Reviews
The Complete Repertory, Mind-Generalities by Roger van Zandvoort
Reviewed by Susan Thorndike, published in The Homoeopath, no. 65, Spring 1997
As expressed in its title, this repertory retains Kent’s format although by extracting rubrics from preceding sections, five new divisions have been created: head pain, smell, taste, speech and voice, and extremity pain. As the pain rubrics in Kent’s ‘head’ and ‘extremities’ occupied so many pages it seems sensible to give these symptoms independent chapters. It is also logical to have distinct representations of smell and taste as vision and hearing were already shown separately, and to unite speech and voice, previously located in different parts of the repertory. For those who primarily use Kent’s Repertory, negligible adaptation will be required although it would have been useful to have retained labelled indentations for quick reference to the appropriate section. A barely adequate unindented thumb-index is provided with the various divisions being indicated by shading. For others now familiar with Murphy’s Repertory the layout may appear retrogressive as no reference system is as quick and simple as using the alphabet and additionally, many of Murphy’s clear and fresh chapter headings may be missed.
Encouragement for using this new repertory is quickly found in the Foreword and is the reason underlying the decision to compile the Complete Repertory, ie the situation formerly and quite frequently encountered when patients provide clear symptoms which cannot be located in the majority of the repertories, including Kent’s. Many such symptoms can be found however in Boger’s Bönninghausen’s Repertory which also includes many other remedies listed in Hahnemann’s work, “even in the second and third degree which were omitted by Kent because they had not been verified in practice. Thus the key impetus behind this book was to integrate (much of) Boger’s Bönninghausen’s Repertory with its “beautiful rubrics.... containing beautiful remedies into Kent’s to produce a “super-repertory”. Forty people spent six years undertaking this task; many other additions were made and further ones are envisaged, and we are assured the contents have been vigorously and repeatedly checked.
The clear and simply expressed aim of this new repertory is to “help more people” by its use. Other objectives and principles are stated: ”The richness and accuracy of our repertories is of vital importance since we use them as the primary tools to lead us toward the choice of the similimum. Therefore we need a repertory that covers as much relevant information as possible and has as many of the rubrics possible verified back to their original sources... and to enable us to zero in on the similimum it should have all of the additions from every reliable source”. The repertory shows “The releated page number for each rubric for the other major repertories”, and extensive cross-referencing to enable practitioners ”to find exactly what they are looking for”. Many changes have been made to various aspects of the text of Kent’s Repertory to ensure much greater clarity and consistency. For example, throughout this repertory the hierarchies are listed as general; sides (one-sided, left, right times; agg. and amel.; modalities and concordances; extending to; localisations and sensations (pain). Some remedy abbreviations have been revised, eg. none of the metals now has a suffix, eg. Arg-m. appears as Arg.
Many minor remedy abbreviations have been changed, eg. Croton tiglium, a plant, is no longer Crot-t. but Croto-t, and thus distinct from Crot-t and Crot-h., snakes. A comprehensive list of the changes made to abbreviations is provided, including clear examples of each. Some of the degrees of remedies given in Kent’s Repertory have been increased on the basis of later information, and remedies in this repertory are shown in four degrees. While in the short term these revisions will require mental and notation adjustments by practitioners, in the longer term such changes appear valuable and welcome.
Further improvements in ordering and presentation were sought and made, including moving rubrics in to the Mind chapter from elsewhere – most notably the Dream rubrics – but also, for example, anxieties and apprehensions experienced in different parts of the body, eg. Mind, Anxiety stomach, in. This has been done on the basis of these being emotional rather than physical symptoms. Another change from Kent - and from Murphy - is relocating food aversions and desires to Generalities, Food and drink. Anyone embarking on using this repertory would be advised first to read carefully the list of presentational changes made although throughout the repertory cross-references are included when a specific rubric is shown in Kent’s Repertory to indicate to where it has been moved.
A further valuable change is that main rubrics always include all the remedies found in their subrubrics which will certainly help in the selection of either a main rubric or a subrubric in a particular case. Another welcome improvement is the highlighting of the first word of a subrubric. The .. number of author identification, (id), numbers in the text are sufficiently tiny and faint to not distract attention from the text itself. The repertory is clearly and well printed and easy to read and use.
A long and full bibliography lists the hundreds of sources consulted in compiling the Complete Repertory. There are clear indices showing the new remedy abbreviations alongside the old; an invaluable list showing both remedy abbreviations followed by their full remedy names, and vice versa; lists of authors and their i.d. numbers in both numerical and alphabetical orders, and lists of all the remedies according to their source, eg. minerals and elements etc., and including subdivisions within these, eg. the Lithiums, and remedies frorm ‘Period 5a’, etc. Further indices include lists of authors and frequency of entries, and of remedies and their frequency of entry, including the total number of rubrics per remedy through to the number of rubrics in which the remedy is found within the five highest ranking remedies. At the back of the repertory is an innovative and useful extendible flap enabling quick reference to the author consulted by the i.d. number in the text. The initial impressions of the physical characteristics of this repertory were not particularly favourable. The book is very big, (length/width/depth 9.5/7/4” or 24.5/17/10.5 cm), and extremely heavy, and therefore unlikely to be chosen for peripatetic practice. Additionally, when open, it occupies a significant area, spanning 17.5” or 45 cm across. However, increased size and weight are justified by the larger and clearer print, and the breadth and depth of information included. The repertory is sturdily and well bound but has an unattractive dull grey matt finish. Two ribbon markers, contrastingly coloured, may prove very useful.
The explanation in the Foreword of the origin and construction of the repertory is fascinating and impressive. The choices made regarding reorganising rubrics and the presentation of headings and remedies time and time again addressed irritations and problems encountered previously in using other repertories as well as introducing new approaches which appear to be extremely sensible.
The creation of The Complete Repertory has evidently been carefully and thoroughly undertaken and it is a pleasure to consult such a well written, well conceived and very well printed homoeopathic book.
