Chronic fatigue and resulting inertia is the silent partner lurking in the shadows of the human economy. it may be discovered in all shades and degrees and, under the aegis of the will, assumes many deceptive forms.
Under modernistic pressure fatigue has no respectable standing whatsoever. In fact it is considered smart to ignore it. New and more active drugs endless cosmetic methods, and every inventive alibi possible is used to keep it from view. Yet slowly, but surely, it progresses to undermine health, ambition and natural creative work. Everywhere along the highway of time we see the evidence of its destructive presence.
Hahnemann, the creative medical genius of all time, taking a long view of fatigue, traced it back to its mental lair, giving its proper relation to the human economy, in masterful description of psora, the hypothetical foundation of all disease.
Facing the growing facts around us, there is no alternative but to recognize the role it plays in universal society. We have ample evidence it acts as a deterrent to curative efforts which are, and should always be, the dominant note of Medicine in improvement of the race.
Many learned theories regarding fatigue may be mentioned, with which we are not concerned in this sketch. Being intimately related to the central nervous system, we may refer to the Repertory of Kent, a compilation of all aids to remedy selection. We find under the rubric of Weariness, in generalities, a linking with Weakness, Enervation, and Lassitude, a wealth of remedies having some form of fatigue complex. This shows clearly the value placed upon the major symptom of fatigue by the provers, the homoeopathic clinician, and repertorial analysis. No one can engage successfully in the treatment of chronicity without giving it an important place within the study of disease evolution.
Fatigue in many ways sways thinking; affects temperament, business and family relations; charts the course of world history for good or evil; and, when it muddies the hidden waters of the mind, may lead to misunderstanding and perpetuate evil.
Again, as we are wont to do, we come to the broad handling of fatigue. In its advanced form it is not merely a matter of rest, change of environment or occupation. It becomes the subject of individual study, a necessary part in the search for the single, indicated remedy. The rapidly growing economy of industrial production increasingly demands recognition of fatigue from many angles. It will be found that artificial stimulation, mass sedation, and reckless relaxation, will only result in a temporary and fictitious improvement.
All of which takes us back to the dual rule for cure formulated by Hahnemann, namely to remove the exciting cause and treat the patient, not the disease.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.