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Homœopathic Links 2011; 24(4): 226-231
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1280285
PHILOSOPHY AND DISCUSSION

© Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG

Hahnemann's Dissimilar Diseases

Monika Grühn Germany
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Publication History

Publication Date:
17 January 2012 (online)

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Summary

Hahnemann states in the Organon that dissimilar diseases, that meet in an organism, would not just fuse, but would either keep away or suspend one another, or if equally strong they would exist side by side and so form a “complex disease”. He then recommends a well-timed alternation of remedies for each of those coexisting diseases. Can we use his insights about the treatment, e.g., of Syphilis and Psora, for certain other diseases as well? Also, we might see why in Genuine Homeopathy, e.g., Boenninghausen's method, the disease concept is partly different from that in Classical Homeopathy.

Key words

Dissimilar diseases - Suspending - Complex diseases - Epidemic diseases - Altered vibrational patterns - Symptom totality - Genuine homeopathy - Classical homeopathy

References

1 einzeln: single, only one; i.e., existing as a distinct entity; separate; “EINZELN, singulus … das allein und für sich auftretende” [4]. See also § 3: literally “in diseases, i.e., in every single case of disease” (“an Krankheiten, das ist, … an jedem einzelnen Krankheitsfalle …”).

2 Krankheitsfall: related terms are, e.g., Krankheitsverlauf and Krankheitsherd, that in usual dictionaries are translated into course of a disease and focus of a disease. Thus the translation into case of a disease would also be possible.
According to Brothers Grimm, a case is an occurrence, an incident: “FALL  … (2d) fall, casus, vorfall, ereignis” [4]. So a case of disease in the Organon is the case (occurrence) of that disease, wherefrom a person is suffering, no matter, if this is an acute or a chronic disease, provided it consists of an inner alteration and a symptom totality of its own.

3 Similarly, in all other aphorisms there is no such expected explanation. In order to check that, all aphorisms with either of the words Gesamtheit, Inbegriff and Total, that were translated into totality, are listed in the appendix of part 1 of my previous article [7]. – Usually, when reasoning for this concept, translations are used that contain errors in translation; or else, in German, Hahnemann's complex text is read too quickly and the former meaning of words is not sufficiently taken into consideration. As a rule, the student then just repeats what s/he has learnt. This is why errors are consistent and why there are resulting errors.

4 The Organon may not be perfectly flawless, though. As Jan Scholten showed in “Dogmatism in Homeopathy”, there is an illogical derivation in § 21 [11].

5 Totality of the disease: in a previous article I explained the difference between a symptom totality and a disease totality. The latter consists of both the particular morbid derangement of the vital force in a certain disease and all the symptoms produced by this inner alteration. Thus, if all the symptoms of a disease, e.g., of scarlatina, are removed, the disease's underlying, e.g., Belladonna-like, internal change is at the same time removed; in consequence the whole of the disease (= the totality of the disease) is removed (see § 17). – By contrast, a symptom totality is “only” the outward reflection, ex-pression, manifestation of what is changed internally in a certain disease. Again, this could be any disease that fulfills these criteria of having an inner alteration and a symptom totality of its own (§§ 6, 7) [1], [2], [4], [7], [8].

6 Peter Chappell, when in Africa, developed “resonance remedies” for diseases like AIDS, malaria, etc. In cases of an infection, e.g., both with AIDS and with malaria, he treats them both with a remedy for AIDS and one for malaria [14], [15].

7 The standard edition is the Josef Schmidt edition in Haug Verlag, that comprises his corrections after viewing Hahnemann's manuscript [18].

Monika Grühn, MD, Allgemeinärztin

Hohe Linde 9

88316 Isny

Germany

Email: monika-gruehn@t-online.de

Monika has worked as a physician in various fields and currently works at a rehab centre for psychosomatic disorders, where she also treats homeopathically. She had an extensive Organon training and so has attempted to bring her Organon knowledge together with what she has learned about various approaches, old ones and new ones. This way, she could resolve some apparent contradictions between the approaches for herself and so is able to combine elements of them.