How to be an unprejudiced observer?

The 6th Aphorism:

The unprejudiced observer well aware of the futility of transcendental speculations which can receive no confirmation from experience be his powers of penetration ever so great, also if he is the most astute, taking note of nothing in every individual disease, except the change in the health of the body and of the mind (morbid signs, coincidences, symptoms) which can be perceived externally by means of the senses, that is to say, he notices only the deviations from the former healthy state of the now diseased individual, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by those around him and observed by the physician. All these perceptible signs represent the disease in the whole extent, that is, together they from the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease.

One way to be an unprejudiced observer is if we try to understand the exact feeling of the patient as to why they are visiting us. We don’t have to assume, imagine or speculate that, we know the reason of the patient’s visit. We don’t have to know our patients; rather we have to understand our patient. For example, a patient tells you that, Doctor whenever I eat fish or a heavy meal my stomach gets upset.’


First of all we must know why they have come or what they expect the medicine to do for them.

We must restrain ourselves from immediately using rubrics or symptoms. We have to go further and feel why they have visited us. A patient may reply,

“I need medicine so that, when I eat fish or a heavy food my stomach will not get upset.”

Now the question is, ‘Why does this patient needs to eat the fish or heavy food when it make their stomach upset?’

Patient may say, “I like eating fish.”

Or

Patient may say, ‘I have tried several times not to eat fish or heavy food, but I cannot control myself when I get the opportunity.’ So, what we have to come to know about the patient is that, they like to eat fish or he has no control over themselves.

Here I ask the patient, how do they feel, when they want to control but fail to do so?

P: ‘I feel very bad’, ‘I feel angry with myself.

Or

P: ‘I curse myself’, ‘I blame myself’.

Or

P: ‘I promise myself that I will not eat again.’

Now according to the common version of the patient, we have to interpret the right feeling and then to choose the rubric accordingly.
Before jumping into the conclusion about the remedy, a physician must make it clear from the patient itself what is their need, without imagining, speculating or assuming yourself?

Ref : ROH Books Series XIV-Kingdom of Mind