Editorial

Fugleman

In the second of this double issue on Birds we again offer some extended cases. Carefully observed, each is a demonstration by a “fugleman”, a word derived from the German, Flügelmann (from the root flug: flying) signifying the leader and exemplar of what is to be performed. The fugleman stands before a group and demonstrates how to do something. Distinct from school-teaching, this form of learning resembles more that method practised by the master for the apprentice. This older method is supported by modern research: only with great difficulty do we manage to teach a cat a new skill but other cats, by watching that skilled cat, can learn immediately.

In homeopathy it is surely the case presentation which is privileged to act as fugleman. The case as published (or as presented in seminar) represents the interaction between practitioner, patient and curative remedy or remedy sequence. Styles of case presentation differ but, regardless of the style preferred, the co-occurrence of patient and remedy must be portrayed.

Being two-winged, in trying to learn from such presentations we often proceed one-sidedly. One “wing”, our left brain, wants results: the name of the remedy and an arrow or two pointing out keynotes or essences. The right brain, our other “wing”, learns more as does the apprentice, unable to say what is learned from the master but learning all the same. To fly true we need both wings, of course.

In turn, every presentation lies somewhere in between two extremes. At one extreme the case record acts like a lawyer's argument – proving only that their client was present at such and such a location, subtracting any loose ends that might allow different interpretations, offering only a systematic proof and nothing but that proof. At the other extreme, the case offers a sound-bite woven of synchronicity, a volume of echoes, symptoms and signs. One extreme is supplied (and appreciated) by the left brain, the other by the right – and it is this latter bias (towards the right brain) that you will find in this Links.

My thanks go to Harry van der Zee for inviting me to be his guest, and the guest of the Links readership.

Iain Marrs, Guest Editor