Anthroposophical Medicine - Key Concepts

Key Concepts

Ita Wegman

Anthroposophical medicine seeks to extend, not replace, mainstream Western medicine. Its practitioners do not regard it as an "alternative", but as an extension, to conventional science-based medicine:

Anthroposophical medicine is based on Steiner's concept that spiritual awareness is the foundation of individual health and of the health of society. Steiner believed that many of the oldest systems of healing, such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and Tibetan medicine, were based on a spiritual perception of the world that modern science has lost. Steiner wanted medicine to get back in touch with spirituality, and at the same time keep and use wisely the gains that science and technology have made. Thus, conventional medicine needed to be extended beyond physical science to include a holistic spiritual science.

—"Anthroposophical medicine", AltMD,

Based upon the anthroposophical view of the human being, the approach considers the patient's:

• Physical constitution;
• Life or etheric body, sometimes considered to be analogous to chi or prana;
• The physio-psychological organization (also called the astral body), understood as the bearer of both the emotional or psychological state (affect), and of consciousness;
• The 'ego', source of the self-reflection and free will that co-form the patient's biography.

Each of these is considered to have an influence on a patient's health.

In particular, anthroposophic medicine raises the question of a chronic or acute illness' significance in the biography of the patient: in what ways does the illness express, or appear as a result of, what is happening in the patient's life; and in what way does it open up or close down life paths? The events of an illness are considered to constitute decisive decision points in the patient's life: through overcoming an illness a patient may open up biographical doors and/or develop aspects of his or her being that he or she might not otherwise have achieved. The medical goal is then not necessarily to restore the previous condition of the patient, which led to the illness, but rather to achieve a new and healthier condition. Biographical rhythms including seven-year phases of development are often considered in understanding the patient's life.

Practitioners believe that spending time with a patient is important to discern the most important factors about the patient, and that aspects of patients' well being are not helped by the rush; many doctors, both anthroposophic and conventional, are critical of the stresses on the medical system today that lead to rushing patients through.

Anthroposophical doctors try to minimize the use of antibiotics, antipyretics, pharmaceutical drugs, and vaccinations. In particular, some children treated by anthroposophic doctors are vaccinated only against tetanus and polio, while for others vaccinations may be given later than recommended by health authorities. Steiner believed that vaccination "interferes with karmic development and the cycles of reincarnation". When this was put into practice, it caused a pertussis outbreak in a waldorf school due to a lack of inocculation, causing the school to be temporarily closed.

To find remedies to treat a particular illness, anthroposophical medicine considers the nature of the source of the substances used. The character of a mineral, plant or animal is considered to have been formed by the substances that are most active within it. Thus this character may also reveal what the substance will accomplish when given to treat another organism. This is related to Hahnemann's Doctrine of signatures. Willow, for example, has an unusual character:

"... plants that grow near water are usually heavy, with big, dark green leaves that wilt and break easily. An exception is... the white willow, a tree that always grows near water and loves light. However, unlike other "watery" plants, the willow has fine, almost dry leaves and looks very light... Its branches are unbelievably tough. They are elastic and cannot be broken. They bend easily and form "joints" rather than break. These few signatures can give us the clue to what salix can be used for therapeutically: arthritis, deformation of joints, swollen joints... "

There is no scientific evidence that the shape of plants has ever caused a new medical property to be discovered. The intent of the medical approach is to consider both the effective substances and the character (not just shape) of the mineral, plant or animal these substances are drawn from, however.

The American Heart Association describes the normal heart as a "strong, muscular pump a little larger than a fist pumps blood continuously through the circulatory system”; for example, Steiner believed that the heart was not a pump, but a regulator of flow, that in the circulatory system blood is "propelled with its own biological momentum, as can be seen in the embryo, and boosts itself with induced momenta from the heart".