Lectures & discussions, Dornach, Stuttgart, 1920-1924 (CW 314)
Following his first major lecture course for medical practitioners,
Steiner elaborated and deepened his "extension" of conventional healing
through a spiritual-scientific perspective. In this collection of
addresses, discussions, question-and-answer sessions, and
lectures--which paralleled his major medical courses--Steiner comments
on contemporary medical emphasis on experimental, materially based
research and its lack of attention to therapy. Steiner's intention is
not to detract from developments in medical science but to build on them
with spiritual science. The medical practitioner has an important
task--diseases must be cured, and it is wrong not to intervene and
simply to allow "karma to take its course."
Speaking both to the general public and to small groups of medical
professionals, Steiner offers new insights into our understanding of
human organs, as well as the efficacy of healing substances such as
arsenic, sulfur, arnica, and essential plant oils. He studies a broad
range of specific medical conditions, offering advice on cancer,
hysteria, rheumatism, gout, skin eruptions, typhoid, diabetes,
hemophilia, syphilis, gonorrhea, asthma, glaucoma, leukemia, smallpox,
insomnia, and childhood diseases such as measles. His commentaries on
subjects such as psychiatry, sexual maturity, memory, poisoning, and
detoxification present challenging perspectives for both patients and
medical practitioners. Steiner's surprisingly non-dogmatic advice on
vaccination, for example, gives a refreshingly balanced and, perhaps
unexpected, point of view.
This volume is a translation from German of Physiologisch-
Therapeutisches auf Grundlage der Geisteswissenschaft (GA 314).
Portions of this lecture course were previously published as Four
Lectures to Doctors (4 lectures) and Health Care as a Social
Issue (1 lecture).
