Homeopathy glossary: key terms defined

The working vocabulary of homeopathy combines methodological terms from Hahnemann's Organon, the names and conventions of the major repertories, and the technical language of modern practitioner software. Definitions below follow the classical literature.

Terms

• Aggravation — A temporary worsening of symptoms following the administration of a homeopathic remedy, a signal that the remedy is acting on the case.
• Allopathy — A historical term coined by Hahnemann to describe conventional medicine that treats with substances producing effects different from those of the disease.
• Antidote — A substance, food, or stimulus that interrupts or reverses the action of a homeopathic remedy.
• Boenninghausen method — A methodology emphasising the totality of generals and modalities, developed by Clemens von Boenninghausen.
• Case-taking — The structured interview through which a practitioner elicits the symptoms, modalities, and constitutional features of a patient for repertorisation.
• Centesimal scale — The serial dilution scale (1:100 per step) introduced by Hahnemann; 6C means six successive 1:100 dilutions.
• Classical homeopathy — The methodology adhering to Hahnemann's original principles in the Organon, emphasising a single remedy chosen by totality of symptoms.
• Complex remedy — A combination of multiple homeopathic remedies in a single preparation; not used in classical homeopathy.
• Constitutional prescribing — The selection of a remedy based on the patient's constitutional features rather than acute symptoms.
• Decimal scale — The serial dilution scale (1:10 per step); 6X means six successive 1:10 dilutions.
• Differential — A comparison of two or more remedies whose indications overlap, used to choose the better-fitting remedy.
• Dilution — The serial dilution process by which homeopathic remedies are prepared.
• Drug picture — The integrated description of a remedy's mental, general, and particular symptoms.
• Element theory — The methodology developed by Jan Scholten that maps remedies prepared from elements to positions on the periodic table.
• GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation, EU Regulation 2016/679.
• Generals — Symptoms describing the patient as a whole (sleep, appetite, mood) rather than a particular body part.
• Granule — A small sugar-pellet medicated with a homeopathic remedy.
• Hering's law of cure — The principle articulated by Constantine Hering that symptoms resolve from above downward, from inside outward, from a more important to a less important organ, and in reverse order of appearance.
• HIPAA — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, U.S. federal law on health-information privacy.
• Individualisation — The selection of a remedy tailored to the specific patient rather than to the diagnosed condition.
• Keynote — A characteristic, peculiar, or strange symptom of a remedy that anchors its prescription.
• Kent's principles — The methodological principles taught by James Tyler Kent, emphasising the mental symptoms and the totality.
• Levels of Health — George Vithoulkas's framework for classifying patients by overall vitality and prognosis.
• LM potency (Q potency) — A serial dilution scale introduced by Hahnemann in the 6th edition of the Organon; 1:50,000 per step.
• Materia medica — A reference work cataloguing remedies by their drug pictures.
• Mental symptoms — Symptoms relating to mood, will, intellect, and emotional state.
• Miasm — A chronic predisposition to disease; the original three (psora, sycosis, syphilis) introduced by Hahnemann.
• Modalities — Factors that aggravate or ameliorate a symptom (worse at night, better from warmth).
• Mother tincture — The undiluted alcoholic extract from which homeopathic dilutions are prepared.
• Nosode — A homeopathic remedy prepared from a diseased tissue or pathological product.
• Organon — Hahnemann's foundational treatise, the methodological reference for classical homeopathy.
• Particulars — Symptoms describing a specific body part rather than the whole patient.
• Periodic Table in homeopathy — The application of Jan Scholten's element theory to remedy selection.
• Potency — The dilution level of a homeopathic remedy, expressed in C, X, M, LM, or Q scales.
• Potentisation — The combined process of dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking) by which homeopathic remedies are prepared.
• Proving — A structured procedure in which a substance is administered to healthy volunteers to elicit symptoms that define the remedy's drug picture.
• Psora — In Hahnemann's miasm theory, the chronic miasm underlying most non-syphilitic, non-sycotic chronic disease.
• Q potency — See LM potency.
• Repertory — A symptom-index that maps symptoms (rubrics) to remedies; the practitioner's lookup tool.
• Rubric — A unit of a repertory: a symptom heading and its list of associated remedies.
• Sensation method — The methodology developed by Rajan Sankaran that elicits the patient's sensation as the load-bearing prescribing feature.
• Similar similibus curentur — "Like cures like"; the founding principle of homeopathy.
• Single remedy — The classical principle that one remedy should be administered at a time.
• Succussion — Vigorous shaking applied to a dilution as part of the potentisation process.
• Sycosis — In Hahnemann's miasm theory, the second chronic miasm.
• Syphilis miasm — In Hahnemann's miasm theory, the third chronic miasm.
• Synoptic Key — C. M. Boger's compact methodology reference combining materia medica and a repertory.
• Synthesis Repertory — A modern repertory edited by Frederik Schroyens and shipped in many commercial software products.
• Totality of symptoms — The collected set of a patient's symptoms used to select the most similar remedy.
• Trituration — The grinding of an insoluble substance with lactose as the first preparation step for low potencies.
• Acute prescribing — Remedy selection for a self-limiting condition (a cold, an injury).
• Chronic prescribing — Remedy selection for a long-standing constitutional condition.
• First prescription — The initial remedy administered after the first case-taking.
• Second prescription — The subsequent prescription in a chronic case after the first prescription's action has run its course.
• Follow-up — The structured review of a case after a prescription has been administered.
• Repertorisation — The mechanical process of mapping a case's symptoms to a list of candidate remedies through a repertory. To do this against a live rubric vocabulary rather than a printed index, the Similia free repertory is searchable by symptom.
• AI repertorisation — The application of machine-learning techniques to repertorisation; current implementations include semantic-search and rubric-suggestion features.
• Live transcription — The real-time conversion of consultation audio to text for use in case-taking.
• Periodic Table tool — A software surface implementing Scholten's element-theory framework, available as a feature or add-on module in several commercial products.
• Case timeline — A chronological visualisation of a patient's case over multiple consultations.
• Vendor lock-in — The condition in which migrating data from one practitioner software product to another is impractical because of proprietary formats.
• Data portability — The user's right under GDPR Article 20 to receive personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.

References

Hahnemann, S. (1842) Organon of the Medical Art, 6th edition. Translated by Wenda Brewster O'Reilly (1996). Birdcage Books, Redmond WA.

Hering, C. (1865) The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica, Vol. 1. Philadelphia: American Homeopathic Publishing Society.

Kent, J.T. (1900) Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy. Chicago: Ehrhart & Karl.

von Boenninghausen, C.M.F. (1846) A Systematic-Alphabetic Repertory of the Antipsoric Remedies, translated by C.J. Hempel. Philadelphia: Rademacher & Sheek.

Boger, C.M. (1931) A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica. Calcutta: Bhattacharyya.

Vithoulkas, G. (2010) The Science of Homeopathy, 2nd ed. Athens: IACH Press.

Sankaran, R. (2005) Sensation in Homeopathy. Mumbai: Homoeopathic Medical Publishers.

Scholten, J. (1996) Homeopathy and the Elements. Utrecht: Stichting Alonnissos.

European Parliament and Council of the European Union (2016) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation). Official Journal of the European Union, L 119, 4 May 2016.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1996) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191.