Hahnemannian homeopathy (named after Samuel Hahnemann) is a therapeutic system aimed at improving the health of a body through the administration of suitably diluted and ‘dynamised’ (or ‘potentised’) substances whose actions are known mainly through experiments on healthy humans (the so-called ‘provings’).
These substances, which acquire therapeutic properties precisely as a result of the dilution and potentisation, are selected individually and used in a patient based on the law of similars (the symptoms in patients are similar to those that the substance is able to produce in a healthy individual).
Healing is not manifested only by resolution of the clinical signs, but also by an improvement in three spheres: psychic, physical and neuroendocrinological (= state of emotional wellbeing, normalisation of endocrine-immunological indicators and improvement of clinical symptoms).
The aim of homeopathic treatment is not, therefore, limited to relieving a given disturbance, but rather extends to improvement of the overall state of the patient. Indeed, the organic pathological changes provide only a small part of the information necessary to apply the law of similars.
The imbalance (which is manifested as disease) can be encouraged towards equilibrium thanks to the use of appropriately diluted remedies (there are currently over 3,000), which are subjected to a procedure called succussion. Homeopathic remedies seem to cause a process of reorganization of vital functions, with the partial or total recovery of health depending partly on the severity of the structural changes that have occurred following the disease.
If the similarity is sufficient, the disease or disorder does not recur after withdrawal of the remedy; if the similarity is incomplete, any effects will be only partial or temporary. On the other hand, if the tissue damage is irreversible, homeopathy can only have a palliative effect. This explains the difference in results, and also methods, during acute, chronic and/or incurable diseases. The times necessary for a response and the types of response to therapy also differ between the three cases considered.
Suggested readings
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