Abstract: This article deals with the understanding of what is mental state and various factors responsible for the genesis of mental state and expression of mental state at emotional level & at the level of functioning.
Keywords: mental state, disposition, temperament, psychosomatic
Introduction:
No wonder the master HAHNEMANN wrote:
“This holds true to such an extent, that the ‘state of disposition’ of the patient often chiefly determines the
choice of the homoeopathic remedy, as being a decidedly characteristic symptom which can least of all remain concealed from the accurately observing physician”.(aphorism 211)
By definition – A mental state is a ‘state of mind’ that an individual is in. It is a relation that connects the individual with a proposition. There
are several paradigmatic states of mind that an individual has: love & hate, pleasure & pain, & attitudes towards proposition such as: believing that, conceiving that, hoping & feeling that etc.
Discussion:
Disposition is a person’s inherent qualities of mind & character. It is a prevailing tendency, mood or inclination or temperamental makeup.
Temperament is a characteristic or habitual inclination or mode of emotional response.
Every person has his own intellectual and mental makeup and his whole life run on the basis of his decisions ,actions and reactions in relation to his environment. His mental state will depend on his disposition and temperament.
In the Homoeopathic system of medicine physicians read the “ALTERATION IN STATE OF MIND AND DISPOSITION” of patients and find the suitable homoeopathic medicine based on the law of similarity. Homoeopathy treats the patient as a whole (in the mental and physical plane) on symptom similarity. Hahnemann wrote in Aphorism 211 of The Organon of Medicine, “. . . the state of disposition
of the patient chiefly determines the selection of the homoeopathic remedy, being a decidedly characteristic symptom which can least of all
remain concealed from the accurately observing physician.” He did not write that the mental symptoms determine the choice of the remedy but that the mental state does. So it is understood that we should be recognizing the mental state of the patient.
By Hahnemann’s definition, disease is something that is beyond any process and beyond any sensation, and far beyond symptoms; it is a dynamic derangement of the dynamic vital force. While these processes, sensations and symptoms are expressions of the disease, the disease itself seems to be none other than the life-giving vital force, albeit deranged, that itself possesses and endows to every cell and every atom in the body, the impetus to carry on its life and function in a very specific, deranged manner. Disease is energy, turmoil at the deepest point in the
organism; and whether it is a deformed fingernail, or a ravaging malignant process, or then a panic
disorder, they will each have contained in them this turmoil, this disturbed energy.
The essence of the disease is there in everything that the patient experiences, in each and every symptom; and the totality of symptoms is the whole of the disease.
As we know that disease originates in the vital molecular process obviously, mental and physical symptoms whether subjective or objective, are expressions of these molecular errors. Mind, consciousness, feeling, emotions, understanding, thought process, sensations, mental symptoms etc are functions of complex material systems known as the brain and nervous system. The PSYCHOSOMATIC cause of illness (psyche-mind or soul or the deepest thought, feelings or beliefs of a person; soma– body) is given most importance in the Homoeopathic system of medicine. This psyche- brain-organ relation is most important which determines how the individual is going to react to the stress or conflict with his disposition and temperament.
Conclusion:
In the conventional system of medicine treatment is based on physical level and gives no importance to the mental state of the patient but in the homoeopathic system of medicine due to its unique feature in prescription consider both mind and body and having an individualistic approach.
