Body and I. The Immune System and Autoimmune Disease

Dear Colleagues,


This year our annual conference will focus on the question of the relationship between the I and its body. The living body is the place, already predisposed at the beginning of creation, where the immortal core of the human being establishes itself, giving the body its individual imprint. The body is, as Novalis puts it, the only true temple in the world. The task of the art of healing is to put an abnormal relationship of the I to its body into a more harmonious one. Thus the title of this year’s annual conference of the Medical Section is “Body and I – The immune system and autoimmune diseases”. The human I penetrates its body in the form of the “I-organisation”. This is expressed in an outstanding way in the development, individualisation and lifelong adaptability of the immune system. Its central function is to distinguish and demarcate the interior of the body from the exterior, its own bodily substance from that which is alien. Autoimmune diseases are a good example of what can happen when the body turns alien. Their frequency has been steadily increasing in recent decades with the growing influence of the “western lifestyle”. Numerous lectures and case reports will address the topic, which will be explored in depth in 26 workshops.
This year, too, the conference has three parts. In seven specialist conferences – for medicine and pharmacy, midwifery, eurythmy therapy, body therapy, nursing, psychotherapy and dentistry – the professional groups will work on their own topics. The focus of the conference on spiritual deepening will be the 11th class lesson, which will look at the structure of the body and the temple motif from an esoteric perspective, work on the Foundation Stone Meditation and on the Gospels. The multiprofessional conference will focus on the conference topic with speakers from over 15 countries worldwide. The development and pathology of the immune system will be presented with regard to the joint therapeutic activity on the patient, and there will be an exchange of therapeutic experiences between the professional groups.
A special highlight of the annual conference will be the handing on of the Section leadership to the incoming leadership team.