allopathy
Allopathy (from ancient Greek ἄλλος állos , German 'different' , 'differently constituted' , 'different' and πάθος páthos , German 'suffering' , disease '), (originally) also alloeopathy , was originally a designation by Samuel Hahnemann , the founder of homeopathy , for certain non-homeopathic treatments. The term was first published in 1816 in the foreword to the second volume of Hahnemann's Pure Medicine . Hahnemann later expanded the term to all forms of therapy that were established at the time and taught at medical schools (the “previous medicine school”), which Hahnemann disparagingly called “ conventional medicine ”.
In the 20th century, allopathy and naturopathy were understood as opposing terms to homeopathy. Even today, the word allopathy is generally used for medicine that is taught on scientific and evidence-based principles, and occasionally by proponents of other alternative therapeutic approaches that are not based on homeopathy.
Since for Hahnemann illnesses presented themselves as a complex of signs of illness , he consequently assessed the medical treatment methods observed by him of his time according to their position on the signs of suffering in homeopathic, isopathic, antipathic / enantiopathic / palliative and all (ö) opathic:
- The Homeopathy trying to treat symptoms with those drugs that have similar symptoms produce ( similibus curentur ).
- The Isopathy try the same substance, the causing to use the disease to cure. According to Hahnemann, it makes the disease worse.
- The antipathic treatment tries to cure with such a medicine that produces opposite ( enantio ) symptoms to the disease ( contraria contrariis ). Hahnemann describes this “rule of the ancient medical school” as merely soothing ( palliative ), because it only has the opposite effect for a short time (e.g. makes sleepless patients sleepy for a while with poppy seed juice) and weakens vitality , see symptomatic therapy .
- Allopathy tries to treat with drugs that have something completely different and different from what has been observed in the patient. With this designation Hahnemann criticized the, from his point of view, conceptless treatment of the medicine of the time with often several mixed substances, the effect of which was not based on the patient's symptoms but on a suspected cause, see causal therapy . Hahnemann saw their effect in the creation of additional, artificial “medicinal diseases” that add to the original disease and complicate it.
literature
- Robert Jütte : History of Alternative Medicine. From folk medicine to today's unconventional therapies. CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40495-2 , pp. 23-27, 32-35 and 238.
- Rudolf Tischner : History and meaning of the word "allopathy". In: Allgemeine Homöopathische Zeitung. Vol. 184, 1936, pp. 125-128.
swell
- Samuel Hahnemann: Organon of the healing art. 6th edition. Preface Preface - Samuel Hahnemann: Organon der Heilkunst, 6th edition , § 22 Note, § 23 Samuel Hahnemann: Organon der Heilkunst, 6th edition and further §§
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and hand dictionary . G. Freytag Verlag / Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Munich / Vienna 1965.
- ^ Robert Jütte: History of Alternative Medicine. 1996, p. 25.
- ↑ Cf. for example: A. Müller ( allopathy and naturopathy ), RW Schlecht ( homeopathy ) and Alexander Früh ( biochemistry ): The path to health: a faithful and indispensable guide for the healthy and the sick. 2 volumes, 31st to 44th edition. CA Weller, Berlin 1929 to 1931.