In order to understand why we become ill, it is important to understand why and, above all, how we stay healthy. To sup- port us on this path, we draw on Rudolf Steiner’s knowledge of the world and the human being. We will learn in the first part of the book how the human con- stitution is based on a tripartite organisation – which we call threefoldness – and functions according to precise laws which we will learn to recognise. The second part is devoted to the study of the fourfold nature of the human being: spiritual, animal, etheric and physical, in its relation to the elements and kingdoms of nature. We will then resume the first part of Rudolf Steiner’s lecture of 11 February 1923, somewhat different from our first study. These remarks will enable an expansion of our understanding of human nature and its tendencies towards pathology, in two main directions: the inwardly acting, tumour-forming forces and the outwardly acting purulent inflammatory forces. Because to take up what has just been said in a different way: When speaking of health, illness is always the expression of an imbalance, a surplus or a deficiency in the processes that oth- erwise keep people healthy.weiterlesen