Mission Of the Physician

(Organon of Medicine Sec. 1)

Introduction :-

Hahnemann was dissatisfied with the medical practice during his time. He believed that medicine was practiced more as ‘an art of physic’ (drugging) than ‘art of healing’. Hahnemann realised the necessity for a strict principle for the physician to treat the diseases. For this reason, Hahnemann pointed out the aim and object of his Organon of Medicine to attach greatest importance.
In sec. 1 of Organon of Medicine Hahnemann states-
“The physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed”.



PHYSICIAN :-

Physic means the science, art, practice of medicine; Physician means one skilled in the use of physic or the art of healing i.e., doctor.

MISSION :-

The word ‘mission’ commonly means ‘the purpose for which one is born’, ‘task or goal assigned to a person or group’.
He used the word ‘mission’ instead of profession because he thought that a physician is not only a professional being, but also a humanitarian, one whose heart and mind both would work for the betterment of the human sufferings.

HIGH AND ONLY :-

The physician has two roles to play
(i) To cure disease
(ii) To preserve health and prevent diseases in the individual and community
Among these two, the first and foremost or prime aim of the physician is to cure the disease.

HEALTH, SICK, CURE :-

You will understand the true meaning of the word ‘cure’ in Homoeopathic language only if you get a clear conception of health and disease.

Health –
Health is a balanced state of life characterised by the normal functioning of vital force because this force maintains and co-ordinates all the physiological activities of the living organism harmoniously. As a result, the man feels a sensation of well-being and comfort.

Sick –
But when the vital force is dynamically deranged, it cannot maintain and co-ordinate the normal physiology in the body. As a result, patient feels discomforting sensations. This derangement of vital force must be shown someway so that the patient treats himself. This is shown as perceptible signs and symptoms of the disease.
Hence by sick Hahnemann meant sickness of the whole man, the internal man. Homoeopathy does not consider disease as something different from the whole life force. The derangement of vital force is termed as sickness and it is the whole man that is sick, nor his body, not the tissues. So, the health of the deranged vital force must be cured instead of correcting the disease or individual tissues. A tissue cannot become sick unless something prior to it has been disturbed. The sick man is prior to the sick body. Hence the internal derangement of the vital force which manifests as disease is our sole object of treatment.
Allopathic pathology focuses on the diseased part. Their idea is that the spleen of the man is enlarged, so he is sick. But homoeopathy says that man is primarily sick, so his spleen is enlarged. The enlarged spleen is nothing but the ultimate results of the disease process. Homoeopathy considers man, not his individual parts.
Therefore, it is the sole duty of the physician to heal the internal derangement of the vital force. It is not his duty to heal the results of sickness. When the man itself has been restored to health, the harmony of the body will be restored as well.

Cure –
Cure in Homoeopathy means
(i) Removal of the whole of the perceptible signs and symptoms of the disease, and
(ii) Annihilation of the derangement of vital force.

Contributor- Dr. Manju Valesha