Homeopathy compared

Homeopathy is an alternative to conventional medicine and naturopathy. All approaches to helping sick people can be classified into four therapeutic principles:

• Elimination = Eliminating the morbid agent or cause
• Substitution = Replacing of what is missing or sick
• Direction = Regulating the organism by giving large doses of drugs
• Stimulation = Stimulating the immune system or vital force in order to excite a reaction

The first three of these therapeutic principles represent the main field of activity of conventional or allopathic medicine. Examples are antibiotics and surgery (elimination), the substitution of vitamins or hormones, or prosthetic dentistry (substitution), or the pharmacological control of body functions (direction).

Naturopathy also uses the principles of elimination, substitution and direction. For example, fasting and other cleansing and detoxification treatments are intended to remove toxicity from the body (elimination). Phytotherapy not only seeks to compensate for missing substances (e.g. algae as a natural substitute for oligo-elements), but also regulates body functions (e.g. soy or agnus castus in menopausal disturbances) (direction). However, some methods are applied mainly as a healing stimulus (stimulation). Hydrotherapy e.g. uses the fact that cold water applications will activate the body’s own production of heat.

Psychiatry and psychotherapy use the same principles. Giving psychotropic drugs can be regarded as substitution or direction, while many psychotherapeutic systems use the principle of stimulation and intend to initiate a process of learning and development within the patient.

In homeopathy we mainly use the principle of stimulation, although the other principles can play a role. For example, we will support patients towards a healthier life style (elimination of possible morbid causes). In cases, where the organism is too weak, we can use homeopathic remedies as pain killers (e.g. in the late states of cancer).

In elimination, substitution and direction the organism remains passive. In contrast, stimulation provokes the healing forces of the organism. Samuel Hahnemann called the ability of the organism to produce such a reaction ‘the vital force’ or ‘dynamis’.

"In the state of health the spirit-like vital force (dynamis) animating the material human organism reigns in supreme sovereignty. It maintains the sensations and activities of all the parts of the living organism in a harmony that obliges wonderment. The reasoning spirit who inhabits the organism can thus freely use this healthy living instrument to reach the lofty goal of human existence.”

(Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of Medicine, translated by Jost Künzli, Alain Naudé and Peter Pendleton, Orion, 2003, ISBN 0 75284 972 7, 6. Aufl., § 9.)

However, the use of the vital force as a concept has not been exclusive to Hahnemann and homeopathy. Much earlier, Paracelsus (1493-1543) had already been using the term “internal physician”. Traditional Chinese Medicine names the vital force “Chi”, and even in conventional medicine today we speak of the “self-healing-forces” of an organism.

By the same token, the concept of the vital force has some application in all therapies due to the principle of stimulus and reaction. All therapeutic approaches only make sense if the organism is still capable of a reaction. A bone fracture must be addressed by surgery, and in certain types of diabetes, the use of insulin is compulsory.

In order to be effective, the vital force must be individually stimulated in each patient according to the principle of similars. That which helps in one case may be completely ineffective, or even harmful, in another.

The intensity of the stimulus also plays an important part. In most cases only small stimuli are needed.

Homeopathy is a therapy that uses individually chosen stimuli that are similar to the patient and their disease, using a minimal dose.