It is important to recognize that mental symptoms are subordinate to a central self… The soul directs and regulates the body, and the disturbances it suffers generate disease and pathology – Dr. Tomas Pablo Paschero
Dr. Tomas Pablo Paschero (9.1.1904 – 9.9.1986) was an eminent Argentine homeopath. He was born in Buenos Aires, in 1904, as the son of an Argentine mother and an Italian immigrant. His father wanted him to become a cattle slaughterer like him and to take over the family’s butcher shop. However, young Tomas decided to study orthodox medicine in Buenos Aires and supported himself during his studies. He first encountered homeopathy while working as an obstetrician, witnessing homeopathy curing a case of eczema and became interested in this healing art. His interest in homeopathy brought him to the US where he studied homeopathy with well known homeopaths such as Drs. Eugene Underhill, Julia Minerva Green and William Griggs.
He became the direct student of Dr. Arthur Hill Grimmer, who was leading The Chicago Homeopathic Medical Hospital at the time and a former student of Dr. James Tyler Kent. Paschero and Grimmer formed a close personal and professional relationship. Paschero studied during eight months with him and, returning in 1932, he co-founded the Argentine Homeopathic Medical Society (Asociacion Medica Homeopatica Argentina). He also knew Calvin Knerr, Hering’s foremost student. In 1971 Paschero established the homeopathy school Escuela Medica Homeopatica Argentina, a prestigious Argentine homeopathy school which still enjoys an excellent international reputation. Paschero was the President of Honor of the Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis (LMHI) from 1972-1975. He influenced homeopathy worldwide, and in Italy in particular. He took part in founding homeopathy schools in Italy and Spain, and was teaching homeopathy at university schools for homeopathy in America and Europe. Furthermore, he gave lectures in France, UK, Austria, US, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and India. In 1972 Paschero‘s book “Homeopathy“ was published, a compilation of valuable articles on homeopathic philosophy, materia medica and clinical aspects. Most of all, it testifies to his deep insight in the homeopathic doctrine and the philosophical view, which lies at the base of his understanding and way of practicing homeopathy. In 1985 he received the Gold Medal of Homeopathy decorated with the “Symbol of the Sun” from the Homeopathic Medical Association of India for being one of the world’s great masters of homeopathy.
Tomas Pablo Paschero was a “Hahnemannian“ homeopath par excellence who required every homeopath to adhere to Hahnemann’s established principles. In order to fulfill the ultimate goal of curing the patient. He had a clear understanding of those principles and prescribing based on them. He believed that prescribing a homeopathic remedy according to single symptoms, based on a localized concept of disease, or systematically prescribing several remedies at one time means ignoring the Organon and precludes someone from calling oneself a homeopath.[1] Paschero elucidates on this topic:
The division among unicists, pluralists and those who advocate combination remedies stems from the idea each group has of what must be cured in each case. If the physician has a pathological, organic concept of disease, it is only natural that he may wish to cure what he has diagnosed as the affected organ. Pluralists tend to divide the organism into different levels that react differently to different remedies; thus, pluralists usually prescribe a constitutional remedy, a remedy for localized symptoms and a remedy to stimulate the eliminating function of an organ – all in the name of the practice of drainage. However, the diseased organ is not the disease. Toxins and tissue damage are only a by-product of the real disease which is, in turn, a result of a dynamic derangement of the whole organism. The individualization that homeopathic diagnosis requires is a task that is at once singular and holistic. Hahnemann established as a basic clinical principle the unity of the patient’s reaction: that is, the totality of symptoms that reflects the dynamic derangement. This very personal total symptom picture can never be the expression of an affected isolated organ or a disturbed localized function”.[2]
Body and mind are an integrated whole and do not fall ill separately. There is no such thing as a Cartesian split between a soul and a body, but only a vital dynamism that expresses itself simultaneously as psyche and organism. The vital derangement expresses itself organically as a physical disturbance and psychologically as a moral conflict, that is, it produces both levels of illness which are but the expression of the same phenomenon.[3] The dynamic disturbance encompasses the whole individual, from his characterological personality until the last cells of his economy. Thus, there cannot be such a thing as a local disease in which the whole organism as a biological unit is not involved. Paschero wrote:
The whole person is ill in the dynamic center which drives his personality, in the inner core of the organism where the being of man pulsates and the unity of body and psyche resides”.[4]
To be a true homeopath requires to assimilate that the organism always reacts as a biological entity in disease. This reaction finds its homeopathic simillimum in that remedy which manifests a similar characteristic symptom totality. Symptoms are the expression of the primary dynamic process and also reflect the patient’s personality structure and constitutional background. It is there, in the miasmatically shaped personality, that Hahnemann identified the primary derangement of the vital energy. Miasms determine constitutional tendencies, shape the personality and pave the developmental way of men. They predispose to particular pathological manifestations and also indicate what is to be cured. Paschero argued:
Hahnemann’s miasms are ways of living life, primary states of biological consciousness which all living beings and humans in particular possess, and which are instilled in the physiology and anatomy of the organism and as the latent destiny of their life”. [5]
Miasms and their related symptomatology reflect the suffering of the human being and his way of passing through life, which makes the present coherent with his past and is projected into his future. Thus, diseases someone suffers from are not isolated episodes. They are successive aspects of the same diathetic state that emerge from a latent state, being activated by a specific harmful stimulus the patient is susceptible to. [6] Also acute episodes are strictly conditioned by the person’s individual terrain.
Behind the actual disease exists always a clinical background of a purely dynamic nature, which has preceded and determined the current affection and which constitutes therefore the dispositional terrain, the dynamic constitutional state, which Hippocrates called crasis and which different other schools investigate under the name of diathesis, constitution, functional predisposition, pathology of the personality etc”.[7]
To find the remedy that matches the patient‘s unique expression of his disturbed vital force requires to understand the concept of homeopathicity, the particular dynamic action of each remedy and the patient’s personality, according to Paschero. What must be cured is not the current disease but the profound, personal, inner condition which has brought about that particular pathological expression. Therefore, Paschero placed a strong emphasis on the consideration of the patient’s history and required the prescriber to relate the patient’s current symptom picture to his life history.[8] The resulting task for the prescriber is to understand the patient’s whole history and the constitutional diathesis that generated the current pathological process. He opined:
The biophatographic history is the dynamic history of a vital process and not a mere transcription of pathologic symptoms as the effects of the vital dysfunction. One has to understand the conception of life behind them and the purpose of behavior and pathology”.[9]
In agreement with Hahnemann’s theory of the chronic diseases Paschero required to cure the inherited constitutional predisposition towards diseases – the truly causal, constitutional elements of the chronic disease and neither to focus on the pathological manifestations of the actual disease nor on the action of a germ or other alien force.[10] Paschero considered this as the “fundamental desideratum and exclusive patrimony of homeopathy”.
The diagnosis of this latent disposition, which conditions the individual’s destiny, was the major preoccupation of great clinicians … But no biotypological formulation reaches to achieve the scientific and pragmatic value offered by homeopathy, with their description of constitutional drug pictures and their characteristic set of symptoms, derived from experimental drug provings and the subsequent addition of clinical observations”.[11]
The homeopathic materia medica with it’s comprehensive compilation of symptom pictures of drug pathogenesies constitutes the first systematical way of eliciting the remedial powers of drugs and offers to find the remedy that meets the characteristics of the morbid constitution and disposition.
Paschero saw the uniqueness in homeopathy in it’s foundation upon valid Hippocratic and scientific principles that define homeopathy as a true rational medical science. He was deeply convinced that therapy has to be based on law as everything in nature is governed by law. Life is movement and follows universal laws which reign everything in the universe. He saw life as a divine creation and vital energy equating cosmic energy.
The vital energy that governs the internal economy operates under the same laws that reign the conservation of cosmic energy in all their aspects…. The motions of energy of the human being as vital entity are reigned by the same laws that reign the activity of energy in all structural units of creation”.[12]
Being deeply convinced about the existence of God, Paschero opined:
I neither conceive homeopathy without Hahnemann nor Hahnemann without Christ”.[13]
In this he echoes Hahnemann who wrote that: “Human life does not merely follow pure physical laws but that of vitality; now they themselves are animated and ensouled, just as the whole is animated and ensouled. There exists in omnipotent fundamental force…”[14]
In disease the flow of vital energy is blocked. To restore the hindered flow is the fundamental goal of medicine and equals true cure. With homeopathy the free flow of energy can be restored so that humans can improve from the depths of their being, liberate their innermost self and realize the purpose of their existence, according to Paschero.[15]
Hahnemann built his theories upon ancient Hippocratic principles, recognizing the uniqueness of each individual and Hippocrates‘ vis medicatrix naturae. Hippocrates, the so-called father of medicine, recognized that it is about the diseased person not the disease and therefore about individual symptoms instead of disease names. He criticized focusing on local pathology and pointed to the importance of seeing the whole person. Hippocrates also perceived the idea of similarity when defining two types of treatment and opined that at the deepest source, disease is intimately connected to the dynamics of the personality. Paschero claimed that the physician must return to ancient Hippocratic thoughts as these foster a holistic and constitutional approach regarding all morbid processes. Recognizing the tremendous value of Hippocrates‘ and Hahnemann’s principles Paschero opined:
Homeopathy is the only form of therapy that is perfectly adapted to this renewed Hippocratic concept of the patient as a unit and viewing cure as the solution of the constitutional problem as the foundation of dynamic symptoms that precede pathology. The homeopathic therapeutic diagnosis is based on symptoms that express the reaction of the whole patient and not those that reveal the pathological disease”.[16]
In the hierarchy of symptoms Hahnemann had pointed out the importance of mental symptoms. Paschero argues that in homeopathy the mental symptoms rank the highest in the hierarchy of symptoms because they integrate the patient’s whole symptoms.[17] He argued:
No remedy is the simillimum unless it contains the patient’s mental character and spirit”.[18]
However, he adds that in psychosomatic medicine the mind is seen as directing the body, thereby ignoring the causes that deform the life of the psyche and destroy its potential for realization.
It is important to recognize that mental symptoms are subordinate to a central self… The soul directs and regulates the body, and the disturbances it suffers generate disease and pathology.“[19]
Paschero understood homeopathy as the only medicine which could reach into the realm of dynamics, correct the miasmatically altered dynamism and thereby assist the individual in self-realization and reaching the purpose of their existence.
Our being expresses itself as a self which fulfills its life plan as a result of the vitality that flows through soul, mind and body… Life is a medium through which we can fully realize our potential. Disease is a struggle against the limitations of the inner and outer worlds – obstacles for the realization of the true self”.[20]
Paschero argued that to cure a human being is to understand the essence of the human condition and required a philosophical perspective of mankind and their diseases that deeply penetrates into the human being’s inner nature and the morbid conflict that hinders personal growth.[21] This he found in the homeopathic philosophy with it’s comprehensive laws and principles. About the capabilities of the simillimum he said:
The homeopathic remedy, the constitutional simillimum, acts by stimulating the law of cure in the biology and by helping the human being to maturate, which is the essential goal of growth, development and evolution of men”.[22]
“The constitutional simillimum is capable of rectifying the vis medicatrix and establishing an adaptive equilibrium which nevertheless, is not true health. The individual must continue the process of growth, which always implies a simultaneous state of disease and healing – an unstable balance between the latent, psoric, existential anguish due to the repression of instincts and the gratifications that the social personality will allow. Only when we realize that our psychological and biological maturity does not consist of defending our separate individuality, preserving our self-centeredness or solving our existential insecurity by accumulating material goods and obtaining power, but in developing a sense of community that will allow us to be rid of our self-consciousness, we are able to fulfill our highest purpose of existence. As Hahnemann maintained, this is possible once the will has been rectified by the simillimum.“[23]
However, Paschero pointed out that taking the simillimum is not sufficient:
The patient can only heal according to the law of cure if he consciously changes his attitude towards life and endeavours to develop and mature his energies, intelligence and emotions in the open relationship with his environment”.[24]
Tomas Pablo Paschero died in 1986. During his lifetime other famous subjects such as Proceso Sanchez Ortega, Francisco Xavier Eizayaga, Alfonso Masi Elizalde, and Eugenio Frederico Candegabe practiced and taught homeopathy. It was an era of a great many outstanding homeopaths, amongst whom Paschero stands out, as he had an exceptional level of understanding of homeopathy.
Paschero has been the homeopath of the Argentine Candegabe family, of whom Eugenio Federico Candegabe and his son Marcelo Eugenio Candegabe are well known homeopaths. Eugenio F. Candegabe opined, that in Dr. Paschero affection, gratitude and admiration conjoined in one person. Paschero was a much respected and beloved teacher who let his students look for their own answers. He listened and respected other opinions, even when different. Commenting on his life and work, Eugenio F. Candegabe opined:
I don’t know if in the meantime all of us or our pupils could advance more in the knowledge of homeopathy as known and taught by Dr.Paschero, but I’m fully convinced that without Tomas Paschero none of us could have enriched the work of the great masters of homeopathy”![25]
Sara Fernandez de Candegabe, Marcelo’s mother attested, that: “It has been a privilege to live on his side because he lavished on those who surrounded him a joy of life and serene wisdom. In a marvillous way, through love, he was able to evoke the best in others. He could infect others with a soothing calmness by means of words and instill the will to live in everyone”. [26]
Marcelo, who became one of his well known pupils, has been accompanied by Paschero during a large part of his life and considered him not only as a teacher but also as a spiritual guide. He stated:
Paschero was different. He was the early rain in my spirit, who nourished me and nourishes me through time. It is impossible to describe the sensation of being at his side to those who did not know him. He exuded an unusual brightness. He was always available to others so his disciples felt important. He had the virtue to encourage the search for personal realization as the most transcendent aim of the human being… Paschero’s homily was his constant declaration that the human should reach the plenitude of life as the real purpose of existence and that this plenitude is only reached if the inner will drives us towards an altruistic life where “to give” is the real reason for living. He was so, in everyday life, in every small act, and in his dedication to others.
From him I learned that life offers the opportunity to live in fullness, but that walking the path is difficult and lonely, the teacher only accompanies his pupil, neither so close as to overpower him nor so far as to forget him. However, the true disciple does not need to change the essence of that what he has learned in order to grow free in the diversity of the teacher and according to his own originality.“[27]
Recognizing homeopathy as the only medical system which has the principle of cure for it‘s foundation, encompassing a comprehensive doctrine and scientific approach to treatment, this healing art and science remains unparalleled by any other medical approach, wherefore Paschero concluded:
Apart from the homeopathic simillimum in each particular case, there exists no other rational therapeutic medicine which reaches to the very center of the morbid process”.[28]
References
Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, 1983, Beaconsfield Publishers Ltd.
Eugenio F. Candegabe, Vergleichende homöopathische Arzneimittellehre, Ulrich Burgdorf Verlag, 1994
Eugenio F.Candegabe, Homeopatia, Estudio metodologico de la materia medica, Editorial Kier, 2006
Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, Maestro de la Homeopatia argentina, Editorial Lalaye
Marcelo Candegabe, Ida Dechamps, Bases y fundamentos de la doctrina y la clinica medica homepaticas, Editorial Kier, 2002
Marcelo Candegabe, Hugo Carrara, Praxis der reinen Homöopathie, Kai Kröger Verlag,1999
Samuel Hahnemann, Geist der neuen Heillehre, S.Hahnemann, Gesammelte kleine Schriften, Haug Verlag, 2001
Marcelo Candegabe, De Hahnemann a Paschero
http://homeopatiaahora.blogspot.de/2010/07/de-hahnemann-paschero.html
http://escuelapaschero.com.ar/
http://sueyounghistories.com/archives/2009/06/23/tomas-pablo-paschero-19o4-1986/
http://www.homeoint.org/photo/pq/paschero.htm
http://institutoarqueiro.com.br/novosite/modules/arqueiro/paschero.php
http://homeoclinica1.blogspot.de/2009/08/sobre-la-toma-del-caso-dr-tomas-p.html
Articles published in Homeopatia, Revista De La Asociacion Medica Homeopatica Argentina, 1954-1969)
T.P.Paschero, La Relacion, www.mundohomeopata.com/
T.P.Paschero, La ley der curacion, www.mundohomeopata.com
Gustavo, Alberto Cataldi, El vitalismo de Tomas Pablo Paschero, Cultura Homeopatica, 12/2005
Footnotes
[1] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.105
[2] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.23
[3] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy , p.47,48
[4] Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, p.50
[5] Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, p.33
[6] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.107
[7] Homeopatia, Revista De La Asociacion Medica Homeopatica Argentina, Mayo-Junio/1961, p.63
[8] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.33
[9] Marcelo Candegabe, Ida Dechamps, Bases y fundamentos de la doctrina y la clinica medica homepaticas, p.118
[10] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.77
[11] Homeopatia, Revista De La Asociacion Medica Homeopatica Argentina, Enero-Febrero /1961), p.12; Marzo-Abril/1961, p.41
[12] Tomas Pablo Paschero, La ley de curacion
[13] Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, p.83
[14] Samuel Hahnemann, Geist der neuen Heillehre, p.625
[15] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.8
[16] Homeopatia, Revista De La Asociacion Medica Homeopatica Argentina, Mayo-Junio/1961, p.64
[17] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.16
[18] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.33
[19] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.7,27
[20] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.6
[21] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.6,54,84
[22] Marcelo Candegabe, De Hahnemann a Paschero
[23] Tomas Pablo Paschero, Homoeopathy, p.46
[24] Eugenio F. Candegabe, Vergleichende homöopathische Arzneimittellehre, p.3
[25] Eugenio F.Candegabe, Homeopatia, p.20
[26] Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, p.10
[27] Marcelo E.Candegabe, Dialogos con Tomas Pablo Paschero, p.17
[28] Tomas Pablo Paschero, La ley de curacion
A wonderful portrait of one of homeopathy’s greatest teachers.