Minutus

Dear Lisa, I too get concerned about failure rates in the practice of
homoeopathy and all too often it is far too easy for us to blame the
patient/client, blame the remedy, blame anything but ourselves as
practitioners.

This is why it is so important to have ongoing supervision of our methods
and cases to keep us on our toes regarding adhering to the following:-

1) Case-taking
2) What we do after the case has been taken
3) Repertorisation
4) Prescribing and potency
5) Follow ups, repeating, case management etc

1) There are so many ways we all take the case, many are valid and good.
Even before the case taking has begun or even after the first question
ALERTNESS is a key. David Mundy always says... if you are alert enough your
client will often tell you their remedy within the first few minutes.
I always start with "what can I do for you?" An answer such as "well I don't
know where to start I am lost" is the key to the dis-ease and ultimately the
simillimum.

At the end of the case taking we must ask ourselves "do I have enough
information to prescribe on?

2) What we do after the case-taking is perhaps even more important. A well
taken case can be lost if we do not ask WHAT NEEDS TO BE CURED HERE. I also
try to encapsulate what I have recorded in my notes by describing the
ESSENCE of the case which will be intimately connected with what needs to be
cured.

3) Then what is just as important is RANKING OF SYMPTOMS - are there any
STRANGE RARE AND PECULIAR SX? They are a gift sometimes but not essential
always, but RANKING IS.

You use a good example of Arsenicum. This is a problem of teaching the
polycrests and not enough on teaching so the called minor remedies. To me
remedies can never be minor if they are the simillimum - remedies are
profound if they cure. It is easy to get into a habit of only prescribing
remedies which we know and we build a prejudice against remedies we don't.
We must endeavour to know the MATERIA MEDICA as much as possible, on and on
and on.

However I believe that there is usually such a fusion between the dis-eased
state and the natural healthy state that people start prescribing on healthy
signs and symptoms, like fastidiousness.

Yes we must prescribe on the pathology of the mental, emotional and physical
Sx, but throughout the case taking we will have noted that the client is
fastidious. If it is part of the disease it will be RANKED high (bold type),
if it is part of the natural healthy state it will be RANKED low. But it
will still be present in the whole picture somewhere. It is hard to imagine
Arsenicum as somebody's simillimum without the theme of fastidiousness being
there. FAILURE TO CURE will come about if it is RANKED high when it is
actually part of the natural healthy state, and doesn't need to be cured.

Once symptoms have been RANKED then repertorisation can begin if necessary.
I personally look for what I called a leading rubric - one which dominates
and leads the case. It could be the VERY FIRST WORDS THE CLIENT UTTERED. I
always feel that the correct Rx will be in that rubric.

Well the rest is just lessons in Homoeopathy which we have to spend years
learning.

I am a firm believer in that Homoeopathy is only as good as the practitioner
and we have to turn our failures into opportunities for more learning.

This is my offering for today and thanks for reading this.

Best wishes, have a good weekend everyone. Joy Lucas