HOMOEOPATHIC APPROACH TO TREATING NEUROSIS:
Homoeopathy is the only system of medicine which has a holistic approach in that it is based on the fact that it is the individual who is sick. Dr. Hahnemann, the founder of this system of medicine has elaborated on this theme in his Organon of Medicine. He stated that the spiritual self-acting vital force, everywhere present in his organism is primarily deranged and this morbid derangement only makes itself known as manifestation of disease (Aph 11). "In all corporeal diseases the condition of the disposition and mind is always altered" (Aph 210). He went on to state that "this holds good to such an extent, that the disposition of the patient often chiefly determines the selection of the Homoeopathic remedy". He advises selection of a remedy among the medicines, which will produce a similar state of disposition and mind (Aph 213). He was well aware of the mental and emotional diseases and "they are nothing more than corporeal diseases in which the derangement of the mind and disposition peculiar to each of them is increased" till they become what he called one-sided diseases" almost as though it were a local disease in the invisible subtle organ of the mind and disposition" (Aph 215). These are kept up by emotional causes such as continued anxiety, worry, vexation and wrongs and frequent occurrence of great fear and fright". He advises that these diseases are to be cured in the same way as all other diseases by a remedy which produces "a morbid state as similar as possible to the case of the disease before us". (Apr. 214)
It is therefore no wonder that while building up a new Materia Medica he proved the potentised Homoeopathic drugs on himself and healthy individuals and very carefully documented the symptoms evidencing the changes in disposition and mind in addition to those observed in various organs. The mind chapter in Kents Repertory and Vol I of Synthetic Repertory list exhaustively the mind symptoms observed during provings.
In recent years several well known Homoeopaths (notably G Vithoulkas, M.L. Sehgal, Rajan Sankaran, Scholten, Jayesh Shah) by giving prominence to the mental symptoms and by an imaginative interpretation of the repertorial rubrics have been able to cure a large number of chronic cases. Dr. Rajan Sankaran has even developed the theme that disease is a delusion in his writings.
In the present competitive and convulsive age, stress and anxiety are endemic. Day in and day out all of us are exposed to these stressful stimuli and environment. When, under the influence of stress factors, the mental state or disposition blows itself out of proportion in its reactions, neurotic disorders occur. Unlike psychoanalysis or psychiatry, which takes a long time and demands cultivation of will and logic to eradicate these anxieties. Homoeopathy with its gentle action and minimum dose can restore such persons suffering from neurosis to health in a shorter time and prevent their recurrence.
