OBSERVATION & PERCEPTION

-Dr.Kalpit Sanghvi

After outlining the general requirement of a physician (in apho. 3,4,5), Hahnemann in his sixth apho. demands from a physician a special quality of being an unprejudiced observer. Hahnemann says only symptoms represents the nature of a sickness, the state of disorder, (sickness is only a change of state). All the physician has to do, is correct the disordered state. That can be achieved through "UNPREJUDICED OBSERVATION".

The term PREJUDICED = PRE = Beforehand,

JUDICED = Judgement.

Means a preformed judgement or opinion. An attitude may involve a prejudiced, in which we prejudge an issue without giving unbiased consideration to all the evidences. If we are prejudiced against a person who is accused of crime, we may consider him guilty regardless of the evidence. Prejudice in other words would mean "Judgement formed prior to Investigation".

Prejudice essentially is an emotional state which produced in a person a favourable or unfavourable reaction to certain situations.

One observes what one expects to see. "THE EYES SEE, WHAT THE MIND KNOWS". One usually observes what one expects to see and the expectations are usually determined by the attitude of an individual. If a person is prejudiced, he has preconceived ideas about certain things and therefore, is not in a position to give proper judgement. With our growth and development we see things, read books, hear people and gradually, but certainly we start conceiving certain ideas and notions about various things without being conscious of it.

A prejudiced person sees only what wants to see. Prejudice acts a filter to the mind, allowing only those facts to get registered in the mind that happen to be consistent with knowledge the person already has. In our science, e.g. all pt. Having posterior yellowish coating of tongue receiving nux vomica or all pt. Desiring consolation getting pulsatilla. When selection is based on specifics, like all cases of headache receiving belladona or all cases of dysentery receiving merc.sol. It only reflects our prejudices. Asking questions along the line of remedy like 'Are you irritable?' Etc. only demonstrates the physician's prejudice. A prejudiced physician rarely individualise his patients.

How to become unprejudiced? According to Hahnemann an unprejudiced physician is one who happens to be a keen observer of the facts.

OBSERVATION :- Observing is the process of knowing the environment by means of the senses. Dr. B. K. Sarkar says, "Observation is regulated perception of events under conditions presented by nature. It is perception with definite purpose. Observation is finding a fact for true seekers of truth. He must develop strict 'intellectual morality' of recording all facts that comes to our notice, instead of reading into things with our preconceived notions."

There are two steps in the process of observation.

(1) ATTENTION :- Preparatory step. (getting ready to observe)

(2) PERCEPTION :- Final step (actual observation of some facts).

Attending usually precedes perception. The act of attending involves adjustments of the sense organs, adjustments of posture, changes in muscle tension and also activities in the central nervous system. Attending is selective observation, the process of getting set to perceive a object.

PERCEPTION is thought as being a bipolar process. i.e. a process with two main aspects.

(A) It concerns characteristics of the stimuli that activate the sense organ.

(B) It involves characteristics of the perceiver himself - his past experience - his motives - his attitudes - his personality and so on.

Thus as famous American Psychologist William James has said, "PART OF WHAT WE PERCEIVE COMES THROUGH THE SENSES FROM THE OBJECT BEFORE US; ANOTHER PART...ALWAYS COMES...OUT OF OUR OWN HEAD" The 'Out of the head' part of this quotation refers to the elaboratism, transformation and combinations of the sensory inputs that make our experience or perception of the world what it is. Hence we see that there are certain internal factors also which affect our observation.

INTERNAL FACTORS & OBSERVATION :-

(a) MOTIVE (NEEDS) :- If we are hungry, then it is apparent that stimuli associated with this motive are more likely to become the focus of attention e.g. Restaurents, motive in a way, make our perception selective.

(b) INTERESTS :- We attend to those aspects of our world that relate to our interests.

(c) PAST EXPERIENCE :- Because past experience is so influential in the development of personal traits particularly attitudes, values, interest and preju dices. It has an inescapable influence on the way we are prepared to perceive the world. It determines to a large degree, our interpretation of what we perceive. When people are motivated or emotionally involved, they tend to see what they want to see and hear. In other words, we may be set to perceive the world in ways that agree with our own needs and match our own emotions.

 

PROCESS OF OBSERVATION

On the important question of how to become a better observer first thing to notice is the principle of selectivity (attending selectivity to that object only). Since observation requires attention and attention depends on interest, it is clear that the good observer must be interested in what he is observing. It is well, then to build up an interest is most worth observing. Having decided what you need to observe, you can improve by practice in observing that thing. Practice with "knowledge of results" is espicially valuable.

Scientists, strongly relies upon observation. It should not be forgotten that some major scientific discoveries were a product of good observation. Like for instance, Stephenson's discovery of steam engine was based on observation of movement of a closed kettel that was kept on stove and it was essentially that insignificant and observation (of an apple falling) which made Newton to propound the Law of Gravitation. They submit their theories to test of observation and abide by the results.

And for the scientist the most important of all is though having a personal interest in a theory he does not allow bias to creep in while making his observation. The scientist take great pains to make his decisive observation as sure as possible. He repeats his observations and has checked it by an other observer. He records his observation on the spot to avoid the error of memory. The scientific observation takes advantage of every means to secure accurate unbiased observation.

Kent in his lectures on Homoeopathic philosophy states " It is almost seem impossible to find at present time one who could be unprejudice. Man is fixed in his ideas of politics, religion, in his field of medicine, and because of his prejudice he cannot reason... you only talk a moment on this subject and he will begin to tell you what he thinks, he will give you his openion as if that had anything to do with it... . But if man have authority like law on which they can rest, then they can get rid of their prejudices... . So man can not get rid of their prejudices until they settle upon and recognise authority.. . In Homoeopathy the law and its principle must be accepted as an authority... . Even law will deceive if man is of prejudiced mind, because then he misreads the law & doctrines,.. every image is inverted in his prejudiced mind, because he realises only with his senses, and sees with his eyes and feels with his fingers only the appearence of things... . We must try to get rid of prejudices that we have been born with and educate into so that we can exmine the principles and doctrines of Homoeopathy and seak to verify them. The unprejudiced observer is the only true scientist...."

As started in the sixth aphorism the sole duty of the observer would be only to take note of the phenomena and their course. To be a good observer have to observe everything concerning that object. e.g. every insignificant details will have to be noted down concerning the pt. like his way of sitting, his constant movement of leg, his curling of lips, his way of talking etc. The physician have to preceive what is to be observed in a pt. According to Hahnemann, "THE PHYSICIAN WILL HAVE TO SUSPEND POETIC FANCY, FANTASTIC WIT AND SPECULATION FOR A WHILE AND ALSO SUPRESS '

all over strained reasoning,

Forced interpretation and

tendency to explain away things".

He further remarks, 'Disease produce many kind of changes in the organism, subtle & gross, visible and invisible. The changes of which we may acquire correct knowledge are only the deviations from the former healthy state of the new diseased individual, which are felt by pt. himself, remarked by those around him and observed by the physician. They are the bases of the medicine of experience. For a physician therapeutist the diasease consists of the totality of it's perceptible symptoms comprising altered sensations & functions.