ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS TO 300 REMEDIES
Why do we get sick? Do our illnesses occur by chance, or are they a result of childhood predispositions which manifest later in adulthood? In The Spirit of Homeopathic Medicines, famed French homeopath Didier Grandgeorge traces the common thread connecting our physical suffering and unconscious motivations. Grandgeorge matches more than three hundred homeopathic remedies to the emotional substructure underlying physical ailments. His lively descriptions elucidate many homeopathic remedies and their applications.
Praise for The Spirit of Homeopathic Medicines:
"This is a book that each person concerned about staying healthy should absolutely read." Dominique Lapierre, author of The City of Joy, Is Paris Burning? and O Jerusalem!
The Spirit of Homeopathic Medicines is full of witticisms and French esprit. Grandgeorge's puns and associations will appeal to those favouring concise homeopathic materia medica. - Frans Vermeulen, MD, author of Synoptic Materia Medica and Concordant Materia Medica
Grandgeorge extracts the dominant idea of a case and the core of each remedy, observing his children's cases clearly. He translates these observations with brilliance into the required homeopathic remedy. - Harry van der Zee, MD, Editor, Homeopathic Links
Grandgeorge is a master artist, taking us deep into the spirit of each remedy with just a few words. He explores the mystery and complexity of homeopathic medicines, drawing from more than 20,000 consultations. - Jean Lacombe, Director, Centre de Techniques Homeopathiques, Montreal
- Author: Didier Grandgeorge
- ISBN: 9781556432613
- 221 pages
- Paperback
- Published in 1998
- Printed in United States
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, from 'The Homeopath' Journal, Summer 1998 edition. Reviewed by Anna Bryant.
The spirit of this book, partly owing to a meticulous translation, is delicate and insightful. Dr Grandgeorge writes with an easy charm which makes this materia medica a pleasure to read. The book is set out as an alphabetical materia medica, providing, as the subtitle explains, 'essential insights to 300 remedies'. Like Roger Morrison's Desktop Guide, the information is modern and based on the author's clinical observations, but The Spirit of Homeopathic Medicines is less formal and focuses on essences. Many of the remedy pictures are illustrated with cases from Dr Grandgeorge's largely paediatric practice. Insights into character observed in children have been developed into themes which can be applied to adult cases. As a psychologist once said 'I've never met a grown up'.
A wide range of remedies is covered, and there are no dry one-liners. The case of Oleum Jecoris Aselli (cod liver oil to the uninitiated) is one of several examples in which the adult bringing the child is helped by the same remedy. While the text has a relaxed style it is also economical. You don't need to don your academic waders to glean useful and intelligent concepts. A helpful stylistic device is the subtitling of over half the remedies. For example, Kali blchromicum is 'The Scapegoat'; Sarsaparilla suffers 'Lost Heritage'. These themes are explained, developed and illustrated with cases and they help the reader to remember the central idea.
English-speaking readers will enjoy the freshness of this materia medica. Dr Grandgeorge is a classical homoeopath practising in France. He writes in a less Kentian tradition than we are familiar with, and his modern influences are different from those we know. The French potencies are lower than our Kentian scale. As the introduction explains, the range is from 5c to 30c. A case example for Pyrogen tells of a boy rescued from death by a repeated seventh centesimal. The lesser influence of Kent in France has also meant that Dr Grandgeorge has been free to think originally about well known remedies and, in conjunction with other continental homoeopaths, to develop modern perspectives. The idea for Tarentula hispanica, 'Fear of Slavery', is credited to a Swiss homoeopath, Dr Guy Loutan.
The translation of the book is exemplary. Juliana Barnard has taken on the spirit of the text, entering into its conceptual precision and wordplay. The often punning remedy subtitles are adapted creatively and are explained in footnotes. The translator's notes help the reader to see through the linguistic barrier and enjoy the jokes. For example, the Calcarea fluorica patient shows her varicose vein, exclaiming 'Vous avez vu la varice?' 'La varice', the varicose vein, is phonetically identical to 'I'avarice, which is the theme for Calcarea fluorica.
Dr Grandgeorge's witty observation shows attention to the detail of the patient's language. Throughout the book I found only one ambiguity in translation. Medorrhinum is said to have 'cavities between the upper central incisors'. Are these cavities, or is it a gap, as exhibited by Chaucer's lusty Wife of Bath? There is also a rendition of French idiom to comic effect: ' In addition, it is good to know that Natrum carbonicum individuals are people who often hurt their ankles'.... Well, yes.
A part of the liveliness of the book derives from the drama of the clinic. Dr Grandgeorge's aim is 'to relate the circumstances and the atmosphere in which the spirit of the remedy became apparent'. The reader can imagine the six-year-old Lycopodium dictator who has to be told 'in my best firm voice that if he cries, the doctor will not be pleased'. This scene brought to mind the chapter on 'Doctorship' in Stephen Potter's book, One Upmanship.
Another example is of the sports trainer who ruined his championship chances by taking heroin; he 'could have been a diamond' and is given Graphites. The author demonstrates a poise between the right-and left-brained approaches to medicine. His thought incorporates ideas from the laboratory, psychoanalysis and mythology. He is confident in his application of the homoeopathic principle to all human experience, 'To make our brain work, to create thoughts, we use substances similar to those present in certain flowers ... neurotransmitters are secreted into intercellular spaces in quantities ... equivalent to the fifth centesimal'. This book taught me that the plant and animal substances of remedies relate closely to human physiological analogues. Another example, Oscillococcinum, 'the homoeopathic antiviral medicine', is made from the extract of ducks' livers and hearts. 'These extracts are rich in nucleic acids and other phosphoric compounds, which are structurally similar to viruses, and this produces an action in accordance with the law of similars'. This reminds me of 'Jewish penicillin', or chicken soup, which also has an anti-viral action.
For conscientious vegans I will add Dr Grandgeorge's observation about the economy of substance in homoeopathic preparations: 'The homoeopathic dilution of remedies... brings about daily the miracle of the loaves and fishes: one single gram of the mother tincture of Arnica provides enough Arnica 15c to treat the entire human race'.
Psychoanalytical reflections are an important aspect of the book, and underpin much of the author's thought about remedy essences. As far as I know, Dr Grandgeorge's correspondence of the Freudian developmental stages - oral, anal and oedipal - to Hahnemann's miasms, is original. The author's understanding of infant experience facilitates a new comprehension of the corresponding spirit of miasms and materia medica. For example, relating the oral stage to the psoric miasm, Dr Grandgeorge demonstrates why it is that allergic patients so often need the psoric remedies: 'The fear of dying from lack of ... basic needs is the fundamental psoric anxiety. We are in the oral stage .... Pleasure is found in caresses received (the baby with eczema demands more through the need for care of the skin), through breathing (the asthmatic child holds in the air, in fear of expelling it, and thus develops spasms), through nursing (the obese infant guzzles until stuffed)'.
Much of the materia medica is beautifully observed. For example: 'Cocculus wants to know the secret of the movements that make life exist, and hopes to find this out by listening to the last words of the dying'.
Aurum's theme is 'transgressing the law of the father'. '... the first homoeopathic dilution of Aurum appears in the Bible, when Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the stone tablets on which the Law of God is inscribed. He finds the Hebrews absorbed in worship of the golden calf. In anger, he breaks the golden calf into pieces, reduces it to a powder, and scatters it on the water, which he then gives the Hebrews to drink'.
There are practical tips too. In case of a nosebleed '...put a small piece of paper under the tongue. I do not know which reflex mechanism is activated, but the bleeding ceases right away, and this method rarely fails'.
On the whole, this is a useful book only to practitioners and students; not, as one cover review states, for 'each person concerned about staying healthy'. The book is clear in the way it conveys complex and original ideas. The least appealing aspect of the book is its cover. If you go beyond that, you will meet some familiar friends in a new country, and may encounter some new ones.
