Explaining Homeopathy in the Historical Contexts of its Origins around 1800

Most people who use homeopathic preparations know little of the intellectual and historical context in which the practice arose in Germany around 1800, including that most single homeopathic remedies on the market today were devised by its founder, Samuel Hahnemann.This talk investigates how homeopathy is steeped in Romantic concepts prevalent at the time it was established. These beliefs include the authority lent to subjective feeling or “das Gemüt,” disease as a disequilibrium of the vital life force, and how scientific truth is arrived at through self-experimentation.