Encyclopedia of Homeopathy

HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY • 21cases more layers need to be peeled away than others to reach lasting good health. At acertain stage in the treatment process, an underlying miasm may become clearly active.Treatment can then be tailored to overcome it. However, it should be emphasized thatthis does not mean that a person actually has the diseases that are implied by the namesof the miasms. Rather, the names describe the inheritance of a predisposition to aspecific pattern of possible symptoms or a tendency to fall ill in a particular way—theperson’s susceptibility. For instance, Psora relates to slow development and poornutrition; whereas Sycosis is associated with a frantic pace of life and overactivity of bothmental and physical processes; and Syphilis describes a pattern of breakdown, decay,deterioration, and eating away.Types of homeopathic practiceVarious prescribing habits have developed in different countries or at differenttimes. A clear conceptual division has emerged between two main schools ofpractice, classical and complex. Classical homeopaths generally treat with a singleremedy that exactly matches the patient’s inherent constitutional type and symptompicture. There are occasions, however, particularly in the case of acute illness orinjury, where the physical symptoms far outweigh the emotional and othersymptoms. In cases such as these a more pragmatic approach may be taken, usingcombinations of remedies in low potencies. Thus, for instance, five or six remediesknown to be helpful for influenza might be combined in a single tablet. This is thecomplex approach, based on the theories of the British homeopath Dr. RichardHughes (see page 17), and also known sometimes as combination homeopathy orpolypharmacy. In some situations, generally of an acute nature, it may be adoptedby classical homeopaths, but in certain countries it is actually the standard methodof prescribing. In 1948 it was officially sanctioned by the American Institute ofHomeopathy, and in many European countries, such as France and Germany,polypharmacy is more common than classical homeopathy.Further variations on the homeopathic principle include isopathy, in which apotentized microdilution of the substance causing the disorder is actually used to treatthe symptoms: for example, Apis (which is made from the sting of bee) might be givento someone to treat a bee sting. A classical homeopath will generally only expect a 20 to30 percent success rate using this method, since it does not take into account the uniqueconstitution of each patient. A refinement of this concept is tautopathy, in which theexact substance triggering the symptoms is used to make a remedy for treating thosesymptoms. In theory this means that the remedy for a bee sting would be prepared fromthe actual bee that had inflicted the sting. In practice the concept is most commonly usedfor allergic reactions, such as treating a child with a remedy made from a vaccination towhich the child has reacted.