Hahnemann as Psychiater



“We lock up these unhappy being like criminals in cells!” exclaims Reil in 1803. ” In antiquated prisons side with the haunts of the owl, in desolate caves, over the entrances of a city, or in the damp cellars of prison houses where the sympathetic eye of the philanthropist never penetrates. We leave them there in chains to decay in their own filth.” The rule of the chain was accompanied by that of the whip. Muller tells us that the attendants of both sexes, in the Julius Hospital in Wurzburg, were well provided with various instruments for coercion and punishment, among them chains, hand-cuffs and fetters. In addition they had strong strips of oxhide covered with leather, and they made good used of them when a patient soiled himself, complained, scolded, or became violent. ” To chastise was the order of the day.”

Pinel, a French physician, tells us that in 1784 out of 100 patients admitted, fifty-seven died, and 1788 out of 151 even ninety-eight died : in later years a third or a fourth of those admitted died.

The Duke Larochefoucauld-Lianfourt, who reported on lunatic asylums to a Constitutional Assembly of the French Republic, declared : That insanity was regarded as incurable; the insane receive no treatment of any kind. Those that were considered dangerous were chained up like wild animals. ” That the evil is assumed to be incurable is a prejudice which is injurious to humanity, and this assumption is probably the deplorable reason why all hope for the insane is abandoned,” says Pinel.

SUPPLEMENT 22 HAHNEMANN IN GEORGENTHAL.

Hahnemann wrote, on May 6th, 1792 : Gotha, May 6th, 1792.

Our Duke will shortly hand over to me his hunting castle in Georgenthal (two hours distant from Gotha) and have it furnished. There I shall be able to found a small institute for the cure of wealthy insane and melancholic patients. Within a few weeks the necessary arrangements for their safety will be completed and my patients, who are already chosen, can be admitted. As soon as all this is arranged, we will consider together how we shall make it known to the public.

This little letter was probably addressed by Hahnemann to Councillor Becker in Gotha, and that on account of future Publications which Hahnemann subsequently considered necessary, according to the closing sentences in the above letter. This is also perhaps the first intimation which Hahnemann gives to his friend of the success following the article published in Becker’s paper.

Apparently one of the first letters from Georgenthal to his friend Councillor Becker in Gotha, reads as follows : Dear friend,

The case of the Princess and her letter is a curious joke. I have written to Winz and reduced 3./5, as I think with good grace, nearly as you meant me to do. I can well see that in Germany they are unable to appreciate the efforts to cure an insane person. Rath. F. from Hildburghausen, too, has excused himself in the grounds of expense. I asked for 40 thaler a month and 500 after the cure was completed. Schmid from Frankfort also seems to have been afraid of 50 thaler a month and 1,000 at the end of the cure, and therefore he has not answered. Now can anyone expect a physician to risk his reputation should he be unable to cure these patients? How can anyone expect him to face the danger which is always present with mental cases, or expect that the careful active and passive precautions necessary for the safe-keeping of such as are devoid of reason, or that the time spent, the expensive upkeep of the nurses, the selection of the medicine, etc., should all be undertaken for a trifling sum- without even thinking of the gloominess of such work? Does one not wish, for one’s own sake, to remunerate the diver more liberally than the man who walks down a few steps in safety?

Besides, it is much more expensive to cater for a fairly important establishment in the country than in Gotha. I ought really to have a daily messenger-boy at my disposal, as almost all our needs (meat, vegetables, cereals and clothing) have to come from Gotha. Indeed, I should not like to undertake so much for very small stipend. Therefore I share your opinion that I am justified in asking my rightful fees.

Do come and see me soon. We are at present in great disorder on account of building alterations, but I am quite able to spend a few hours with a good friend and especially with you. Publish this onslaught from Wien, in God’s name, in your “Anzeiger,” and, if I may ask it of you, print my reply immediately below. Adieu, faithful friend, D.H.

SUPPLEMENT 23

HAHNEMANN’S CURE OF KLOCKENBRING IN GEORGENTHAL.

(” Nekrolog” from the year 1795, containing records from the lives of remarkable Germans who died that year, by Friedrich Schlichtegroll, Year 6, Vol. I, pages 124-247. Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1797.)

Schlichtegroll tells us in his ” Nekrolog” that Geh. Kanzleisekretar Klockenbring, of Hanover, born in 1742, who was know as an author, was as learned as he was irritable. His well- being was largely dependent upon the opinion the world expressed of him. His mind had become unhinged (in1790) through an infamous pamphlet of the poet, August Kotzebue. In this essay, which was published under the name of Knigges ” Doktor Bahrdt with the iron brow” Klockenbring was attacked in the meanest way for no apparent reason. This upset his health to such an extent he became insane, with attacks of raving. Schlichtegroll continues here verbatim :

During this time, the meritorious family physician Wichmann, in Hanover, was, conjointly with others, uninterruptedly striving to cure the patient trying II the known means of medical science. Alas! In vain! Even though it seemed there was at times a clear interval, the fury of the illness was soon doubled.

About this time, the famous Dr. Hahnemann, then residing in Gotha, made known through the “Reichsanzeiger” that he intended all his time and all his capabilities to patients with diseases of the mind, and that he had already seen happy results from his method of treatment. As the treatment had to be concentrated chiefly on the mind, and therefore required much time, he only took very few patients at a time for treatment.

After many enquiries, there was only one opinion regarding Hahnemann’s skill as a physician, therefore nothing could be more desirable than that such an intelligent man should offer himself for such sad work. There was an interchange of letters on the subject, and Hahnemann declared himself ready to take the patient under his care. Madame Klockenbring came herself to Gotha to discuss more detailed conditions with him. Hahnemann had given the public the news of his projected institute in order to see if it would find any response, and until then had made no definite arrangements regarding the locality for the institution. A dilemma now arose for both parties, as an urgent case awaited admission in the person of this distinguished patient. The well-known kindness of the reigning Duke of Gotha came to the rescue. He gave up, for this purpose to Dr. Hahnemann, one wing of his hunting-castle in Georgenthal, three hours from Gotha, and also helped him in many ways to furnish it. In June, 1792, Klockenbring was brought to Georgenthal under a suitable escort and placed under the care of Hahnemann. This learned Physician has told us in. an article of his own (” Notes describing Klockenbring during his dementia,” I.s Deutsche Monatschift, February, 1796 VOL. 2-4) something if the extraordinary psychological conditions of this patient, and how the force of the illness gradually subsided. We will only give selections from the most striking parts relating to mental science, especially such as give the reader an idea of the gifted and comprehensive mind now distorted by the violence of the disease, but which, disordered as it was, yet aroused admiration.

Hahnemann devoted the first week to observation only, without giving any medical treatment to his patient. The latter spent day and night having a series of attacks; at one minute he spoke as a judge and delivered sentence; at another, he would recite as Agamemnon, or as Hector in the actual words of the Iliad, sung in the middle of a stanza of Pergolese’s Stabat Mater; or he quoted passages from the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, or sought for an old Greek melody to a song of Anacreon or the Anthology; and again changed over to passages from Milton’s “paradise Lost ” or Dante’s “Inferno”; and from these again he would turn to algebraic formula. Nothing was ever quite completed, but the new idea displaced the former with violet haste.

” The marvellous part,” says Dr. Hahnemann, “was the correctness of expression of all that his memory recalled from writings in many languages, especially of all that he had acquired in his youth.” This mixture bears testimony to his extraordinary and manifold knowledge, but perhaps also to his eager desire to be brought into prominence by it, as he did when he boasted of his intimate acquaintance with distinguished personages; he was not free from this characteristic in his normal state. He smashed everything that came to hand at that period, even his piano, and this he put together again in a peculiar manner in order, as he said, to find a complementary note, the Proslambanomenon. This man, who ordinarily knew nothing of bodily ailments, once wrote out for himself a prescription to be immediately dispensed, the rare ingredients of Which, according to Hahnemann’s deposition, were so well chosen and arranged, and so correctly calculated for the treatment of maniac of his type, that it could easily have been accepted as the work of learned physician; had it not been that the absurd signature and directions for administering it were proof of a disordered mind. By what means did the spirit in the midst of the fog of a storm-tossed imagination, without chart or rudder, find its way to so excellent a remedy for insanity, and one unknown to many a doctor, seeing that he had no books in his possession? How did he manage to prescribe it for himself in the most appropriate form and dose? Almost as astonishing was the fact that during the worst period of his mental disorder, on being questioned, he would not only know the date ( this perhaps was comprehensible, although he had no calendar ) but also the correct hour by day or night with great exactitude. As he began to improve, this power of divination became more uncertain and unreliable until with the complete return of his reason he knew neither more nor less about less it than an ordinary person. When he was completely cured, I pressed him once in a friendly way to solve this riddle for me, or at least to describe the sensation that had prompted him. ” My whole body shudders,” he replied, ” and something cold runs over me when I try to think of it; I pray you not to remind me of this thing.”

Richard Haehl
Richard M Haehl 1873 - 1932 MD, a German orthodox physician from Stuttgart and Kirchheim who converted to homeopathy, travelled to America to study homeopathy at the Hahnemann College of Philadelphia, to become the biographer of Samuel Hahnemann, and the Secretary of the German Homeopathic Society, the Hahnemannia.

Richard Haehl was also an editor and publisher of the homeopathic journal Allgemcine, and other homeopathic publications.

Haehl was responsible for saving many of the valuable artifacts of Samuel Hahnemann and retrieving the 6th edition of the Organon and publishing it in 1921.
Richard Haehl was the author of - Life and Work of Samuel Hahnemann