Dear Karen,

Nothing I do is completely developed by myself as it is based on the work of several generations of the homeopaths. If was for not Hahnemann and the lineage of practitioners, I would know nothing. The arrangement of the four degrees of psychological symptoms is a schemata I made in line with what I have observed in the clinic. One cannot treat a patient's psyche separate from the soma anymore than on can treat the soma as something separate from the psyche. As a homeopath we work with the essential nature of the totality of the symptoms of the body and soul as this is the only true presentation of the Gestalt of the disease. Nevertheless, it is important for homeopaths to understand the Maps of Consciousness so that we understand the psychological aspects of patients and remedies more completely. Therefore, a study of psychology is very important to the homeopath.

.. Please understand that this fourfold analysis does not cover all the possible symptoms of our remedies and how they interlock with each other. It is just a way of viewing patients and symptoms that is not a waste of time and often very useful. One must study the nature of the disease state in terms of stages and degrees to find the correct remedy, dose, potency and case management strategy. It also helps us understand the direction of cure. For example, many patients will work there way back through the stages 4, 3, 2, 1.

A 4th stage patient believes that their delusions are real. The always think nothing is wrong with them and project their inner complexes on others. This is the essential nature of a psychotic state. When the patient realizes that their is something wrong with them and the way they are perceiving reality the move to the 3rd stage. Now they being to struggle with their mood affective disorders, neurosis, phobias, etc. When they get partial control over their neurotic states they move to the second stage where sometimes they are in control and sometimes they are not but they know what is happening to them and the path toward cure. Now they begin to function better and the complexes no longer completely control their lives.

When they are able to cope and compensate for the remaining complexes they appear as healthy as anyone else but the healing it not done. Just coping and compensating is not a true state of health. This is not a state of naturalness and spontaneity. Once the individual is able to deal with the causes that underlie their moods, feeling and actions they are able to remove them. Once problem solving moves to the state of resolution they not longer need to use coping mechanisms and compensation to function. Their moods and feeling will still have their highs and lows as this is part of human nature but they will be expressed naturally in a healthy manner in which they stay true to themselves while adapting to society as needed. This is the psychological equivalent of the physiological direction of cure.

As Hahnemann said, all diseases are "initially" a derangement of the vital force. This functional derangement moves through 4 stages until it become extremely pathological. On the physical level this is called organic pathology while oh the mental level it is called psychopathology. The return to health is the path back through the time-line by which the disease developed and the release of unresolved causations. The homeopathic remedy makes this process much, much easier because it assist the patient in the process almost effortlessly. Nevertheless, psychological counseling and problem solving is, as Hahnemann called it, food for the soul and a great aid. Hahnemann was as much a psychologist, philosopher and counselor as a prescriber of remedies. We should seek to be likewise.

I will try in the next days to put up a portrait of remedies based on stages and degrees.

Sincerely, David Little