Hahnemann’s Classification of Diseases in Homeopathy

In the time of Samuel Hahnemann, medical treatments were in a chaotic state, so he was engaged in jobs such as chemist and translation of medical books. Diseases had to be classified clinically for homeopathy, which he established in a scientific framework with the principle of similar cures the similar, which he realized during his studies. According to Hahnemann, the disease had a dynamic origin and did not accept the nosological classification of diseases. For him, illness was an individual entity, and the patient was an individual to be observed directly and immediately.

For Hahnemann, illness is an individual’s deviated state of health, expressed in signs and symptoms perceptible by the vital force. The doctor’s task, therefore, is to examine this individual’s response to stimuli by miasmas.

Hahnemann divided the diseases in general as follows:

1. Reluctance (footnote to § 7 and 150)
2. Surgical diseases
3. Dynamic diseases
4. Reluctance

Fatigue is a slight change in state of health, manifested by one or more minor symptoms that are observed only for a short time. This is not a fully developed disease, so it does not require medical attention. A slight change in diet and regimen is all it takes to control it. Fatigue should not be considered a disease. It can be controlled by the vital force itself, which Hippocrates also called the Vis medicatrix naturae.

2. Surgical Diseases

In Organon § 13 and 29, Hahnemann made it clear that surgical diseases do not fall under the scope of homeopathy because they do not have dynamic or miasmatic origins, they should only be treated by mechanical or surgical methods.

Sample:

Bone fractures, accidental cases of extensive tissue damage, etc. Conditions such as these do not have dynamic causes that need to be treated. Instead, in such cases the problem is purely mechanical trauma. It is not a disease caused by a dynamic disorder, but a discontinuity of anatomical tissues due to mechanical trauma.

In such cases, we cannot control the pain by simply giving the dynamic drugs. Instead, local measures such as conditioning the bones and applying appropriate bandages, sutures, and dressings, along with dynamic drugs, can improve the patient. Hahnemann called such cases as pure surgical diseases, not dynamic, but mechanical in origin and requiring mechanical assistance in combination with dynamic homeopathic remedies.

3. Dynamic Diseases

Dynamic diseases can be divided into 2 types (§72):

acute diseases

chronic diseases

– Acute diseases (§72 & 73)

Acute diseases are diseases of sudden onset, more or less fixed duration, resulting in death or recovery with or without treatment. Acute diseases result from acute miasmas. In acute diseases, the change in vitality is more or less superficial compared to chronic diseases. Thus, in such diseases, the life force can to some extent self-correct the ailment with or without treatment.

1. “In acute manifestations, vital functions are often restored to achieve full harmony with and through their own power,” says Roberts.

“Acute miasm is a condition that overwhelms the economy, is longer or shorter than the normal prodromal period, has a period of progress and decline, and has a tendency to recover,” Kent says.

In acute diseases, the discomfort starts first in the superficial parts of the body and then spreads to the inner life force (vital force). Therefore, in acute diseases, tissue damage dominates the structural symptoms. Pathological inflammatory changes are reversible in most acute diseases, so full recovery is possible. We can always find some exciting causes in acute illness.

These exciting causes will lead to a temporary eruption of the latent psora. In short, acute diseases have a sudden and severe onset, rapid or moderately rapid course, finish their course more or less quickly, and result in death or recovery.

In acute diseases, symptoms develop rapidly and symptoms are easily found. Therefore, the acute disease is easy to treat. Requires the use of common acute short-acting drugs.

“Treat acute conditions first, even chronic ones,” Kent says. During treatment, the acute symptoms that have appeared recently should not be confused with the structural symptoms of the chronic disease. Only newly developed symptoms of acute origin should be considered.

Types of acute illness

Acute diseases are of 3 types:

1. Individual
2. Sporadic
3. epidemic
4. Individual diseases

(individual = indivisible/odd):

This type of disease is a type of disease that attacks people individually for some exciting reason of mental or physical origin. Example: excessive food intake or insufficient supply, severe chills, overheating, strain, mental emotions, etc. acts as an exciting cause for the development of individual acute diseases. Different people in different places may suffer from different or individual diseases at the same time.

Example: Ali may have diarrhea in Izmir; Kemal may be suffering from headaches in Manisa at the same time. This acute illness is nothing but a temporary eruption of the latent psora. If this is not of a severe character, the psora will spontaneously pass into the latent stage and the patient will recover. However, this recovery is done at the expense of some damage to the vitality of the patient, which makes him more susceptible to diseases. Without medication, the individual disease will result in death or recovery. This disease can be treated with acute integumentary homeopathic remedies.

1. Sporadic diseases:

These are types of acute illnesses that attack several people here and there at the same time through meteoric, telluric and harmful agents or influences. In this case, the exciting cause may be climatic effects, atmospheric or physical factors (meteoric), or soil, water (telluric) etc. may have effects on These causes will affect only a few people with the same sensitivity.

Example: A group of people in Hatay are affected by some kind of fire; At the same time, a group of people suffer from headaches in the same place. Sporadic disease, like other acute diseases, is caused by latent psora eruption and this can be treated with homeopathic remedies. Every sporadic disease should be regarded as a new disease at every incidence and should be treated only on the basis of integrity.

1. Epidemic Diseases

(Greek word; epi = on, demos = people / epidemic = on people): Epidemics are types of acute diseases that affect many people with very similar suffering from the same cause. Hahnemann uses the word contagious in this context because an epidemic becomes contagious when it spreads among densely populated areas. Although the origins seem to be the same, each epidemic is unique. Like any other acute illness, when left to the vital force, it ends either with the death of the patient or with his recovery. The cause of epidemics, war disasters or flood (flood), famine etc.

Acute miasmas causing acute diseases can be of 2 types:

Recurrent acute miasma:

These miasmas recur in the same manner multiple times throughout a person’s life. Example: Plague of the Levant, Asian cholera, yellow fever of the seashore, etc.

Non-recurring acute miasma:

This is also called fixed miasm. This only attacks a few people once in a lifetime. Example: smallpox, whooping cough, etc.

Classification of Chronic Diseases in Homeopathy

Chronic diseases are diseases that have a gradual and uncertain onset, experience unlimited lifetime pain, have no tendency to heal, and tend to persist into the next generation if not treated with dynamic homeopathic remedies. The difference between acute and chronic diseases is more than just the duration of the disease.

Clarke also notes that Hahnemann does not use the word “chronic” to denote just a long-standing disease, but a poison (miasm) that has had a chronic evolution from the very beginning.

“Chronic disease is chronic from the start,” Kent says.

Chronic diseases can be of 3 types:

Artificial/iatrogenic chronic diseases (§ 74-76)

False chronic disease (§ 77)

True/miasmatic chronic diseases (§78-81)

1. Artificial/iatrogenic chronic diseases

(§ 74-76 Organon)

These are the most incurable chronic diseases. These are diseases produced as a result of long-term allopathic heroic drugs in large and ever-increasing doses. These are artificially produced due to their violent and abusive actions. Due to the violent actions of large doses of mercury, silver preparations, preparations, leech applications, problems, setons, etc., the vital energy of the organism is greatly disturbed.

To protect oneself from such destructive primary action, our life force develops a response in the body. In this process of self-preservation, we lose or sacrifice even some of our vitality. This injures the body internally and externally. This happens as a result of the secondary curative reaction to protect the whole organism.

In the footnote to § 74, Hahnemann points to the Brousseau treatment (see also footnote to § 60) as the most unreasonable, inappropriate allopathic method. He criticizes bloodletting and vensections as irreplaceable blood loss treatment, brutal methods and deadly malpractice practices.

Of the chronic diseases, the artificial chronic disease produced by allopathic malpractice is the most difficult to treat, especially if the treatment has been continued for a long time to the patient (§ 75). These artificial diseases must be healed by the life force itself. This is possible only if the vitality of the life force has not been completely disrupted. Despite the devastating treatment, there is still some vitality in the body.

2. False chronic disease

(§ 77, see also § 7)

These are also called pseudo-chronic or inappropriate chronic diseases. These are diseases that patients bring on their own due to prolonged and continuous exposure to preventable protective causes. False chronic diseases are not true chronic diseases because there is no background chronic miasma. When the underlying cause is removed, the disease disappears on its own.

Sample:

1. Drinking habit or any spitting.
2. Long-term abstinence or not taking certain things properly is necessary for the continuation of life.
3. Living in unsanitary or swampy areas.
4. Deprivation of exercise and the outdoors.
5. Excessive excretion of the body and living in constant mental and physical tension, etc.
6. True chronic disease

(§ 78-81):

These are called natural chronic diseases or miasmatic chronic diseases.