This book review is reprinted from Volume 10, 2004 Edition of The American Homeopath with permission from The American Homeopath.
NASH Membership Office
1122 East Pike Street, Suite 1122
Seattle, WA 98122
Telephone: (206) 720-7000
Fax: (206) 329-5684
nashinfo@aol.com

Achieving and Maintaining the Simillimum: Strategic Case Management for Successful Homeopathic Prescribing
By Luc De Schepper, MD, Ph.D., CHom, DIHom, Lic.Ac.

Full of Life Publishing, 2004. Hard cover, 370 pages. ISBN 0-942501-14-1

Reviewed by Melanie Grimes, RSHom (NA), CCH

This extensive work covers homeopathic philosophy from potency selection, to case management, to clinical examples. Much of the research is taken from De Schepper's clinical experience, as well as Hahnemann's Paris Casebooks (1835-1843), and various editions of Hahnemann's Organon and Chronic Disease.

Part One contains information about the vital force and remedy selection, taken from the 4th, 5th and 6th editions of the Organon.

Part Two discusses topics as second prescription, layered cases, acute vs. chronic remedies, provings, LM potencies, and complementary and compatible remedies.

Part Three, entitled "Management Inquiries," is written in a question-and-answer format, and very useful, as questions are asked such as, "I have heard some say that Hahnemannian prescribing has nothing to do with prescribing on the basis of the constitution." With answers taken from the Organon itself, this is a very useful chapter to both practitioners and students.

Part Four, the clinical examples, are well described and easy to follow.

The book lists an extensive three page bibliography, and an index, a quarter of which is devoted to its first listing, Aphorisms.

Though intended as an advanced textbook, because it is easy to follow, this book could easily be read by a student with some background in homeopathic philosophy, though one would want to have read the Organon at least once to appreciate De Schepper's insights, interpretation and extrapolation.

This book is a useful tool for case management, a guide for practitioners, as well as a useful text for advanced students.