Clinical Materia Medica with Cases
Philip Bailey uses his wealth of clinical experience working with Lac remedies to flesh out fully rounded pictures of eight milk remedies. Each chapter is based on personal experience using the remedy, and includes many original observations. With the help of this knowledge, homeopaths can deepen their understanding of Lac remedies beyond rubrics and stereotypes, to the complexities of real people. The breadth of Baileys clinical descriptions is matched by their depth. The essence of each remedy picture is fully explored in the book, and studied from numerous angles. The result is the kind of rich and nuanced materia medica that is easy to relate to, and easy to apply in clinical practice. Each chapter is accompanied by case histories, expressed in the actual words of the patients, enabling a thorough examination of how each remedy's themes and essence are expressed verbally.
Bailey paints a rich psychological picture of the main themes in Lac cases, from early dynamics of inadequate bonding to mother, through victim-consciousness to compensatory spiritual idealism, whilst emphasising the split in every Lac case between the worldly and the spiritual, and the ambivalence which results from this split.
The book is fully indexed.
Some of the most valuable insights into various homeopathic medicines come from their use in actual practice. In Lac Remedies in Practice Philip Bailey generously shares his clinical experience with remedies made from milk and how they can help patients who have suffered their entire lives due to lack of appropriate bonding with the mother. - Jane T. Cicchetti - author of Dreams, Symbols, and Homeopathy, Archetypal Dimensions of Healing.
- Author: Philip Bailey
- ISBN: 9789076189277
- 220 pages
- Hardback
- Published in 2010
- Printed in Netherlands
Reprinted with the permission of The ARH from "Homeopathy in Practice" Journal, Spring 2011 edition. Reviewed by Theresa Partington.
The author of this attractively presented and eminently readable book presents eight Lac remedies that he has used extensively in his practice, drawing together themes from provings (dream and conventional), signatures, and elements to give us a deeper understanding of them. His detailed remedy comparisons and reference to well-known stars of small and large screen reminded me of Catherine Coulter's Portraits of Homoeopathic Medicines. Each remedy is backed with cases and analyses, and it is in these that the strength of the work lies.
The essence of the Lac family in general is 'incomplete bonding', which either stems from the patient's own history or reflects a family trait that can be seen through generations. Ambivalence and conflicting impulses are the manifestations. In relationships the patient may swing between coldness and clinginess, and there can be ambivalence about who is the carer, and who the child, as boundaries get blurred. There is 'victim consciousness' which can lead Lac people into the arena of activism. Spirituality and idealism are other recurring themes.
The specific Lacs covered are Humanum, Felinum, Equis, Caninum, Defloratum, Leoninum, Delphinum and Lupinum, although the last three are much shorter contributions than the first five.
Philip Bailey does refer back to earlier provings by Nancy Herrick and others, but he takes the analysis much further, leaning less on the 'she dreamed about horses, so I gave her Lac equis' approach than on close observation of animal behaviour, the application of the general family essence to the particular remedy and, above all, on his own successful cases. This clinical input with its long-term follow-ups takes the materia medica that crucial stage further that is essential if a remedy is to become mainstream and reliable.
The leading competitors for space on the financially-strapped homeopath's bookshelf are Sankaran's Provings (Homeopathic Medical Publishers, 1998), which includes just four of these milks, and The Materia Medica of Milk which comprises collected articles published by Links (Homeolinks 2002). How do these compare? Sankaran re-proved Deflorarum (cow), Humanum, Caprinum (goat) and Leoninum, mainly with conventional provings and thus has the advantage of including Caprinum and a bit of added value for those of us who find dream provings a bit frusrtating. These are just straight provings with minimal interpretation. The Links book has all Bailey's remedies plus Lac maternum, Ovis (sheep), Owleum (owl), Suis (pig), Asinum (donkey), and Caprinum. Apart from the Maternum and Caprinum this is no great asset as articles on those other remedies are unsubstantiated by either conventional proving or clinical practice and weren't really ready for publication in the first place, in my opinion! Bailey wins on points.
But would reading this book give you confidence in prescribing a wider variety of Lac remedies? I think it would. Once you have grasped the fundamentals of the family, bringing that knowledge to bear on the milk of different animals opens up the options in a logical, usable way. Differential diagnosis with other better known remedies also helps, as does a useful index at the back that can be used as a mini-repertory.
What might have improved the book would have been more detail on the lion's, dolphin's and wolf's milks and the addition of Lacs Caprinum and Maternum, making it more complete as a reference source - but that, I suppose, is the downside of a book based on one practitioner's experience, which is all this claims to be.
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths. From 'The Homeopath' Journal, Autumn 2011 edition. Reviewed by Jean Duckworth.
Philip Bailey is perhaps best known for his book 'Homeopathic Psychology' a book I have greatly enjoyed over the years since its publication. For me Philip Baileys' books are ones that I dip in and out of if I want to 'see' a clinicians perspective of a remedy and this is no exception. There has been a great deal of interest over recent years in the Lac's as remedies and a number of books have been published including those by Nancy Herrick, Sankaran and Links. It might be asked if we need another one, my answer would be yes, when it comes in the form of Lac Remedies in Practice.
Lac Remedies in Practice opens with a very useful chapter outlining the main themes of the Lacs particularly around bonding difficulties between mother and baby and the long term sequelae that can arise from these problems. Interestingly, Bailey states that Lac remedies run in families and are genetically inherited, and he then goes on to develop these themes within the eight Lac remedies presented, one per chapter (Lac humanum, Lac felinum, Lac equis, Lac caninum, Lac defloratum. Lac leoninum, Lac delphinium, Lac lupinum). The Links book on Lac's does contain more remedies, but the way that Bailey crafts his material taken from provings (conventional and dream), materia medica (his own) and his own experience makes it for me a more exciting, readable book. The book contains rich descriptions about the remedies and also provides clear differentiations from other remedies and what is important for me, shows his analysis and reasoning for the prescriptions. Bailey appears to use LM potencies for most of his prescriptions in this book and I would have liked to explore whether this is just an extension of his normal practice or whether it is something that he finds particularly effective with either this group of patients or remedies.
The book itself is hard backed and just slightly bigger than A5, covers 220 pages and has a comprehensive index of themes. This book will stay as a useful addition to my library.
