Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 508
The purpose of this study was to describe homoeopathic beliefs about the nature of curing/healing patterns.
Data were collected via virtual focus groups conducted on three homoeopathic websites. Participants were asked to respond to an e-mailed question about a precise definition of cure, the experience of cure from the perspective of homoeopathy and the characteristics of a cured homoeopathic case. All participants were naturopaths and generated a total of 105 data units. Inductive content analysis was used to develop textual/thematic descriptions of healing and cure.
Two distinct systems of thought about curing/healing patterns emerged. In System 1, participants clearly distinguished that homoeopathic outcomes occur along a healing-curing continuum of change. Palliation (a return of old symptoms once the treatment removed), suppression (symptoms do not return after treatment or intervention has ended, but the ‘whole’ is ‘less than healthy’) and cure (equated to healing in this framework and resultant from homoeopathic treatment and the ‘innate mind/body healing of the living organism’) were all identified as occurring along this continuum. In System 2, participants distinguished between curing (a matter of symptom response and improvement to homoeopathic intervention and treatment) and healing (‘beyond cure’, occurring ‘through grace’).
Each system of thought appears to be based on different beliefs about the nature of curing/healing patterns as well as the role that homoeopathic intervention plays in these processes. These findings are consistent with foundational literature in this area and are consistent with nursing and whole-body healing meta-theoretical perspectives.
