A review and integrative analysis of ancient holistic character medicine systems.
The ancient holistic medical systems help the patient by balancing the "elements" of the human character. This work aims to understand the nature of these elements and the process of the physician balancing them. Using the concept of poly-ray cosmology we see that the medical systems from ancient India, China and Greek basically share the same inner structure and also the same logic of the treatment processes. We analyze the double concept of yin-yang, the Ayurvedic triadic concepts of Pitta, Kapha and Vata, the four elements of Hippocratic humoral medicine, and the five elements of Chinese medicine, and find that each of these conceptual frameworks make up a "theory" or model of the world that is a perfect wholeness, allowing the physician to interpret the world and his patient in order to identify the imbalances of his or her character that need to be treated. Independently of the system this can be a palliative treatment, if energies are only balanced in present time, or a causal cure if the physician is using the similarity principle to take his patient into regression back to the events in the personal history that originally created the imbalances (the traumas). To help the patient back to the traumas he is exposed to a small dose of the original harming stimulus; this can be an internal process like visualization supported by the therapist words, or an external process provoked by his actions. If the physician is balancing the elements without such a healing of the patient's existential core this can still momentarily help the patient by alleviating the symptoms, but it will not have a permanent effect.
Ventegodt
Søren
S
Quality of Life Research Center, DK-1452 Copenhagen K, Denmark. ventegodt@livskvalitet.org
Thegler
Suzette
S
Andreasen
Tove
T
Struve
Flemming
F
Jacobsen
Susan
S
Torp
Margrethe
M
Aegedius
Hans
H
Enevoldsen
Lars
L
Merrick
Joav
J
D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006694:Holistic Health