understand the remedy (and remedies in general) in a broader sort of
functional way. Maybe this is one of the disadvantages of working with
the Complete repertory--if all you're working with is cataloging
symptoms, you (very often, even usually) can come up with some dozen or
so remedies you have to choose among! Usually I don't find this a
problem, because I just selected based on the rest of what I know about
the remedies and the case. Often that works fine.
But it's come up as a definite problem when my understanding of some of the
remedies has been too one-sided. E.g. if the sxs in an acute can be
covered by both calc and bell, but I haven't understood that bell is
*fast*-paced, or that it is an "acute of calc". Etc...
One example was recognizing a case that needed Carcinosin. It had
previously been eliminated (by his "real" homeopath) because the
patient was angry and aggressive (frantic with discomfort, actually)
rather than meek, as was the homeopath's understanding of Carcinosin.
Lots of further reading gave a hugely expanded picture of the remedy,
and Carcinosin worked a miracle. So here one key was to learn that
what "runs" carcinosin is not meekness, but something else, which
includes *both* meekness and a whole bunch of other expressions.
Another example would be someone for whom I did not see nat-m for a
long, long time, because rather than seeming "repressed" or
"suppressed" or even "reserved", she was what I'd call sort of
flamboyantly over-expressive. Later I gave it anyway, with very nice
result--and then later read that this is another way that nat-m can
present, in patients who have "learned to express themselves." So
what's central to nat-m is not "repressed", but a sort of disconnect
("I am an island"?) that can be acted upon in various ways...
Do you see what I'm saying?
I think this is the *sort* of thing that approaches such as "essence"
and etc. are trying to get at; the mistake is when people try to see it
as confined to "a central symptom" or a "one-line description". That
is not what I'm looking for.
Well, I may be on a simple wild goose chase with my "exploring the
familiar" in nux-v! But I am finding it interesting, and appreciating
the broader perspectives!
Shannon