Symptoms that are Perceptible to the Senses

In aphorism 6 (and his essay, the Medical Observer), Hahnemann details that we need to only include symptoms that are perceptible to the senses in our list of symptoms. In other words, when compiling a list of symptoms that need to be cured by a remedy, we should not include things like “needs grounding”, or “likes security”. Rather, we include only things that are factual, or able to be touched, seen, smelled, heard or tasted. These classic five senses can also include proprioception (your ability to balance or tell where you are in space), which is sometimes lumped in with touch. 

Symptom-wise, this means something the patient can sense: like vertigo (loss of appropriate proprioception), pain (essentially a touch response), tinnitus (hearing malfunction), food or drinks tasting differently, things smelling differently (think a pregnant woman who gets nauseous at the smell of certain foods), or changes in vision.  But this also includes symptoms the practitioner can sense: seeing a tremor, seeing a rash, smelling the patient’s bad breath, hearing the patient’s hoarse voice, etc.  Historically, practitioners would indeed taste certain bodily fluids (it’s how diabetes used to be diagnosed – sweet pee, or cystic fibrosis – salty skin), but thankfully we don’t do that now. 

The concept of only using perceptible symptoms is an important one, as I believe it eliminates a lot of the mischief prescribers can get up to. Of course this does not eliminate mischief; mental/emotional symptoms often require a little bit of discernment and judgement, which is where prescribers may make leaps that are unjustified. However most biases can be attenuated by sticking to these factual, solid, perceptible-to-the-senses symptoms.

This may seem simple, but simple is almost never easy. Hahnemann’s essay the Medical Observer (now on my website!) is a continuation of aphorism 6 and this concept; in it, he makes it clear how much training, discipline and maturity people need in order to do this well.

The way I do this is by continually asking myself what I am absolutely sure of. If anything is wishy-washy or I am not sure I understand it, I do not include it in my case analysis. This is greatly helped by using the TBR2, where you can find a good remedy quickly, without a lot of rubrics, and without needing to clarify mental symptoms beyond “anxiety” “timidity”, etc.

Side note: A pet peeve of mine with larger repertories was always that I couldn’t just use “anxiety”, I had to use something ridiculously specific like “anxiety with hurriedness”, and considering there is also “anxiety driving him place to place” and “anxiety with impatience” AND “restlessness, nervousness, with anxiety”, I had to figure out which of those five, which all mean the same thing, I should use for my repertory chart.

Anyway, I hope that helps you understand which symptoms should, or should not, guide remedy choices.

Love,

B