Resonance School of Homeopathy’s Forum

As homeopaths it is important to understand the importance of signs and symptoms. These are the guideposts for understanding the client and prescribing the remedy. Without them homeopathy would be reduced to an allopathic prescription based on clinical data without the richness of the human description; the language of nature.

Signs and symptoms are the phenomena of disease which lead to the complaints of the ill person and are the only perceptible forms disease can give. It is only through a persons experience and  the bodies reactions that any disease could ever be known.  Understanding the dysfunction of the vital force is necessary to fully comprehend the persons suffering.

Signs are objective observations about the client. There is a fever present, perspiration; those observations that cannot be denied. They are usually the physical observations of the physician. These signs gain richness when symptoms further describe them. Functional symptoms describe how an observable sign is experienced by the suffering person. They also help lead to the uniqueness of their suffering. It is these symptoms that can be most helpful in the selection of remedies.

Symptoms are subjective. They convey how the person feels.  An example of this might be when a person reports “my stomach hurts”. This is not a very good symptom, but a symptom none-the-less. This would require the homeopath to elicit more description of the symptom by asking “what more can you tell me about this?” encouraging the client to explain more how this feels and other details about it.  This allows the homeopath to observe the nature of the illness and thus find the curative remedy.

In the etiology of disease there are usually many symptoms before the physical expression of signs. This is why in case-taking it is important to get a full report from the person and understand what has led to the final expression of signs. The symptoms reported will give a wonderful picture of  the disease. Being able to “see” this picture will help you tremendously in the quality of your prescriptions when the essence energy of the remedies are also known.

J.T. Kent writes in Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy, “Symptoms are but the language of nature, talking out as it were and showing as clearly as the daylight the internal nature of the sick man or woman…It is nonsense to say that prior to the localization of disease, the patient was not sick.”

Complete descriptions of symptoms include it’s location, sensations and modalities (aggravations and amelioration).  Always ask open ended questions to get the client to describe in their own words how the experience the symptom. I usually ask them to describe to me how it feels in such a way that, if I tried, I could feel it myself. This asks them to search their mind for descriptors that are unique for themselves. Pay close attention to the words they use. These will be the best way to define the symptom for better repertisation and to give flavor to their sufferings, as well as a guide to the remedy.

In Paragraph 104 of the Organon, Hahnemann says, “When the totality of the particular symptoms characterizing the case at hand or, in other words, the picture of any given disease, is drawn exactly, the most difficult task has been accomplished.”

Roberts may have said best the truth about symptoms and homeopathy in Principle and the Art of Cure by Homeopathy. “Symptoms are the outward and visible signs of the inward disturbance of the vital force which will ultimately produce morbid states, and when these symptoms are removed the disease ceases to exist.”