Uncertainty

“My whole life I have been searching for perfection; but fortunately I was never able to find it; otherwise the music would have died certainly” Ivry Gitlis.Uncertainty
In homeopathy we have to work with many uncertainties. Our knowledge is limited, blurred, incorrect, vague, superfluous, overwhelming. It is almost a wonder that we can find our way in that wilderness.ReasonsUncertainty arises from:
- The huge database of information in our Materia Medica. This is increasing enormously with new provings, case stories, extractions, Materia Medica’s.
- Uncertainty about the symptoms, whether they were really important, superfluous or incorrect.
- We are working with language. Language is only an approach to what is happening really. Patients often have great difficulty in translating their symptoms into words.
- Mixing of states in patients. Two or more remedies can be mixed in patients, which makes it difficult to extract one state from the rest of a case.
- Many remedies are little known or unknown in homeopathy.Strategies to handle uncertaintyThere are several ways to deal with the vagueness and incertitude.
- Limit oneself to a certain set of remedies. By working only with well known remedies one can get the idea that one has more grip on the situation. This is the polychrest approach.
- Another strategy is to verify symptoms. Rutten and colleagues are applying this very valuable strategy. The difficulty of this approach is that it is very laborious, taking much time.
- Focus on the essence is another possibility. This can be in the form of concentrating on the central delusion, or the central sensation, or central emotion.
- Focus on classification gives a good tool to find more remedies and symptoms and to find a faster way of verification of pictures.In this book the first strategy, the one to limit oneself to a set of remedies is not used. The other three strategies are extensively used.Unavoidable
In my experience the incertitude is unavoidable. Everything written in this book is questionable, open for discussion and further development. But I am also convinced of the value of the theories in this book. It is the best approach for the Plant kingdom that I can see so far. On the other hand there can be mistakes and inaccuracies and even more unknown clades and aspects. These need further research. It is my vision that plants will have their own picture, representing their own state. Homeopathy is a science in a fast development during the last decennia.