The action of the proven remedy is similar to the action of disease from whatever source. Disease first must be caused by a disturbance of the vital energy and that in itself sets in motion a train of symptoms exhibiting an exact picture of the way in which the vital energy is disturbed. It is only from these pictures that we can gather an understanding of the inner workings of the sick individual. It is only through the careful observation of the provings of the potencies that we can know the action of any given remedy, to understand where it has made its impress on the vital force. The vital force is resilient and impressions not only show forth promptly but over a considerable period of time, and in orderly groups of symptoms, even as does natural disease.
*Organon, Pars. 10,11 :
The material organism, without the vital force, is capable of no sensation, no function, no self-preservation; it derives all sensation and performs all the functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being ( the vital force) which animates the material organism in health and in disease.
When a person falls ill it is only this spiritual, self-acting (automatic) vital force, everywhere present in the organism, that is primarily deranged by the dynamic influence upon it of a morbific agent inimical to life; it is only the vital force, deranged to such an abnormal state, that can furnish the organism with its disagreeable sensations and incline it to the irregular processes which we call disease; for, as a power invisible in itself, and only cognizable by its effects on the organism, its morbid derangement only makes itself known by the manifestation of disease in the sensations and functions of those parts of the organism exposed to the senses of the observer and physician; that is, by morbid symptoms, and in no other way can it make itself known.
This brings us to a consideration of the unhampered expression of the vital force and its influence in disease and cure. As we have seen, its expression reflects the exact symptoms of the disturbance. One of the easiest methods of dealing with sickness is to give medicines or mechanical treatments which put a stop to the symptoms; however, this is more apt to further upset the vital force by suppressing the individual expression of the disordered vital energy. Anything that disturbs the normal expression of disturbed harmony simply adds to the disturbance that is already in existence, and is a confusion worse confounded, for it suppresses or distorts the manifestations of the diseased state. This may be done in many ways. It may be done by sprays; it may be done by ointments; it may be done by irritative or narcotic treatment. Whatever is done that interferes with the expression of the disturbance as is manifested by the symptomatology of the patient adds many fold to our troubles. The altered character or entire suppression of discharges; the suppression of eruptions; the palliation of pain by narcotics; the momentary invigoration by tonics; these are among our problems. The injections in gonorrhoea, for instance, may suppress the discharge, but the effects is to throw the whole vital energy out of balance more markedly than before, and we get all kinds of manifestations in distant and seemingly unrelated organs as a result. Suppression is the easiest and greatest of the errors that can be practiced by any graduate in medicine.
To what did Hahnemann attribute the harmonious functioning of the human organism? What is the unit of human life?
What do we mean by the trinity of the individual?
Cite some conditions that may cause disturbance of the vital force with consequent disturbed development of the whole economy.
What is the outward reflection of the inward turmoil?
Why do we look on disease as a dynamic expression rather than as a local matter?
Why do we speak of the dynamic force of remedies?
What is sickness? (*Answer : Disturbance of harmonious functions.)
Why are remedies potentized?
What is the effect of suppressive treatment
