About Homeopathy » Philosophy

Homeopathy is a vitalist philosophy that interprets diseases and sickness as caused by disturbances in a hypothetical vital force or life force. It sees these disturbances as manifesting themselves as unique symptoms. Homeopathy maintains that the vital force has the ability to react and adapt to internal and external causes, which homeopaths refer to as the "law of susceptibility" (as with the "law of similars" this is a term of art and not a natural law, and it lacks significant scientific acceptance).

The law of susceptibility implies that a negative state of mind can attract hypothetical disease entities called "miasms" to invade the body and produce symptoms of diseases.^[24] However, Hahnemann rejected the notion of a disease as a separate thing or invading entity, and insisted it was always part of the "living whole".^[25] Hahnemann proposed homeopathy in reaction to the state of traditional Western medicine at that time, which often was brutal and more harmful than helpful. Hahnemann coined the expression "allopathic medicine", which was used to pejoratively refer to traditional Western medicine.^[26]


Law of similars
Hahnemann observed from his experiments with cinchona bark, used as a treatment for malaria, that the effects he experienced from ingesting the bark were similar to the symptoms of malaria. He therefore decided cure proceeds through similarity, and treatments must be able to produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease being treated.^[27] Through further experiments with other substances, Hahnemann conceived of the "law of similars", otherwise known as "let like be cured by like" (Latin: similia similibus curentur)^[28][29] as a fundamental healing principle. He believed that by using drugs to induce symptoms, the artificial symptoms would stimulate the vital force, causing it to neutralise and expel the original disease and that this artificial disturbance would naturally subside when the dosing ceased.^[27] It is based on the belief that a substance that in large doses will produce symptoms of a specific disease will, in extremely small doses, cure it.

Hahnemann's law of similars is an ipse dixit axiom,^[30] in other words an unproven assertion made by Hahnemann, and not a true law of nature.^[31]


Miasms and disease
In 1828, Hahnemann introduced the concept of "miasms"; underlying causes for many known diseases.^[32] A miasm is often defined by homeopaths as an imputed "peculiar morbid derangement of [the] vital force".^[33] Hahnemann associated each miasm with specific diseases, with each miasm seen as the root cause of several diseases. According to Hahnemann, initial exposure to miasms causes local symptoms, such as skin or venereal diseases, but if these symptoms are suppressed by medication, the cause goes deeper and begins to manifest itself as diseases of the internal organs.^[34] Homeopathy maintains that treating diseases by directly opposing their symptoms, as is sometimes done in conventional medicine, is ineffective because all "disease can generally be traced to some latent, deep-seated, underlying chronic, or inherited tendency".^[35] The underlying imputed miasm still remains, and deep-seated ailments can be corrected only by removing the deeper disturbance of the vital force.^[36]

Hahnemann originally presented only three miasms, of which the most important was psora (Greek for "itch"), described as being related to any itching diseases of the skin, supposed to be derived from suppressed scabies, and claimed to be the foundation of many further disease conditions. Hahnemann believed psora to be the cause of such diseases as epilepsy, cancer, jaundice, deafness, and cataracts.^[32] Since Hahnemann's time, other miasms have been proposed, some replacing one or more of psora's proposed functions, including tuberculosis and cancer miasms.^[34]

Hahnemann's miasm theory remains disputed and controversial within homeopathy even in modern times. In 1978, Anthony Campbell, then a consultant physician at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, criticised statements by George Vithoulkas claiming that syphilis, when treated with antibiotics, would develop into secondary and tertiary syphilis with involvement of the central nervous system. This conflicts with scientific studies, which indicated penicillin treatment produces a complete cure of syphilis in more than 90% of cases.^[37] Campbell described this as "a thoroughly irresponsible statement that could mislead an unfortunate layman into refusing orthodox treatment".

The theory of miasms has been criticized as an explanation developed by Hahnemann to preserve the system of homeopathy in the face of treatment failures, and for being inadequate to cover the many hundreds of sorts of diseases, as well as for failing to explain disease predispositions, as well as genetics, environmental factors, and the unique disease history of each patient.^[38]:148-9