Archive for September, 2013

authentic-cures

Reviewed by Dr Firuzi V Mehta

B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.

ISBN 978-81-319-1913-2

First Edition: 2012

Paperback

Pages 439

Price INR 449/=

Dr Subrata K Banerjea is a homeopathic physician of international repute, a lecturer and an author with clinical practice both in England and India. Coming from a family of several generations of homeopaths, Dr Banerjea has written a number of books imparting his remarkable knowledge especially focussing on miasmatic prescribing.

This book is a collection of 74 cured cases described in detail and 101 short case stories.
The detailed cases cover the different body systems: Cardio-vascular diseases, Dermatological diseases, ENT diseases, Endocrinological disorders, Gastro-intestinal diseases, Gynaecological diseases, Uro-genital diseases, Neoplastic diseases, Neurological diseases, Psychiatric disorders, Respiratory diseases, Rheumatological diseases and Urological diseases. The short case stories are interesting to read since they highlight the reasons for the choice of the remedy.

In recent years, there has been a lot of confusion about case taking methods. Several homeopaths have developed their own methods of analysing the case and selecting the right remedy. There are differences in interpretation of the Organon of Medicine, sometimes in accordance with the needs of an individual method. Apart from difficulties in remedy selection, there are ever prevalent issues of potency selection and repetition which are always subjective for different practitioners who claim excellent results with even drastically differing methods.

Homeopaths have often resorted to creating their own favoured methods but often, what seems to work for one does not work for the other. A multitude of cases of homeopathic cures are published in the many homeopathic journals every year but only a few of such cases give a complete understanding of the author’s methods.

In such a scenario, Dr Banerjea’s book comes like a breath of fresh air. Dr Banerjea has outlined the structured approach that he follows and has even referenced the information wherever relevant. All through the book, there are references to the relevant aphorisms of the Organon of Medicine from which he has sourced his methods which are in perfect resonance with classical homeopathy. Due to his practice both in India and England, he has experience with patients of widely differing backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. Despite these differences he has concluded that all patients will respond to careful enquiry that will then ensure the most correct prescription. Dr Banerjea lays great emphasis on a thorough case taking and this is clearly visible in all the cases described in his book.

As we read the book, Dr Banerjea’s method becomes clear in our minds. His approach for every case includes:

    M Miasmatic totality
    T Totality of symptoms
    E Essence which includes temperament, posture, behaviour
    K Keynotes which should cover peculiar and rare symptoms

Priority is given to ascertaining the cause of symptoms.

Dr Banerjea describes the differences in approach that are needed for cases with and without clarity of symptoms. He highlights how a head to foot miasmatic assessment of the case is done. This is a very welcome aspect of the book since the topic of miasms is often confusing for both students and practitioners. Homeopaths with no clear understanding of miasms often ignore them and this often leads to superficial prescribing and hence recurrence of ailments or progression of the disease.

Each of the 74 cases illustrated in the book gives an in-depth explanation of how the miasmatic analysis is done for the case and how the remedy covering the miasmatic background.is chosen to cover the miasm.

Today most homeopaths have patients who are already on conventional medicine treatments. With the suppressive action of allopathic drugs, the symptom picture of the patient is modified to a great extent and the original unmodified picture that we need for homeopathic prescribing is often missing. Dr Banerjea describes how he treats such patients initially which results in the possibility of weaning off the allopathic drugs so that clear symptoms arise for the further in-depth homeopathic treatment.

Dr Banerjea gives details about his remedy dispensing method in water which has the advantage of avoiding aggravations and permits strong dynamic penetrating action.

Of great interest is the fact that he often allows his remedy to work undisturbed for a number of months especially in chronic cases. He emphasises his belief, that we never gain anything by premature repetition.

Each of his 74 cases begins with

    Presenting Complaints
    Investigations before and after the treatment
    Case analysis, Miasmatic diagnosis and Basis of the final prescription
    Remedy Reaction
    Prescription chart giving detailed follow-up and treatment at each step.

The cases are accompanied by images of the medical reports and photos of the patient especially in skin ailments. One drawback is that the print of the reports is often too small to be read, but this is remedied by the free CD that comes with this book. Every case in the book is followed by a reference to the location of the details of the case in the accompanying CD.

A few negatives for the book – paper quality could have been better and the first two pages could have been better printed to look less like photocopies! A few typographical errors have crept in at different places in the book.

Overall, however, it is an excellent presentation of good homeopathic cures that will boost the confidence of homeopaths to use the classical method for all cases, even ones with deep pathology. A book well worth the price.

As Dr Banerjea writes in his Preface, this book is a celebration of what Homeopathy can do!

(First published in The Homoeopathic Heritage, Vol. 39, No. 03, June, 2013 & published at hpathy.com in July 2013)

homeopathic-psychiatry

Author: Liz Lalor

Reviewed by: Dr. Firuzi Mehta

First Edition 2011

Published by B. Jain Archibel S.P.R.L.
Printed in India
ISBN: 978-2-87491-016-6
Hardbound
No. of pages: 851
€ 38.00 | US$ 50.00 | £ 32.00 | INR 2650.00

Having completed one reading of all 851 pages of Liz Lalor’s book ‘Homeopathic Psychiatry – Understanding The Use And Meaning Of The Delusion Rubrics In Case Analysis’, I am now wondering how I can create a concise write-up about this book. It is not as simple as I thought it would be, for the simple reason that the book is more complex than it appears at first glance. For those who will read the book, it attempts to bring a deeper understanding of the Delusion rubrics in the Mind section of our repertories.

The author, Liz Lalor, has a background in Psychology and she brings her 30 years of counselling experience into this enormous and painstaking work. For too long, the important Delusion rubrics have been either neglected from a lack of understanding or misused by being taken literally or completely misinterpreted.

The book undertakes a psychoanalytic study of the meaning and application of Delusion rubrics in homeopathic case taking and case analysis. Liz Lalor emphasises the fact that it is necessary to properly understand why a constitutional remedy profile needs the psychological delusions that it has. With this understanding, we can recognise the remedies our patients need with greater ease. Different remedies have their own different needs of maintaining a certain delusion. Once we identify the psychological behavioural patterning that is inherent within the remedy profile, this insight can be used to identify the Simillimum.

In the beginning of this book, she has laid down four necessary requirements for the use of the Delusion rubrics. She clearly demarcates when the Delusion rubrics are to be used in comparison with similar non-delusion Mind rubrics.

A section on Rubric Categories follows, where she identifies the five stages that a patient will progress through in case-taking and then she uses these stages to group the Delusion rubrics accordingly. This is an important part of the case analysis process, because recognising the psychological stages helps in finding the Simillimum by narrowing down the remedies being considered. In explaining the Delusion rubrics in each different category, she analyses and describes numerous remedies, making the Delusion rubrics come alive for the reader.

The latter part of the book has the Case Companion to Homeopathic Psychiatry, where she presents twelve cases from her practice and takes her readers step-by-step with her, explaining the process of identifying the Delusion rubrics and using them to arrive at the Simillimum.

This book does not make for easy reading – it requires time and concentration to process everything that Liz Lalor writes and for the book’s full impact to be felt. In fact, I need a second reading and look forward to whatever new insights a repeat reading will bring to this complex subject.

So what has this book brought to me? It has brought me the realisation of how I have often neglected the Delusion rubrics. Reading this book has brought me several ‘VOILA!’ moments where understanding and clarity have dawned suddenly and I have identified remedies for some patients whose cases have seemed stuck. I can see that correct application of Liz Lalor’s work will be very helpful in homeopathic practice.

As regards printing quality, B. Jain Archibel deserve congratulations. Paper quality, binding and print are all very good. It has been a pleasure to read this book.

Published at hpathy.com in November 2012

Second Edition 2010 (The first edition was published in 2007)

kent-unpublished-mm
Reviewed by Dr. Firuzi Mehta 
Published by B. Jain Archibel s.p.r.l.
Printed in India
ISBN: 978-2-87491-006-7
Hardbound
No. of pages: 1702
€ 45.00 | US$ 60.00 | INR 2,600.00
 
When I received this book to review, I was excited since I had loved reading Dr. Ahmed Currim’s ‘Collected Works of Arthur Hill Grimmer’ and I knew what an excellent compilation it was. I have great respect for Dr. Currim’s work which obviously stems from his love of homeopathy.

‘J.T.Kent Unpublished Materia Medica’ begins with the interesting story of how the editor, Dr. Ahmed Currim, managed, in 1980, to retrieve 2 volumes of almost unknown notes of Materia Medica that Dr. Kent had given in 1895 to his students in Chicago at the Hering Medical College. Later, in 1985, Dr. Currim came across another, similar, 3 volume set of lecture notes that Dr. Kent had given to his students in 1893-94. Some years later, Dr. Currim acquired an old volume of notes on Materia Medica that Dr. Kent presented at the Dunham Medical College in 1901-02.

Having acquired these priceless notes which showed the progression of Kent’s thinking in Materia Medica from 1893-1902, Dr. Currim decided to edit, correct, classify and present these invaluable hidden treasures to the profession. This book is the result. It contains notes on several remedies not found in any of Kent’s already existing works like Materia Medica, Lesser Writings and Gypser’s Minor Writings. It also contains new pictures not known before of many of the regular well-known remedies, thereby widening our understanding of these remedies.

One hundred fifty five remedies have been discussed in this huge tome of 1,702 pages. They have been nicely set for ease of reading with important features set in bold type. Each remedy description begins with a section discussing general action of the remedy, followed by the Generals; then the order of sections follows the usual trend of chapters seen in Kent’s repertory: Mind, Vertigo, Head and so on.

What makes this book so special is the intermingling of tips on dealing with conditions, remedy comparisons with finer points for differentiating remedies, general hints on case management, explanation of symptoms and brief miasmatic explanations with suggestions on miasmatic prescribing. Small cases have been described off and on throughout the book which helps in deepening our understanding of the remedies and imprinting the remedy pictures on our minds. The potencies used have been mentioned, which again helps to highlight Kent’s thinking process. At some places, details about translation errors from the actual provings are included, which helps in clarification and correction of actual symptoms. Dr. Currim’s viewpoints and notes from his own valuable experience have been added as Editor’s Notes throughout the book.

Despite being a record of symptoms, the book makes for interesting reading throughout, since it is scattered with numerous little golden nuggets of valuable information which add an extra dimension to our mental images of remedies.

The quality of printing, binding and paper do not disappoint. The paper is smooth though thin, which it had to be, otherwise it would have consumed two or more volumes! A few insignificant typos have crept in, which considering the vastness of the work, can be easily overlooked.

The contents of the book display Kent’s vast knowledge and experience, hence this book serves as a valuable addition to our homeopathic literature, and will be useful to all homeopaths who strive to constantly better themselves.

Published at hpathy.com in September 2012

Fourth Edition
250 pages
ISBN code 978-81-319-0341-4
B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.
Rs.295.00
Reviewed by Firuzi Mehta
 
This book has been written by a dermatologist, Dr. Ramji Gupta and a homeopathic physician, Dr. R.K. Manchanda, thus providing a good balance between disease descriptions and homeopathic remedies indicated for them.

This is the fourth edition of the book, the first of which was published in 2005. Right from its inception, it has been a good book to have; now it comes to us in an improved version with errors corrected, more photographs added and in general, it has become a more valuable book for homeopaths.

We say that as homeopaths, we don’t need a diagnosis for treatment. Why then the need of such a book? Homeopaths often see patients who come for the treatment of skin disorders; often after the patients have done the rounds of dermatologists and have not found lasting relief. Sometimes patients are aware of the dangers of suppressing skin ailments and make their way to a homeopath.
Homeopathic colleges provide a cursory introduction to dermatology which in no way prepares a homeopath to confidently deal with what he/she sees in practice.

Though homeopathy does not treat a disease diagnosis, it is essential that homeopaths know what ailment they are dealing with. Knowing the diagnosis is important for good judgement and case management during the course of treatment. Different skin ailments have different manifestations, phases of activity and phases of remission – the homeopath has to be well versed with these possibilities – a remission phase should not be happily considered as cure!

The book begins by providing the general principles of homeopathic treatment and goes on to elaborate the miasmatic concept of skin diseases. It discusses the structure and function of the skin as an organ and defines the terminology used for skin lesions.

Different skin disorders are dealt with in well-organised chapters – Hereditary Disorders, Nutritional Deficiencies, Metabolic Disorders, Diseases due to Physical Agents, Bacterial Infections, Fungal Infections, Viral Infections, Diseases due to Arthropods, Diseases of the Hair, Diseases of the Sebaceous Glands, Diseases of the Sweat Glands, Diseases of the Nails, Disorders of Pigmentation, Allergic Disorders, Auto-Immune Disorders, Skin Tumours, Miscellaneous Disorders.
There are separate chapters on Tuberculosis and Leprosy, two of the common scourges of Indian society. There is a separate chapter elaborating homeopathic medicines used commonly in dermatology, with the description of the remedies in relation to the skin. A final annexure classifies different skin diseases according to their miasmatic status.

Plenty of positives – The book feels good in terms of paper quality and readability.
As regards content, the book has many good photographs of different skin conditions, good descriptions of most of the common dermatological conditions seen in practice and a decent listing of homeopathic remedies, with some chapters enabling close differentiation between remedies.

Just a few negatives – the index is decent, but could have been a bit more comprehensive, making searches easier. A few typos have crept in, which will hopefully get corrected in later reprints. It would have been good to have finer differentiation between remedies for all the different skin conditions within.

All in all, a practical and useful book for homeopaths who deal with patients having skin conditions.

Published at hpathy.com in April 2012.