You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This is a high price to pay for a paperback. The reader will decide whether the content meets the promise of the seductive cover, identical with that of its German original ‘Morbismus’. The subtitle, ‘The best of all states of health’, hints at the paradoxical nature of this valuable and challenging book. The translator, Gary V. Hartman, takes full responsibility for the delay in making the content available to the English-speaking public, medical and non-medical alike. Four years have passed since the appearance of the original. To quote from the translator's note: ‘To some extent, however, the length of time was dictated by the nature of the subject matter. Working through the material phrase by phrase, often word by word, I found myself dragged down, growing heavily inert, as if the concentrated focus on disease, death, and physical existence were exerting an enervating effect on me. At times I came to a complete stop and could not take up the manuscript again for months at a time. I came to realise that Alfred Ziegler has accomplished something relatively unusual: not only has he written about his subject, archetypal medicine, he has practised it’.
My experience was similar and were I not concerned for the potential public I also would have delayed in order to gain new energy, second wind. My criticism of the translation is that it is too literal, altering at times the original meaning. The translator's experience creeps between the lines with depression and despair. I should have preferred a freer rendering, which however can also lead to distortion. This does not alter my respect for the translator's effort.
The content is divided into two parts: theory and practice. I agree that in empirical medicine disease is approached through logical, dualistic thinking, and that treatment lined up, though concerned with healing, in practice leads to suppression, further fixation of soul to body and disturbance of energy systems. Ziegler offers a creative approach at a pric