Hi, all. I am brand new to this forum, and to homeopathy, and am trying to understand overall theory as best I can before possibly locating a practitioner to help me with a chronic health condition I have. I have poked in other web resources some, and have just checked out "The Science of Homeopathy," by George Vithoulkas, from the library.

Anyway, I appreciate homeopathy's view of symptoms as body's own attempt to heal, and its emphasis on mind-body-emotion link, but would wonder whether the practice adequately confronts root causes of symptoms--"miasma." The example I am going to relate comes from a story, reported by a non-homeopathic doctor, about a navy veteran who experienced symptoms of cold and pain below the waist. This man initially claimed his war experience had not traumatized him. Finally, upon close questioning, it came out that the veteran had been on a vessel that capsized. He had to spend a long time clinging to a life raft in freezing water, seeing comrades drown, before finally being rescued. The vet insisted this had not been emotionally traumatic, but the doctor pressed, and finally the vet was forced to confront his own, deep sense of betrayal and outrage at the official practice of rescuing officers before enlisted men (the vet had been enlisted), even though officers were physically placed as to be in much less danger at the time of the wreck. Anyway, once the vet got to the level of his feelings, his physical symptoms apparently cleared. Would a homeopathic doctor have dealt with this one by administering a remedy based on the man's physical symptoms: "cold sensation in legs and butt"? If so, would this have catapulted the man into the emotional awareness of his experience when the ship went down, to catalyze healing? Anyone?

Great story--and there's a number of very good homeopaths in the San Francisco area.

Among other things, many homeopaths will try to clarify any/all major stresses a person has encountered, and to understand their reactions to those stresses. Therefore, one may understand the man survived a harrowing experience, but his reaction to the experience reveals his uniqueness as an individual. His dismissal of the experience as not being traumatic would leave most homeopaths with more questions, as no reaction would be unusual.

To stop at the physical manifestation of the stress (and to limit one's search for only those remedies which match those symptoms) may be to overlook a deeper root cause, as was present in this case. However, there are many times where the remedy matching the physical manifestation does in fact correspond with the mental/emotional picture. If this correlation is present, then conceivably the remedy which would help with the physical complaint would help with the mental/emotional picture as well.

Although remedies have actions independent of the interview, your story also points out how the interview itself can be healing.

Dear Karmstead,

If a homeopath took this case, and tried to find a remedy based on "Abdomen, cold" and
"Abdomen, pain"...I'm afraid he would come up with nothing! Not one single remedy.
This case is entirely on the mental/emotional plane, and homeopaths are trained to view this as the most important level in a case.

Many questions would have been asked to elicit information about past traumas and griefs. He probably would have received an intake form asking for a list of traumatic events and their dates. The remedies we give are usually "Never Well Since" remedies.
Our job is to find the trauma that changed the person from his healthy state. We would ask, "When did this cold sensation begin?"
The person would give a date. We'd say, "What was happening in your life around that time?" He'd say, "I was in the Navy."
"What happened while you were in the navy--anything unusual?" Hopefully he would reveal the incident. "How did you react to it?" we'd ask. "What was the worst thing about it for you?" Hopefully he would reveal how horrified he was that the Navy had a policy of rescuing officers first. Causticum is a remedy that has a hatred of injustice as its central theme. We would try to ask confirmatory questions for Causticum to see if this was his remedy.

But yes, absolutely, we would be on the trail of the cause of these abdominal symptoms. Only a "regular" doctor would be content to treat the symptoms in the absence of digging for a cause beyond what the X-Rays would show.

Snoopy

Thanks for your responses so far. They've been helpful, as far as they go, but I need further clarification. I am still thinking about the poor navy vet with the cold legs. In the account I heard, the vet was able to voice bottled-up emotions that had caused his cold sensation. Giving a remedy, apparently, would have been moot after that; the vet's "cure" had been set in motion with the emotional telling of his story in the interview. For purposes of discussion, let's say this vet was even more emotionally shut-down than he was in fact--due to pride, or due to male socialization, or whatever reason. Say the vet gave the doctor the factual account of the shipwreck and delayed rescue, but was simply unable to acknowledge or voice his feelings about the incident--not seeing their relevance to his symptoms. Is this a case where a homeopath would look at the symptoms, surmise at the feelings that the shipwreck and delayed rescue would provoke, and then give a remedy like Causticum? Would the vet's ingestion of causticum trigger his conscious expression of his his sense of betrayal, where mere talking had failed to do so?

This is not idle curiosity for me. If I am going to go to the trouble and expense of pursuing homeopathic treatment for my potentially debilitating health condition, the practice has to make good sense to me on every level. In many cases--my own probably included--physical symptoms are not manifestly psychosomatic in the way the vet's were. Heredity most likely plays a part in my troubles (I have a family history), and there is compelling circumstantial evidence *naturally ignored by orthodox medicine* that mine is very much a Western lifestyle disease. Despite all this, I think integration of the mental and emotional planes is going to be crucial to my healing: I had a difficult-to-rotten childhood, and have endured significant stresses in adult life. How could these factors not play a part?

Vithoulkas's book has given me a pretty good understanding of how the cures work from the standpoint of the physical plane. Where I'm still struggling--admittedly not having read the whole book--is how homeopathic cures work on the mind and emotions. Case histories would really help. Anyone?

As you've probably read in Vithoulkas' book, remedies which produce symptoms in healthy subjects can be used to treat those same symptoms in persons who are sick. The symptoms created in healthy people occur on physical, mental and emotional levels, just as disease is expressed on physical, mental and emotional levels.

The conventional approach is to focus on those aspects of disease which are the most easily measured--physical signs and symptoms--while homeopathic approach is to understand the entire scope of disease--not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Disease is expressed in a unique way with each individual, as it represents the 'best effort'--albeit stuck effort--on the part of the organism to maintain some degree of homeostasis.

Remedies act as catalysts for moving one out of a stuck coping posture, otherwise known as disease. Any professional homeopath will have hundreds, if not thousands, of case histories of individuals who have experienced significant physical, mental and emotional improvements after well-chosen remedies.

It may be worthwhile to ask these and other questions of the prospective homeopath you are thinking of seeing.

I missed your other questions:

1) "Say the vet gave the doctor the factual account of the shipwreck and delayed rescue, but was simply unable to acknowledge or voice his feelings about the incident--not seeing their relevance to his symptoms. Is this a case where a homeopath would look at the symptoms, surmise at the feelings that the shipwreck and delayed rescue would provoke, and then give a remedy like Causticum?"

There are different ways of arriving at a remedy in situations such as these. Obviously, it's more difficult to be fully certain about what's going on inside the person when their difficulties are not completely disclosed, but the disease will be usually show itself in other ways. Even partial expressions of disease often lead to a remedy when the entire story, for whatever reason, is not fully expressed.

2) "Would the vet's ingestion of causticum trigger his conscious expression of his sense of betrayal, where mere talking had failed to do so?"

Yes, if causticum is a well-matched remedy.

I would like to give an example of something that might be pertinant here.

My mother had a father that was not the nicest to her. There was no physical abuse but since her mother had died she was treated like a nobody. Occasionally she would mention something to me about it but without any emotional feelings. She would say we were lucky to have a father like ours and give an example of what she put up with growing up. She'd say her father was a jerk and not take what he did personally. She was basically unphased by it. My mother is very sociable and intellegent. I would say she was one of the most mentally healthy people I know. At the age of 65 she had a major operation and since then she brings up her father more often. She now talks like a victim and is bothered by her past.

What I am saying is that the operation changed her emotional state. She is unable to deal with things like before. She admits to thinking quite often of her past NOW and being sad and mad about it. Dwelling on things unpleasant. It is not a question of denial and for some reason at 65 is dealing with something that has been in her subconsious for 45 years. It is a change in her physical and emotional health that has made her unable to deal with many things that she would have otherwise shrugged off in a healthy state.

Let's say person "A" and person "B" get hit by a drunk driver and both loose a leg. Person "A" might say "What has happened, happened, and there's nothing I can do about it so I will get on with my life. Person "B" might spend every waking hour feeling like a victim and saying, "life is unfair, and why me". The right remedy, by bringing about physicall and emotional health, can change person "B" into person "A". It can't bring back the leg though!!! I am not a homeopath, but think this is correct. Anyone feel free to correct me.

If my mother did not have the operation I think she would have lived her whole life rarely thinking of her father and her past.

NOTE: I had a strong reaction the above post, but when I responded to it, I mistakenly started a new topic, "the role of emotions in healing." Please look under that topic to see how I responded, but to avoid future confusion, continue to post responses here. Thanks.

Dear Karmstead,

I reread your original question, which was:
if a Rx was based on pain and cold sensation below the waist, would it have cured the repressed emotional trauma.

The answer is no, it would not have cured. We need to know causation in homeopathy.

Since the cause of the pain was the emotional trauma, only a remedy that treats the aftermath of such a trauma would cure the physical and emotional symptoms.

The homeopath may have tried a remedy based on "cold sensation of internal parts", and would fail, and would think, "I must be missing something. I better go back over this."

We are taught to investigate every possible trauma that can happen to a person.
We ask about accidents, griefs, frights, medical proceedures, hospitalizations....It's hard to imagine that this incident could get by the homeopath.

The other thing is, a remedy shows itself in more than one way. A person who can't express his feelings is often a "Nat-mur"--Natrum Muriaticum, which is Latin for salt.
When asked about food cravings, such a person will readily admit to desiring salt, thus tipping us off to his remedy even though he won't reveal his deep dark secret.
If he is indeed a Nat-mur, the remedy will cure him of his inability to express his feelings.

Causticum has a keynote of "better in damp,
cloudy weather", which a person will readily admit to, even if he won't reveal his true traumatic history.

Yours truly,

Snoopy

Hi Karmstead,

I just saw another post that I think was supposed to go with this one. Would you please copy and post it here, so we can have everything together. That way if someone replies, we'll know what the reply was to.
Thanks.
Shirley Reischman

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Shirley Reischman