Interviews

Dr. Luis Detinis is interviewed by Katja Schütt

Written by Katja Schuett

Dr. Luis Detinis is interviewed by Katja Schütt

Dr. Luis Detinis is an Argentine medical homeopath born in 1944. He qualified in medicine in 1972 at the University of Buenos Aires and in the same year in homeopathy at the Argentine School of Homeopathic Medicine, studying under the famous Dr.Tomas Pablo Paschero. He has been practicing and teaching extensively in Argentina and Latina America, published several books and articles, and gained a variety of national and international awards and recognitions. He correlates graphology and astrology with homeopathy and co-developed several software programs to include their features into repertorization to assist the search of the homeopathic simillimum.

KS: Welcome to Hpathy, Dr.Detinis! It is a great pleasure for me to interview you for our Hpathy Journal. We look forward to you sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us. You have the fascinating conceptual frame of homeopathy, graphology, astrology and nutrition integrated into your therapeutic practice. How was your first encounter with homeopathy?

LD: At the age of 17 I was a student of an industrial, technical college. I weighed 42 kg and measured 1.71 meters in height. I became ill with tuberculosis, having been diagnosed by a physician specialised in tisiology. I had an incessant cough and expectorated blood (hemoptysis). A relative took me to the practice of a homeopathic doctor who prescribed Phosphorus 200 and the change was spectacular. With the remedy, my fear of death improved as well as  the general condition and symptoms. This constituted a change in the course of my life. I decided to study medicine to practice homeopathy.

KS:  … which you have been practicing now successfully for decades. How did you come to integrate astrology and graphology into your therapeutic concept ?

LD: I would like to give you an answer from astrology which explains my tendency to relate and to associate. I have the Moon in Gemini. Those with this constellation have the capacity to establish an association between two or more things, careers, or specialties, etc., and also to integrate and synthesize them. Moreover, my goal has always been to determine the personality traits of the patient and to recognize the most characteristic mental symptoms. Patients often conceal personality traits, or they do not recognize or tell them to us, to make a good impression on the doctor. Graphology just serves as an orientation, and its features are to be confirmed by the findings of the classical Hahnemannian interview, to see whether what has been shown by astrology or graphology is valid or not.

KS: Sounds fascinating! Considering character and personality traits revealed by graphology and astrology to assist finding the homeopathic simillimum opens the possibility for obtaining symptoms otherwise not obtainable. Could you share an example from your practice?

LD: Yes. A patient presented a signature sloping downward in relation to the text, with an endpoint, and the signature crossed out from right to left, which was indicative of a tendency toward suicide. When I saw that signature in the first consultation, I asked her carefully if she had thought about suicide and she responded with a resounding “No“. Months later after the death of her husband, she tried to commit suicide by opening the gas key. After this fact I prescribed Aurum for the totality of symptoms with good therapeutic results.

KS: So the severe loss lead to the manifestation of her clearly visible tendency. You emphasize the biographic focus of symptoms, thereby suggesting the existence of a lifelong simillimum. Do the findings of astrology and graphology leave room for a layered approach to homeopathic prescribing?

LD: That’s a very interesting question. What most characterizes life is change and this is shown by graphology and astrology. The search for the lifelong constitutional simillimum leads us to practice the most excellent homeopathy, but daily practice leads us to change the remedy when indicated by the development of the case. I have had a few cases where the patient complied with the postulates of the Law of Cure with more than one simillimum. It is not a question of changing the simillimum in each consultation but after several years of receiving the same remedy, the case may require a change of remedy and develop favourably.

The risk of those who maintain that there is a single remedy for the whole life, is that in an acute disease the basic remedy that the patient is taking with good results, might not act and is changed forever because, according to this position, the remedy has to act in chronic and acute diseases and at any age of life and in all circumstances.

KS: Please tell us something about your interesting book on “Mental symptoms in Homeopathy“.

LD: It took me five years to translate the materia medica puras written by T. F. Allen,  Hahneman and Hering’s Guiding Symptoms. Computer systems did not exist yet, so I extracted the information from books. The first book I wrote was on Semiología Homeopática (Homeopathic Semiology) which served as the foundation for Síntomas Mentales (Mental Symptoms). This was translated into English. This year I’m going to publish Semiología Homeopática II, which will be the 3rd book on semiology.

KS: What was your aim in investigating these symptoms?

LD: There are dozens and dozens of badly translated or wrongly understood symptoms. We must start in all cases with the Materia Médica Pura in which the pathogenetic symptoms are described with their true significance. Unfortunately, many repertory symptoms are not described in the Materia Médica Pura, wherefore many homeopathy teachers come up with capricious and personal  “interpretations“.

KS: Could you give an example?

LD: I’ll give you an example of a poorly understood symptom which appears in the Materia Medica but in which case the meaning of the term hypochondriac of at that time was not taken into account. One should not confuse‚ anxiety about health with the symptoms ‘ANXIETY, hypochondriacal‘ (hypochondriacal anxiety); the latter only refers to anxiety with sadness. This symptom must be understood from the homeopathic point of view. On page 647 of volume XI of Allen’s Materia Medica Pura (repertory source) the symptom of hypochondria is translated as sadness. Kent makes the same reference in his repertory on page 52/II. It is important to note that Kent is the one who best teaches the meaning of symptoms by bringing together symptoms under the same rubric (eg resentement, vindictive and spiteful or cruelty and hardhearted) or alerts to symptoms that can be used synonymously and appear elsewhere in the repertory (example: impetuous (see hurry, impatience).

KS: It surely is a valuable and helpful book that might be of interest for our readers! To add a bit more information: In the book on “Mental symptoms in Homeopathy“ you relate mental symptoms to homeopathic prescribing, analyzing 194 rubrics which have been drawn primarily from Kent’s “Repertory”, but also from Barthel and Klunker’s “Synthetic Repertory”. They are discussed in modern terms, referring wherever appropriate to rubrics of other mental symptoms for contrast or comparison, and amplified by  reference to examples and extracts from Allen’s “The Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica“, the major source material for Kent’s work. The book also contains transcripts of initial consultations taken by the author during clinical classes with questions, discussion, repertorization and reasoning of the remedy choice.

Considering the immense importance of mental symptoms within the symptom totality for homeopathic prescribing, do you support the taking of symptoms in a metaphorical sense?

LD: I’m not sure what you mean by metaphorical meaning. Yes, in our school we consider symbology. For example, a patient who tells us that she twists around can make us think of Lachesis. But we only consider this for the understanding of the patient. What we are going to repertorize are always  the symptoms that find their correspondence in the materia medica or repertory (in the plain language of the pathogenesis as recommended by Hahnemann in the Organon). Unfortunately, internationally renowned homeopaths have moved away from orthodoxy and invented miasms and schemes that lead to failure in prescribing.

KS: You have already co-developed software that integrates astrological features as well as handwriting characteristics for the repertorial study. What are you working on now? 

LD: At this moment I concentrate on natural food and body cleansing because they constitute powerful obstacles to healing. Together with my wife, Dr. Graciela Estela Varela, who is also a homeopath and naturopath, we have just written a book of 460 pages that just came into print. Nowadays, it is not sufficient to prescribe the best indicated remedy. In the time of Kent, Dr M.L. Tyler, Grimmer, Dunham and other great homeopaths, the cures were spectacular and rapid. Today, with the consumption of dairy products, excessive gluten in wheat, animals fed with hormones, antibiotics and anabolics, junk food, etc., etc., the results of our prescription are often insufficient. The beneficial action of the simillimum is very limited.

KS: Hahnemann gave dietary recommendations and restrictions which seem to be even more important nowadays in the treatment of chronic diseases. What are your recommendations?

LD: Ah, I’m in my element ! No meat, except for those who do not want to leave it. In this case it should be from grazing animals. The same for chickens, which should be brought up biologically and in freedom, and only be fed with maize. The same with eggs. We should eliminate WOBR (wheat, oats, barley and rye) as today “we are all celiac”, we all suffer from the leaky gut syndrome. We should avoid dairy and all processed food. We recommend organic fruits and vegetables (without pesticides) or teach you how to wash those that are not organic with baking soda and  vinegar. We emphasize daily consumption of algae and superfoods such as sprouts, wheatgrass juice, chlorella or spirulina. We indicate probiotics such as water kefir, rejuvelac, organic miso, etc.

Together with my wife, we recommend, in cases of chronic degenerative diseases (cancer, Parkinson, Alzheimer, autoimmune, etc.), two years of raw veganism and body cleansing: cleaning emunctory organs: lungs, liver, kidneys, intestine and skin. Deep liver cleansing and colon hydrotherapy. This is part of the naturalistic treatment we recommend to patients.

KS: Yes, as with treatment, nutrition should also be in accordance with natural laws. What’s necessary for a change in human consciousness?

LD: Keep yourself informed and do not to look the other way or find excuses not to change. If the doctor does not change his attitude and does not become aware of the serious risk that he and his patients continue taking when eating junk food, he will increase the horrible statistics of diseases that have already reached epidemic proportions.

KS: And are the physician‘s attitudes not of great importance in all respects!   Wherein do you see the importance of the therapeutic relationship between the homeopathic prescriber and patient?

LD: In all cases we must win the trust of the patient and create a friendly atmosphere. The homeopath who feels true love for the patient through an empathic attitude, will get the patient to open and tell us about their affective problems or suffering, from which we receive the deepest symptoms to make a good hierarchy of the characteristic guiding symptoms to access the constitutional simillimum.

KS: You have lectured at the prestiguous “Escuela Medica Homeopatica Argentina Tomas Pablo Paschero“. Their way of teaching homeopathy has changed over the years, bringing with it advantages and shortcomings. What’s your preferable way of teaching homeopathy?

LD: From the clinic, with live patients from the first year of the course of homeopathy, as I was taught by my Master Tomas Pablo Paschero. The advantages derive from not moving away from the teachings of Hahnemann, Hering, Kent and Paschero. And the shortcomings come from not being convincing and emphatic enough in alerting our students to the siren song of pseudo masters who deviate from the homeopathic doctrine and  technique.

KS: You studied homeopathy with the great teacher Tomas Pablo Paschero.  What made him so special and popular?

LD: Master Paschero was a very special being. His neatness in dress, his affectionate and compassionate facial expression towards others, his intuition, the correct prescription of remedies when other homeopaths of experience did not coincide with Paschero’s remedy selection. Upon returning to the consultation the patient presented spectacular changes with significant improvements and the implementation of the Law of Cure.

KS: You founded the civil association “Academia de Homeopatía Dr. Constantino Hering“ in 1999, with the aim of spreading homeopathy and offering treatment for those financially disadvantaged. Did you achieve your aspirations?

LD: Yes. In that sense the Academy works very well.

KS: You have also been teaching homeopathy in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay etc.  How do you see the future of homeopathy in Latin America?

LD: Promising. There are very good homeopaths and teachers in all the countries you mention. I communicate with many homeopaths from these countries and see the future of true homeopathy with optimism.

KS: Considering your rich life of gaining knowledge and experience, what would you like to recommend to our readers?

LD:  Do not abandon true homeopathy! Classical homeopathy succeeded and was spread with the successes achieved in treating those considered incurable.

KS: Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.  I hope our readers have gained an interest in the advantage of combining homeopathy, astrology and graphology and may feel inspired to explore them more deeply.

About the author

Katja Schuett

Katja Schutt, Msc, HP, DHM, PGHom, DVetHom, has studied homeopathy with several schools, amongst which David Little’s advanced course stands out as it offers a really deep insight into homeopathic philosophy and materia medica (simillimum.com). Her current focus lies in working with animals and studying history, the old masters, and research.

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