An Integrated Approach to Case-Taking and Analysis
Traditional Classical Homoeopathy, with symptoms, rubrics, and keynotes, has stood the test of time. Introduction of newer, more contemporary ideas - of kingdom, levels, miasms and sensation - have brought Homoeopathy into a new paradigm. Never before has the connection between the patient and the remedy source been as clear.
These contemporary ideas have become very popular and have led to many successful cases. However, enamoured by success with this method, a whole new generation have started using it as a shortcut, and have sometimes neglected traditional knowledge. The profession became split, with conventional and contemporary homoeopathy sharply divided.
The originator of the Sensation Method, Dr Rajan Sankaran, has always maintained that symptoms and system are two sides of same coin and that success results from an integrated approach. It is like using both the left and right sides of the brain; both the factual and conceptual aspects of the patient and remedy have to be seen together. The knowledge and understanding found in old masters like C. M. Boger is now explained in detail in this book. Through illustrative cases, Rajan Sankaran demonstrates the secret of success with the integrated approach. Through a seamless blending of the old and new, the symptom and system, conventional and contemporary, the results are proof of a quantum leap in homoeopathic practice.
- Author: Rajan Sankaran
- ISBN: 9789380355849
- 315 pages
- Hardback
- Printed in India (so could be of inferior quality)
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths. From 'The Homeopath' Journal, Summer 2012 edition. Reviewed by Francis Treuherz.
Synergy: a noun of Greek origin; the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. It was in March 1986, on my last evening of several months in India, a PanAm plane on its way to Bombay was bombed between Rome and Athens, Reagan was just about to bomb Gaddafi and Chernobyl was about to explode. That night I was to fly PanAm to Cairo, thence to Jerusalem, Athens and Alonissos. I faced Rajan Sankaran at dinner before going to the airport. I invited him to the Society conference at Loughborough for that autumn. The synergy of Rajan and his first lecture outside India has carried on, becoming more and more effective as his ideas and his audiences have grown, through his clinical work, seminars, books, his own software, and now his rescue of MacRepertory, following the tragic premature death of our friend David Warkentin. In 1986 I greeted Rajan with a bouquet, in 2006 with a garland, and now he is greeting us with a library.
Since 1986 the titles of his books encapsulate his journey, Spirit, Substance, Soul, Provings, System, Plants, Schema, Sensation, Song, Structure, Survival, and now Synergy. He has come full circle to the point where he revisited the foreword of Boger's Synoptic Key - 'I found that he has said everything I wanted to say, only in much better, more concise and exact words!' He also acknowledges his teacher Phatak. Sankaran emphasises the need to integrate knowledge of Organon, materia medica and repertory with his own teachings, which do not replace but enhance the traditional sciences of classical homeopathy. In this new book he attempts to unite the 'genius, symptom and system' through renewed strategies of case taking and analysis. All this is elaborated in much detail as the author outlines his journey, so that these words take on meaning and are not only headlines to captivate or baffle the reader. We have already had a foretaste of the second chapter of Synergy in The Homeopath, Spring 2010, which was the final issue that I edited.
The main body of the book demonstrates that Rajan believes that there are many ways of being right. There are 38 short chapters, which go deep into explanation and interpretation of the variety of ways of taking the case, analysing using the information in so many different ways, when and how to use a repertory and software like ReferenceWorks. We are as full of jargon as any other discipline and he unpacks it all through detailed candid case examples - throughout the book he shows flexibility of approach, according to the needs of the patient or even if he gets it wrong first time. I found his insights refreshing, honest and most of all very useful.
