Miasm theories (homeopathy)

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The miasm theory is a theory taught in homeopathy to explain the cause of chronic diseases . From the 19th century onwards, teaching was replaced by scientific approaches such as infectious diseases and is therefore rejected by evidence-based medicine . The term comes from the Greek word miasma (μίασμα), which can be translated as bad haze , pollution , defilement or being infected .

Miasm theory according to Samuel Hahnemann

Samuel Hahnemann , the founder of homeopathy , wrote that in his first practical years of homeopathic treatment he had the experience that well-chosen remedies worked up to a certain point in chronically ill patients, but the symptoms or diseases kept recurring, that is were not permanently "cured":

“The chronic infirmity could basically only be stopped a little in its progress by the homeopathic doctor by all this, and nevertheless it got worse from year to year. This was and remained the faster or slower process of such cures of all un venereal , considerable, chronic diseases, even if they seemed to be carried out exactly according to the teachings of the homeopathic art known up to now. The beginning was pleasant, the continuation less favorable, the end hopeless. "

This prompted him to research the background to this problem for eleven years, both in the medical specialist literature and in his own “patient journals”. What he thought he could find was that illnesses did not show themselves solely through superficial symptoms, but rather a process behind them that seemed to be secretly responsible for the renewed flare-up of symptoms. He wrote

"... that the homeopathic doctor with this type of chronic evil, yes, with all (unveneric) chronic illnesses, has to deal not only with the disease phenomenon just before eyes, but that he is always dealing with a separate part of a deep-seated one Primal evil to do, the great extent of which is shown in the new accidents that emerge from time to time. "

Behind this phenomenon he suspected a “primordial evil”, the nature of which he did not know.

Guided by his opinion that the effects of the drugs tested up to then could be blocked by a scabies rash and that most illnesses could even be traced back to such a scabies rash, he came to the following formulation:

“These circumstances, in conjunction with the fact that innumerable observations by the doctors, and not infrequently my own experiences, had taught us how on itchy rashes suppressed by evil art or by other events that have disappeared from the skin, chronic diseases with the same or similar symptoms who had apparently followed in otherwise healthy people, could leave me no doubt about the internal enemy with whom I had to deal in their medical treatment. "

Afterwards, he believed that he had recognized that all chronic diseases had their origin in a "primordial evil", a miasm , the vast majority of which was the "miasm" of psora or " itchiness ". These ideas were first published in his textbook The chronic diseases ... , which appeared in 1828, with which he founded the miasm theory of homeopathic medicine. He took the term miasma from common disease theories at the time and reinterpreted it according to his own observations and thoughts.

He wrote that chronic diseases “are, with few exceptions, true descendants only of the manifold psora. [...] (if they are not included in the two venereal evils, syphilis and sycosis) "

In the first volume of "Chronic Diseases" Hahnemann presented his observations in detail, while in the following four volumes he described in detail the symptoms of her medicines, all of which he had tested in self-experiments. Hahnemann claimed on the basis of his observations that chronic illnesses could not be cured with every homeopathic medicine, but only with some profound medicines (see breakpoint ).

The miasma theory is one of the most controversial aspects of Hahnemann's theory, as it directly contradicts current knowledge and ideas about microorganisms . In Hahnemann's time, the existence of microorganisms as pathogens was not yet known. Yet his conception of illness does not contradict its existence. However, Pasteur already admitted in his later writings: "It is not the pathogen, but the terrain that is responsible for whether a disease breaks out or not". The miasms could be called the terrain. However, many homeopathy schools in Germany insist that miasmatic treatment is unavoidable if one wants to actually and definitively cure chronic illnesses, which always underlie such acute illnesses. Miasm training takes a lot of time. According to their representatives, only a careful case study and evaluation of a person's medical history can lead to a successful healing.

The healing of psora

Hahnemann not only formulated a theory, but also its practical implementation. According to him, the psoric rash was a proxy for the internal illness. The aim of therapy was to restore the psoric rash (a symptom of so-called psoric dyscrasia) and then heal it. He wrote:

“In its perfect state, that is, as long as the original rash that soothes the inner infirmity is still present on the skin, the whole disease, the psora, can be cured most easily, quickly and surely.
But if it has been deprived of this initial eruption of the skin, which has representative power for the inner disease, the psora is put in the un-natural state of one-sidedly controlling only the inner, finest parts of the whole organism and developing its secondary symptoms to have to."

This rash acts as a valve for the entire chronic disease and must be at the end of treatment, regardless of the chronic disease. Only the healing of this skin rash leads to real healing.

The breakpoint after James Compton Burnett

The English doctor and homeopath James Compton Burnett was of the opinion that not all medicines are able to treat miasmatic phenomena. He wrote:

“The stopping point of the effect of a remedy is that point in a pathological process beyond which it cannot go. This is how it is with the treatment of nail pneumonia with phosphorus (pneumonia caused by the penetration of a foreign body - here a nail - into the lungs):
The effect of phosphorus is exhausted or is stopped at the point where the nail is is, the nail is the breakpoint. In microbial pneumonia, this is the breakpoint where the microbes are effective.
Therefore, with regard to the area of ​​the effect of the remedies, we have to consider whether it also includes the area of ​​the effect of the disease and whether it extends to the end, i.e. was exactly the same from beginning to end, or whether it can only go part of the way. If it can only go part of the way, I call the place where it ends, the stopping point, or the point at which the effect is stopped, or is exhausted. "

Miasm theory after John Henry Allen

The American homeopath John Henry Allen described sycosis in detail in his book The Chronic Miasms and brought his observation of tuberculosis to miasmatic therapy under the name “Pseudopsora”. The pseudopsora was later seen as an independent miasm and referred to as the "tubercle line".

Samuel Hahnemann already assumed that the smallpox vaccination (he was a contemporary of Edward Jenner , the inventor of the smallpox vaccination ) could cause "sycosis" in people.

In all of them, one finds for the first time the claim that miasms are passed on through heredity and not just acquired.

He also described the mixture of miasms, and the procedure to resolve this mixture:

“Where… the mixed miasms are present, it is necessary to understand the order or order of their unfolding. One is usually active and keeps the other in a state of inactivity. "

Therapy of mixed miasms according to John Henry Allen

“Therefore we can conclude that the symptoms for the first choice of remedy should be grouped around the active miasm; the second selection would have to cover the latent miasms that have now been disrupted or brought into action by the active miasm on which we based our first prescription. "

"The bond between two miasms can only be broken apart by a prescription that encompasses the entirety of the symptom group of the (disturbed or) more active miasm."

“Not infrequently, in these mixed miasm cases, we are forced to select the remedy for three to five symptoms and ignore all others. Only when this remedy has brought the system into the proper or correct condition can all the symptoms that have been discarded be considered and a second prescription made. This is especially true when there is suppression or where secondary processes develop due to suppression or poor treatment. "

Miasm theory according to Proceso Sánchez Ortega

The Mexican doctor and homeopath Proceso Sánchez Ortega described a miasm theory in his book " Notes on miasms or chronic diseases in the sense of Hahnemann ", which simplifies all phenomena from the point of view of the principles of underfunction (psora), overfunction (sycosis) and malfunction (syphilis ) describes. In his conceptual model, he claims that the miasms are not inherited but rather constitutional weaknesses that also occur as cell pathological disorders.

Miasm theory according to Rajan Sankaran

According to the miasm theory of the Indian homeopath Rajan Sankaran, there are four main miasms (acute, psora, sycosis and syphilis) as well as six intermediate forms (leprosy, cancer, malaria, ringworm, tuberculosis and typhoid). Sankaran's ten miasms are patterns of false perception of the individual and the way the organism deals with itself and its environment, which are described using the example of selected diseases. Sankaran believes that miasms are transmitted through the mother during pregnancy or through the fathering parents.

Miasm theory according to Alfonso Masi-Elizalde

The Argentine doctor and homeopath Alfonso Masi-Elizalde regards the miasms as existential basic attitudes that exist within each individual remedy picture. According to Masi-Elizalde's interpretation, there are a number of parallels between the works of Samuel Hahnemann and those of Thomas Aquinas , especially his Summa theologica . He saw in these scriptures an aspect of the transcendent that is closely related to the presence of health and disease . For him, therefore, the cause or condition for an illness lies in the fact that people lose sight of their transcendent goal.

He defines dynamic miasm phases (primary, secondary, tertiary psora), using the miasm term psora differently than Hahnemann does. He speaks of a stain that pollutes the imagination. The primary psora corresponds to a distorted perception. In the secondary psora, fear , inadequacies and insecurities should arise . The tertiary psora, which can occur in three forms (egolysis, alterolysis, egotrophy), is described as overcompensation , denial or an aggressive, guilty , destructive attitude. A wide variety of organ changes or diseases also occur in this phase. Since transitional forms are likely in the miasm phases, the choice of homeopathic remedies with this method is primarily based on the primary psora.

Miasm theory after Peter Gienow

Peter Gienow's dynamic-miasmatic model builds on the last creative period of Samuel Hahnemann, which was characterized by the confrontation with chronic diseases.

Taking into account the theories of “medicinal disease” (Hahnemann) and “primary organ disease” (Rademacher), as well as alchemical knowledge from Paracelsus, among others, Peter Gienow developed a theory for understanding disease and healing.

An attempt is made to determine the active miasm with the help of the healing reactions and knowledge of the healing pathways.

By giving the selected medicine, taking into account the breakpoint (Burnett), it should be possible to direct the healing reactions, to accompany them and, if necessary, to correct them interveningly. The "dynamic miasmatic model" is intended to provide the doctor with a tool with which the connections between the seven miasms and their respective healing paths can be assessed. The aim is to treat the active miasm and uncover any other miasms that may be hidden behind it, which should make the course of therapy much easier in practice.

From observations of the healing processes within the miasmatic model, he introduced new terms into miasmatic:

Leprosy Model of Cure; Miasm development; Miasm splitting (splitting); Mirror miasm; mirror miasmatic relationships.

The processes within miasmatics are subject to three “laws” (attraction, balance and repulsion), which can manifest themselves on three levels of illness. These also follow the same pattern (attraction; balance; repulsion).

Hahnemann's "sycosis" would e.g. B. according to P. Gienow's definition a disease of the law of attraction on the level of repulsion.

With his approach he tries to transform the diseases in such a way that they can be excreted on the psoric level (law of attraction on the level of attraction) or metabolized in scrofula .

Critique of Evidence-Based Medicine

With the discovery of the cholera pathogen by Robert Koch in 1884, the end of the miasm theory was heralded in medicine. Koch's adversary, the Bavarian hygienist Max von Pettenkofer , was the last great proponent of the miasm theory. Pettenkofer argued that cholera was caused by a “miasma” (which he referred to as “factor X”), a kind of evaporation from the soil. Once it broke out, it could no longer be combated effectively. The antithesis to this doctrine of miasms was at that time the " contagion theory ", today a generally recognized fact . Their representatives were called contagionists , the best-known pioneers were Koch and Louis Pasteur . The thesis of living pathogens was, however, already in the 1st century BC. Formulated by Marcus Terentius Varro .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , page 4, Arnoldsche Buchhandlung Leipzig and Dresden, 1835
  2. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , page 7, Dresden and Leipzig in the Arnoldschen bookstore; 1835
  3. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , page 8, Dresden and Leipzig in the Arnoldschen bookstore; 1835
  4. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , Arnoldsche Buchhandlung, Leipzig and Dresden 1835. P. 10
  5. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , Arnoldsche Buchhandlung Leipzig and Dresden, 1835
  6. ↑ Ernst Seckendorf: Psoric dyscrasia and scabies. In: Die Medizinische Welt 7, 1933, pp. 1409-1411, 1444-1446, 1661-1664 and 1769-1771.
  7. ^ Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases , page 120, Dresden and Leipzig in the Arnoldschen bookstore; 1835
  8. ↑ James Compton Burnett, Best of Burnett , p. 66 B. Jain, 1992
  9. ↑ John Henry Allen, The Chronic Diseases - The Miasms, Renée von Schlick, Volume 1, pp. 278-279, 1993
  10. ^ John Henry Allen, The Chronic Diseases - The Miasms, Renée von Schlick, Volume 1, p. 285, 1993
  11. ↑ John Henry Allen, The Chronic Diseases - The Miasms, Renée von Schlick, Volume 1 p. 301, 1993
  12. ^ John Henry Allen, The Chronic Diseases - The Miasms, Renée von Schlick, Volume 1, p. 280, 1993
  13. ↑ a b c Maria-E. Lange-Ernst and Sebastian Ernst: Lexicon of Homeopathy , page 196-198, Naumann and Göbel 1997, ISBN 3-625-10621-3
  14. ↑ a b c Josef M. Schmidt: Pocket Atlas Homeopathy in Words and Images , Karl F. Haug Fachbuchverlag 2001, ISBN 3-8304-7089-4
  15. ↑ Jan Geißler, Thomas Quak: Guideline Homeopathy , Urban & Fischer (Elsevier), 2005, ISBN 3437563505
  16. ^ Peter Gienow: Miasmatische Schriftenreihe No. 8: Miasmatisches Taschenbuch 2007 ; Page vii, Verlag Peter Irl; ISBN 978-3-933666-39-0
  17. ↑ Peter Gienow: Homeopathic Miasms: Die Psora, Sonntag Verlag, 2005 (2nd edition), ISBN 9783830491231
  18. ^ Peter Gienow: Miasmatische Schriftenreihe No. 8: Miasmatisches Taschenbuch 2007 ; Page v-vi, Verlag Peter Irl; ISBN 978-3-933666-39-0
  19. ↑ Peter Gienow: Miasmatic series of publications No. 9: Die Skrophulose ; Publishing house Peter Irl; ISBN 978-3-933666-42-0
  20. ^ M Hamann, On the history of prophylaxis with special consideration of the dog. , Dissertation, FU Berlin, 2004
  21. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Hamburg in the times of cholera. In Die Zeit , 1990@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zeit.de

literature

  • Samuel Hahnemann: The chronic diseases. Arnoldsche Buchhandlung, Dresden and Leipzig, 1835. New edition Haug, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8304-0264-3 .
  • John Henry Allen: The Chronic Miasms. Barthel and Barthel, Schäftlarn 1996, ISBN 3-88950-048-X .
  • Maria-E. Lange-Ernst, Sebastian Ernst: Lexicon of Homeopathy. Naumann & Göbel, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-625-10621-3 .
  • Yves Laborde, Gerhard Risch: The hereditary chronic diseases. Müller & Steinicke, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-87569-129-6 .
  • Horst Barthel: Miasmatic Symptoms Lexicon. Barthel and Barthel, Berg am Starnberger See 1999, ISBN 3-88950-066-8 .
  • Josef M. Schmidt: Pocket atlas of homeopathy in words and pictures. Haug, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 3-8304-7089-4 .
  • Mohinder Singh Jus: A Disease's Journey. 5th edition. Homöosana, Zug 2005, ISBN 3-906407-03-9 .
  • Peter Gienow: Homeopathic Miasms: The Psora. 2nd Edition. Sonntag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8304-9123-9 .
  • Peter Gienow: Homeopathic Miasms: The Sycosis. 2nd Edition. Sonntag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8304-9127-1 .
  • Peter Gienow: Miasmatic series no. 7: The miasmatic treatment of syphilina. Irl, Burgdorf 2006, ISBN 3-933666-32-5 .
  • Peter Gienow: Miasmatische Schriftenreihe No. 8: Miasmatisches Taschenbuch 2007. Irl, Gauting 2007, ISBN 3-933666-39-2
  • Peter Gienow: Miasmatic series no. 9: The scrofula, the forgotten miasm. Irl, Gauting 2008, ISBN 978-3-933666-42-0 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Miasma  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations