Comparative study of the efficacy of homeopathy, rebt and yoganidra in the treatment of anger

Abstract

Anger is one of the common and basic emotions. It is seen that anger has evolved as one of the important factors affecting mental and physical health. Anger, whether reasonable or unreasonable, causes harm to the individual and to the society (Spielberger, 1999). “By the simplest of definitions anger occurs towards an object/person which/who is an obstacle to fulfilling one‟s desired goal” (Ram, 2000). Anger is not always goal directed. Angry feelings stem from an unpleasant occurrence that yields internal physiological reaction, motor reaction, facial changes, changes in thoughts and movements. Several efforts have been made by people to reduce anger, like counting ten, going away from the provoking situation, or diverting attention. Homeopathy believes in holistic approach, which says that mind, body and soul should be in equilibrium for an individual to remain healthy. So any affection on any plane will show its effects on another plane. Homeopathy can be defined as a system of therapeutics based on the „law of similars‟. This law states that a drug capable of producing a disease state in a healthy individual which is identical to that observed in a diseased individual, acts a curative agent if the disease is in the curative stage (Dhawale, 2000). Rational- emotive behavior therapy (REBT) is a cognitive behavioral therapy. Anger which has cognitive, emotive and behavioural components is very well treated with REBT. “Rational emotive behaviour therapy is a comprehensive, active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioral problems and disturbances and enabling people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives”(Wikipedia, 2008). Yoganidra is a yogic relaxation technique comprising of resolve-making, deep muscle relaxation, breathing exercise and imagery (Swami Satyanand Saraswati, 1998). Yoganidra maintains equilibrium between mind and body and helps to maintain the state of health. In anger this equilibrium is lost, with loss of inner peace. The present study was an attempt to explore the efficiency of the three alternative methods in treatment of anger, namely homeopathy, REBT and yoganidra.