Heiner Frei: Polarity Analysis and Homeopathy

Those new to homeopathy may not realize that it encompasses many different schools of thought. When I started I certainly thought that homeopathy was a clearly designed practice with every practitioner analyzing cases the same way. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Everyone looks at cases slightly differently, depending on which teachers they learned from, which old “masters” (Hering, Lippe, Hahnemann, Boenninghausen, Kent, etc) they admire most and how they interpret those old writings. A new way of analyzing cases has come to light recently, the Polarity Analysis method. It’s a fascinating way to look at cases, and offers a lot of exciting implications for the future.

Below is the abstract to an article Heiner Frei wrote on the subject:

Simillimum Journal 2014 Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder and Polarity Analysis: Features, Cases, Results. Heiner Frei

"The treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD/ADD) is one of the rather difficult fields in homeopathy. Since the Swiss ADHD/ADD doubleblind study proved significant effects using highly diluted homeopathic remedies on impulsivity, attention deficit, and hyperactivity/passivity, the demand for homeopathy has strongly increased. This paper shows how the method of remedy selection can be refined and improved by polarity analysis (PA). PA is a further development of Boenninghausen's concept of “contraindications,” which allows a more precise match between patient symptoms and the characteristics of a homeopathic remedy. It leads in turn to better treatment outcomes. Furthermore, the use of “perception symptoms” in making a first homeopathic differential diagnosis also brought about an increase in the precision of remedy selection. Due to their inclusion, other symptoms that had been identified as unreliable could be avoided. Yet caution is advisable with some “perception symptoms,” a list of which is published in this article. In a last step, confirmatory symptoms enable us to choose the best fitting remedy among those with a high polarity difference. The procedure is demonstrated with two case histories. Finally, this paper presents the results that can consistently be attained with polarity analysis when treating ADHD/ADD patients. In order to replicate them, it is important not to mix polarity analysis with other homeopathic methods."