Simply Homeopathy: Exploring Homeopathy Further
What is the Homeopathic Aggravation?
I have often heard people say about homeopathy “Oh, that’s where you get worse before you get better”. After taking a homeopathic remedy, the patient may contact their practitioner to report that some of their symptoms are worse and may be surprised when the homeopath says “good, that is a positive sign”. He may appear indifferent to the person’s suffering and will, after careful questioning, attempt to explain this aggravation as a positive step towards cure What is going on here? Why this apparent increase in some symptoms and what does it tell us about the curative process?
The selection of the similimum or similar remedy is based on the Law of Similars which states that a medicine which can produce symptoms in a healthy individual will cure a similar set of symptoms in a sick individual. Symptoms are produced by the Vital Force or life energy in an attempt to maintain the best level of health possible in the circumstances.
We need to remember that the similarity of the remedy depends not only on its ability to produce symptoms in healthy people but also on the level of potency that the practitioner selects. So we can say that the similimum represents the symptom picture of the patient but in an amplified form. It is against this amplified similarity that the Vital Force is encouraged to react and increase its efforts in overcoming the weaker expression. In a sense, the remedy holds up to the Vital Force a mirror image of the state it is already in, but in a form that is stronger. It is therefore true to say that the similimum needs to be both similar and stronger for it to have a curative effect.
It seems illogical that in order to move towards a more curative state, there needs to be an aggravation first but many homeopathic authors are quite clear that “the aggravation [is] a sign that the curative process starts to take place”. (J. Reves. 24 Chapters in Homeopathy Homoeopress Ltd.) Joseph Reves goes on to say that without it, there is no cure. George Vithoulkas in The Science of Homeopathy, says “ In order, therefore, to produce a truly curative response, it is not only expected but desirable that an aggravation of symptoms be produced after administration of the correct remedy”. Dr. S. Hahnemann describes the aggravation, which he likens to a medicinal disease, as a “very good prognostic”. (Organon of Medicine, Homoeopress Ltd. paragraph 158.)
The value of the homeopathic aggravation in assessing the curative process underlines the importance of careful note taking and reporting after a remedy has been taken. The homeopath is always looking out for any signs of an aggravation, however slight, as this is the first signpost of the remedy’s action. What may seem trivial and incidental to the patient could be the very clue that the homeopath seeks.
The aggravation presents a challenge to the practitioner as well as to the patient, in terms of mitigating its severity. J.T. Kent in Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy speaks from years of experience when he says “sometimes the physician will be driven to his wit’s end in dealing with these reactions”. The homeopath will have taken into consideration the possibility of an aggravation when selecting the similar remedy, in terms of the potency and the time when the remedy should be taken. For example, if a child has repeated nightmares, it would be advisable for the remedy to be taken during the daytime and not at night, when the child is already suffering. Likewise, if the patient presents with menstrual problems, the best time to take the remedy would be once that time of the month is over. The homeopath “hopes for” an aggravation but wants to do everything possible to lessen its intensity.
Over and above the aggravation as a slight intensification of the presenting symptoms following the administration of a curative remedy, there is another meaning to the term. Stuart Close in The Genius of Homeopathy describes it: “...those conditions in which, under the action of a deeply acting homoeopathic medicine, latent disease becomes active and expresses itself in the return of the old symptoms or the appearance of new symptoms. In such cases, it represents the reaction of the organism to the stimulus of a well selected medicine and is generally curative in its nature”. From the patient’s point of view, what is experienced is the worsening of some symptoms but it is up to the practitioner to evaluate, after careful questioning, the nature of the symptoms that have worsened. What we can be certain of is that the aggravation represents, in the main, a positive step on the road to cure.
If you would like further information, or to book an appointment, please contact us.