Homeopathy Repertory

Study of Materia Medica in Relation to Repertory

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Homeopathic Materia Medica consists of genuine, pure, reliable and authenticated symptoms of simple substances ascertained after complete proving on relatively healthy human beings.

Knowledge of the Materia Medica is quite essential for repertorisation. But it is impossible to keep in one’s head the mass of symptoms as recorded in an encyclopedia of symptoms. No mind can memorize ALL the symptoms of ALL the drugs with their characteristics and gradations. Many practitioners find it difficult to practice Homoeopathy  in a straight way. Any attempt to find out  a similar remedy by going through the provings of  the drugs, is a thing of despair. Repertory is a valuable help as it is an index, a catalogue of the symptoms of the Materia Medica, neatly arranged in a practical form and also indicating the relative gradation of drugs but it is also not the final answer to find the simillimum

“From the comparative study of our drugs, we many of course, at times recognize a suitable remedy for a given case. But to do this, we must possess a sound knowledge of Materia Medic. Without a good command over our principal subject – Drug pathogenesis, it is impossible to arrive at a right conclusion”.

By close and persistent study of the drugs of our Materia Medica as individual personalities, it is possible to become quite familiar with them and retain a mental picture. When you see a case, immediately the picture of the drug is awakened in your mind. If you had not had the idea of the remedy in your mind, you would not also see it in your patient. And you have to study and restudy the remedies and perceive the personality of each one, intelligently.

“If you are to be a good prescribe, by the way, your drugs have got to be people for you, with whim, fancies and terrors, with tempers and idiosyncrasies and characteristics, you have got to see them talking about the world, speaking and moving and halting, with the bodies-minds-souls of men. You have got to travel with them in bus, train and tram and they will betray themselves, buttoned up and shrinking together or loose and jolly and open, fidgety, restless, fearful, dull and inert, quarrelling for an open window, growling at the draught with the windows closed. You have got to dine with them and the will reveal themselves in their relation to food and drink and in the mental revelations such convivial moments of relaxation call forth. You may spot them standing for preference or sinking always into the nearest seat, stoop shouldered and drooping or erect and full of ‘go’, depressed and querulous, restless and anxious as their deeply sinned faces testify, smooth and smug, dirty complexioned and careless of appearance, chalky faced and flabby of superlative tissue, compact and hard as nails, fault-finding-affectionate and mild – responsive to every wave of sentiments and emotions – dull and indifferent. Look for them everywhere and learn them and they will betray themselves at every turn, and you will often save yourselves hours of solid work, by spotting them as they enter your consulting room.( Dr M Tyler )”

“You can know one drug from another by studying their points of difference. Drugs impinge in their resemblance and separate in their difference. Drugs, which produce similar symptoms or affect similar organs and tissues of the body, are similar to one another. They can only be differentiated by the study of their mentals and modalities of the drug.( Dr Farrington)”

What often makes a cure hard is the laying of too much stress upon some particular factor at the expense of the disease picture as a whole thus destroying its symmetry and forming a distorted conception of the natural image of the sickness. This does not, however, mean that all symptoms stand on the same level for certain effects must be more prominent than others, yet be part and parcel of them. This is the sense in which we must learn to know our remedies, just as we do our friends by their air or personality, and ever-changing composite effect, but always reflecting the same motive.

Repertory is an aid to the Materia Medica . When you find indicated medicine or medicines through repertorisation, you should not be satisfied with it but you must read the pathogenesis effects of the medicine in the Materia Medica to see that other symptoms including those we have taken for repertory work are found in the same medicine and get confirmed the medicine by comparing the symptoms of the case. The remedy which comes through repertorisation is best described in Materia Medica and not in the repertory.

Only by such procedure we can come to the simillimum. Dr Kent advises that at the final stage of differentiation when the choice has been limited to a few remedies the Homeopathic Materia Medica should be studied carefully and the selection of the remedy finally made on the basis of the picture presented in it.. WE DO NOT HAVE DRUGS FOR DISEASE BUT HAVE DRUGS FOR INDIVIDUALS.

About the author

Dr. Manish Bhatia

- BHMS, BCA, M.Sc Homeopathy (UK), CICH (Greece), MD (Hom)
- Associate Professor, Organon & Homeopathic Philosophy, SKH Medical College, Jaipur
- Founder Director of Hpathy.com
- Editor, Homeopathy for Everyone
- Co-author - Homeopathy and Mental Health Care: Integrative Practice, Principles and Research
- Author - Lectures on Organon of Medicine vol 1, 2, 3. CCH Approved. (English, German, Bulgarian)
- Awardee - Raja Pajwan Dev Award for Excellence in the Field of Medicine; APJ Abdul Kalam Award for Excellence in Homeopathy Education
- Visit Dr. Bhatia's website

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