Italian version of this article available

A homeopathic remedy acts on a physical as well as on a psychological level and it is therefore important to identify all of the alterations that have occurred within the body so that the proper remedy can be prescribed.  For this reason, when a homeopathic doctor meets with a patient, he must consider the specific, physical problem as well as the psychological and behavioral aspects that have been modified from the onset of the illness.  A homeopath is a very curious doctor and as a result his visits are quite lengthy.

The logical course of the visit (diagnosis and therapy) cannot in any way disregard the conventional knowledge that a doctor has at his disposal today.

During the visit all elements and signs must be used to formulate a conventional diagnosis of the illness.  In other words, the homeopathic doctor must be able to identify the patient's pathology type, evaluate its seriousness and be familiar with the therapeutic strategies that conventional medicine uses for that type of pathology.

In order to arrive at this result, during the visit he will use clinical instruments (questions, clinical history, an accurate visitation of the patient), he'll make use of modern laboratory instruments when necessary, just as he will refer to a specialist when he needs a qualified judgment for areas that require particular interpretative and therapeutic competence.

However,  throughout this course of treatment the homeopathic doctor will also integrate data that he is able to gather from his knowledge of other medical practices such as homeopathy or other disciplines like acupuncture or ethnic medicine developed by other populations, for example ayurvedic medicine.

The homeopathic visit is conducted in three phases: the observation, the interview, the clinical examination. It may therefore be a very long visit because the doctor must dedicate a long time to gathering information. There are  two reasons for this: to obtain in-depth knowledge about the patient's symptoms, those linked to the illness as well as those that may seem less related, but that are often crucial for choosing the proper remedy and to establish a broader understanding of the patient's personality, life, relationships and dominant psychological themes.

The observation

In a certain sense, a person's behavior "betrays" or "reveals" that which he would often prefer to keep hidden; at times this is a conscious behavior that is utilized for various reasons, while at times a person is unaware of doing it.

 The latter is a way of communicating issues or unease that a person ignores or removes, and that appear on the outside in a disguised fashion, but can be recognized by way of a careful and professional observation.

These signs are important because they lead to an understanding of the person that goes beyond the image that they would like to portray that is often better than the real one.  But the homeopath needs to discover the patient's inner personality and familiarize himself with the person's most intimate reactive modes and spontaneous traits.

It's a question of being able to recognize the essential elements, physical as well as mental, that affect the patient's physiology and that can explain the biological deviations towards the illness.

Therefore the observation is concerned with the way in which a patient moves, speaks, asks questions about his health, etc..  A careful observation is an instrument that can orient the actual interrogation and provide information on how a patient reacts from deep within, making it possible to come  closer to formulating therapies that are even more well-aimed and effective.

The interrogation

This is the most significant phase of the homeopathic visit in that it allows the doctor to make a detailed analysis of the symptoms that a patient spontaneously describes and also to sift through sectors, organs and zones, physical as well as mental, that are seemingly unaffected.

As a matter of fact, a patient often forgets important illnesses and symptoms, partly because he's not used to associating them with the problem that he reported, and partly because they have become such a familiar part of his system that he doesn't even consider them as symptoms any more.

Therefore, after attentively listening to the patient's initial spontaneous description of the problem, a homeopathic doctor will ask many questions in order to gather as much information as possible.

He may even give the patient the impression that he is pausing over secondary aspects or symptoms.  For example, if you have a pain in your arm, the homeopathic doctor will even ask you if the pain gets worse or improves in certain hours of the day or night, if there are stabbing pains and if they begin suddenly or slowly, if they improve with movement or when you are still etc.

The clinical examination

The clinical examination allows the doctor to gather elements that are essential for formulating a correct diagnosis and suggests or confirms the need to proceed with additional laboratory or instrumental tests.

The visit is not dissimilar from the conventional one in its classic aspects: observation of the patient's external appearance, palpation, auscultation of heart and lungs and so on; some information, on the other hand, is part of a special inquiry that, like the interrogation, provides elements that are useful for choosing the proper remedy: the general aspect of the skin, somatic typology (constitution, possible weight in excess and its distribution, characteristics of sweat if present and its particular odor), type of lesions, if present, or pathological elements like eczema, mucous ulcerations and edemas, development of moles or pathological forms (warts, fungi) on the skin, characteristic traits of the eyelids, of the lips, skin redness, etc.

The three laws

At this point we can sum up the three laws of homeopathy, that is, the fundamental principals on which it is based:

1. The symptoms that make up a disease must be treated with substances that, if given to a healthy person in heavy doses, will provoke symptoms that are "similar" to the disease that we wish to cure.
2. The various remedies must be taken in diluted forms at infinitesimal dosages that will have therapeutic effects without causing side-effects.
3. The acknowledgment of the existence of a "sensitive" type, that is, a type of person who responds more intensely to a remedy that others. During his experiments with Pulsatilla, Hahnemann discovered that it had a greater response from young women who were blonde, fair-skinned, blue-eyed and subject to considerable mood swings, especially in adolescence. His particular interest in sensitive types prompted Hahnemann and many of his followers to theorize on and search for the "simillimum". This is a remedy that is so similar to the person that it is always and in any situation the correct form of therapy for him, regardless of the disease.

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