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Homeopathic Materia Medica Original Source To Successful Treatment -- Siegfried Letzel |
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This article is written for all of you intending to study homepathy and who are in awe of the vast number of homeopathic remedies to be studied. The effort you make is extraordinary, but the energy you expend will be worth it. No one can master the whole thing; but, we can at least get the picture of the most common remedies in our mind. The best way to understand the importance of the Materia Medica in homeopathy is by understanding Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in his teachings as given to us in The Organon of Medicine. Let me just mention a few of his ideas--aphorisms (§)--taken from The Organon: §1: The physician's highest and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed. §2: The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles. §3: If the physician clearly perceives what is to be cured in diseases, that is to say, in every individual case of disease (knowledge of disease, indication), if he clearly perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each individual medicine (knowledge of medical powers), and if he knows how to adapt, according to clearly defined principles, what is curative in medicines to what he has discovered to be undoubtedly morbid in the patient, so that the recovery must ensue - to adapt it, as well in respect to the suitability of the medicine most appropriate according to its mode of action to the case before him (choice of the remedy, the medicine indicated), as also in respect to the exact mode of preparation and quantity of it required (proper dose), and the proper period for repeating the dose; - if, finally, he knows the obstacles to recovery in each case and is aware how to remove them, so that the restoration may be permanent, then he understands how to treat judiciously and rationally, and he is a true practitioner of the healing art. In §18 we learn that we will find nothing about a disease except the totality of symptoms, including its surrounding circumstances, through which the need for help is expressed by a patient. All the symptoms and circumstances that can be perceived in every single case of illness provide us the ONLY INDICATION, the only hint to a remedy that has to be chosen. It is later, in aphorism 105 (§§105-120 are dealing with the basics on remedy provings on healthy persons), when Hahnemann tells us that it is the business of every true artist in healing, to research on the tools, that are intended to heal natural diseases and to research on the morbific (disease producing) power of the medicines. This gives us a ground for selection of a remedy that is associated with a row of symptoms of an artificial disease (gained by remedy proving), and that is most similar to the main symptoms of the natural disease that has to be cured. For Hahnemann, a disease is a mood or disgruntled mood of human health. Diseases are NOT and CANNOT BE mechanical or chemical changes of the material substance of the body and they do not depend on a material diseased matter. But they are spirit-like, dynamic derangement of life, of the vital force. (§31, footnote). And then, in aphorism 106, we are taught, that the whole of the pathogenic effects of each remedy have to be known. All pathological symptoms and modified moods that each medicine produces in healthy persons have to be observed. It is only then that we can hope to find and select the best remedy for most of the natural diseases. After we have learned that we have to find a medicine that is most similar to the main symptoms of the natural disease to be cured, in my opinion, it is the next Hahnemannian idea that really forces us to study our remedies (Materia Medica) extremely well: Every single medicine shows specific effects in the human body that do not appear just the same from any other remedy of a different kind (§118). Similarly, in aphorism 120 we find, along the same lines, "... medicines, on which life and death, sickness and health depends, have to be most precisely differentiated from each other.... That way one comes to know them very well and can avoid any wrong choice when using them. Only an accurate choice of the remedy can provide early and lasting return of the biggest of the earthly goods – well-being of the body and the soul."(§120). If we are not willing to thoroughly follow these rules, frustration will be ours – I do not want to think of what will happen to the patients. So let us just accept what has to be accepted and let us study thoroughly the remedies available to us. BUT HOW DO I STUDY THE MATERIA MEDICA? Everybody has to find his/her own individual approach. Perhaps one has to invent one's own method to study Materia Medica. Have a look at a well-stocked library. You will find books describing homeopathic medicines in poems. You will find books describing the remedies in drawings – either trying to portray the person fitting the constitutional appearance of a certain remedy and showing physical characteristics together with descriptions of symptoms that cannot be painted graphically, or in cartoons that exaggerate the remedy's individualistic effects. Maybe you can compare a remedy with a person you know well.... There are many methods you can apply, all of them requiring repetition over and over again. And still, you will never succeed in learning your remedies well enough without a written Materia Medica. So the question arises, which Materia Medica should I buy? Which one should I use? The market is flooded with Homeopathic Materia Medicas of prime/high/low quality. I started with two handy books: William Boericke's 'Pocket manual of homoepathic materia medica' and Eugene B. Nash's 'Leaders in homoeopathic therapeutics'. I found Nash very difficult to begin with because it compares different remedies in almost every section. I always forgot what I had read. But even if such reading is so frustrating in the beginning, the remedies will increasingly visualize in our mind. The more you read those medicines again and again (...and again and again)... the better! At this place let me suggest you to read the following lecture by Constantine Hering that I found at the website of Whole Health Now: http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/hering_1.html . |
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