Hahnemann

Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann (10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843) was a German physician who founded homeopathy, an alternative medical system. Born in Meissen in the Electorate of Saxony, he trained as a physician and practiced in several German cities before developing his therapeutic approach in the late 18th century.

Disillusioned with prevailing medical practices of his time, which often relied on aggressive dosing and bloodletting, Hahnemann proposed the law of similars: substances that produce symptoms in a healthy person can cure similar symptoms in the sick. He introduced the doctrine of potentization, involving serial dilutions and succussion (shaking), and he advocated drug proving, testing substances on healthy volunteers to document their effects. He argued that remedies act on a vital force that governs the body’s response to disease.

Hahnemann’s major writings include Organon der Heilkunst (Organon of the Healing Art), first published in 1810, which laid out the principles of homeopathy and its method, and the subsequent Materia Medica volumes describing remedies and their indications. The Organon went through several editions, influencing the development of homeopathic practice throughout the 19th century.

In the 1830s, Hahnemann moved to Paris, where he continued his work until his death in 1843. His ideas contributed to the spread of homeopathy in Europe and North America, where numerous clinics and schools were established and maintained for many decades.

Today, homeopathy remains controversial. While practiced by some as part of complementary medicine, it is generally viewed with skepticism by the mainstream medical community, and systematic reviews have found no robust evidence of efficacy beyond placebo.