One of the significant differences between homeopathy and conventional medicine is that well-trained homeopaths exclusively practice individualized medicine. They don’t treat a disease—they treat the patient.

Why Treating the Disease Is Not the Same as Treating the Person

Homeopaths justifiably believe, as one of medicine’s greatest prescribers, Dr. Adolph Lippe, MD, so aptly put it, that “there are not two persons alike; they are similar, but not alike; not alike in their physical developments and mental conditions; and being so unlike, can it be presumed that disease, even if we know her function-disturbing power, would attack all persons (who are not alike) in exactly the same manner? There are differences of sexes and of ages, the prevailing climatic influences, the seasons, which change the form of disease frequently. The fact, well known, that even epidemic diseases continually change their character as epidemics, and affect different individuals very differently, even in the same locality, and more differently still in different localities, shows conclusively that the treatment of a specific disease…is an impossibility; and the persistent practice of the Allopathic School of Medicine, which School bases its therapeutics upon the untenable hypothesis of a disease, must forever be a failure… If we attempt to restore health to the sick, we (homeopaths) are bound to individualize; if we attempt to cure diseases, we must generalize.”

Individualization and the Law of Similars

Individualization is a central element in homeopathy. Each patient is considered unique; each symptom, as well as the factors that make that symptom, and the patient, better or worse, is carefully noted to identify the most characteristic symptoms/aspects of the individual. With this information, a well-trained homeopath takes advantage of a cornerstone of homeopathy—the law of similars (like cures like)—to choose a medicine most appropriate for the patient. Thanks to the work of hundreds of thousands of homeopaths over the last two hundred years, homeopaths know the effects of their medicines in great detail.  They have learned, as Lippe wrote, that “medicines, when taken in a state of health, create symptoms similar to a form of disease which they were also known to cure at times… (and will) in the future indicate the condition(s) under which this medicine might be administered for the cure of the disease presenting the same symptoms, with a certainty never known before."

The Generalized Model of Conventional Medicine

Conventional medicine takes a different approach—a more generalized approach.

Let’s consider a patient with a cough. In conventional medicine, general symptoms are noted (your physician asks for basic information. In the case of a cough, they may listen to your chest for a moment and ask you a few basic questions, such as "have you been running a fever and have you been bringing anything up with the cough?") and a diagnosis is made. One or more medications are prescribed, and the patient is sent home. The next patient with the same general disease state will frequently receive the same medications. In this system of medicine, one size (i.e., drug therapy) generally fits everyone with the same-named disease.

The Limits of One-Size-Fits-All Treatment

Does this approach of generalization make sense? Is it true that every patient with bronchitis expresses the disease in an identical fashion?

It's important to remember that with any named ailment, there is a set of symptoms routinely associated with it.

How the Same Illness Can Look Completely Different from One Person to the Next

Homeopaths long ago recognized that each person expresses ailments in ways that are idiosyncratic, or unique, to them. Take that cough again as an example... You, your husband, and a coworker may all have a cough. However, in your case, the cough is worse when talking, laughing, eating, lying on your left side, and when moving from a warm room into cold air. You are also very thirsty for cold drinks. Your husband’s cough is notably worse in a warm room, better in cool, open air, and worse in the evening and when lying down. He is also completely thirstless. Your coworker—well, she seems to be most troubled by her cough at 3:00 AM. She also complains of minor stitching pains in her chest when coughing and is most comfortable when leaning forward to cough.

How the Same Illness Can Look Completely Different

In homeopathy, we use individualized treatments by recommending medicines selected to match the patient's characteristic (unique) symptoms. Individualized medicine…

Looking again at the cases cited above, each person uniquely expresses their ailment. Prescribing for the individual and not the disease name is simply logical. In homeopathy, the chosen medicine addresses the sick person and not the named disease.

Characteristic Symptoms as the Guide to Healing

To use homeopathy effectively, one needs to probe the patient deeply to better understand how each person uniquely expresses their ailment. It is those unique expressions of an ailment, particularly symptoms that are peculiar to the patient and intense, that are considered the characteristic symptoms of a case and that light the way to a helpful prescription.

To again quote Adolph Lippe, MD, “The law of the similars is a law of nature. The knowledge of its existence comes to us without resorting to deep abstractive reasoning; we find this law by soberly looking at everyday observations and experiences. It is the language of nature, ever friendly, leading us like a trusted guide through the labyrinths of life. She teaches us, in a language we all know, how the similar befriends the similar, how the similar spontaneously defines the similar, how the similar cures the similar…”

Individualization as a Contemporary Medical Insight

In an era increasingly aware of human complexity and variability, the enduring insight of homeopathy feels not antiquated but strikingly contemporary. By insisting that effective care begins with the individual rather than the diagnosis, homeopathy reminds medicine of a foundational truth: healing is not achieved by treating disease names, but by understanding people. Individualization is not a rejection of science or reason; it is an affirmation of careful observation, humility, and respect for the natural laws that govern health and illness. As medicine continues to search for more precise, humane, and effective approaches to care, homeopathy’s unwavering commitment to the individual stands as both a challenge and an invitation to rethink what it truly means to practice medicine in service of the whole person.

About Dr. Lisa Samet:

Dr. Lisa Samet N.D. provides Washington Homeopathic Products with a regular column on using homeopathy for the family. She's a naturopathic physician who specializes in homeopathic medicine. Dr. Samet graduated from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1998 and has been practicing in Montreal since then. She was born and raised in New York.

Dr. Samet has chosen to focus on homeopathy because, in her experience, it is the deepest healing modality available, as it does not just soothe or palliate symptoms but actually stimulates the body to begin healing itself. Dr. Samet sees patients in her Montreal office as well as long-distance using Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime. Learn more here: Dr. Lisa Samet. You can follow her on Facebook as well.