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Case of a Sexually Abused Woman Who Hates Herself (2): Homeopathic Analysis
2008-04-17 21:49:00
Last week I presented the case of Janice, a sexually abused woman suffering from lifelong issues of sexuality, violence, and self-contempt. Today we continue with the homeopathic analysis of Janice’s case, which centers around identifying the recurrent themes that run through her case. To fully benefit from the discussion make sure to review the case transcript first. Janice’s main themes: sexual abuse, violence, duality I would like to suggest the following themes as the most prominent in Janice’s case, and offer evidence for each: Sexual abuse Crazy separation anxiety… I need constant attention… Love is sex, it is 99% of your life, you see sexual creatures all around you, always feeling sexually aroused… A small child in a world of adults… I need touch all the time. I don’t exist unless I am touched… An impossible situation: on the one hand you lust for your father, for this sort of love, and at the same time there is s...
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Case of a Sexually Abused Woman Who Hates Herself
2008-04-09 11:01:00
This is the first of a series of articles where I present in full detail the homeopathic treatment of a lifelong psychological condition. This is the emotionally charged story of Janice, a 33-year-old woman and single mother of a boy, who suffered sexual abuse during her childhood. Her psychological difficulties center on themes of sexuality, self-hatred, violence, and emotional instability with lifelong depressive tendencies. Below I present the initial appointment with Janice. This material is the basis on which I selected the homeopathic remedy, as I will present in the next article in the series. In subsequent articles I will detail Janice’s clinical progress over time. The case is published with permission of the patient, whose name and other identifying details have been altered. Janice opens our conversation by describing her chief complaint as: “Something that separates me from my life.” Please tell me about this? I am a warrior, fighting for my lif...
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Debating the Availability of Publicly Funded Homeopathic Treatment
2008-03-05 21:25:00
In the recent article on skepticism about homeopathy we saw how we cannot ignore skeptical media reports because of their powerful influence on the acceptance of homeopathy in society. Well, if we cannot ignore them then let’s debate them! In today’s article I present a video of a recent debate between physician and homeopath Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital (the same one who appears in Dawkins’ The Enemies of Reason) and Ben Goldacre, a physician and skeptical columnist for England’s Guardian newspaper. The importance of debates such as this is that they influence not only the public but also regulatory bodies that rely on self-appointed experts on both sides of the debate in crafting their policies. In some cases their regulatory decisions exert a significant influence on the state of homeopathy locally and internationally. Availability of publicly funded homeopathic treatment in the UK Should homeopathy be ava...
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The Homeopathic Treatment of Allergies
2008-02-24 16:28:00
Homeopathy is highly effective in the treatment of allergies and fully capable of stimulating the organism to heal to the point of complete relief from all allergy symptoms. Many of us have suffered from allergies at one time in our life, and usually the best treatment offered was symptomatic relief through avoidance of the allergen or through medication. Homeopathy, on the other hand, addresses the cause of the sensitivity to allergens at the deepest possible level; avoiding the allergen (the substance responsible for the allergic response) or resorting to suppression of symptoms through ongoing symptomatic treatment becomes unnecessary once this sensitivity has been eliminated. In this article I begin with (1) a short overview of allergies, followed by (2) discussion of the conventional approach, (3) the homeopathic diagnostic approach and (4) the rationale behind the homeopathic approach to the treatment of allergies. 1. The many types of allergy There are many common subs...
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Skepticism About Homeopathy: Can’t We Just Ignore the Skeptics?
2008-01-29 21:20:00
Homeopathy is the bad boy of healing systems. Over 200 years after its inception it continues to generate controversy, and being skeptical about homeopathy is far more popular than simply accepting it as is. It is not surprising, therefore, that possibly the most popular article on this blog has been Is Homeopathic Medicine the “Enemy of Reason”? (see also the comments that follow it), where I offered an example of the media’s sensationalization of the alleged scientific implausibility and irrationality of homeopathy. Why be skeptical about homeopathy in a homeopathic blog? There are four main reasons for being interested in the skeptical perspective on homeopathy: Perhaps the skeptics will turn out to be correct: homeopathy is all a big lie, and I shouldn’t be wasting my life and your time. More soberly, engaging with the skeptical arguments against homeopathy helps one in developing a balanced, well-reasoned perspective on the subject: while skeptics...
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How to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Without Going Hungry
2008-01-21 11:43:00
There is an fascinating dietary experiment currently taking place in public view: Steve Pavlina, author of the leading personal development website bearing his name, has committed to eating a high-fruit raw-food diet for the entire month of January, and is recording his experiment in minute detail through daily posts and photographs. Steve has committed to 30 days of eating a diet based on virtually nothing beyond uncooked fruits and vegetables, excluding dried fruits, spices, oils, and sauces. (The other type of raw-food diet revolves around nuts and seeds.) His intention is not to lose weight, but to eat a calorically adequate diet fulfilling these Spartan criteria. Having witnessed many such experiments during my studies of naturopathic medicine, when I was privy to classmates’ reports on their latest dietary experiment or cleanse, I find Steve’s diet impressive for its combination of strictness and length. What can we learn from this experiment (without trying it ...
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New-Year’s Greeting, 2007 Overview, and Request for Feedback
2007-12-29 14:13:00
I would like to greet 2008 by thanking you for choosing to subscribe to my blog in its first year of operation! I will outline my plans for Homeopathy Zone in the upcoming year, and would like to ask for your feedback to help me make this blog better serve your needs and expectations. 2007 Overview I posted the first article nearly a year ago, and have actively been promoting the site for just over 6 months. Over 800 of you have joined the mailing list by e-mail or RSS, and several dozen more continue to join every week. Much of the work on the blog in its first months took place behind the scenes, first in design and later on in promotion. The main challenge I have faced in creating a blog on classical homeopathy is that it is usually impossible to give specific treatment advice before a full homeopathic consultation is performed. The individualized nature of homeopathy is thus both a blessing and a curse: a blessing, because it is the source of homeopathy’s ability ...
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The 7 Essential Factors in Forecasting the Length of Homeopathic Treatment
2007-11-24 23:03:00
“How long will it take for me to get better?” This is one of the most frequent questions asked by new or prospective homeopathic patients. It is a sensible question that originates in our deep desire to foretell our life course and to receive assurance about the future. How does homeopathy rise to the challenge of responding with a reliable forecast? The challenge of homeopathic forecasting Homeopathic forecasting is challenging for any homeopath, because homeopathic treatment addresses the total predisposition to illness — a complex entity composed of multiple known and unknown factors — rather than isolated symptoms. The challenge is especially great prior to the initial homeopathic intake, as it is only during this consultation that the predisposition is first discerned. Homeopathic forecasting is demanding essentially because of the nature of the spiritual healing that is the goal of homeopathic treatment of chronic conditions. Such deep healing cann...
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Medical Suppression of Symptoms and Its Homeopathic Cure
2007-10-21 13:29:00
One of the most important contributions of homeopathy to the theory of health and disease is the concept of suppression of symptoms. In conventional and some forms of alternative medicine reduction of symptoms and alleviation of suffering are viewed as the towering goals of treatment. In contrast, the clinical philosophy shared by naturopathic and homeopathic medicine holds that a symptom is an expression of inner disharmony rather than a problematic thing in itself, and that the disappearance of a symptom may or may not be an indication that the person has been truly cured. In homeopathy it is very important to distinguish between a curative and a suppressive effect because the goal of treatment is healing of the entire person at the deepest possible level. To achieve this the homeopath first needs to know the patient’s medical history in order to determine whether any past treatments have been suppressive; second, the homeopath needs to evaluate the response of the pat...
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Is Homeopathic Medicine the “Enemy of Reason”?
2007-08-24 22:16:00
Homeopathy has been the target of criticism by skeptical scientists and physicians throughout its history. One has just been broadcast in The Enemies of Reason, a two-part British TV documentary about New-Age and alternative medical practices. But this critical view of alternative medicine by a prominent scientist, shown in the video below, suffers from major flaws which I will comment on in this post. The Enemies of Reason The second episode of The Enemies of Reason, conceived and presented by Richard Dawkins (the prominent biologist who has gained a worldwide following as a defender of science and reason), is a blistering attack on alternative medicine. Dawkins views the rise of alternative medicine as an abandonment of rationality in favor of the superstition that preceded the Enlightenment and the Scientific Age. Having in the first episode extolled the virtues of scientific over anti-scientific practices such as astrology, in the second episode (48 minutes long) Dawkins fo...
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Diving Into “The Spirit of Homoeopathy”
2007-07-30 09:03:00
Classical homeopathy has continually grown in complexity ever since its inception over 200 years ago. Most notably, the number of homeopathic remedies in use has grown from around 100 in homeopathy’s early days to several-thousand in use today. Over the years there have been various attempts at formulating some of homeopathy’s hard-to-grasp principles in simple and logical form, in order to equip homeopaths with finer tools for handling the growing volume of information they were faced with. In his 1991 book The Spirit of Homoeopathy (note the alternate spelling sometimes used, with the extra “o” before the “e") Dr. Rajan Sankaran, a leading homeopathic medical doctor from Mumbai (Bombay), India, began developing an in-depth understanding of homeopathic theory with the goal of making homeopathic diagnosis and treatment more effective. Since the publication of this book Sankaran has established himself as an innovative theoretician and synthesizer of...
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This is Why Homeopaths Emphasize Clinical Results over Theory
2007-05-15 16:10:00
Classical homeopathy is first and foremost a clinical science concerned with the healing of living beings. As such its main concern is the practice of medicine, in contrast with conventional medicine where theoretical considerations (such as through what mechanism a medication exerts its effect) are primary. What cannot be explained is nevertheless real What is important for homeopaths is that their observations correspond with the reality of the clinic rather than with the rational-scientific point of view in which we are taught exclusively to think. This is because many things about people do not make sense rationally but are nevertheless real. This is simply because reason can explain only part of human reality. For example, we regularly experience symptoms that cannot be explained physiologically, unusual sensations that we find hard to describe without first apologizing that “they do not make sense,” and strange phenomena we have experienced but likewise find embarrassin...
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The Influence of Vitalism on Naturopathic Medicine
2007-05-01 16:39:00
The philosophical perspective on which the naturopathic clinical approach is based is that of vitalism. According to vitalist philosophy, living beings are not machines running according to strict cause-and-effect relations, but are beings whose existence is guided by a single vital force. This runs contrary to the “mechanistic” view underlying conventional medicine, which is based on the principle that it is possible to subdivide the body into components and analyze their function independently of the rest of the body. Following this subdivision, medical scientists commonly ‘put it all back together’ and assume that the models they have just created correctly represents real-life patients. Sometimes their models are sufficiently true-to-reality, and conventional methods then prove effective. But often enough their models will not accurately represent the patients in front of them, and in such cases medicine will not provide adequate solutions. What we&r...
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The Distinction Between Classical Homeopathy and Naturopathic Medicine
2007-04-15 16:19:00
Homeopathy is very often confused with other systems of alternative medicine. The first reason is that the term “homeopathy” is little-known and is often confused with other, similar-sounding terms. But underlying this linguistic confusion is the fact that most people know little more than what they pick up from the media. This state of confusion extends even to many patients of homeopathy. Homeopathy’s exotic appeal The word “homeopathy” has an exotic ring to it that has lent to its being used in advertising a whole range of health products, mostly ones that have very little if anything to do with homeopathy. Thus it is very common to find people promoting some “homeopathic remedy” that has helped them or, conversely, complaining about how the “homeopath” that they visited failed to help. Telling homeopathy apart from other natural therapies Because of patients’ confusion about the matter, it is important to outline ...
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The How and What of Homeopathic Remedies
2007-04-01 18:17:00
Classical homeopathy depends for its clinical effect on a homeopathic remedy. A successul prescription requires a properly prepared remedy made from the correct source material as determined individually for each person. Homeopathic remedies are made from a seemingly limitless variety of substances, but all of them share a similar preparation process. It is the specialized process of preparation that makes homeopathic remedies unique. In addition to being prepared correctly, a homeopathic remedy must be prescribed correctly according to the principles of homeopathic philosophy in order to act effectively. Sources of homeopathic remedies Each homeopathic remedy originates from a any one of a huge variety of substances of natural or man-made origin. Remedies can be prepared from various minerals, from plants, from animal products, from synthetic chemicals, and even from sources of radiation such as x-ray. Samuel Hahnemann (the founder of homeopathy) prepared his first homeopathic...
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The Followup Appointments
2007-03-31 22:47:00
After the first prescription the patient returns for regular appointments so that the homeopath may determine the response to it and decide what to do next. These visits are scheduled once every few weeks—more frequently at first and less so as treatment progresses. The whole process of interview, analysis, and prescription is repeated during every appointment, albeit on a smaller scale than during the first visit. Just as important, the patient and homeopath continually discuss the patient’s experience of illness in order to facilitate the long-term spiritual healing that most patients ultimately desire and which classical homeopathy is capable of facilitating.
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Basics of the Homeopathic Prescription
2007-03-14 21:45:00
The homeopathic prescription, in a similar way to a conventional medical prescription, consists of the homeopathic remedy to be prescribed based on the homeopathic case analysis just performed, and the dosage (which consists of potency and frequency of intake). What is ‘potency’? Potency basically refers to the strength of effect of the remedy. Potency is expressed in terms of the number of times the remedy has undergone the process of dilution and succussion (the process is described in The How and What of Homeopathic Remedies), and the factor of each dilution (1:10, 1:100, or 1:50,000). Higher potencies (ones numbered with higher numbers) are stronger-acting than lower ones, even though they are apparently more diluted (remember that the effect of the homeopathic remedy is not chemical, so the concentration of the original substance is unimportant to the potency). This counterintuitive fact is proven as valid in everyday clinical practice. Frequency of intake In th...
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Basics of Homeopathic Case Analysis
2007-02-28 21:07:00
In The Initial Homeopathic Intake I outlined what takes place the first time a patient meets a homeopath. The aim of the entire initial-interview process is to distill the portrait of disease, which can be physical, psychological, or spiritual in nature. But it now remains to translate this information, often referred to as the “totality of symptoms,” into a working diagnosis. This totality is a carefully selected subset of the collected symptoms, one which emphasizes certain symptoms while de-emphasizing others. The least-important symptoms for determining the homeopathic diagnosis are general symptoms that lack qualities that differentiate them from person to person. Such symptoms are considered common, and they are rarely useful in pointing toward the correct diagnosis. Uncommon symptoms, on the other hand, are homeopathically the most important. They can be described as strange, rare, or peculiar: Strange symptoms are ones that do not make sense from a logical po...
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The Initial Homeopathic Intake
2007-02-14 21:07:00
The first interview in homeopathy (the “initial homeopathic intake") typically lasts around two hours for chronic complaints and as long as needed in the case of acute complaints. It is the beginning of an often fascinating journey of healing and self-discovery. A well performed initial assessment offers the homeopath a solid foundation for this journey. The interview process The homeopath begins by listening to the details of the patient’s ailments as well as anything else that the patient feels is relevant to the case. In addition to eliciting objective symptoms relating to these complaints, the homeopath, through the use of many open-ended questions, encourages the patient to describe his or her exact experience of the illness or discomfort in progressively greater clarity, depth, and detail. The aim of this interview process is for the homeopath to perceive the inner state of the patient, a single state that best points to the correct single prescription. This in...
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How a Unique Diagnostic Method Results in Superior Clinical Effectiveness
2007-02-01 15:16:00
You already know or at least assume that homeopathy is ‘holistic’ just like other forms of alternative medicine. Homeopaths will consider all of the patient’s complaints in their diagnosis, will strive to make the patient better on the whole, and so on. This philosophical basis is of course the ideal foundation of all forms of natural medicine, and are embodied in the principles of naturopathic medicine. But there are features which further distinguish classical homeopathy even from many forms of alternative medicine. The following is one such feature. Homeopathyic diagnosis leads directly to treatment What makes the homeopathic perspective especially powerful is that the homeopathic diagnosis leads directly to homeopathic treatment. This is markedly different from conventional medicine where a clear diagnosis does not necessarily guarantee clear or effective treatment. For example, in the case of the very common condition of hypertension, diagnosis is simple ...
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Overview of Classical Homeopathic Philosophy
2007-01-15 13:18:00
Classical homeopathy rests on a rich philosophical foundation first established by Hahnemann in his Organon of the Healing Art at the turn of the nineteenth century and refined over the past two centuries since. Homeopathy is rare among systems of medicine in possessing a clear and thorough view of the dynamics of health and disease. In homeopathy disease is regarded as an affection of the spiritual core of the person, and the treatment of disease is guided by specific laws of healing. The Law of Similars First, the law of similars calls for the application of remedies made from substances whose pattern of illness best matches that of the person. This is the fundamental law of homeopathy, and the term homeopathy (“homeo” + “pathy”, from the Greek homoios [similar] and pathos [suffering]) derives from this idea. The pattern of illness is determined through a combination of sources including formal experiment and collected clinical data (as will be explored ...
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Welcome to the HomeopathyZone Blog!
2006-12-31 22:19:00
You are about to embark on an exciting journey into homeopathy (often referred to as ”classical homeopathy” and sometimes spelled ”homoeopathy”) — one of the most mysterious yet arguably the most powerful system of medicine ever devised. Homeopathy untaps the full healing potential that each of us possesses within. Through its action on the spiritual core of the organism (a claim that will be made much clearer in upcoming articles), homeopathy can address anything from the common cold to complex and serious diseases. Both physical and psychological illness can yield to homeopathic treatment through the indirect effect it has on individual symptoms. Homeopathy works by changing the whole state of the organism for the better, so that disease can no longer take hold as it used to. For the patient, the process of homeopathic treatment is at once simple and complex. On the one hand, it does not demand sweeping lifestyle or dietary changes like some other...
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