spirit: Geist. The faculty of pure intelligencein the human being, which is manifested through the operationsof intellect and reason (§9). That aspect of the human beingthat dwells in the organism and is associated with the higherfunctioning of the mind. The human spirit (Menschen-Geist) isone of two supersensible presences that permeate the organism,the other being the human Wesen (Menschen Wesen) or Dynamis. Thehuman spirit and the human Wesen form a functional polarity whosecommon functioning principle is human being (see functional polarity). Hahnemann connects thehuman spirit with intelligence and the human Wesen with instinct.Hahnemann also refers to 'the higher human spirit' which is thenoetic faculty for higher ideas, that is, it is the highest levelof pure intelligence. [SRD]
psychical: psychisch [from Greek psukho, soul, life]. 1. That which involves the interaction of the spirit(Geist), the soul (Seele) and the emotional mind (Gemüt),having components of thinking, feeling and willing (§73).2. That which affects an individual's thinking, feeling and willing.[SRD]
emotion, emotionalmind: Gemüt. That faculty capable of taking in impressions andhaving responses to them. The emotional mind is an aesthetic faculty,as opposed to the Geist, which is a faculty of pure intelligence.The Gemüt is also the chief faculty of participative consciousness.
In the Organon,Hahnemann refers to various emotions of the Gemüt, whichare typically exhibited through behavior. These include: dejection;grief, fright and chagrin; mourning, grief and bereavement (fn§26); a mild, gentle emotional mind which may turn to ingratitude,hard-heartedness, deliberate malice and the most degrading, themost revolting tempers of humanity (fn §210); emotional stateswhich are quiet and calm, mild and phelgmatic, or which are glad,cheerful, and stubborn, or unchangeable and not inclined to frightor vexation (fn §213); emotional shocks (§263); andemotional irritability (§290).
Hahnemann makesseveral references to the role of the emotional mind in the productionof somatic symptoms: In fn §8 of the Introduction, he discussesthe relationship between the emotional mind and the body, indicatingthat emotional disturbances (i.e., disturbances of the Gemüt)can dynamically engender a somatic condition (i.e., a stomachvitiation). He also makes the connection between emotional mistunementand somatic symptoms in fn §232, in which he refers to "asomber, melancholic temper, an intolerable, hypochondriacal emotional-mistunementwith disturbance of several vital functions (digestion, sleep,etc.)" His strongest statement of the production of somaticsymptoms by a mistunement of the emotional mind is in §225in which he states, "With but little infirmity, it developsoutward from the emotional mind due to persistent worry, mortification,vexation, abuse, or repeated exposure to great fear or fright.While initially there is but little infirmity, in time emotionaldiseases of this kind often ruin the somatic state of health toa high degree." In §88, 'emotional mood' is translatedfrom Gemüths-Stimmung, literally 'tunement of the emotionalmind.' See also participation. [SRD]
Wesen: OED
1854 - Geo. Eliot in J. W. Cross George Eliot's Life (1885) I. vi. FrSulein Solmar is..probably between fifty and sixty, but of that agreeable Wesen which is so free from anything startling in person or manner.
1959 Listener 22 Oct., I believe myself that it is only in the totality of its historic manifestations that Christianity can be understood, and that so long as it does survive, its Wesen, its nature, will continue to reveal new potentialities.
America Heritage Dictionary: engendering entity, Genius a particular character or essential entity of a nation, place age, language, etc.tutelary deity of any place power of great original works (not an intelligence quotient)
'Wesen' is a multi-facetedterm which can mean any of the following: essence, substance,creature, living thing, nature, or entity. There is no singleEnglish word that adequately translates Wesen. In almost everyinstance in the Organon, Hahnemann uses the term to refer to thatentity which is the essential unchanging esse of something: itsbeing, its quintessence. A Wesen is not an abstraction; it isa dynamic, self-subsisting presence even though that presenceis not material and has no mass. A Wesen is also not a property;it permeates the whole of something and is indivisible from it.The romantic philosophers of the nineteenth century (such as Coleridge)used the word 'genius' in the same way that Hahnemann, Goetheand other German thinkers used the word 'Wesen.' The word 'genius'also appears in the fifth edition of the Organon (§130) andin various books and articles on homeopathic medicine. The termis most frequently used in connection with the genius (i.e., theWesen) of a remedy.
Hahnemann indicatesthat the Wesen of a disease (§7) impinges upon the Wesenof the human being (§10), resulting in a particular set ofsymptoms. The Wesen of a medicine (§20, §21) is introducedby the Therapeutician in order to retune the mistuned Wesen ofthe patient, thereby restoring the patient to health. Hahnemann'suse of the word 'Wesen' in these various contexts makes it clearthat the Living Power, diseases and medicines are all operatingin the same dynamic dimension.
The Living Poweror the Living Principle can be interpreted either as the Wesenof the human being (i.e., as a self-subsisting entity) or as anaspect of the human Wesen (i.e., as a property of the human Wesen).A Wesen cannot be a property of something because it is its esse,its being. While Hahnemann generally writes about the Living Poweror the Living Principle as if it were an entity, he also makescertain specific references to its being variable in amount (whichcan be true of a property but not of an entity). These include:a. his reference in fn §60 to the reduction and exhaustionof the Living Power as a result of Broussais' system of bloodletting,warm baths and starvation diet, b. his reference in §288to both the increase and the decrease of the Living Power as aresult of mesmeric treatment, and c. his reference in the Introductionto the 'supply' of Living Principle. The most consistent interpretationof the Organon leads to the following conclusion: What Hahnemanncalls the Dynamis (§9, §12) is the human Wesen, whilethe Living Power is its executive power. A Wesen always formsa unity with a particular body, but that body may or may not havea material presence, that is, it may include a particular materialbody or it may not. All Wesens phenomenalize themselves througha complete system of hierarchical functions (as in an organism).The Wesen is a source of acts committed through the body withwhich it forms a unity.
The human Wesenpermeates and forms a unity with the entire body of a particularhuman being. This includes but is not limited to one's materialbody; it also includes one's larger supersensible sphere, referredto by some writers as one's ambient (See below). In other words,the human Wesen permeates both the human organism and its ambient,both of which are manifestations of the Wesen. The Wesen bothforms a unity with and is a common substratum of both. Therefore,the human Wesen's sphere of action includes the individual's organismas well as the circumstances, events and conditions which informthe whole situation of the individual.
Hahnemann refersto various Wesen other than the human Wesen. Each different medicineand disease has a different Wesen. A collective disease (suchas an epidemic or a miasmatic disease) is one which manifestsin many different people but whose Wesen is the same in each case.The disease Wesen is the same even when it manifests with differentsymptoms in different cases. The body with which a collectivedisease Wesen forms a unity is largely supersensible; only itsmanifestations are perceptible. Hahnemann also describes the allopathicmedical system as a Wesen. The body with which it forms a unityis a body of thought, associated with certain organized activitiesin the world (which could also be thought of as a kind of supersensiblecorporate body). Its perceptible manifestations include practitionerswith a particular medical orientation and particular forms oftreatment which affect patients' symptoms in certain ways. [SRD]
Ambient: That supersensible sphere within the general environmentwhich pertains to a particular individual and which holds thefactors to which one is particularly resonant (i.e., the factorsor incidents which impinge upon or affect a particular individualand not another). The ambient comprises the circumstances, eventsand conditions which inform the whole situation of a particularindividual; for example it is connected to one's receptivity tocertain diseases and not others. Hahnemann was aware of the intimaterelation between the human organism and its ambient; this is reflectedin his recommendations that the remedial-artist record and carefullyconsider both a person's symptoms and circumstances in order toobtain the image of a person's disease (§7, §18, §24).The human Wesen, or Dynamis, forms a unity with the human organismand its ambient, permeating both spheres. The term "ambient"is used in the glossary to define terms; it is not used in theOrganon. [SRD]