Usually, we think of curing an illness or a disease, but we often use the word cure for other problems. We might wish to find a ‘Cure’ for Turkey’s Ills, or claim that Rube Goldberg found the cure for self-isolation boredom or cure the quarantine blues, or Cure Our Wanderlust, or even to cure your desktop audio ills. Or maybe we need to cure our car? Are these really cures?
Now that we have a clear basic concept and definition of cure for elementary illnesses, and a theory of cure that expands those concepts to cover primary, secondary, complex, chronic, and compound medical conditions, we can apply those concepts to more general problems. We can perfect our usage – learn to distinguish between addressing symptoms and curing. We can, at least, understand the difference between a true cure and a bogus cure – even with our cars, our computers, and our social and economic systems. Let’s begin.
We Cure System Problems, not Things
In the basic theory of cure, we cure an illness. Is our economy sick? Our computer? Our car? How should we identify things that can be cured?
We cure health problems, illnesses, or medical conditions, in living systems. We might cure a fungus infection in our cherry tree and the tree heals the injuries. We might cure our dog’s injured leg with healthy care and the natural process of healing. We might cure scurvy with a healthy diet, and cataracts with a healthy surgical procedure. But we don’t cure the tree, the dog, or the person. And we can’t cure dead things. We might break a rock, move a rock, paint a rock, but we can’t cure a rock.
We can generalize cure, from life illnesses to any systemic problem. An illness is an ongoing problem in a living thing, an ongoing problem in a living system. Turkey’s economy is a system. We can’t cure the system, just as we can’t cure a person, a dog, or a tree, but we might cure specific problems in the system, which ail, or plague the economic system. The same is true for the desktop audio ills. The desktop computer has an audio system, and if it is judged to be not behaving well, we might need to cure the computer. We don’t cure the entire computer, we don’t cure the audio system, we cure the problem in the system.
Cure Illnesses not Symptoms
It’s all too easy to confuse symptoms with the illness, needing to be cured. It’s a problem often faced and failed by medical practitioners. Is a headache a disease? No, it’s a symptom of a problem. But if a severe headache lasts for months, it can be classified as a disease – a migraine headache. Did failure to cure make it a disease?
An elementary illness is the intersection of a cause and the negative consequences of that cause. “An element of illness has three parts: the present cause; its consequences, the signs and symptoms of the illness; and the intersection of cause and consequences, such that we believe the cause results in the consequences.” – A Definition and Exploration of Cure.
The patient with a migraine headache has an illness. Is it curable? A curable illness is more than the signs and symptoms, it includes the cause. We can treat the signs and symptoms – but those treatments cannot cure the illness.
We can’t cure our self-isolation boredom, our quarantine blues, or our wanderlust, until we address the cause. We might find very effective treatments for the signs and symptoms, but they won’t cure. The problem might wax and wane over time. The boredom or blues will be cured when the self-isolation or quarantine causes are addressed. The wanderlust? Maybe it needs to be accepted as a natural, healthy attribute, not an illness.
A Cure is the found in the Present Cause
An illness is cured when the present cause has been addressed. The clear definition has a few more conditions. An illness has been cured when: ( A Definition and Exploration of Cure)
- the present cause has been successfully addressed (or is gone)
- the signs and symptoms attributable to the cause have faded or are gone
- damage caused by the illness has healed. Note: many illnesses do not cause damage, injury illnesses consist only of damage.
- no more medicines are required for signs and symptom attributable to the presence of the cause
We can apply this same logic to any system problem. To cure a problem in any system – we need to identify and address the present cause, the cure cause. When we believe the cause has been addressed and the problem appears to be gone, when damage created by the problem is repaired, and when no more remedial actions are required to address the ongoing problem – it is cured. For simple problems, like the audio desktop ills there is often no damage to repair. More complex problems, like Turkey’s ailing economy might be cured – but to be cured and know that we caused the cure, requires confidence in the cause(s), the cure actions, and the cured status.
Kepner-Tregoe’s famous books The Rational Manager, and The New Rational Manager, made many references to cause, but missed the concept of present cause. The following quotes from the book A New Theory of Cure, providehttps://www.amazon.com/NEW-Theory-Cure-Tracy-Kolenchuk/dp/B099BYN91J some expansion of their concepts in brackets make this more clear.
“Problem solving {curing} requires cause and effect thinking” (KT-TNRM)
“A problem {illness} is the visible effect of a {present} cause” “If performance {healthiness} once met the SHOULD and no longer does, then a change has occurred.” “In some cases, however, a negative deviation in performance {signs and symptoms of illness}… has always existed” (KT-TNRM)
Present Cause
A curable problem exists in the present. We cannot cure the problems of yesterday, only their present consequences.
This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth:
Every cause is a mother, its effect the child.
When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause
and gives birth to wondrous effects.
These causes are generation on generation,
but it needs a very well lighted eye
to see the links in their chain. – RUMI
Past causes are in the past and cannot be addressed. They are gone, not accessible to curing actions. Their effects become the present cause. When an ailment can be cured, it can only be cured by addressing a present cause.
There are two basic types of causes, responsible for illness and for healthiness: processes and attributes. – A Theory of Cure. We might view the two as verb causes and noun causes – verbs and nouns which together create a system. A verb cause is an ongoing process (or absence of process) that causes healthiness, sometimes illness. An noun cause is a thing, or the absence of a thing, that causes healthiness, sometimes illness. Verb caused problems – process problems – are cured by adding, removing, or changing an ongoing process. Noun caused problems – attribute problems – are cured by adding, removing, or changing the attribute, the thing causing the problem. Attributes are not active, they can only cause problems by interfering with healthy processes.
We often, and perhaps too easily, think of illnesses as caused by things, by attributes or their absences. The common cold is caused by a virus. Scurvy is caused by an absence of Vitamin C. This simplistic view facilitates many cures. We know how to cure scurvy. But it often fails as well: “There is no cure for the common cold.”
Attribute caused problems are cured by actions that transform the attribute. Once the attribute cause is successfully addressed – changed, removed, or sometimes added, the illness, the problem is gone. Cured. Vitamin C deficiency is cured with Vitamin C.
Process problems have ongoing causes and ongoing cures. A dietary deficiency of Vitamin C is not cured by consuming Vitamin C, it is only truly cured when the diet is healthed.
Damage is an injury, a problem that exists after the cause has gone – it is a type of attribute problem, cured by healing, by a process that changes the injury attribute.
There is no clear distinction between different problem elements when the problem exists. The distinction is made by a cure. The cure proves the cause.
If the problem was not cured – either the action, or the purported cause was wrong.
Processes of body, mind, spirit, community, and environment enable and facilitate life, healthiness, and illness.
– A Theory of Cure
There is considerable variation in disease naming, some diseases are named by past causes (cat scratch disease), some by present causes (dysentery), others by consequences – signs and symptoms (depression). In living entities we might find the cure cause of an illness element in the individual’s diet, body, mind, spirit, communities, or environment.
Proof of Cause
The cure proves the cause and the type of cause. Each individual cure element proves an elementary cause. Until there is a cure – we can speculate about the cause, gather statistics about causes, but in each individual case, only a cure can prove the cause.
When addressing a cause does not cure an illness element, then either:
– the cause was not successfully addressed, or
– the cause addressed was not in the causal chain of the illness being addressed.
A Definition and Exploration of Cure
A cure failure does not prove a not cause. If we address the wrong cause, we might cure a different problem, create a problem, or cause something completely different to occur. When a compound problem has several independent causes, addressing a single cause might not make an observable difference, even though it cures a single problem element.
Every true cure is a single case, an anecdote – there are no statistical cures, although we can create cure statistics. Each illness element can only be cured once. Each elementary problem can only be resolved once. We cannot test multiple cure alternatives unless we can re-create the exact same problem.
Remission?
Cured cases don’t have remissions. An illness, or a problem cured is cured – or not. Of course, if the cause recurs, a new – similar or identical problem – might occur. Remission is about the signs and symptoms of a problem, not a cure. When we address signs and symptoms and ignore cause, we can create remission, but not cure.
Elementary Problems
A single element of illness has a single present cause – A Definition and Exploration of Cure.
An elementary problem has one single present cause. Complex and compound problems have multiple present causes, and thus require multiple cures. It is likely that the Turkish economic problems are very complex – even though political leaders might wish to resolve them with simple actions. The desktop audio problem, on the other hand, might have a single cause, and a single cure. The complexity of a problem is defined by the cure. If a single action or set of actions to address a single cause produces a cure, the problem was elementary. If independent actions, to address different causes are needed, each producing only a partial cure, the problem was complex or compound.
Present Chains of Cause
Every causal process is part of a present chain, where a causes b, b causes c, c causes d, and so on. We can often break the causal chain down into smaller and smaller elements. For any true element in a causal chain – addressing that element addresses the process cause and cures the problem.
Every life process, and any system process, consists of an interaction between one or more processes and one or more attributes. An element of a process consists of a single process and a single attribute. When two or more components (an attribute and a process) are creating a problem – a change to either the attribute or the process might cure the problem. Regardless, when we are successful, the cure proves the cause. A different cure might have proven a different cause – but we can rarely go back in time with living systems. Sometimes we can go forward to the prior situation with non-living systems.
Compound Problems
A compound problem has two or more independent causes. One cure action is required for each illness element, for each cause.
Complex Problems
A complex illness exists when a present illness is the present cause of another illness – A Theory of Cure
We often don’t notice, or even actively ignore a problem until it causes damage. However, once damage is caused – there are two problems to cure. Sometimes – an accident causes an injury, a single illness. In other cases injuries might be caused by an infection or an ongoing causal problem like scurvy. If the initial problem still exists, it must be resolved and the damage must be repaired. Two cures. Curing the primary problem might allow the secondary to self-resolve, but curing the secondary problem only buys time until the primary problem creates it again.
A New Theory of Cure
There is no general old theory of cure that can be applied to all cases of illness, or to all system problems. The book A New Theory of Cure provides a general framework for solving elementary problems, that can be expanded to solve – to cure – more complex problems. What can we learn?
Health is whole, slow and steady, honest and true.
Health is the best cure, the only true cure
– the Healthicine Creed
The best cures come from health
The same is true of curing system problems. We cure the problem by healthing the system. However, judging healthiness of life entities is not trivial, and judging healthiness of systems is more challenging. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – and the best system for one person or community might be worst for a different person or community.
to your health, tracy
Founder: Healthicine
Author: A New Theory of Cure
Note: This is an updated post, originally published in April 2020.