Decoding Mental Rubrics by Dr. Gaurang Gaikwad reviewed by Erzsébet Túrós.

Number of pages: 380

ISBN number: 978-93-5406-620-7

Softcover

Publisher: Dr. Gaurang Gaikwad

Available: Mumbai, Geneva

Price: 90 Euro ( there is discounted rate if books are bought in bundle along with Materia Medica of Sarcodes and Nosodes)

Have you ever found yourself in that situation, when you observed some features of the patient in front of you, a peculiarity in his behaviour and you searched for a Mind Rubric, to translate that exactly into the language of the Repertory?

I think it is something which happened to all of us, as homeopaths, because to convert the patient’s language into exact rubrics is very important in order to find the right remedy. To realize this, first and most important is to observe the patient, to listen to him carefully, but also to understand deeply and correctly the meaning of each rubric.

The book Decoding Mental Rubrics by Dr. Gaurang Gaikwad helps us in this regard.  Not only it does explain the meaning of each mental symptom, it also offers the translation and etymology of the word.

In addition, it indicates the remedies in which that symptom appears in the provings and makes the differential diagnosis between different remedies. And to make us understand even better, he exemplifies everything through clinical cases from his experiences.

For example, the rubric MIND, EMBITTERED, exasperated he describes as follows:

“Embittered is a feeling that causes (someone) to feel bitter or resentful; angry, hurt or resentful, because of one bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment; a kind of rancour or sour feeling.”

ORIGIN: From Old English bitter, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German bitter meaning to bite”

UNDERSTANDING: 

I had an interesting case of a 16-year-old who developed a cough that was better by lying down. When asked about stress in life he opened his wallet and showed me a photo of a middle-aged man.

I asked him who it was and he said, “This man is my father. When I see him I feel a deep bitterness that I cannot describe.”

I looked at the following rubrics: 

COUGH; LYING amel

MIND, EMBITTERED, exasperated

Kent gives four remedies for a cough that is better by lying down. One of the remedies is Manganum. It is one of the remedies in the Materia Medica which has the most embittered feeling.

In three day,s the cough vanished, and he felt much better.”

This case-example from Dr. Gaurang Gaikwad’s book shows how he wrote the book, helping us understand the exact meaning of the rubric, through origin of the word, followed by a case example, presented in a very easy to understand way, from his own experience. Dr. Gaurang’s book is very easy to read and to comprehend.

The author not only that presents us with the different rubrics, more than 1000 mind rubrics, but he also makes the differential diagnosis between different remedies. In this way we understand much deeper the peculiarities of each remedy.

For often used mind rubrics like Anxiety or Fears, he gives not only the origin, the understanding and the case example, but he also describes the understanding of  rubrics in different remedies and their patterns in the rubric.

In the mind rubric “Fear” he has given us an exhaustive description of the peculiarities  of the fear in different remedies, such as Calcarea carbonica, Lac defloratum, Opium, Stramonium, Arsenicum album, Kali carbonicum, etc., together with their specific rubrics and sub-rubrics from different Repertories (eg. Kent, Pierre Schmidt, Phatak, Knerr, Allen, Hering and others. He also gives examples through numerous cases.

Each case example is presented with their rubrics used in repertorization, which are usually very rare, difficult to find single remedy rubrics. Some examples of these specific rubrics:

MIND, Delusions, sees, thinks someone else sees for him (Kent)

MIND, Delusions, soda water, he is a bottle of (1)

MIND, Dellusions, water, lake, a spoonful of water is a

MIND, Desires, vexation things to say

MIND, Dwells, events, on past disagreeable; midnight after (1)

MIND, Envy, happy to see others, healthy to see others

MIND, Delusions, choked, of being, ice cold hands by etc.

Dr. Gaurang studies the rubrics given through provings and cross-references. He compiled a lot of data from both older and newer repertories and materia medicas.

This book would also be useful for homeopaths whose native language is not English, helping to clarify the exact meaning of the rubrics in order to use them correctly. I highly recommend this book for all the homeopaths who are wish to be as precise in their work as possible.