Reviewed by Rochelle Marsden
Secrets of Case Interview – Dr. Amit Singh Pal
Paperback – 191 pages
First Published 2014 by the author
Price Rs. 350/- (contact for rate in India)
Available from the author – Contact:
Mobile: +91-8792768647 or Email: dr.amitpal@gmail.com
Dr. Amit Singh Pal states in the preface that this book is for serious students of homeopathy who want to study in detail the art of case taking. This is exactly what this book achieves. It is a book written in a very friendly, easy to read manner, for beginners and those who may not have had a comprehensive formal training.
Abbreviations are given at the front of the book which I like, but he also uses others i.e. PQRS which are not there and may not be understood by beginners.
The Introduction is excellent. He works from the premise “A well taken case is half cured” and talks about the importance of the doctor-patient relationship.
Chapter 1- He feels that to know your patient it is important to ‘know yourself’, and all the way through are exercises to carry out to reach this goal. He tells the reader that difficult cases often need rare remedies which I personally am not so sure about.
Chapter 2 – The author gives his prerequisites for case interviews, which include taking the case of a 5 year old on their own as he suggests the parents will have already analysed the information; a teenager with a friend who knows them; women should be accompanied as they can’t give their own case; males rarely state complete information and should be accompanied by their wives or mothers. This has to be looked at from the culture in India rather than in the West.
Chapter 3 – Here he gives some good mental pictures of how to spot various polychrest remedies and how to look for patterns.
Chapter 4 – Acute cases. He advocates keeping a separate book for acutes so they are easily accessible. The footnotes here were most interesting but I needed a magnifying glass to read them. They would be better in the main text.
Chapter 5 – Chronic cases. This is out of necessity a long chapter. There is a Case Taking Proforma, with explanations which would be very useful to students.There is also reference to the caste system in India. There are useful clinical observances of patients that are not in the MM or Repertories with a good account of the sexual remedies. At the end of the chapter there is a link to a printable blank Proforma which is also printed out on subsequent pages.
After this is a FAQ section and then the rest of the book is filled not only with cases but with an analysis of them, which is very comprehensive in places. The first 5 cases are from his earlier years and the last 5 cases and analysis are from his recent cases, including an internet case. He mentions that he uses LM potencies but unfortunately I didn’t find any examples of this in the given cases.
Overall I would recommend that this book would make an excellent addition to students’ libraries especially but not exclusively for those from India. There are one or 2 typos in the book but not enough to distract. It deserves to be a best seller amongst students and newly qualified homeopaths.
