UNPREJUDICED OBSERVER (§ 6)

Each symptom conveys the guidelines to select a remedy. Every single sign and symptom exhibits the deviated state of health. So, to individualize the case and to select an exact similimum, indepth study of the patient’s history is essential. Hahnemann calls the homeopathic physician to be an unprejudiced observer.

The word “prejudice” means “a judgment” or “opinion formed on a subject without doing an in-depth study”. “Observation” is “the regulated perception of events with the critical attention to ascertain a fact”. Observation is also done by the inner sense of the physician and not only with the five physical senses. Individualizing is the key to the homeopathic practice. It is a laborious process, that demands a high amount of hard work and intelligence from the physician’s side. Disease is a phenomenon that is happening in front of the physician. So the duty of the physician is to observe and understand this phenomenon thoroughly.

Non-observation: During this process of observation the physician has to avoid his own assumptions and ideas. He must remain as neutral as possible. He must be free from all bias, preconceived ideas and notions. He must be ready to accept fact and truths that are happening in the patient without any controversy. If he becomes prejudiced, he will have his own fixed ideas on the subject. He will tend to reject all the facts that are contradictory to his common notion and belief. He may overlook so many facts because of this prejudice to the subject. This is termed as “non –observation”. A prejudice mind will always look for the pre-formed and accepted ideas only, it cannot accept any fact that is occurring against this belief.

Mal-observation: On the other hand, some physicians because of their incapacity to reason the fact about the disease, and lack of perception, may wrongly interpret the symptoms narrated by the patient. This process is called the “Mal-observation”.

Both the Non-observation and Mal-observations leads to errors in the homeopathic prescription. Non observation is a negative action, because the physician is not observing the happenings around him. In the mal-observation, the disease picture is interpreted in a wrong manner, so it is a positive yet unproductive action.

The outworldly reflected picture of the internal deranged vital force is called the symptom collection. This collection of symptoms has to be done with utmost care. Disease produces many changes in the person of visible and invisible varieties. Hence, getting the portrait of the disease without any prejudice is very important. Only unprejudiced and keen observer can become a successful homeopath.

Example: A prejudiced physician is a superficial observer. When any patient in the consultation room sits with crossed legs he might think the patient to be a “Sepia” patient. Without considering the other symptoms of the patient, he came to the conclusion. The prejudiced physician is forgetting that along with Sepia, Murex, Lilium tig and even Belladonna also have this symptom.

Only by accepting the basic laws of homeopathy one can become an unprejudiced observer. So, only after through examination of the patient and collecting the total symptoms we can come to any conclusion.