“Daughter: Daddy, are these conversa-tions serious?Father: Certainly they are.D: They are not a sort of game that youplay with me?F: God forbid… but they are a sort of game that we play together.D: Then theyre not serious!F: I dont mind – not much – about win-ning or losing. When your questions putmeinatightspot,sure,Itryalittlehard-er to think straight and to say clearlywhat I mean. But I dont bluff and I dontset traps. There is no temptation tocheat.D: Thats just it… Its a game. Peoplewho cheat just dont know how to play.Theytreatagameasthoughitwereseri-ous.F: But it is serious.”From “Metalogue: About Games andBeing Serious”, in Steps to an EcologyofMind,byGregoryBateson(NewYork:Ballantine Books,1972), p.14

Daughter:What is “self” Dad?

Father: Hmm, good question, I rememberthat Carl

Jung

, the famous psychiatrist,once wrote about the “self” being some-thing that is continuously striving forwholeness.D: That would mean that we all will havewholeness eventually.F: Well, we all have that potential.D: What stops us from getting there?F: I think it could be those barriers that arepartofourculture;materialism,egocentrictendencies, judgements etc.D:Howcanweavoidthosethingsthatstopus from being whole?F: I have often thought about this veryquestion.Itseemsthatagoodplacetostartis asking another questionwhich would be“how might shifting our focus to ourcentre be more supportive of our self-de-velopment?”D: What does that mean?F: In practices like Yoga, Aikido and medi-tation one is taughttobalance oneself, sortof combining ones mind and body into akind of a unity. This practice helps createless painwith lifes ever-present conflicts.D: Canyou show me this?F: Well, let me grab your left shoulder if you dont mind (holding very assertively).How do you feel?D: Its a little scary, like I am being at-tacked.F: Well, now step back with your left legand keep eye contact with me. What hap-pened?D: I pulled you towards me and you lostyour balance.F: How do you feel now?D: More in control, less scared.F: Here is another example. Put your fistout and push against my fist, as I put pres-sure onyour fist; what are you doing?D: Putting more pressure onyour fist.F: Ok, I reduced my pressure, what did youdo then?D: I reduced my pressure too!F: Well, force blindly follows force, doesntit?D: Yes, but pushing slowly and with lessforce allows the other person to push lessand in a more gentle way.F: Kind of how nature works.D: I dont get that one.F: Well if you look at our problems in thisworld it is usually the difference betweenhow we humans think things are and hownature functions.D: Areyousaying, dont mess with nature?F: Well, at least we need to recognize howthings are all interconnected.D:Thatisnotalwayseasysincelotsofpeo-ple dontcareaboutpollutionorevenwhattheyeat.F: That takes what is called “wisdom”,which is to understand the connectionsand what will happen if we mess with na-ture.D:Howdoes thisall relatetobeingcentredand the growing “self”, Dad?

S U M M A R Y

In the framework of a dialogue, patterns and barriers towards self-develop-ment are discussed in relation to understanding how communication, per-ceptions, psychological aspects and temperaments can enhance homeo-pathic case-taking and remedy selection.

KEYWORDS

Self-confidence, Temperaments, Ecology, Carl Jung, Case-taking, Carbo vegetabilis

P H I L O S O P H Y A N D D I S C U S S I O N

Steps to an Ecologyof Self

Implications for Homeopathy

Kenneth Silvestri, USA

Zeitschrift Homœopathic Links hl872 Satzbetrieb Ziegler + MüllerDOI 10.1055/s-2008-1038552 Verlag Sonntag/K. SeidelDatum 11.04.2008

Kenneth Silvestri,

Steps to an – Homœopathic Links

Summer 2008, Vol.21: 1–5  Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co.KG

F: Yes, thank you. You see, what we aretalking about is “conflict”, which is a bigbarrier in the journey towards wholenessfor the self.D: Yes, I dont necessarily like conflict.F: Yes, I can understand that, but in natureconflict is neither bad nor good, it just is,and when we understand that, we canpractise centring and blending or pushingin a gentler wayas before.D: I get it, in nature there really arent any judgements, or selfishness or what did youcall it?F: Arrogance and ego-centric patterns.D: Wait a minute, not so fast. What aboutthings like fear and anger, they can get inthe way to self-growth.F: Very good point. It follows if we relax,breathe and avoid the statements like “Icould have done this”, or “I should havedone it this way”, etc., we are ready forthese emotions in a positive way.D: How?F: Our emotions are like our muscles, wecan be tense and heavy or light and re-laxed. Fear can be celebrated and em-braced and anger can be assertively com-municated. In a great book titled Angerthe misunderstood Emotion, (New York:Simon and Schuster, 1989) by Carol

Tavis

,the author tells the story of how one daythe Buddha could not deliver his sermonbecause a snake had prevented his congre-gation from attending. He discussed thiswiththesnake(IsupposehewaslikeHarryPotter in this case). The next week hiswhole congregation attended his sermon;however, afterwards the Buddha was leav-ing the temple when he heard a rustlingand saw a painfully bruised snake. Heasked what had happened. The snake de-scribed how he had not bothered the con-gregation and that they had beaten him.The Buddha reiterated that he had told thesnakenottobite,butdidnottellhimnottohiss.D: Yikes! That was a lessonwell learned.F: Well by not letting emotions hold youback, it then takes communication skillsthat are based on win-win ways ratherthanwin-lose encounters.D: Meaning?F:Cooperativecommunicationislikeavol-ley on a ping-pong table. If I spike the ballwe both lose since the rules are win-win.D: How does that translate into communi-cation, Dad?F: I say something, you check to see if youunderstand it, I agree or disagree, thenyousay something, I check and you let meknow if I got it and so forth.D:Anyotherthingsaboutcommunication?F: Probably many more than we have timefor, but I would include being caring, trust-worthy and, going back to what we dis-cussed earlier, recognizingourconnectionsand taking the time to be passionate aboutunderstanding our connections and differ-ences.D: You mentioned Carl Jung earlier. Howdid he come to believe that the self is al-ways trying to reach wholeness?F:Hebelievedthatweliveandacteachdaythrough our conscious self. Actions likegetting to school and work, doing thethings that get us through our day. How-ever he also felt that our unconscious self,where our dreams and inner thoughtscome from, are connected to a “collectiveunconscious” which to him is like a reser-voir of all living experiences.D: Sort of like a hologram.F: Yes, and in this holographic reservoirthere are symbols that he called “arche-types” that allow us all to be connected.D: What are these archetypes?F:Theyare invisible,buttheycometousinuniversal symbols, things we recognize inour ownway that connect us to our legacy,but we never really see them, we use themas reference points. They are like seeds of readiness. We see a tree for instance, but itis constructedand understood through ourownuniquementalprocess.Itisnotthear-chetype; it is our perspective for a “tree”,thatmay havebeenstimulatedbypast col-lective images found in art and verse.D: Where do they exist then?F:Indreams,stories,poems,fairytales,andart. You can look up at the sky in the eve-ning and contemplate the constellationsand then relate that to your experiences.There is a word that I believe is importantinunderstandingall ofthis, itis “aesthetic”whichloosely means “somethingof beautyand art”. This word along with one of myother favourite words “context” is the hu-man metaphor or symbol for “nature”. Yousee, we can never totally see nature, theword itself is not the thing, it is sort of how a map is really not the territory thatwe encounter with our senses. It is in our“contexts”, our environment, that our self evolves and grows within, using thesesymbols as reference points like on a map.D: Wow, you said a lot there. Are you say-ing that we have the potential to be part of all human experience and use this map tobe more whole and content?F: Yes, and you said content. I agree, yousee if we can get over seeing nature as abunch of fragments, we have a chance tobe content. Splitting nature up is an illu-sion. Another famous thinker, Martin

Bu-ber

, (I and Thou, New York: Charles Scrib-ner,1972) wrote about our choice of seeingnature as “I-IT” or I-Thou; in other wordswe can separate ourselves from, say, a treeand view it as a nuisance because of itsleaves clogging our gutters or we can beconnected to it in a spiritual way and rec-ognize our

interconnectedness with it;then the leaves can find their place.D: But what about all those opposites wehave to deal with each day, are they con-nected?F: Another good question. I call these ever-present opposites “paradoxes”, things thatareimposedonusbycultureandlanguage,likegoodandbad.However,anotherchoiceis,wecanlookatthese“opposites”asdiffer-ences or healthy parts of our wholeness.Like conflict they just are; however we canblendwiththemasnaturedoes,or,unfortu-nately,trytokeepthemseparateandsufferthe inevitable consequences of injuriouspatterns such as global warming, war etc.

D: How does thisRelate to Your Workas a Homeopath?

F: Well, you know a lot about homoeopa-thy, “like cures like”. However, this evolv-ing self we have been discussing plays adeeper part in how the remedies work.

Kenneth Silvestri,

Steps to an – Homœopathic Links

Summer 2008, Vol.21: 1–5  Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co.KG

P H I L O S O P H Y A N D D I S C U S S I O N

Zeitschrift Homœopathic Links hl872 Satzbetrieb Ziegler + MüllerDOI 10.1055/s-2008-1038552 Verlag Sonntag/K. SeidelDatum 11.04.2008

D: Inwhat way?F:Homeopathy,likethe“self”,isanecolog-ical process of interconnected patterns. Ithas to be recognized as part of nature tobe truly effective. With this perspective,we canbetterunderstandhoweachpersondeals with his or her journey in differentways. Then that favourite word of mine,“context” can allow us to see how factorsof gender, class, race, culture, and ethnicityproduces learning (and life) styles that in-fluences how we heal and cope with thebarriers to our self-fulfilment. These learn-ing styles are what we call temperaments.This, for homeopathy, defines ones “con-stitutional” makeup and needs.D: Is that part of our personality?F: Yes, most psychologists agree that thereare four basic styles: Feeling, Thinking, In-tuitive and Sensate. I use a story that I em-bellished for my students that I believe isoriginallybasedonhowEdward

Whitmont

,who was a homeopath and Jungian thera-pist, would demonstrate the different tem-peraments. It starts at this great art decodinner in Paterson, N.J. where I grew up.The cook makes wonderful soup but hislong ponytail would inevitably shed a hairintothesoup.Thisfirstguywalksin,ordersa bowl, sees the hair and starts yelling,leaves and doesnt stay to enjoy the soup.This is the angry sensate trait. The next fel-low comes in, sees the hair in the soup,calmlycallsthewaitressoverandwhisperstohertobringanotherbowl.Inthiscasehedemonstrates the sanguine intuitive trait.The third person comes in, sees the hairand begins to silently weep and doesntsay anything, pays and leaves, obviouslythe nervy-thinkingperson. A fourthpersonenters the diner, orderssoup, sees that hairand guess what? He takes the hair out andenjoys the soup. This represents the laid-back feeling type. Each of us has compo-nents of all four, but we tend to be charac-terized by one or two and each tempera-ment has an outward and inward part.D: How so?F: The

feeling

temperament for instancecan be rigid, dogmatic, preoccupied andfull of hidden fears, especially if it is in aninward mode. It makes sense if you aresubjective and somewhat shy, but if youare more outgoing and still a feeling typeyou can be externally emotional, possibly judgmental, and more egocentric. Somemain remedies that have these traits are

Calcarea carbonica, Capsicum, Dulcamara,Hepar Sulphur, Mezereum, Natrum carboni-cum, Pulsatilla

and

Sepia

. A

thinking

per-son when in an inward state can be specu-lative and a theorist while their outwardstyle would be factual, precise, rationaland dry. Some main remedies that havethese traits are

Arsenicum, Chamomilla,Hyoscyamus, Magnesia phosphorica, Nuxmoschata

and

Silica

to name a few.D: What about the other two tempera-ments?F: Yes, the first two are very rational; theremaining two are more perceptual and ir-rational. The

intuitive

in their outwardmanifestation can be impressionable, in-stinctiveandfullofhuncheswhileitsinnerside could have jealous, with negative pro- jections.Remedies that matchthis are

Aco-nitum, Aurum, Cactus, Ferrum, Phosphorus,Platinum, Sanguinara

and

Sulphur

amongmany others. The

sensate

type is more of arealist, down-to-earth yet fearful, angryand helpless; their introverted side willmisjudge, not complete tasks and can benarcissistic. In this case remedies such as

Bryonia

, Lachesis and

Nux vomica

wouldbe possible considerations. Together thesetraits can be seen to produce patterns thatcan help point to strengths and/or uniqueproblems. Someone, for instance, can ex-hibit an outward temperamental trait buttheir presenting problem will usually befound in an opposing trait or vice versa,calling out for the needed remedy. Theremedies, too, like the people they may re-flect, can and do exhibit more than onetrait.D: How can you figure this out, the uniqueproblem that needs help?F: Another good point. In homeopathy youlook for the most unique, striking symp-tom or problem. Our friend Carl Jungtaught us that a person will present in acertain habitual conscious manner – oneof the temperaments for instance – hecalled this the “persona”, but it is withones “shadow”, found in ones uncon-scious makeup or in an opposing tempera-ment where many answers for wholenessaretobefound.Thisiswherewecanassessones descriptions of symptoms and howthey might relate to archetypes and bar-riers to health and interpersonal relation-ships.D: How is this revealed or made known?F: I have seen this in how people navigatetheir journey towards wholeness or, as Imentioned earlier, use their “centre”. Thetemperamental styles are tools for the ex-periences of dealing with conflict, commu-nication and blending. A worldview of being “I-Thou” or “I-It”, or the combinationof these choices in everyday contexts con-tains clues to the difference that will makea difference in the quest for wholeness.Dreams and symbols will also give furthermeaning and clues to this needed help. Allof this plays into the goal of every homeo-pathic remedy, which is to balance the im-mune system for this journey. The sensa-tion, location and modalities are the back-drop of the context where strengths andbarriers to this process are found and cor-rected.D: I can see this relates to the “self”, buthow did you learntoconnectthis tohome-opathy?F: The great homeopath Baron

Von Boen-ninghausen

had these insights early onwhen homeopathy was in its infancy. Heunderstood the connections and energy of the remedies as they related to symptomsand theirsensationsbyobservingthe char-acteristics of our species. He avoided thedanger of succumbing to cultural and lan-guage constraintsthat separatethis energyfrom nature or into human and non-hu-man components which is the case withmuch of the traditional medicine of ourday. This produces an unfortunate dichoto-mythatwillmostofthetimemisguideandover-simplify any movement towards self-development. It would be like one focusingon the finger pointing to the moon ratherthan the luminance that is the moon.D: Where is this energy you are talkingabout?F: It is the collective unconsciousness andarchetypes that we previously discussed,andinthehologramthatframesthecanvasof the whole self in a substantiated andwell inter-connected manner, which is theaestheticmediumandlifeforceofalllivingthings. However, these articulated sensa-tionsof the self will onlylead totheenergyof the needed remedy if it is thoroughlyand rigorously contextualized.D: Sounds serious.F: It is a serious and responsible role tohelp facilitate healing. It should be con-firmed by the patterns and attributes of

Kenneth Silvestri,

Steps to an – Homœopathic Links

Summer 2008, Vol.21: 1–5  Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co.KG