What is the most important phrase in medicine? Many people might guess “YOU’RE CURED.” But no. Cured is not medical. How can I know this? Maybe it’s because I’m not a doctor? I know what happens when a case of disease is cured. Nothing.

Cured cases are no longer medical. Were they ever medical? They are cured.

We have is no medical definition of cured. We have no medical records of cured cases of any disease in medical practice. None. No doctor, medical clinic, hospital, medical system, nor medical insurance company documents, much less tracks cured cases.

Cured is not medical.

No medical researcher can track cured cases of any disease, because there is no data. Once a case of disease has been cured, the cases is simply ignored. Medical systems ignore cured cases and move on. They have work to do.

It’s worse. We have no recognized test of CURED for most diseases. Any disease.

The common cold is INCURABLE!

“There is no cure for the common cold…”

It’s a common trope. I’ve had lost of colds. So have you. All of them cured (unless you have one right now – which will be cured soon. It’s nonsense.

Cured cases are not medical.

CURED – is not Medically Defined

Old news and new. William Lewis’s A Complete Dictionary of the Whole Materia Medica, written in the late 1700s, does not contain an entry for cure, although the word cure appears over 100 times. A Medicinal Dictionary Including Physic Surgery Anatomy Chymistry And Botany, 1748, by R James, skips from curcuma to curmi, not defining cure or cured although the word cure appears many times. The London Medical Dictionary: Including under Distinct Heads Every Branch of Medicine, (Parr, 1809) skips from CURD to CURIMENTOS – having no entry for cure although the cure word appears hundreds of times in the text. Robert Hooper’s A Compendious Medical Dictionary published in 1809 skips from CURCUMA to CUTICLE, having no entry for cure, even though the word cure appears many times. Many, perhaps most medical dictionaries do not contain an entry for cure. Of course the word cure is used often in medical dictionaries, without a definition. Beeton’s Medical Dictionary, 1850 skips from curcuma to current. Cure is not defined. A Dictionary of Medicine, by Sir Richard Quain, 1880, does not contain an entry for cure, skipping from cupping to cutis. The words cure and cured are used hundreds of times. A Dictionary of Domestic Medicine, by John Henry Clarke, 1890, skips from crying to cuts. Although the word cure is used often, there is no entry for cure.

Two hundred years ago, cured was not medical.

A Dictionary of Medical Science, 1903, defines cure as “course of treatment; restoration to health; remedy; restorative,” but does not define cured distinguish between treatments that do not cure and any that do – and does not defined cured. The word cure is used often in the text.

James Burnet (m.d.) author of A Dictionary of Medical Treatment, 1922, does not make an entry for cure, skipping from CRETINISM to CYSTITIS. Longman Medical Dictionary, 1982, skips from cryptorchidism to Curettage, without an entry for cure.

Today, we see little change.

Black’s Medical Dictionary, 1944 skips from curdled milk to curette. The, 2008 – 41st Edition skips from Culdoscopy to Curette. CURE is not defined, although it appears dozens of times. Cured appears over 20 times, but is also not defined. Cured is not medical.

Dictionary of Medical Terms (Barron), 2004, does not contain an entry for cure, skipping from curare to curet, but incurable is defined, using the word cure, as being such that a cure is currently impossible within the realm of known medical practice.” Cured is also not defined, although it states “about one-third of patients with newly diagnosed cancers are ultimately permanently cured.”

Diccionario Medico, 2008 (the Spanish edition of the Concise Medical Dictionary of Oxford University Press – does not contain an entry for “curar” – the Spanish word for cure, much less the word “curado” Spanish for cured.

The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine 2017, Tenth Edition asks: “Illusory correlation: Associated events are presumed to be causal. But was it treatment or time that cured the patient?” and advises “Radiotherapy10 is used in >50% of all cancer and forms part of treatment in 40% of those considered cured.” – CONSIDERED CURED. There is no test, no possibility of PROVING CURED. Cured is not medical.

The Un Panda Concise Pocket Medical Dictionary, 2015 skips from curarization to curret. There is no entry for cure, much less cured. We might realize that the first language of the author is not English, when he defines Naturopathy as “A therapeutic system that employs natural forces as light, heat, air and water to cure ailments rather than drugs.” The only use of the word cured, is with Gonorrhea, where it advises “No sexual contact until cured.” But cured is not defined.

The online book: Coronavirus – A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet Reference, 2023 contains the word cure exactly once, in the entry for “Palliative: 1. Affording relief, but not cure. 2. An alleviating medicine.”

Cured is not medical.

Nursing Cures?

Amy Elizabeth Pope, writing the A Medical Dictionary for Nurses, 1914, skips from curd to curette, with no entry for cure or cured although the word cure appears many times. Churchill Livingstone Nurse’s Dictionary, 2012, skips from curare to curettage, although it does define cure indirectly, through “healing the natural process of cure or repair of the tissues” – a non-medical cure. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursing, 2023, by Law, Jonathan; McFerran, Tanya A. & Tanya A. McFerran skips from curare to curettage, without an entry for cure, although the word cure appears several times in different contexts, the word cured appears only once – “the abnormal presence of blood or fluid round the heart – can be cured by cutting the pericardium.” Bethel Ann Powers & Thomas R. Knapp, writing in Dictionary of Nursing Theory and Research do not provide any definition for cure, and the only cure recommended is a cure for the Hawthorne Effect, a disease that infects clinical research studies, not any person.

In nursing, cured is not medical.

Epidemiology?

John Last’s A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 1995 does not contain the word cure once in the entire text. Porta, Miquel’s A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2014 does not define cure, contains the word cure only three times, “no cure” and “insufficient bacteriological cure” and “apparent cure,” (not defined). The word cured only once, “considered cured” – also not defined. Cured is not medical.

Epidemiologically, cured is not medical.

Cured Mental Disorders?

In 1952, Philip Lawrence Harriman’s The New Dictionary of Psychology does not define the word cure, much less cured, skipping from cunnis to curve, normal probability. The word cure is used occasionally, but generally in cure dismissal or denial.

The 1974 book A Dictionary of Psychology by James Drever skips from curare to curiosity, without defining cure, much less cured, although he does speak of “Mental healing: used mainly of the curing of disorders by suggestion.”

The 1993 book A Dictionary for Psychotherapists: Dynamic Concepts in Psychotherapy has an entry for “CURATIVE FANTASY” but not for cure. It speaks of “cure hysterical symptoms,” “cure illness,” and “cure a disturbance,” “to be cured of neurotic difficulties,” “to cure him,” but not of curing any mental disorder or disease.

Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary, 2009, skips from curdling to cure, transference. Cure is not defined. The word cured is used a few times, largely in denial and statements like “Compensation neurosis has been defined as “a state of mind, born out of fear, kept alive by avarice, stimulated by lawyers, and cured by verdict” – presumably only by a verdict in the client’s favor.

The 2015 APA (American Psychological Association) Dictionary of Psychology Second Edition skips from curative to curiosity. Cure is not defined in psychology, although the word cure is used about 30 times. The word cured appears three times without a definition. Likewise, the Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology, 2009, skips from cupula to curare – no entry for cure. The word cured does not appear in the entire text.

Is Cured Defined sometimes?

Butterworths Medical Dictionary 2d ed, 1978, provides an entry for cure, but makes no distinction between treatment, remission, and cure, instead offering statements like “A particular method of treatment designed to restore health,” “The treatment of disease by starvation,” and “the sudden, unexpected remission in a chronic disease without any obvious explanation.”

Cured without understanding, is not cured, not medical.

Sometimes, CURE is defined

But the definitions are vague and unscientific.

Medical lexicon : A New Dictionary of Medical Science, 1842, by Robley Dunglison, defines cure as “A restoration to health; also, a remedy. A restorative.” Health is defined as “sanitas” – the latin word for health, and the entry for sanitas only makes the definition of cure less clear, and remedy is defined simply as a medicament with no requirement to cure. George Gould in Gould’s Medical Dictionary, 1935, defined cure as “The successful treatment of a disease,” without defining success, but then added, “also, a system of treatment,” without any requirement that the treatment actually produces a cured state. The beautiful text, Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 2012, by W. A. Newman Dorland defined cure as “1. the course of treatment of any disease, or of a special case. 2. the successful treatment of a disease or wound. 3. a system of treating diseases.” – managing to cover a number of bases, without providing anything useful to determine cured.

Cure, it seems, is sometimes medical, but cured is not.

The Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 2007, by British Medical Association by the British Medical Association) defines cure as “To restore to normal health after an illness. The term usually means the disappearance of a disease rather than a halt in its progress. Medication or therapy that ends an illness may also be termed a cure.” Quite a good definition of first glance, although it makes no reference to the cause of the illness, and the statement “the disappearance of a disease rather than a halt in its progress,” makes little sense.

The disappearance of disease – cured – is not medical.

The 2005 Merriam-Webster’s Medical Desk Dictionary defines cure “vb cured; curing vt : HEAL: a : to restore to health, soundness, or normality” apparently to cure the individual, without reference to illness or disease. But Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary, Third Edition, 2008, does not contain an entry for cure. Where did it go?

Cure, cures, curing, and cured, apparently, are no longer medical. (note; the word cure did re-appear in the next edition, but the definition was scrapped from non-medical dictionaries. Cured is not medical.)

Mosby’s Medical Dictionary 9th Edition, 2013, begins with a vague general definition of cure: “1. restoration to health of a person afflicted with a disease or other disorder” but then quickly degrades into vague, poorly defined nonsense with “a course of therapy, a medication, a therapeutic measure, or another remedy used in treatment of a medical problem, as faith healing, fasting, rest cure, or work cure.”

Honest Doctors Deny Cured

“Any physician who advertises a positive cure for any disease, who issues nostrum testimonials, who sells his services to a secret remedy, or who diagnoses and treats by mail patients he has never seen, is a quack.” The Great American Fraud p. . Collier and Sons, 1905

Fear of Speaking the CURED Word

According to John Ralston Saul, writing in The Doubter’s Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense “…doctors took to declaring that the world was cured. The surgeon-general of the United States in 1969: “The war against infectious diseases has been won.” These words were no sooner out than malaria, cholera and gonorrhea, all three theoretically beaten, began to mutate and so escaped the control of most drugs.”

Perhaps our medical systems fear speaking about cures, about cured cases, lest they disappear…

Saul also writes: “To cure is to eliminate. A good general knows that trying to eliminate the enemy simply causes the next war”

As Saul advises, we need to understand that we don’t cure diseases, no disease can be cured. We can only cure individual cases of disease. No disease can be cured.

Curing diseases is not medical.

When a case of disease is cured, it has been cured.
When a case of disease has been cured, it is cured.

It makes no difference if the cure was caused by a doctor, a medicine, a grandmother, or by the individual. Cured is not medical.

Wiener, Philip P. author of Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas also warns against the cured word, advising: “he who suffers from love finds no pleasure in being cured.” and “A psychoanalyst might have cured him, (Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita) and the novel would not have been written.”

And we can close with Francis Bacon’s famous warning “Cure the disease and kill the patient,” advising against focusing on the medical disease, and thus missing the reality of the patient’s overall health and illnesses.

What is the most important phrase in medicine? Many people might guess “YOU”RE CURED.” But no. Cured is not medical. How can I know this? Maybe it’s because I’m not a doctor? I know what happens when a case of disease is cured. Nothing.

Cured cases are no longer medical. Were they ever medical? They are cured.

There is no medical definition of cured. There are no medical records of cured cases. None. No doctor, medical clinic, hospital, medical system, nor medical insurance company documents, much less tracks cured cases.

Cured is not medical.

No medical researcher can track cured cases of any disease, because there is no data. Once a case of disease has been cured, the cases is simply ignored. Medical systems ignore cured cases and move on. They have work to do.

It’s worse. We have no recognized test of CURED for most diseases. Any disease.

Theory of Cure is reader-supported. To receive new posts, support my work, become a subscriber.

The common cold is INCURABLE!

“There is no cure for the common cold…”

It’s a common trope. I’ve had lost of colds. So have you. All of them cured (unless you have one right now – which will be cured soon. It’s nonsense.

Cured cases are not medical.

CURED – is not Medically Defined

Old news and new. William Lewis’s A Complete Dictionary of the Whole Materia Medica, written in the late 1700s, does not contain an entry for cure, although the word cure appears over 100 times. A Medicinal Dictionary Including Physic Surgery Anatomy Chymistry And Botany, 1748, by R James, skips from curcuma to curmi, not defining cure or cured although the word cure appears many times. The London Medical Dictionary: Including under Distinct Heads Every Branch of Medicine, (Parr, 1809) skips from CURD to CURIMENTOS – having no entry for cure although the cure word appears hundreds of times in the text. Robert Hooper’s A Compendious Medical Dictionary published in 1809 skips from CURCUMA to CUTICLE, having no entry for cure, even though the word cure appears many times. Many, perhaps most medical dictionaries do not contain an entry for cure. Of course the word cure is used often in medical dictionaries, without a definition. Beeton’s Medical Dictionary, 1850 skips from curcuma to current. Cure is not defined. A Dictionary of Medicine, by Sir Richard Quain, 1880, does not contain an entry for cure, skipping from cupping to cutis. The words cure and cured are used hundreds of times. A Dictionary of Domestic Medicine, by John Henry Clarke, 1890, skips from crying to cuts. Although the word cure is used often, there is no entry for cure.

Two hundred years ago, cured was not medical.

A Dictionary of Medical Science, 1903, defines cure as “course of treatment; restoration to health; remedy; restorative,” but does not define cured distinguish between treatments that do not cure and any that do – and does not defined cured. The word cure is used often in the text.

James Burnet (m.d.) author of A Dictionary of Medical Treatment, 1922, does not make an entry for cure, skipping from CRETINISM to CYSTITIS. Longman Medical Dictionary, 1982, skips from cryptorchidism to Curettage, without an entry for cure.

Today, we see little change.

Black’s Medical Dictionary, 1944 skips from curdled milk to curette. The, 2008 – 41st Edition skips from Culdoscopy to Curette. CURE is not defined, although it appears dozens of times. Cured appears over 20 times, but is also not defined. Cured is not medical.

Dictionary of Medical Terms (Barron), 2004, does not contain an entry for cure, skipping from curare to curet, but incurable is defined, using the word cure, as being such that a cure is currently impossible within the realm of known medical practice.” Cured is also not defined, although it states “about one-third of patients with newly diagnosed cancers are ultimately permanently cured.”

Diccionario Medico, 2008 (the Spanish edition of the Concise Medical Dictionary of Oxford University Press – does not contain an entry for “curar” – the Spanish word for cure, much less the word “curado” Spanish for cured.

The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine 2017, Tenth Edition asks: “Illusory correlation: Associated events are presumed to be causal. But was it treatment or time that cured the patient?” and advises “Radiotherapy10 is used in >50% of all cancer and forms part of treatment in 40% of those considered cured.” – CONSIDERED CURED. There is no test, no possibility of PROVING CURED. Cured is not medical.

The Un Panda Concise Pocket Medical Dictionary, 2015 skips from curarization to curret. There is no entry for cure, much less cured. We might realize that the first language of the author is not English, when he defines Naturopathy as “A therapeutic system that employs natural forces as light, heat, air and water to cure ailments rather than drugs.” The only use of the word cured, is with Gonorrhea, where it advises “No sexual contact until cured.” But cured is not defined.

The online book: Coronavirus – A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet Reference, 2023 contains the word cure exactly once, in the entry for “Palliative: 1. Affording relief, but not cure. 2. An alleviating medicine.”

Cured is not medical.

Nursing Cures?

Amy Elizabeth Pope, writing the A Medical Dictionary for Nurses, 1914, skips from curd to curette, with no entry for cure or cured although the word cure appears many times. Churchill Livingstone Nurse’s Dictionary, 2012, skips from curare to curettage, although it does define cure indirectly, through “healing the natural process of cure or repair of the tissues” – a non-medical cure. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursing, 2023, by Law, Jonathan; McFerran, Tanya A. & Tanya A. McFerran skips from curare to curettage, without an entry for cure, although the word cure appears several times in different contexts, the word cured appears only once – “the abnormal presence of blood or fluid round the heart – can be cured by cutting the pericardium.” Bethel Ann Powers & Thomas R. Knapp, writing in Dictionary of Nursing Theory and Research do not provide any definition for cure, and the only cure recommended is a cure for the Hawthorne Effect, a disease that infects clinical research studies, not any person.

In nursing, cured is not medical.

Epidemiology?

John Last’s A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 1995 does not contain the word cure once in the entire text. Porta, Miquel’s A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2014 does not define cure, contains the word cure only three times, “no cure” and “insufficient bacteriological cure” and “apparent cure,” (not defined). The word cured only once, “considered cured” – also not defined. Cured is not medical.

Epidemiologically, cured is not medical.

Cured Mental Disorders?

In 1952, Philip Lawrence Harriman’s The New Dictionary of Psychology does not define the word cure, much less cured, skipping from cunnis to curve, normal probability. The word cure is used occasionally, but generally in cure dismissal or denial.

The 1974 book A Dictionary of Psychology by James Drever skips from curare to curiosity, without defining cure, much less cured, although he does speak of “Mental healing: used mainly of the curing of disorders by suggestion.”

The 1993 book A Dictionary for Psychotherapists: Dynamic Concepts in Psychotherapy has an entry for “CURATIVE FANTASY” but not for cure. It speaks of “cure hysterical symptoms,” “cure illness,” and “cure a disturbance,” “to be cured of neurotic difficulties,” “to cure him,” but not of curing any mental disorder or disease.

Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary, 2009, skips from curdling to cure, transference. Cure is not defined. The word cured is used a few times, largely in denial and statements like “Compensation neurosis has been defined as “a state of mind, born out of fear, kept alive by avarice, stimulated by lawyers, and cured by verdict” – presumably only by a verdict in the client’s favor.

The 2015 APA (American Psychological Association) Dictionary of Psychology Second Edition skips from curative to curiosity. Cure is not defined in psychology, although the word cure is used about 30 times. The word cured appears three times without a definition. Likewise, the Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology, 2009, skips from cupula to curare – no entry for cure. The word cured does not appear in the entire text.

Is Cured Defined sometimes?

Butterworths Medical Dictionary 2d ed, 1978, provides an entry for cure, but makes no distinction between treatment, remission, and cure, instead offering statements like “A particular method of treatment designed to restore health,” “The treatment of disease by starvation,” and “the sudden, unexpected remission in a chronic disease without any obvious explanation.”

Cured without understanding, is not cured, not medical.

Sometimes, CURE is defined

But the definitions are vague and unscientific.

Medical lexicon : A New Dictionary of Medical Science, 1842, by Robley Dunglison, defines cure as “A restoration to health; also, a remedy. A restorative.” Health is defined as “sanitas” – the latin word for health, and the entry for sanitas only makes the definition of cure less clear, and remedy is defined simply as a medicament with no requirement to cure. George Gould in Gould’s Medical Dictionary, 1935, defined cure as “The successful treatment of a disease,” without defining success, but then added, “also, a system of treatment,” without any requirement that the treatment actually produces a cured state. The beautiful text, Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 2012, by W. A. Newman Dorland defined cure as “1. the course of treatment of any disease, or of a special case. 2. the successful treatment of a disease or wound. 3. a system of treating diseases.” – managing to cover a number of bases, without providing anything useful to determine cured.

Cure, it seems, is sometimes medical, but cured is not.

The Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 2007, by British Medical Association by the British Medical Association) defines cure as “To restore to normal health after an illness. The term usually means the disappearance of a disease rather than a halt in its progress. Medication or therapy that ends an illness may also be termed a cure.” Quite a good definition of first glance, although it makes no reference to the cause of the illness, and the statement “the disappearance of a disease rather than a halt in its progress,” makes little sense.

The disappearance of disease – cured – is not medical.

The 2005 Merriam-Webster’s Medical Desk Dictionary defines cure “vb cured; curing vt : HEAL: a : to restore to health, soundness, or normality” apparently to cure the individual, without reference to illness or disease. But Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary, Third Edition, 2008, does not contain an entry for cure. Where did it go?

Cure, cures, curing, and cured, apparently, are no longer medical. (note; the word cure did re-appear in the next edition, but the definition was scrapped from non-medical dictionaries. Cured is not medical.)

Mosby’s Medical Dictionary 9th Edition, 2013, begins with a vague general definition of cure: “1. restoration to health of a person afflicted with a disease or other disorder” but then quickly degrades into vague, poorly defined nonsense with “a course of therapy, a medication, a therapeutic measure, or another remedy used in treatment of a medical problem, as faith healing, fasting, rest cure, or work cure.”

Honest Doctors Deny Cured

“Any physician who advertises a positive cure for any disease, who issues nostrum testimonials, who sells his services to a secret remedy, or who diagnoses and treats by mail patients he has never seen, is a quack.” The Great American Fraud p. . Collier and Sons, 1905

Fear of Speaking the CURED Word

According to John Ralston Saul, writing in The Doubter’s Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense “…doctors took to declaring that the world was cured. The surgeon-general of the United States in 1969: “The war against infectious diseases has been won.” These words were no sooner out than malaria, cholera and gonorrhea, all three theoretically beaten, began to mutate and so escaped the control of most drugs.”

Perhaps our medical systems fear speaking about cures, about cured cases, lest they disappear…

Saul also writes: “To cure is to eliminate. A good general knows that trying to eliminate the enemy simply causes the next war”

As Saul advises, we need to understand that we don’t cure diseases, no disease can be cured. We cure cases of disease.

Curing diseases is not medical.

When a case of disease is cured, it has been cured.
When a case of disease has been cured, it is cured.

Wiener, Philip P. author of Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas also warns against the cured word, advising: “he who suffers from love finds no pleasure in being cured.” and “A psychoanalyst might have cured him, (Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita) and the novel would not have been written.”

And we can close with Francis Bacon’s famous warning “Cure the disease and kill the patient,” advising against focusing on the medical disease, and thus missing the reality of the patient’s overall health and illnesses.

Theory of Cure is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

I am in the process of a total rewrite of the paper Theory of Cure, first published in 2022. I need people to review the revised paper for editing errors and also for content.

If you can help, drop me a comment and I will send you a proof copy for comments.

The revised version begins:

“As of 2026, it has been ten years since I began my studies of cure and three years since I updated this foundational paper on the theory of cure. In those three years, I have made several revisions to the book A New Theory of Cure and I am preparing to publish a second edition, simply titled Theory of Cure. There have been two major change in the language used in the theory of cure, and many minor changes that need to be attended to. The major changes are with the phrases “attribute illness” and “causal illness,” which have been replaced with “status illness,” an illness caused by an attribute, a status, a thing, a noun, which is cured by altering the status or thing; and “lifestyle illness,” caused by a life process, a verb, which can only be cured by an ongoing process.”

The draft paper is also available for discussion on Academia.edu at Discussion: Theory_of_Cure_2026_Update-DRAFT.pdf – Academia.edu

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

What is an illness? What is a disease? What is the difference? What is a cure? This is an image I am working on to illustrate an updated paper on Theory of Cure. What do you think?

An elementary illness is a hole in a single healthiness. At first, our perception of the illness can be very weak, very fuzzy. As healthiness falls, we gradually become aware of a discomfort – and might immediately move to address it before any illness occurs. But sometimes, healthiness shrinks, unhealthiness grows, and we perceive an illness. When healthiness rises, the illness disappears, cured.

The illness has two components, the cause and the consequences. The illness is cured when the cause, either the drop in healthiness or the cause of the drop in healthiness is successfully addressed.

A disease is a hole in healthiness that is deep enough, well enough defined to be perceived and diagnosed by a medical professional. Doctors intentionally avoid diagnosing minor illness, often sending patient’s home with advice like “take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” Most cases of elementary illness cannot be diagnosed until they become severe enough to cause damage, to create additional elementary illnesses.

Is this image trivial? That’s what I’m looking for – clear, easily understandable views of healthiness, illness, and disease.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

From a cure perspective: there are two fundamental types of illness cause: those that “do you,” and those that “you do.”

Cause is the key to cure, and to cures.

There are two fundamental types of causes of illness, causing two types of elementary of illness, requiring two types of cures. The two types of causes are

• those that do you, and
• those that you do.

Is your illness doing you, or are you doing it?

Noun Causes – Do You Harm- cause Status Illnesses

Status illnesses have noun causes, attribute causes, causes that are things. Status illness are caused by things that “do you.” Things that are stressing you, harming you, eating you, killing you. The cure is to address the cause, to remove it, disable it, or kill it, so that it is no longer “doing you harm.” Remember, sometimes a status illness is caused by the absence of a noun cause.

A nutrient deficiency might be causing damage and holding back healing. A poison might be damaging you. Any essential nutrient might be deficient or toxic. A bacteria, a tapeworm, or a tiger might be eating you. Too much hard work, or too much stress might harm you or even kill you. The illness caused by a noun cause is a status illness.

To cure is to change the cause. With the right change to the attribute, the status, the present cause, the cause is neutralized and the illness will be cured.

Hippocrates advised: “Diseases which arise from repletion are cured by depletion; and those that arise from depletion are cured by repletion; and in general, diseases are cured by their contraries.” – he was speaking of attribute caused diseases – disease that DO YOU.

Noun cures are one-time cures. After the cure, if the cause occurs again, a new case of illness might occur.

Verb Causes – You Do Harm – Cause Lifestyle Illnesses

Process illnesses have verb causes, process causes. Process illness are caused by things that “you do.” Life processes that are stressing you, harming you, killing you. The cure is to address the cause, to remove it, disable it, or kill it, so that it is no longer “doing you harm.” Like noun causes, sometimes, a deficiency or absence of a verb or process can cause illness.

Illnesses that have process causes, verb causes, lifestyle causes are illnesses causes that “you do.” They are only cured by changing what “you do.”

Unfortunately, from Hippocrates medicine to modern medicine, there is no recognition of illnesses that are cured by changing “what you do.” Legally, according to FDA rules, a cure must be a “product.” Lifestyle changes are promoted as preventatives – but ignored as cures.

Smoking too much can cause smoker’s cough. Coughing from a single inhalation is a status illness, easily cured. But an ongoing process of smoking — causes an ongoing cough, that persists even when not smoking. A lifestyle of eating too much and exercising too little can cause obesity. An illness caused by a verb cause is a process illness. With the right change to the process, the verb cause, the lifestyle cause, the illness will be cured.

Verb cures need to be ongoing. Skipping a meal, or a cigarette does not cure. Once cured, the curative action is a necessary preventative. If the process cause occurs again, a new case of lifestyle illness might occur.

Examples – Noun Causes: Causes that “do you”

Elementary dehydration is a status, a noun cause, a deficiency of water. It might be mild, moderate, or severe enough to cause an illness that is easily cured by drinking water. If the cause occurs again, a new case of illness might also occur.

A bacterial infection is an attribute, a noun cause, creating an infection that might be mild, moderate, or severe, judged a disease. It is cured by killing, removing, or disabling the bacteria. A new exposure to the bacteria might cause a new case of illness or disease.

Examples – Verb Causes: Causes that “you do”

Smoking is a process that can cause smoker’s cough. The cough will persist until the lifestyle, the process, is stopped – or at least diminished enough to facilitate a healing cure. If the causal process is renewed, a new case of illness might occur.

Gingivitis can be caused by an unhealthy diet, a diet lacking in nutrients essential to gum health. When the diet is healthed, the gingivitis will heal – cured. The healthy dietary process must be maintained to maintain the cured status, to prevent new cases of gingivitis. If the diet fails – a new case of gingivitis might occur.

In many cases, a lifestyle illness cannot be diagnosed until damage occurs. Most cases of lifestyle illness require at least two cures – a status cure to address the status illness and a process cure to address the lifestyle illness.

Injuries “do you”

Injuries are noun causes, attribute status causes that are present and causing signs, symptoms, and possible negative consequences. Injuries can be caused by external forces, or by internal forces including life processes. The injury persists until the cause – the injury is healed. Simple injuries have past causes – but those causes cannot be accessed to cure. An injury caused by a process illness might re-occur unless the process illness is also cured.

Injuries are cured by healing. We can improve the cures for our injuries with actions that health the injured area as well as our diet, body, mind, spirits, communities and environments – make us healthier, enhancing our ability to heal. However, these actions are not drugs, so they are generally ignored by medical practitioners.

“You do” Chronic Injuries

Sometimes, an injury is chronic because it does not heal. But, that’s a special case, a complicated case.

Most chronic injuries, like plantar fasciitis, shin splints or tennis elbow, are injuries are caused by a process, by a lifestyle, by what you do (or what you don’t do). The cure is to health the process. Once the causal process is changed – the injury can heal, cured. If the injurious process occurs again, a new case of the illness might occur.

Each Illness Element is cured by a Status or a Process

Which illnesses are status illnesses, cured by changing a status or attribute? How many illnesses are status illnesses? How many illnesses are lifestyle illnesses, only cured by ongoing processes, requiring ongoing curative actions?

We have no idea. At present, our medical systems ignore all cured cases. Modern medicine, often promoted as science based, ignores individual illnesses and individual cures. We can’t tell the cause of the cured, unless we study every cured case.

Domains of Cause

In life, for any life form – not just humans, there are six domains of cause. Elements or processes in these domains can cause healthiness, or when deficient, excessive, or inharmonious, might cause illness. Usually we are healthy – because life intentionally uses causes to improve healthiness. Sometimes we become ill. Sometimes even a cause of healthiness causes illness.

The six domains of life causes are diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments. These domains overlap – environments overlap the most, so much so that our external environment includes our communities and our dietary environment, and our internal environments include our body, mind, and spirits.

To cure, we must identify individual causes – and the six domains provide a powerful framework to identify, isolate, and address causes of illness – to cure.

Theory of Cure is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber.

An illness element, an elementary illness might be caused by the presence or absence of a cause, or perhaps the deficiency or excess of a cause in any of the six domains. The cause might be a noun, an attribute, or a deficiency, or it might be a failure caused by a process or the absence of a process. Let’s look at some examples:

Diet

We can suffer an illness due to a dietary status – deficient in Vitamin C, dehydrated, malnourished, or perhaps overweight, even poisoning, from a dietary excess. These are status illnesses, cured with the contrary, by consuming what is necessary, or by clearing the poison, often by the vomiting – an important detox cure.

Or, we might suffer from an ongoing deficiency of a Vitamin, an essential nutrient, more difficult to diagnose, or an ongoing general excess leading to obesity. Consuming a small amount of many poisons will not cause illness, but if a dietary life process contains a poison that accumulates – the illness will grow. These are cured by contrary processes.

Body

There is a gradation between a dietary cause and a bodily cause. When we are poisoned, the cause begins in our diet (although it might also occur on our skin) and affects the body, causes a status change in the body. How do we know if the cure-cause is in the body or the diet? If a dietary action cures the illness, the cause was in the diet. If a bodily action cures the illness, the cause was in the body. The cure proves the cause.

Our body can cause injuries or illnesses when we take risks – but once the illness is present, these are often past causes, which cannot be accessed to cure.

Body, Mind, Spirits, Communities

Bodies, minds, spirits, and communities can suffer injuries – cured by the natural forces of healing. In many cases, we can aid or promote the healing by improving our healthiness in many different ways. Sometimes, exercise intended to help the body grow stronger also heals the mind, the spirits, or our communities.

Our bodies, minds, spirits, and communities need exercise and rest. A temporary deficiency or excess of either can cause a temporary status illness. If we don’t sleep for many hours, sleep is the cure. If we work to hard, rest is the cure. When we rest too much, exercise is the cure. This can occur for physical work, mental work, spiritual work, and community work, leading to sloth or stress. Burnout, for example, might be mental, spiritual, or a result of overcommitting ourselves to our communities.

Mind

When the present cause of the illness is in the mind – the cure is a change of mind. Sometimes, a whack on the side of the head processes a cure. The mind changes, and an illness might be cured. Some mind cures are much more subtle. We go to the doctor and ask about a strange new appearance on our body, and the doctor says “Oh, that’s normal. Nothing to worry about.” There was no disease, but the illness is cured. When an alcoholic or drug addict makes up their mind, changes their mind, they can cure an illness that may have persisted for decades. This is a negative process cure. The individual STOPPED a process that was causing illness, and the stopped process must be maintained. If the process stop fails, a new case of illness might occur.

Spirits

When we lose our motivation, when our spirits fail, we might suffer illnesses of depression – might even give up and die. When our illness is cured with a change in life spirits, the cause was in the domain of spirits. This can also occur when our spirits become too powerful and we are consumed by mania. A spirit rest is necessary to cure. Spirit causes, like all causes of illness might be specific, individual occurrences, or they might be chronic, lifestyle causes. How can we tell? By the cure. When the cure is a result of a single action than changes a temporary spiritual deficiency or excess, the cause was a spirit attribute. On the other hand, when the cure requires an ongoing spirit action, the cause was an ongoing deficiency of spirit health. The cure proves the cause.

Communities

Communities are powerful causes of health and healthiness. Caring comes from communities – we naturally help each other when they are healthy and when they are ill. On the other hand, communities, and our participation in our communities can also be causes of illness. We might suffer community isolation – leading to depression, or community abuse leading to injuries of body, mind, spirits, and also our communities. How can we know if the cause is in the domain of community? By the cure. If changing our communities, or our interaction or participation in communities, and the result is a cure – that was the cause.

Like all causes – a community cause of illness can be an attribute, or a process. Being ejected from or rejected by a community might lead to mental or spirit illness – but it might also lead to physical abuse. On the other hand, an abusive family or marriage environment can be an ongoing process creating an ongoing illness. In these cases, we might be challenged to understand the cause and the cure. The abuse might be cured by a separation from the community, a one time status cure, or it might be cured by learning to stand up for ourselves, addressing the community cause on an ongoing basis.

Environments

Our environment might suffer a one-time, temporary change, creating an illness that is cured by a one-time cure action. Perhaps our office building has a faulty airflow, causing many staff to suffer headaches. When the airflow is cured – the illnesses disappear. This is a one-time cure. If the airflow fails again a year or a decade later, a new set of illnesses might occur.

Or, the environment might be very unhealthy, dirty, conducive to the growth of bacteria, causing ongoing infections. The cure is not a simple cleanup. The environment must be cleaned on an ongoing basis – a lifestyle cure. The cure must be maintained.

Status Cures

Modern medicine is largely devoid of cures. Technically, an infectious illness is cured medically when the infectious agent, the infectious cause is killed, disabled, or removed by an approved medicine or surgery.

All other cures of infectious diseases are simply ignored. They have not been medically approved – and cannot be proven medically. But we should be aware that even cures that can officially recognized are rarely documented as cured. No doctor, no clinic, no hospital, no insurance company documents cured cases. Treatments can be billed -whether they cure or not. Cured cannot be billed.

Lifestyle Cures

Even when a lifestyle cure is obvious, it is generally ignored by medical practitioners. Nobody cares if you cure your smoker’s cough by stopping smoking. Officially, there are no cures for ANY non-infectious disease. If your arthritis is cured with diet and exercise – no cure can be prove.

Cured Cases are Ignored

Modern medicine has no test of cured for arthritis. The same is true of many illnesses. When a chiropractor, an osteopathy, or a physical therapist cures a person’s back pain or frozen shoulder with a one-time adjustment, we know it is a cure. But modern medicine cannot recognize the cured status, much less the cause of the cure.

Trivial cures cannot be recognized medically, much less the cause of the cure.

More complex cured cases cannot be understood without a basic understanding of simple cures.

It’s Time to Study Cures, Curing, Cured

We can create a science of cure from these fundamental concepts. We know how to cure the common cold, influenza, COVID, and measles. We know how to heal a broken arm. So we ignore these cures.

When we study cured cases we can learn to improve them, but only when cure is the goal. As we begin to understand simple cures, we can build our understanding to cure more compound and more complex cases of illness.

How can we know the cause of an illness? Only by a cure.

Health is the best preventative, the best cure.
The cure proves the cause.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Which cures more illnesses? Drugs, or Healthinesses?

When we think of a cure, we almost automatically reach for drug. We’ve been well trained by drug salesmen and their followers. At the same time, we should know that most drugs make no attempt to cure any disease, that most drugs cannot cure any disease, and that most cures do not come from drugs.

Where do most cures come from healthing. Yes, health is a verb: to improve healthiness. Most cures come from improvements in healthiness. Most intentional cures come from intentionally improving healthiness.

Most cures come from healthing, from healthy actions; some come from healthy inactions.

What is a healthiness? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, healthiness “the quality or state of being healthy,” a noun form of healthy. Oxford is less informative.* No examples are provided, because the term is rarely used identify a specific healthiness.

Examples of healthinesses include:

1. a healthy state of fitness – physical healthiness
2. a healthy weight, not overweight, not underweight – weight healthiness
3. a healthy state of mind – mental healthiness
4. healthy consumption of foods – dietary healthiness. Note: this noun describes a process, a verb.
5. having sufficient Vitamin C to meet the bodily needs – Vitamin C healthiness

The action, the verb, healthing, that indicates working to maintain a healthy level of a healthiness and also to regain healthiness, to health ourselves, when a healthiness is deficient, excessive, or otherwise out of alignment.

Healthing Cures

Healthing cures are “actions that improve our healthiness to cure illnesses.” We can see these for each of the above examples:

1. We can health our body by improving our physical healthiness with healthy exercise and rest. When our bodily healthiness is so low that it is causing an illness, healthing our body can cure.
2. We can health our weight by gaining or losing weight. When our weight is so out of balance that it is causing illness, this is a healthing cure
3. We can health our state of mind when our current mental status is so far out of balance that it is causing illness, a mind healthing cure.
4. We can health an unhealthy diet by choose healthy foods and avoiding unhealthy foods. When our unhealthy diet is causing illness, healthing our diet can cure.
5. when we don’t have enough Vitamin C for health, and illness occurs, we can health our body by consuming sufficient Vitamin C to meet the bodily needs – a nutrient healthing cure.

Healthing, healthiness cures can be slow. When our body is deficient in muscle tone – it can take months to health, to cure the body deficiency. In other cases, it can be quick. When our body is super stressed from overexercise, a short period of rest can cure. Note: both of these cases might occur without any judgement of illness – only judged an illness when more severe.

When we are dehydrated, drinking healthy water can cure our illness. This is a status cure – we change the status of our bodily healthiness and the illness is cured. Of course drinking healthy water does not cure every case of dehydration – only those that are cured by drinking healthy water. Although this seems obvious, it is important.

Healthing ourselves, improving our healthiness, can cure illness when an illness is present, when illness is caused by an absence of healthiness. When no illness is present, improving healthiness often prevents illness, but that’s a topic for another post.

It seems so simple, because it is simple. Cures of elementary illnesses, those with a single cause, are generally not medical. In most cases, no doctor is required to cure. Living things, dogs, cats, snakes, and trees know how to health their bodies without resorting to a medical professional. Our bodies are so sensitive that, in most cases, they remind us to drink water BEFORE any illness occurs. But sometimes, for many different reasons, we might fail to drink enough water. If we catch the problem, the illness before any further damage is caused, the cure is trivial.

This same model can be applied to thousands of measures of healthiness. In diet, there are over 100 nutrients essential to healthiness. If we don’t maintain a healthy level of Vitamin A, B, C, or any other vitamin, or of iron, or copper, or zinc, or proteins, or fats, or air or water – we can become ill, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

But healthiness is much more than just diet and body. We must also constantly health – maintain our healthiness – of mind, of spirits, of communities and even of our environment. All six causal domains: diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments require healthiness, lest illness occur.

When our air is so unhealthy that it is making us ill, we need healthy air. In most cases, we correct unhealthy air before illness occurs and we act quickly to find healthy air and prevent the illness. This prompts us to ask:

When does an Illness Exist?

At what point does is unhealthy air just unhealthy air – like smoking, or standing by the campfire – and at what point does unhealthy air cause illness? The theory of cure uses a simple model.

An illness is present when we seek a cure.

When we accidentally breath in some heavy smoke, and cough and move away, we don’t see an illness, just a symptom cause. We don’t need a cure, because we moved away before any serious damage has occurred. The signs and symptoms of illness: coughing, sneezing, perhaps watery eyes, but if these disappear quickly because we moved away from the smoke – it’s not really an illness to be cured. It’s no longer present.

Is illness only present when damage has occurred? This is the model used by our medical systems. Most diseases cannot be diagnosed until significant damage has occurred. Many cannot be diagnosed unless there is significant danger of damage occurring. But this can miss many cases of illness, and their cures.

In the theory of cure, an illness is present when immediate actions are not enough to get relief from negative signs and symptoms. A cure is an intentional action with positive expectations.

For example, someone might suffer persistent headaches at their workplace. But there is no smoke. Analysis might reveal that there are high levels of carbon-dioxide at the workplace, perhaps only at certain times of day. These headaches don’t go away until the air is healthed. When the air is healthed, the headaches are cured. It might be that the level was never high enough to cause measurable damage, but it was high enough to cause persistent negative signs and symptoms.

False Cures

It’s too easy, and certainly too common that we confuse the words cure, cured and cures. Cure can be a noun, a substance or treatment, a solution to a problem (noun); or a verb, an action the produces a cured state, past tense: cured.

A false cure could be something that is marketed as a cure, but does not cure. A false “cured” occurs when the patient, doctor, or someone else believes the illness is cured, but it is not cured. These cases can be (falsely) declared cured with or without identification of the cure or cures.

A cure is an action that addresses the cause of an illness, producing a cured stat or status.

There are two types of false “healthiness cures” we need to be aware of.

The first is an actual cure – only our belief in the cause of the cure is false. The second is a partial cure, but one that misses the actions necessary for complete cure.

Wrong Cure-Cause

A false cure can occur simply because we are wrong about the cause and the cure. Maybe we improved our healthiness by specific actions – and the illness went away. But the cause was actually addressed by something else. These cases can be difficult to understand – but we might gain understanding when the illness occurs again and the false cure doesn’t work. Either we were wrong before, or we are wrong now. Unfortunately, healthiness cures are generally ignored by doctors and medical systems, or declared anecdotal, false. Every actual cured case is a real case, a story, an anecdote.

Note: this type of false cure is not as common as we might think. Most of the time, we can quickly figure out the cause of our illness and health the cause, producing a cure – so often, so easily that we ignore these simple cures. We are more likely to notice when a cure fails.

Wrong Level of Cause

The second false cure occurs when we misjudge the level or layers of cause. In a previous example, we cured dehydration with water, but

We might be dehydrated because, every day, we don’t drink enough water. In this case, drinking water cures the current dehydration status, but the illness appears to return a few days later. What happened? An illness is not a thing, it cannot go away and return.

The cause reoccurred. A new case of the illness status occurred.

The unhealthy drinking (or not drinking) water process was never addressed. The fundamental cause of both cases of illness was the same, but it was a cause of a process illness – not just a status illness.

A process illness requires a process cure – drinking sufficient water every day. The illness was not just a status of “not enough water” it was a process of “not drinking enough water on a regular basis” This distinction is important, because a process illness requires a different healthing cure, to drink sufficient, healthy amounts of water EVERY DAY.

Domains of Healthiness

In an earlier paragraph, I mentioned the six domains of healthiness: diet, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments. Each of these domains has many different healthiness factors which, when out of alignment or balance, can cause illness. In each case, if the cause is an elementary status that has not yet caused any damage, the cure is trivial. Health (improve the healthiness of) the factor that is out of alignment and the illness is cured. In each case, it is also possible to suffer from a process cause – where the cure is not just a simple change of status, but a change in life processes.

Lets look at some status and process causes of illness causal domain:

Diet

Our nutritional needs are extremely varied. In addition, our healthy bodies can tolerate wide variations in consumption of healthy nutrients. In many cases, our bodies have many systems to maintain nutrients for when they are needed. As a result, a simple deficiency of a nutrient does not cause immediate illness.

Water is essential and without water, most people suffer signs and symptoms of illness and might even diet within a few days. Note: it is possible for some people in specific circumstances, to survive for much longer periods without water.

When our water status is deficient, consumption of water provides a simple cure.

However, when our water consumption patterns, lifestyle, or processes are deficient, the illness can take much longer to create observable signs and symptoms, and the status cure might appear to cure and then later fail. The process cause requires a process cure.

Vitamin A is stored in the body for long periods of time without consuming Vitamin A does not cause illness. Illness occurs when our Vitamin A stores are used up. Ancient Egyptians, and many other cultures learned the cure – eating liver restores a healthy Vitamin A status, curing “night blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency,” a status cure.

One of the classic dietary cures, the cure for scurvy, illustrates another important reality about healthiness cures. As James Lind famously said:

“I do not mean to say that lemon juice and wine are the only remedies for the scurvy; this disease, like many others, may be cured by medicines of very different and opposite qualities to each other.” (Lind, 1771)

Every illness has many potential cures. Our medical systems often want to find a mythical “the cure” for “the disease.” This can be a powerful tool for finding and promoting profitable treatments, but it is ignorant of most actual cures.

There are also many healthy negative action that can cure. Ongoing overconsumption of alcohol can lead to chronic hangovers. The cure is a negative process, to stop the ongoing overconsumption.

Body

Dietary consumption of alcohol can provide benefits in spirit and community healthiness, with little danger as long as we stay within our limits. However, if we have consumed too much alcohol, our body becomes toxic. The first cure is to vomit – to remove the alcohol from the body. We tend to think of vomiting poison as “being sick,” but it’s actually a healthy cure. We were already sick, the process of vomiting cures the illness.

The body is very active physically and this is where we most easily recognize the need for exercise and rest. When we don’t get enough exercise, the cure is exercise. When we don’t get enough rest, the cure is rest. Lack of exercise doesn’t cause illness until after it has continued for some time. Overexercise – absence of rest, can have negative consequences much more quickly. As a result, rest is often a status cure for an immediate problem – one we might not even judge to be an illness. Exercise on the other hand, is usually a slow process cure. Both exercise and rest are also important cure components of many injuries, where rest provides for recovery and exercise for rehabilitation.

Mind

Our medical systems currently try to treat (not cure) mental illnesses with drugs for the body – and give up on curing. There are many mental healthiness cures – and like all healthiness cures, some cases require immediate, one-time, status cures while others require lifestyle cure processes. In addition, however, because mental illnesses are rarely identified by cause, there is plenty of room for cure confusion.

Elementary depression – having a single cause, for example, might have a dietary cause, a physical – bodily status cause, a mental cause, a spirit cause, a community cause or a toxic environmental cause. In each case, it is labelled a symptom, or where severe and prolonged, a disease of the mind. Each different cause requires a different type of cure.

In the theory of cure, a mind illness has a cause in the mind, in our beliefs, our memories, or our mental calculations. The cure might be to change the belief, dismiss the memory, or repair the mental calculation.

Depression might be caused by a fatalistic belief – perhaps that our spouse is unfaithful, or that we are going to die, or that some irrecoverable disaster has occurred. These causes are in the mind – and the cure is to health the mind.

A person who believes they are going to die might fall ill and die – unless they can change their beliefs, change their mind. The change needed might be simple, short term, when a natural positive attitude takes over, or it might need to be an intentional action, supported by ongoing commitment to the battle.

One of, perhaps the most common mental causes of illness is belief in ourselves and failure to believe in ourselves. When our belief in ourself is too strong, we might take excessive risks and become ill. Is this the cause of some cases of “tennis elbow,” where the cure is simply “stop doing that?”

Spirits

In the theories of healthicine and of cure, spirits are the driving forces of life. All living things have the spirits of life, the spirit to life, grow, learn reproduce, and evolve. When individual loses these spirits, it dies. When an individual dies, it loses the life spirits. Like all aspects of healthiness, healthy spirits exist on a gradation from very near to death to so powerful that they create illness. Healthy spirits are somewhere in-between. Workaholism and burnout are spirit illnesses – that can often lead to other illnesses as well. Burnout can be a one-time, status illness, cured by simple removal from the situation or rest – but might lead to suicide if not attended. Workaholism might cause less severe illnesses, but these are often more difficult to cure, because they require the maintenance of ongoing process cures.

Communities

We seldom think of our communities as a domain of illness causes – until it happens. What is the cause of spouse abuse? Elder Abuse? Child abuse? The illnesses that result are often cured with medical attention and healing – as if they are simply status injuries. But these illnesses, when they are systemic in a local community, can only be cured by changes to the community. Sometimes, a one-time cure, like a divorce or other separation is sufficient to cure. In other cases, if separation from the community is not possible, an ongoing cure may be required.

In addition, communities can be afflicted by illnesses. Is war an illness? Is peace the healthy cure? Or is “agreement to tolerate each other” an ongoing cure, one that requires ongoing maintenance by both sides? We can expand our understanding of illnesses and cures and benefit from increased understanding.

Environments

When a mining company dumps poisons into a river – many people (as well as plants and animals) might fall ill. Curing the individual cases is important, but the higher level cause must also be addressed. And a process cure might also be needed to ensure such events to not occur again and again.

There are many simpler environmental causes of illnesses – illnesses with environmental cures.

SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder – can be caused by the absence of sunlight in winter. Many cases can be cured by simple daily exposure to a lamp that simulates sunlight. This cure can be viewed as a blend between the status cure and a process cure, because it provides daily relief that is no longer needed when spring comes and the sun improves our healthiness.

Summary

There are many healthiness cures, cures that are brought about by improving healthiness status or healthiness processes in our diet, body, mind, spirits, communities and environments.

Modern medicine ignores these cures – they are not “medical.” To study cure more effectively, more thoroughly, to learn to understand all cures for all types of illness, we need to begin with studies of the simplest, most common cures.

Health is the best medicine. Healthing is the best cure.

Note: Health is also the best preventative, but that’s another story.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

* When Oxford’s online dictionary is queried for “healthiness” the response is: “Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.”

In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice, they are not.” – unknown.

Theory of Cure

An illness consists of a set of present causes and the negative consequence of those causes.

An illness element consists of a single present cause and the negative consequences of that cause.

A cure is an action, or a set of actions, that addresses the causes of an illness, producing a cured state or status such that the negative consequences are no longer present.

Cured is the status of the illness after the cause(s) of an illness have been successfully addressed. The individual, the patient, is not cured. The illness is cured. It was present due to the intersection of cause and negative consequences. Now that the cause has been addressed, it is no longer present.

Cured

In the theory of cure, an element of illness is cured when its cause has been successfully addressed.

A compound illness has multiple present causes such that each cause must be addressed to produce a completely cured status. If an illness, seen as having multiple causes, is cured by addressing a single cause, it was an elementary illness.

A complex illness is present when one illness is causing another illness. Both the primary and the secondary illnesses must be cured for a complete cure. Often, curing the primary illness facilitates a healing or caring cure of the secondary.

Damage or injuries caused by the illness are independent illness elements, indicating a complex illness, which require multiple independent cure actions. Sometimes we cure the damage first and later address the cause – sometimes the reverse, sometimes we act to address both causes at once. Damage is often healed without conscious intent.

Cured takes time. Partially cured and temporary cured are not only possible, they are commonplace, as many causes of illness can only be addressed in stages.

There are three fundamental types of cures:

Healing cures are natural and occur without conscious attention, although they are often facilitated or aided by conscious actions. Healing is the first cure, present in all live entities, a part of development and growth, essential to survival and health.

Caring cures come from intentional actions by self and others, to improve healthiness, often without intentions to cure.

Intentional cures, both medical and non-medical, are a result of actions that intentionally address causes of illness.

Curative actions that are conscious and those that are unconscious can cause independent illnesses. These illnesses are often dismissed as “side effects.”

Illness, Disease, Sickness

Illness, sickness, and disease are independent terms.

Illness: In the theory of cure, illness is the condition to be cured, the condition the individual is suffering from, consisting of the cause and it’s negative consequences. Most cases of illness are minor, easily cured.

Disease: is a medical view. Diseases are defined by medical practitioners and medical systems. Disease statistics are compiled by diagnosis. A case of disease that is never diagnosed (most cases of disease are never diagnosed) does not exist in disease statistics – except when extrapolated hypothetically.

Modern medicine aims to “treat” diseases and makes no effort to track cases of disease cured statistically or scientifically. Most cases of illness are never diagnosed medically and their cured status cannot be tracked.

Sickness: is a community view. A community, or individuals in a community not only view illness and disease differently, they might identify illnesses where the patient feels no illness and no diagnosis is present. Sickness, and thus sickness cured is generally not a useful or scientific concept.

Cured: In Practice

Most cases of illness are elementary, having single causes and simple cures. Most cases of illness are cured easily, often without conscious awareness, although some cures take longer than others – especially healing of injuries.

Cured: In Modern Medical Practice

Most cases of cured are ignored. They do not require medical attention. This can be unfortunate, because it can distract us from causes and cures in minor cases, creating a failure to understand more difficult cured cases

.

Today, no modern medical system tracks cured cases of any illness or disease. No doctor, clinic, hospital, medical center or system, and no insurance company or industry tracks cured cases. Treatments and “success or failure” are tracked by practitioners in some cases, but are often poorly tracked or simply ignored. No medical insurance system pays for cured cases, much less paying attention to the quality and safety or risks of the cure.

What Means Cured?

In theory most cases of illness are easily cured, and most cases are cured.

In practice, most cases of illness are cured without medical attention.

In medical practice, most cases of illness can be considered incurable – because they cannot be cured by medicines or medical treatments. As a result “there is no cure for the common cold… (minor cuts and bruises, influenza, food poisoning, mumps, measles, COVID…)” – even though most cases are cured without difficulty.

Modern medicine generally avoids the word cured. As a result, the word cured has no medical nor scientific meaning in most cases of disease.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Why do so many die from non-deadly diseases? Most cases of disease are not fatal. Let’s look at a few, to round our understanding before we broach the question “Why do we die from disease?”

Three diseases, very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), also known as coronary artery disease, is the most common “cause of death” worldwide according to many sources. But coronary artery disease is not deadly: “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” – Medical News Today.

We don’t know if any cases of ischemic heart disease are cured, simply because cured is not defined for the disease. Mayo Clinic says “Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.” The word cure does not appear.

COVID-19

According to the World Health Organization (the WHO) COVID-19 was the second highest cause of death worldwide in 2021. But most cases of COVID are not deadly, and many are so minor that they are not even diagnosed, much less treated. According to WorldMeters.org, less than 1% of diagnosed cases result in deaths. There are, of course, no statistics for undiagnosed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections, although estimates are that half are not diagnosed, so there are no statistics of deaths either. Most cases of COVID-19 are cured.

Stroke

Stroke is listed as the third leading cause of death in 2021 according to the WHO. However, most cases of stroke are minor, Transient ischemic attacks (TIA), with symptoms only lasting a few minutes to an hour according to verywellhealth.com. Even with severe cases, according to Microsoft’s Copilot, “The prognosis for ischemic stroke varies significantly based on factors such as age, severity of the stroke, and timely treatment, with many patients experiencing long-term effects but some achieving full recovery.” eg. Most cases of stoke do not cause death. Most cases are cured.

Ischemic heart disease, COVID-19, and Stroke

These three diseases are very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

• Ischemic heart disease is a chronic condition that gradually grows more severe and can eventually cause death, if death does not occur for other reasons. People “have” ischemic heart disease, which might be mild, moderate, or severe – rarely deadly.
• Stroke is not an ongoing condition, it is an event that might be mild, moderate, ore severe, potentially being easily cured, or have lasting consequences, or death. But we say the patient “had a stroke,” not they “have a stroke,” and treat the damage, not the event.
• SARS-CoV-2 infections are temporary conditions. In most cases, it is so easily cured in healthy patients. COVID-19 is a SARS-CoV-2 infection that is large enough, serious enough to be diagnosed as COVID.

On a case by case basis, for all three diseases – most cases are minor, fewer are of moderate severity, and very few are deadly, causing death. We count deaths, but cured cases of all three diseases are simply ignored. This image – without actual numbers – provides a useful model.

So why do these diseases cause death? First, we must understand that we all die of something eventually. What happens when someone dies? In every country, when someone dies, a doctor completes a medical death certificate and documents the cause of death for statistical purposes. The cause of death is usually a designated “disease.” Statistically, medically, bureaucratically, most of us die from “a disease.”

But, why do people die from diseases that are, in most cases, not serious? Is this true of every disease. We can find some clues in these three diseases.

• Ischemic heart disease : “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” -Medical News Today. IHD is not an infectious disease.
• Stroke: “risk factors such as obesity, smoking, excessive drinking and limited physical activity are all recommended against. Medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol and high blood pressure commonly increase one’s risk of stroke.” Stroke is not an infectious disease.
• COVID: “Your risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases as the number of your underlying medical conditions increases.” cdc.gov. COVID is an infectious disease.

Unhealthiness Increases Disease Severity

When our healthiness is high, we handle diseases, cure most diseases easily. When our healthiness is low, a disease that is normally trivial can be serious, even deadly. How does that happen?

This is true for both infectious diseases and non-infectious diseases.

Illness Causes Damage

The damage caused by an illness can range from minor, perhaps not even noticed in some cases, to deadly. The amount and severity of the damage depends on two factors:

1. Severity of Cause. A very minor bullet wound causes little damage. A more severe wound can cause rapid death. A small infection is generally easily cured. A larger infection, a more dangerous infectious agent, or set of infections can result severe injuries or death.
2. Duration of Cause. The longer the cause is present, the more damage is caused. Poor lifestyle choices – over a day, week, or month generally cause little damage, but when they last for years or decades, the damage can lead to IHD or stroke. Even a minor cause of illness can accumulate danger over time, resulting in injuries, illnesses, sequela, and possibly disability or death.

The faster an illness is cured – the less secondary illnesses, sequela, disability, and death will result. Treatments that do not address the cure cause generally prolong the illness allow more secondary illnesses, sequela, disability and death to occur.

Secondary Illness to Sequela

A secondary illness is an illness caused by an illness uncured. The longer an illness persists, uncured, the more likely it is to cause damage and further illnesses.

A sequela is an illness. It can be an injury, or other negative consequence of an illness, injury, trauma, disease – or medical treatment. An illness’ sequelae is the collection of negative consequences of an illness that persist – uncured. A sequela often persists after the primary illness has been cured.

When our healthiness is lower, it takes longer to cure a simple illness, and more illnesses and sequelae can result. What’s the difference between a secondary illness and a sequela? A sequela is often considered to be incurable. Most secondary illnesses, on the other hand, are curable – many are easily cured. We might get a cold, that causes pneumonia – but most cases of pneumonia are cured. The theory of cure’s tautology is “All curable illnesses can be cured.”

Secondary Secondary Illnesses

A secondary illness, uncured, can cause another illness and another illness and another illness. These secondary illnesses, by themselves might cause death – or the accumulated force of all the illnesses might result in deaths.

Few deaths have a single cause. Few deaths are caused by an elementary illness, because most elementary illnesses, most illnesses with a single cause are easily cured.

The Illness Danger Curve

When we study the illness curve, as it moves from minor illness to moderate illness, to deadly illness, in each case – we can see a progression of illnesses. The first, a minor illness might be cured – and most cases are cured. If it is not cured in sufficient time – a secondary illness often occurs, due to the signs, symptoms, and damage caused by the first illness.

This is true even for trivial illnesses.

The Common Cold

• “The common cold is the most common human disease.” Wikipedia (the Reference linked by Wiki, says “is arguably the most common human disease”)
• “The common cold is classified as an illness caused by viruses, but it is not considered a disease in the traditional sense, as it is usually harmless and self-limiting.” Microsoft AI

In the theory of cure, we speak about and study curable illnesses. The whether the common cold is a disease or not is left to the bureaucrats. The definition of DISEASE used in the theory of cure is trivial. A disease is any condition that a doctor might diagnose and treat. The common cold is a disease.

No one dies from the common cold.

The common cold can lead to many other illnesses and diseases. When someone dies from a common cold – the cause of death is the secondary illness, the sequela.

Let’s think about that.

• when the common cold uncured leads to pneumonia and death, the cause of death is pneumonia uncured. The cause of death could be “failure to prevent” pneumonia.
• when ischemic heart disease uncured leads to heart attack and death, the cause of death is is ischemic heart disease. The documented cause of death is based on “failure to prevent” ischemic heart disease.
• when a stroke leads to death, death is usually rapid, directly caused by the severity of the stroke. When the stroke is deadly, cure is not possible, when the cure is trivial, we judge the stroke to be transient, not cured. When a stroke causes death, the death, the documented cause of death can be seen as “failure to prevent” the death.
• when COVID-19 uncured leads to COVID-pneumonia, or ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or organ failure, or a cytokine storm, the cause of death is judged to be COVID-19. The cause of death is “failure to prevent” the sequela of COVID, or failure to cure COVID in time to prevent the sequela.

Failure to prevent sequela is never cited as cause of death.

We use the same disease name for trivial cases, minor cases, moderate cases, and deadly cases. Most cases of every disease are trivial. Every disease has more trivial cases than moderate cases, more moderate cases than severe cases, more severe cases than deadly cases.

However:

Failure to cure is never cited as a cause of death.

We only die from trivial diseases when we fail to cure them.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Healing cures have two stages, the transformation and the recovery.

In the theory of cure, healing cures are defined as cures that result of the natural forces of life, which act to remove damage around a wound, and repair it. The concept of healing covers injuries to body, mind, spirits, and communities – each of which might suffer injuries.

However, many traditional – and some conventional medical practices use the word healing differently.

How might we reconcile these definitional differences?

The theory of cure defines a cure as an action that addresses the present cause of an illness. It recognizes and and distinguishes between three different types of cure actions: healing, caring, and curing. In the theory of cure:

Healing: is a transformational process occurs naturally, without conscious intention. Most healing is curative. Sometimes healing can be damaging or dangerous.

Caring: consists of community actions, by the afflicted individual, family and friends, and medical or non-medical caregivers, that address the signs, symptoms, negative consequences, and causes of illness. Most caring activities are not cures. When a caring act addresses a present cause of an illness, it is also a curing act.

Curing: consist of actions that intentionally address the present cause of an illness, producing a cured status. Curative actions cure, by definition – or they are not curative actions. Most curing actions are not medical because most cures are not medical. We have cured ourselves and others in our communities since life began – long before doctors and medical systems were invented.

Where do the healing arts like fasting, massage, Tai Chi, and others fit into this framework? Most of the healing arts have two cure elements. First, there is a transformation, second, a healing. The primary function of the art is transformation of the cause. Natural healing is expected to follow. The healing arts are not limited to curing the body. The healing arts operate and produce cures by addressing causes in all six domains: diet, body, mind, spirits, and communities.

• dietary supplements, as well as tools and techniques to clear out toxic substances range from various diets from vegan to carnivore and many others, dietary supplements, to fasting in many forms, detoxification techniques, including chelation, activated charcoal cleanse, blood irradiation or cleansing therapies – which include medical techniques like dialysis.
• actions to transform the body, which might accomplished by the individual, or be taught or coordinated through community: exercise, rest, stretching, laughter therapy, prayer, dance therapy, Pilades, earthing, holistic living, Alexander Technique, and martial arts like Tai Chi, Yoga, Qigong. These are rarely part of a medical process except in rehabilitation.
• soft tissue and structural manipulations generally enacted by community members, often not recognized as medical professionals, massage by the individual or community members: massage therapy, chiropractic, osteopathic, Rieki, acupressure and acupuncture, kinesiology, therapeutic touch, Feldenkrais, hydrotherapy, bates eye therapy, and of course medical surgery and rehabilitation techniques.
• techniques to develop or change mental or spirit processes including mind body linkages such as prayer, faith healing, autosuggestion, hypnosis and self-hypnosis, meditation, counselling, Feldenkrais as well as medical techniques like psychology and psychiatry.
• community processes like groupwork – in many flavours, animal assisted therapy, attachment therapy, community prayer, dance therapy as well as psychological, psychiatric and sociologic therapy.

Of course there is considerable overlap between types of actions. In addition, most can be accomplished by the individual, by various caring others or communities and recognized medical communities in different situations or cases. There is also overlap between the changes made to mind, body, spirit, and communities in an effort to cure. Any change to the body might change the mind, spirit, and community processes, as does any change to mind, spirits, and communities.

Let’s look at a few of these techniques in framework of the theory of cure.

Bodily Surgery

Medical surgery is generally recognized as a curative process. Non-medical surgery only rarely. The surgeon causes a change, a transformation with some damage – and healing completes the cure, repairs the damage.

Surgery a damaging transformation. It’s not surgery when we cut our toenails. But, an ingrown toenail might be serious enough that it requires a damaging surgery. Healing completes the cure. Of course the surgeon in minor cases might be the patient, a friend or family member, or in serious cases a doctor or nurse. We rarely call surgery a “healing art” but a medical surgeon is in many ways an artist – every body is different, and every surgery requires a technical and an artistic process.

Many of the so-called alternative medical systems operate in similar surgical fashion.

Massage is a surgery of bodily tissues, muscles, tendons, fascia, and even specific organs. It might be done by a physical therapist, as part of a rehabilitation cure process, but there are many other massage practices, ranging from simply rubbing our injured muscle to sophisticated techniques like Thai massage, Therapeutic touch, chiropractic, osteopathic, acupressure and acupuncture, and kinesiology. Each of these techniques causes some bodily change, possibly even transformation or damage, which might also require healing processes to compete the cure. The transformation is a cure. Healing is a secondary curative transformation.

Natural and intentional stretching, and Bayes eye therapy, can cause transformations which sometimes require a healing process to complete the cure.

Nutrition and Anti-nutrition (detoxification)

Dietary changes can function in a similar fashion. When we fast, we aim to remove “negative flesh” and any damage that occurs will be repaired by healing during and after the fast is ended. Taking supplemental nutrition, when not available in the diet, is a process cure that must be maintained to maintain the cured status. On the other hand, taking large amounts of a substance or nutrient is often designed to cause a transformation which, after recovery and healing, completes a cure.

Although doctors sometimes prescribe fasting for specific medical purposes, like before a blood test, they have difficulty considering fasting to be a cure. But fasting often cures once healing completes the process. Doctors might prescribe folate supplements to pregnant mothers, again – they do not view these as cures. In theory of cure, if a deficiency exists and is successfully addressed – it’s a cure.

Detoxification techniques, including chelation, activated charcoal cleanse, blood irradiation cause transformation in the body, with the expectation that healing will recover the person’s health to a better status. Our medical systems often dismiss these techniques – even in cases where they cure.

Medically, cleansing therapies like dialysis are not viewed as “cures” because the process must be continued regularly. This is a failure to understand cure. Some cures are physical transformations – some are process transformations, required every day to maintain a healthy status, just as we must consume Vitamin C regularly after a scurvy cure to maintain the cured status.

Mind

Many “healing systems’” function by changing the mind or the spirits, sometimes even causing stress or damage – and healing completes the cure. Sometimes, the change to our mind is traumatic – and significant time is required for healing. In other cases, the mental change is minor, even a relief, and the healing is barely noticeable.

Psychological therapies aim to change the mind and the result is often a change to the body as well.

Techniques like prayer, faith healing, autosuggestion, hypnosis and self-hypnosis, meditation, counselling, Feldenkrais, and others function by making changes to minds and spirits, transforming them – facilitating healing of body, mind, and spirits.

Conclusion

Often, when we are ill, healing is blocked. A transformation of diet, body, mind, spirits, or communities is necessary to create a release and allow healing to work. We call many of these practices “healing arts.” In the theory of cure, they are caring arts. We might care for ourselves by changing our diet or our mind. And a curative healing follows. We might lift our spirits with rest, meditation, or yoga, or many other practices, giving body, mind, and spirit freedom to heal. When we care for ourselves, healing can enter and cure. Similar healing can occur when a caring person – a medical practitioner or not, cares for us.

Modern medical practitioners often dismiss these cures as “placebo effects.” However, when we look closely at placebo effects, they disappear. There is no scientific or medical test that can distinguish a real effect from a placebo effect – because placebo effects are real. The only thing that defines a specific placebo effect is the opinion of the doctor, not any scientific fact.

In the theory of cure, an illness consists of two elements, the blockage and the damage it causes and it requires two curative processes. When we release the blockage with a transformation, healing is necessary to complete the cure.

Sometimes, the cure is quick and sure. Other times, like physical rehabilitation from a serious injury, many stages of transformation and healing are necessary. We might easily give up, or decide that the effort, and the negative consequences are not worth the benefit. This too is a natural process, a natural decision.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure

Transactional Analysis Journal 1980 CURE edition was preceded by a paper on a cure accomplished by “permission giving.“

In January 1980, a few months before the journal of Transactional Analysis published their April edition, focusing on Cure published:

Effective Permission-Giving and Representational Systems by William H. Thweatt

William H Thweatt reports a case of narcolepsy (sleeping sickness) cured by Transactional Analysis. There is no external link to the specific case in the paper nor in any of the references listed. The case is presented as a story, an anecdote. This might lead us to dismiss the claim.

However, we must be aware that EVERY case of cured is a story, an anecdote. Cases are real, not statistical. We cannot judge an individual case using statistics. Every case must be justified on its own merits.

The paper discusses:

The Illness:

“A case of Narcolepsy {a symptom where the patient falls asleep at apparently random times} was treated successfully {cured} with “negative permission” which liberated the client of his symptoms.”

· “This paper reports on a case that was the result of an early traumatic provocation and which was cured with “negative permission”

Note: This is a hypothetical past cause which cannot be proven. All cases, once they move into the past, become hypothetical. We cannot go back in time.

The Cause

The cause, as reported in the paper, was: “It was Christmas eve. Morph, about 2½ years old, had been put to bed. He was too excited to sleep and kept calling to his parents to let him come downstairs. While Morph was standing in his bed holding on to the bars and crying to be let out his dad opened the door. He walked over to Morph, threw a glass of water in his face (he had read Dr. Shock), and shouted, “GO ТO SLEEP!” Morph fell backward and immediately went to sleep.”

The client reported: “just before the onset of an attack he distinctly heard his father’s voice shouting, “GO TO SLEEP!” And as a good boy, he did!”

The Cure

The cure was achieved by negative-permission, by negating the present illness, by giving the patient negative permission, that is, permission to not obey the past command.

“In the fourth session the therapist had Morph cathect that early scene using fantasy. At the point that his father commanded, “GO TO SLEEP!” the therapist intervened with a firm loud voice saying, “NO, MORPH, STAY AWAKE!” He anchored the new order by simultaneously touching Morph’s knee to give the new order through two representational channels.”

and the result? “Morph reported that he had no more attacks and was “cured.” He even had stopped his medication with his physician’s knowledge.”

Theory of Cure

The treatment was “negative permission” a change to the mind, to one of the beliefs of the patient.

The illness in this case was an elementary illness, having a single cause – and thus a single cure.

This cure was a one-time change, a transformation of a mind attribute, although it may have taken more than one session to determine the cause and design the cure. The result was an attribute cure. Once cured, the patient did not require any more treatment actions.

The paper reported, in the language of transactional analysis, that “He had dramatically changed one troublesome ego state.” In the theory of cure, the practitioner successfully changed one of the beliefs of the patient, one attribute of the mind, producing a cured state.

The cure reported in this paper clearly matches the definition of cure in the theory of cure with regards to present cause, curative action, and consequences, specifically,

· The patient came with an illness of unknown cause and unknown cure.

· The present cause was hypothesized based on the patient’s story, their history.

· The present cause was addressed, transformed, by a Transactional Analysis intervention, which addressed the present cause.

· The illness was cured.

I will quibble with the language. The paper misinterprets the concept of cure, reporting that “he was cured.” The illness was cured by addressing the cause. In the theory of cure, illnesses, not patients, are “cured.”

To your health, Tracy
Author: A New Theory of cure.

What brings about change? What constitutes Cure?

There are very few papers published about “CURE.” Most medical research studies do not contain a definition of cured, and as a result cannot even recognize that a cure has occurred, much less determine the cause of the cure. I have looked in vain for ten years, trying to find research papers on “theory of cure.” None.

So, I was more than delighted when I learned that Transactional Analysis Journal (TAJ) had published two special editions, first in 1980, and then again in 2021, on the subject of cure. The 2021 edition was available on line at my local university, but I had to request the 1980 edition from the archives – and then scan and convert each article to text for easier searching and reference. In my online search I found two other papers in TAJ, and one in a different journal, Future Virology, on theory of cure. The full list of articles can be seen here. Over the next few months, possibly years – I will present my analysis of the cure concepts discussed in this journal.

The 1980 edition of TAJ began with a quote from TAJ’s founder, “From a transcription of Eric Berne in Vienna, 1968:

I want to end up saying, we are not interested in making progress. I am sure many therapists or all therapists have patients who have been making progress for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. We’re not interested. We want to cure the patient. That’s what we are trying to do. That’s why we have to be potent. – Eric Berne, TAJ, 3:1, p.68.

The first article in the 1980 edition was a letter from the guest editor, John R. McNeel.

Letter from the Guest Editor

In the introductory letter to the 1980 special edition on CURE, the guest editor quoted questions by Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis.

“So the problem is how are we going to cure patients, which is what I want to talk about. And I have some questions like: How many cured patients do you know? Have you ever cured a juvenile delinquent by psychotherapy? How many? Have you ever cured a schizophrenic and if not, why not?” -Eric Berne, Transactional Analysis Journal, January 1971, р. 6

and then continued “It has been my and pleasure to serve as the guest editor to this edition of the Journal which has been number completely devoted to seeking answers to…

“What brings about change?”

“What constitutes cure?”

Eric Berne urged fellow TA practitioners to think constantly in terms of cure. His early writings instill an excitement as he spoke of “cure” versus “progress.” …— “cure”… cure of individuals, families, organizations, couples, groups, society, and, yes, the world community.”

Theory of Cure

Neither Berne nor McNeel had an actual theory of cure as a foundation, and no concept of curing “an illness” or an element of illness. As psychologists, they were focused on curing the patient, their couples, families, organizations, groups, and society…

Both Berne and McNeel missed the concept of community, instead using the term “group” and “society.” All life entities live in communities of like and unlike individuals – and communities, from the simplest partnership, to the complex trio, to the family and friends, partners, civic communities, religious communities, business and corporate communities – can also become ill and be in need of cures.

Neither did they have a simple concept of “illness” or “curable illness” as that which we want to be cured. Both speak of “curing the patient” rather than curing the illness.

In the theory of cure, we cure illnesses. Each patient, each individual, couple, family, organization, society, and community might suffer many illnesses at one time. We can only cure one illness at a time if we are to know it is cured. Even if we manage to cure “two illnesses at once” a change in perspective might recognize that the two were actually a single illness.

Berne and McNeel had no foundation, no Theory of Cure, to guide their analysis and no books discussing the theory of cure with respect to healing, caring, and other cure concepts.

Transactional Analysis Journal articles on cure will probably not discuss cures of nutritional deficiencies or poisons, and neither will infectious diseases, and many non-infectious and chronic diseases be analyzed. Cures, for the most part will be about mental, emotional, and community disorders, with causes in the mental, emotional, spirit, and community domains – causes in diet, body, and environment will likely be ignored as they are non-mental and outside of the scope of Transactional Analysis. However, we should still see many clear relationships between their concepts of cure and those in the theory of cure for all types of illnesses, all types of cures: healing caring, and curing.

We will also see language confusion. Without a clear theory of cure, it’s hard to put the words in order. For example, McNeel asks:

“What constitutes cure?” – gives an example from his practice and then asks, “Are they cured?” – as if the couple is the illness to be cured. He should have asked: “What constitutes cured?” and “Is their illness cured?” This confusion over simple concepts, cure, cures, and cured, is common in many writings about cure.

In the theory of cure, a cure is a verb, an action that brings about a successful transformation of present cause, such that the identified illness is cured. But, McNeel identified a married couple in need of a cure or set of cures, without identifying any illness nor any cause – even after the cure is apparently completed and the cured status has been attained.

The letter ends with “I hope that we have added to your thought and made some real “progress” here toward knowing more about cure.”

With our theory of cure in hand, we can look back at the work that has been done, learn how it fits into today’s model, today’s theory of cure, and hopefully gain a better understanding of cure ourselves.

To your health, Tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure