In his essay On the Study of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Hering tells us
One who could repeat the list of symptoms of a remedy in their regular order would not thereby possess knowledge of the combination of symptoms – and it is that knowledge of which we stand in need.
In the most trivial sense, this directs us to attend to the Concomitance of symptoms. More profoundly, it suggests that we regard the pathogenesis of a remedy not merely as a Collection, but as a Totality of symptoms. Stuart Close tells us
The Totality of the Symptoms means, first, the totality of each individual symptom …A single symptom is more than a single fact; it is a fact, with its history, its origin, its location, its progress or direction, and its conditions.
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The Totality of the Symptoms means all the symptoms of the case which are capable of being logically combined into a harmonious and consistent whole, having form, coherency and individuality. Technically, the totality is more (and may be less) than the mere numerical totality of the symptoms. It includes the “concomitance” or form in which symptoms are grouped.
Hahnemann (Org., Par. 7) calls the totality, “this image (or picture) reflecting outwardly the internal essence of the disease, i.e., of the suffering life force.“
The word used is significant and suggestive. A picture is a work of art, which appeals to our esthetic sense as well as to our intellect. Its elements are form, color, light, shade, tone, harmony, and perspective. As a composition it expresses an idea, it may be of sentiment or fact; but it does this by the harmonious combination of its elements into a whole–a totality. In a well balanced picture each element is given its full value and its right relation to all the other elements.
So it is in the symptom picture which is technically called the Totality. The totality must express an idea. When studying a case from the diagnostic standpoint, for example, certain symptoms are selected as having a known pathological relation to each other, and upon these is based the diagnosis. The classification of symptoms thus made represents the diagnostic idea. Just so the “totality of the symptoms,” considered as the basis of a homœopathic prescription, represents the therapeutic idea. These two groups may be and often are different. The elements which go to make up the therapeutic totality must be as definitely and logically related and consistent as are the elements which go to make up the diagnostic totality.
The “totality” is not, therefore, a mere haphazard, fortuitous jumble of symptoms thrown together without rhyme or reason, any more than a similar haphazard collection of pathogenetic symptoms in a proving constitutes Materia Medica.
The Totality means the sum of the aggregate of the symptoms: Not merely the numerical aggregate-the entire number of the symptoms as particulars or single symptoms-but their sum total, their organic whole as an individuality. As a machine set up complete and in perfect working order is more than a numerical aggregate of its single dissociated parts, so the Totality is more than the mere aggregate of its constituent symptoms. It is the numerical aggregate plus the idea or plan which unites them in a special manner to give them its characteristic form. As the parts of a machine cannot be thrown together in any haphazard manner, but each part must be fitted to each other part in a certain definite relation according to the preconceived plan or design, “assembled,” as the mechanics say-so the symptoms of a case must be “assembled” in such a manner that they constitute an identity, an individuality, which may be seen and recognized as we recognize the personality of a friend.
Close is discussing the Totality with respect to a case, but the same principles apply to our medicinal substances, which are the mirror reflections (Similia) of the disease we encounter in our clients.
Inspired by Stuart Close’s elegant description of “the Totality,” I’ve developed my remedy “maps” as a method of Materia Medica study. I’d like to present these less as a “finished” description of our remedies, than as an approach to study. These, and other approaches to mapping our materia medica I’ll be introducing in subsequent essays, are not an attempt to revise Hahnemann’s concept of the pathogenesis of remedies; they’re intended as visual constructs on which we might organize our knowledge.