why do we repertorize? (more philosophy)

PURPOSE OF REPERTORY

1. To help us remember all the symptoms of the provings
2. Speedily review all the remedies known to produce the symptoms
3. Narrow the number of remedies for consideration
4. Help make the distinction between 2 or more indicated remedies
5. Aid us in the study of Materia Medica
6. Lead us to unknown remedies or aspects of remedies previously unknown to us (a particularly important use of repertory)


The two best known and most widely used methods for using Repertory are the method of Kent and the method of Boenninghausen.

Kent started with the highest expression of individuality in Man and used the Mind as the highest aspect of the Totality, then considered the Generals and then the Particulars (Hierarchy of Symptoms)

Boenninghausen, whose method sprang directly from Hahnemann’s method, looked at all symptoms from the groups of Location, Sensation, Modality and Concomitant

LIMITATIONS OF REPERTORY

1. Symptoms cannot be up-to-date (a problem perhaps solved to some degree with computer repertories and the internet)

2. Not all the symptoms in the Materia Medicas appear in a single Repertory
(Again a problem computer repertories can address if not solve)

3. Repertory does not replace an understanding of the philosophy – especially in the use of medicines to address Miasmatic issues or Obstacles to Cure, understanding the Central Disturbance over all the bits and pieces of the case.

4. One must understand the organisation of the repertory, which may have been logical to the compiler but not to the reader.

5. Never can replace a good knowledge of Materia Medica. Repertory is only meant to stimulate the memory of the prescriber, not replace study and knowledge.

6. The words of the provers may have been lost upon being translated into general rubrics eg.

I feel shattered by the loss of my dear parents… Becomes Ailments from loss of loved ones – the full and individual meaning is lost.

7. Meanings of words vary over time, for example Slang or changes to medical/psychiatric classifications.

8. Repertory implies a mechanical process for selection of symptoms and therefore remedies, but it remains always an Art and any mechanical approach will fail more often than succeed.

THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF BOENNINGHAUSEN

Boenninghausen, being a favoured disciple of Hahnemann, always followed four basic guiding rules in his practice:

1. The patient is ill not his parts or organs.

2. Nothing can be known of disease except signs and symptoms.

3. Symptoms furnish the only unfailing guide to the selection of the remedy.

4. The Similimum is only found in the peculiar, characteristic and individualising symptoms. It is also hardly ever found by using a single symptom no matter how strange.


His method was based on two doctrines:

The Doctrine of Generalisation

“What is true of the part, is true of the whole”
This of course places location as the least important of all considerations.

The Doctrine of Concomitants

Symptoms which occur in the same patient but do not have any physiological or pathological relationship are called concomitants, and are important.


Boenninghausen’s repertory was designed with the idea that the Totality was not just the sum of symptoms, but was in itself one grand symptom.

Much of the new methods of case-taking and diagnosis (ie. Sankaran et al.) relies on this approach.