Nature of symptoms and grouping in Homeopathy - By Master EK

Hahnemann gave us a method

of groupingthe symptoms and we

are expected to know something

about it.

The first group of symptoms

is called common symptoms, the

second group is called modalities, the third group is called mental  

symptoms. The first group of

symptoms is common to all patients

but the second and the third groups

distinguish the patients.

Hence they are called the

distinguishing symptoms or the

individualising symptoms. Medicines can be selected for patients on the 

basis of individualisation, that is

with the help of the distinguishing

symptoms No one should select

medicine forcommon symptoms

Treatment is to the patient

and not at all to thediseases

according to the first aphorism of

Hahnemann.

Examples of Common Symptoms:

Headache, body pains,colic and

lumbago are sufferings that come

under one category. Simply they are

all “pains”- that is all.

Pains, shooting pain, burning, smarting, pin-pricks, shock-like pains, numbness, swelling,boils, ulcers and  eruptions

Examples of Modalities:

Observe the following specifications: a)When the painful parts are pressed, the patient feels 

better.

b)When something is tied tight, then the pain is better.

c) Feels comfortable with cool breeze and cool drinks.

d)Enormous thirst for large quantities of cool water. 

This group of symptoms is quite

different from thefirst group.

some patients feel better by lying, some by sitting and some from walking. See if the patient feels  

better bylying on his belly. Some

people feel comfortable by lying on

the right side, while others on the

left side. These modalities also help

us in getting at the totality of the

symptoms and selecting a drug.

When a fellow feels hisunbearable

stomachache better by bending forward, Colocynthis the medicine that cures him. Another patient feels his colic better by stretching backwards then he is cured by Diascoria. If the headache is better by pressure, it may be cured by Bryonia. Another fellow  

feels a hell, if the painfulpart is

touched. He is damn afraid, if

somebody touches him. It means that he needs Arnica to get a cure.

The suffering of some people

show some kind of periodicity.

People suffer on alternate days from

headache or malarial fever. It indicates a group of remedies beginning with China. One fellow passes a broad stool at 12 in the night. It indicates China. All his sufferings will be curedwith China. There is a third patient whose headache starts at sun rise, increases with the sun until  

noon and then decrease towards the

evening. He comes under Natrum

Mur and its group of drugs. Some

people feel suddenly hungry, weak,

perspiring and trembling between 10

and 11a.m. They are better by eating.It indicates that the patient requires Sulphur. Sulphur cures also the other troubles ofthat patient. These time- marking symptoms also come under modalities.

Again we have to find out under

what circumstances the sufferings of a patient are better or worse. Some peoplefeel better while hungry and worse after eating. You can 

understand that Nux Vomica is

indicated. Some people feelmuch

ameliorated by having ice-cool

drinks. You mayunderstand that

Sulphur, Bryonia or Phosphorus may

beone of their remedies. Some

people crave for ice-creams and ice-

cool drinks, but they go sick with

throat pain andf ever when Pulsatilla is indicated. Such symptoms also come under modalities. 

Examples of Mental Symptoms:

Third group of symptoms:

a)Feeling the body too heavy and not able to move. 

b)With every movement of the body, the sufferings increase and become  

unbearable for a time.

c)With perfect rest and no movement the sufferings become less.

d)The mind feels lazy and not inclined to do any piece of work.

A patient is irritable, another one is suspicious, another one is jealous, some other one is dull.

More important is to observe the

peculiarities in the emotional aspect of the patient. A lady goes into  

uncontrollable weeping while reporting her symptoms. It indicates that she needs Pulsatilla. An old man weeps on seeing his friends or relatives after a long time. Another one bursts into weeping when thanked or appreciated. Both these people require Lycopodium. Some people sit lonely and think of their future. They imagine financial difficulties, poverty and going begging on the streets They are always afraid of their 

financial future. Give Calcarea

Fluorica, one dose in veryhigh

dilution. They stop thinking so. Not

only this, also Calcarea fluorica cures all their present ailments. A fellow 

anticipates incurable disease,

especially the heart diseaseand

imagines heaviness and pain in the

heart. He is much disturbed about it.

Arnica in high dilution cures him.

Each drug is to be studied through the scheme of Kent’sMateria Medica in such a way that we can picturise the symptoms as living persons, so that  we can remember according to the importance of symptoms. We should makeout a living picture of the description given in the MateriaMedica. We should never try to memorise the symptoms.

Totality is not the sum-total of the

symptoms. It is the picture produced

by the distinguishingsymptoms that

are present in a patient.

Sometimes a patient shows some

minor symptomsafter using the

indicated remedy. They were not

therebefore the patient took the medicine. These symptoms havebeen existing dormant in the patient and they came out due to the  administering of the indicated  

remedy. They are changing symptoms and hence of temporary  

value. No medicines should be used

to deal with them. They passaway

when we allow time. For example, a

patient who ishaving sugar in urine is suffering from much thirst for large 

quantities of water, burning of the

urethra when not urinating, betterment of burning while urinating and much discomfort when the Sun is hot. A dose of Bryonia starts the cure.After two or three weeks the patient develops stomachache,with loose motions. Wait for a day or two,  they willdisappear. Since then his cure becomes more speedy. If we use another medicine to cure the  

stomach ache and the diarrhoea, no

doubt, there will be relief of the

temporarysymptoms while the main

treatment is confused, the constitution gets complicated.