Mission of Physician

Hahnemann's Organon: A Plain Discussion

By

Dr Rajeev Khanna

Dr Ravindra Singh Mann

Mission of Physician

All of us are learning Homoeopathy, isn’t it? But here is a question - WHY? What is the answer? Why are we here to learn Homoeopathy or why anyone should  take admission in this course?

Before reading further please write down your answer.  It will make our journey easier.

Okay. Now let's start our discussion- most of the time students reciprocate this question in simple statement that they want to be a Homoeopathic Physician, that is the reason they have decided to be here. 

Fair enough, what will you do once you will become a physician? Simple answer again is – we will treat the patient. 

Yes ! Of course.  

But, according to Dr Hahnemann, what should be the precise parameters of "treatment" are narrated in first aphorism.

The first aphorism of Organon is about the first formal question of our profession. 

Question- What is the mission of a physician?

And answer is- “The physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed*. ”

It is very easy to grasp and memorize this simple statement but whole life is less to learn and practice it skillfully.

The whole journey of Homoeopaths go on to understand the exact connotations of this aphorism.

Let us try to explain the few words comprising the first aphorism.

These are:–

• The Physician
•  High and Only Mission
•  Restore
•  The sick
•   Health
•   Cure
•   As it is termed


Putting a phrase before every word “what is the meaning of__________”, will give an insight about Hahnemann's idea  about Mission of Physician.


Our search in dictionaries will find the following:–

The physician

• a person skilled in the art of healing.
• specifically : one educated, clinically experienced, and licensed to practice medicine as usually distinguished from surgery.

Mission

• Your own mission in life can be anything you pursue with almost religious enthusiasm.
• A task or job that someone is given to do.
• A pre-established and often self-imposed objective or purpose.

Hahnemann used the German word "Beruf" in original text, which means "profession" in English, but R. E. Dudgeon's use of word "mission" gave a religious tone to first aphorism.

Restore

• to put or bring back into a former or original state.

Sick

• Physically or mentally ill; not well or healthy.

Health

• The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit.
• Freedom from physical disease or pain.

Cure

• Relieving (a person or animal) symptoms of a disease or condition.
• To restore to health, soundness, or normality.
• To free from something objectionable or harmful.

When Hahnemann says , “The physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed”, he is talking about a person who is skilled, well trained, educated in medical science, a man who uses his skill as an art to heal the sick, who is different from Surgeon, and who doesn’t remove organ or body part to get rid off the illness of a patient, but treats the patient skillfully with the help of medicine. 

What is important here to underline is that Hahnemann was not in favour of surgery as a treatment plan. He was concerned to treat the patient with help of medicine, this concern seems strange here but when we read some other aphorisms it draw a lucid and more sensible picture. 

But for here and now, Hahnemann was not in favor of surgery.

“ONLY- Mission” again has a profound meaning. We can discuss many things about disease in depth, as the name of disease, the diagnostic features of disease, how deep seated is the disease, is the disease curable or not; but when a sick person comes to a doctor his main requirement is to become healthy again. 

Though it is important to know the cause of ailment,  depth of the sickness, diagnosis and prognosis of disease (how long it will take to cure), and if the disease is curable or not. As a doctor we may explain all the above points to patient but still explaining the details of disease is not physician’s goal. His goal is to treat the patient, to restore his health. That is the reason Hahnemann used the word ONLY-mission. He explained in the footnote of this aphorism as well.

Restore has its own unique meaning here, when Hahnemann emphasize "restore", he wants to say that body should not compromise its any organ or part removed by surgery as a treatment. Even if a person survives after removal of any body part we can not say, as health is restored, because restore means -to bring back to or put back into a former or original state. If any organ/part is removed it can not be called as an original state. And the mission of physician was to “RESTORE”,  to bring back the health to original state.

SICK- who is sick- sick is a person who is mentally or physically not well or healthy. Here is important to note the word "A PERSON" and not a body part. For example if a person is having headache, head is not sick, it is a man who is sick having some symptoms of head. But the orthodox school of treatment (Allopathy) focused on treating the headache and medicine is targeted to that organ/part only. In Hahnemann’s view it is always "a person" who requires the treatment as a sick. So when a physician is treating any sickness he must find the SICK man and not the Organ/ Part affected by some symptoms. Finding the sick will be discussed later in detail. 

Health and Cure- simple meaning is to bring back to normal health and make a person free from objectionable or harmful disease and relieve of the symptoms, detail of cure will be discussed with next aphorism.