Anthroposophic medicine
“It is not a matter of being in opposition to the school of medicine that is working with the accepted scientific methods of the present time. We fully acknowledge its principles. And in our view, the approach we present should only be used by those who are fully able and entitled to practise medicine according to those principles.
We do, however, add further insights to such knowledge of the human being as is now available through accepted scientific methods. These are gained by different methods, and we therefore feel compelled to work for an extension of clinical medicine, based on these wider insights into the nature of the world and the human being.”
Dr. Rudolf Steiner and Dr. Ita Wegman, Extending Practical Medicine (1925)
The practice of anthroposophic medicine
The practice of anthroposophic medicine includes all medical disciplines from surgery and general (internal) medicine to psychiatry and primary care.
In addition to ordinary pharmaceutical products used in medicine, anthroposophic medicine uses special medicines which are produced according to the anthroposophic understanding of the human being and its connection to nature. The manufacturing of anthroposophic specialties is undertaken by specially qualified producers, who produce these medicines according the standards of good manufacturing practice.
In addition to the treatment with medicinal substances, a range of art-therapies represent a significant part in anthroposophic medicine. These treatments include painting, sculpture, music, singing and creative speech. A special treatment is curative eurythmy or eurythmy therapy, which was inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner as a new movement-therapy in medicine.
Further treatments like Bothmer-gymnastics (also called spacial dynamics), counselling and biographical work, exercises for self-development and meditation complete the wide spectrum of anthroposophic medicine.