more than two hundred years. In the western world, no other medical method has remained unchanged in its basic philosophical tenets, as has homeopathy.

Before starting any debate about homeopathy, there should be agreement on these basic philosophical tenets. Otherwise, one will not have a firm ground to evaluate the different practices which now exist and are being promulgated under the shield of homeopathy. The original philosophical tenets are best explained by Dr. Hahnemann himself:

“For curing, homeopathy avails itself only of those medicines whose capacity to (dynamically) alter and differently tune the condition it exactly knows and then it searches out the one medicine whose condition-altering powers (medicinal disease) are in a position to lift the natural disease at hand through similarity (similia similibus). This is administered to the patient as a simple medicine [i.e., unmixed with any other medicinal substance] in subtle doses, that is, in doses so small that they exactly suffice to lift the natural malady without causing pain or debilitation. The result is that, without in the least weakening, tormenting or torturing the patient, the natural disease is extinguished and the patient, while improving, soon grows stronger and thus is cured. This seems so easy, but actually it is a very cogitative, laborious, arduous business; however, it fully restores the patient to health in a short time and without ailment so it becomes a curative and blessed business.

Thus homeopathy is an entirely simple medical art, always constant in its principles as well as in its procedures. These principles and procedures, as well as the theory on which they rest (if well grasped) will be found to be self-contained, and only in this way helpful. The purity of its theory and of its practice is self-explanatory. It therefore entirely excludes all backsliding into the ruinous routine of the old school (whose contrary it is, as day is to night). If it is other than this, then it ceases to earn the venerable name of homeopathy.”

(Taken from the translation of the Organon by Wenda Brewster O’Reilly, PhD).

Hahnemann’s Organon of Medicine is more than that. It teaches us about the principles and procedures needed for the practice of homeopathy. However, it is also a book that had to convince conventional physicians in the 19th century that their methods were harmful and commonly not curative. In addition, the Organon of Medicine delivers explanatory models of what diseases and cure are. Hahnemann could not have the knowledge of contemporary scientists, therefore his models were mere constructs to make his system work. One famous construct is his theory of miasms. From the very beginning, his teachings on miasms were somewhat vague, difficult to understand and even more difficult to apply. Remember that Boenninghausen, a close friend of Samuel Hahnemann, wrote alphabetic repertories for antipsoric and non-antipsoric medicines – which he abandoned later when publishing the repertory for homeopathic remedies in general.

Since the Organon of Medicine not only focuses on the natural laws involved in homeopathic cures but also on the fight with conventional physicians and pharmacists, and since explanatory models arose from Hahnemann’s mind without real proof for their correctness, his explanations were not received with universal agreement and have frequently been met with dissenting views. Since the beginning of homeopathy, doubters are found not only among opponents but also among homeopaths. This has led to a variety of ‘homeopathic methods’ or ‘homeopathic schools’ today, which are not helpful in the maintenance of effective homeopathic treatment.

‘Rational Homeopathy’ by Hans Weitbrecht does not address these divergences. Rather, it is literally a book on nothing but homeopathy. This is the book every homeopathy student needs to read before he studies this method in medicine. It helps to decide which literature is helpful for further reading and which is not. You can`t invest your funds any better in the beginning. For the advanced homeopath, this book will be a real revelation – homeopathy, without the accumulated historic dust and waste of more than 200 years. It is easily read, comprehensive and solid. It doesn’t require one more page!

About the author

Siegfried Letzel

Siegfried Letzel is a biologist and he also qualified as a natural health professional specializing in TCM and homeopathy. For the last couple years, he has been studying historical papers and the works of early homeopaths in search of the original and true homeopathy. Letzel is the curator of the Hahnemann Exhibition of the International Hahnemann Center Torgau and a board member of the umbrella Association of Hahnemann Sites in Meissen, the city where the founder of homeopathy was born. He has also contributed to various books on homeopathy.

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