For the writing of this classic text on anthroposophical medicine, Rudolf Steiner collaborated with the physician Ita Wegman in order to help rejuvenate the healing arts with the aid of spiritual knowledge.

Without rejecting or undermining modern medicine, there is an effort to expand the allopathic medical approach beyond the current materialistic perspective into a more comprehensive view of the human being.

Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman considered it important to add to the existing knowledge those that can emerge from the perception of the spirit, allowing us to understand the processes of illness and healing.