Erläuterungen zum ersten Ärztekurs Rudolf Steiners 1920 Vorträge 4 bis 5

The third companion volume to Rudolf Steiner's medical course "Spiritual Science and Medicine" addresses lectures 4 and 5 out of a total of 20 lectures. In 127 commentaries, Steiner's sketch-like and sometimes unusual explanations of medicine are elucidated and contextualized within his overall work, as well as in the historical, contemporary, and modern scientific context of medicine. The main theme is the inner relationship between humanity and nature. On one hand, the overcoming of mineral, plant, and animal processes in humans is presented as a condition for consciousness, such as the negation of gravity in the brain, the inversion of plant form and the plant respiratory process, or the transformation of processes within the gut flora. On the other hand, sunlight is also transformed within humans, which is enlightening for understanding tuberculosis, as the influence of the cosmos can be traced down to individual cells. From another perspective, the relationship to nature is illustrated through the "Three Principles" of the Saline, Phosphoric, and Mercurial. These principles can also be found in the mineral and plant kingdoms, which opens a rational approach to finding remedies. Within humans, this culminates in the tension between an "upper" and "lower" organization, which is physiologically reflected between the pineal gland and the pituitary gland and can be practically captured through specifically expanded anamnesis questions in the clinic.