This book review is reprinted with the permission of the National Center for Homeopathy
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The Complete Repertory
edited by Roger Van Zandvoort
Institute for Research in Homeopathic Information and Symptomatology
Leidschendam, The Netherlands, 1996
Hardbound, 2800 pages, $275
Reviewed by Julian Winston
Although I've had this book for over a year, I've been putting off reviewing it until it has had adequate clinical use in the hands of a professional homeopath (in this case my wife). It is senseless writing a review of a book like this-one meant to be used in daily practice-if one talks only about its conceptual layout.
The Complete Repertory has been around for almost ten years- having been conceived in 1987 by homeopath Roger Van Zandvoort. Roger, an early user of MacRepertory computer program, began adding remedies and rubrics to the MacRepertory database from the common sources-Kent's Materia Medica, Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, and The Synthetic Repertory of Barthels and Klunker. Since then, several computer versions have been released. Several years ago, the Mind section was published in book form. And now we have the full hard copy book form. [The computer version of the book (version 4.5) was released at the same time.] And quite a book it is. The 2800 pages make it a bit over 4 inches thick. It weighs in at 3.7kg or 8 lbs. and 775 oz. It is not a "pocketbook." When I first saw it I thought that the pages should be printed on waterproof paper so the book could be used as a boat anchor!
Happily, it is also available in three separate volumes-Mind; Vertigo to Speech and Voice; and Respiration to Generalities. I say "happily" because some people might find the sheer size of the book cumbersome to use, and the individual volumes are easier to handle.
It is not a book for a beginner, but one designed to be used by a professional as a reference work in daily practice. Indeed, I know a number of homeopaths who use the plain Kent Repertory for their day-to-day work, dipping into the Complete for further confirmation of remedy selection when the case isn't clearly settled through the "old standby."
Although it is available in a computer version, there is much to be said for the book itself.
First, it is a book-and there is nothing like a book. It is, as was summed up by an anonymous writer on the Internet, "A technology so simple everyone can use it-the Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (BOOK). It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover! The BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (pages) (recyclable), each sheet capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The BOOK never crashes. The 'browse' feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish."
And, indeed, the "browse" feature is one of this book's assets. When looking through the book you get all sorts of information that you would never get from scrolling through the screens on the computer version. Your eye can catch that strange rubric, or catch that unknown remedy in bold type in a rubric. You are always seeing something new.
The layout of the book is based on the Kent Repertory, although several changes have been made. All the rubrics dealing with "food" are now under "Food" in the Generalities section, rather than having the "desires" and "aversions" being found under the "Stomach" section. Two new "Pain" sections have been added- "Head, Pain" and "Extremities, Pain." Two other sections were added-which place all the rubrics that were previously scattered into a consolidated heading: "Taste" and "Voice and Speech." Some older terminology has been changed to more modern usage.
There are a number of other additions and corrections from Kent's Repertory including the standardization of many of the remedy abbreviations. These are all explained in the nine-page introduction.
The additions to the rubrics were the work of a team of over 50 people who went through all homeopathic literature and brought new remedies into older rubrics or created new rubrics. Each addition is carefully annotated as to the source of the addition. The numbers identifying the source of the addition are developed in chronological order, with Hahnemann being number 1 and Kent being number 58. The last page of the book is a fold-out that contains all the reference numbers so they can be easily referenced while the book is open and being used. There is also an 18-page appendix that quotes each source for each author. So when we see author number 44, we know that all the additions are from The Cough Repertory by B. Simmons, that was published in Liverpool in 1870.
There is a 55-page appendix listing all the remedies and their abbreviations, and a 13-page appendix listing all the remedies as classified by their biological classification (Podophyllum is a dicotyledon of the family Berberidaceae) or their mineral/element classification (Neon is a noble gas in Period 0 of the Periodic Table). There is an index of "authors and additions," where we find that there were 49,379 additions made that were derived from the work of Hahnemann, while only 33 additions came from B. Simmons. Finally, there is a 28-page table of the frequency with which the remedies appear within the book.
So how does the book "work"? Very well indeed! My wife keeps the three volumes on her desk-right next to her well-thumbed Kent Repertory. Although she often uses the computerized version of the Complete Repertory, she finds that most of her work has been with the actual book-the computer being saved for playing with the case analysis and different strategies for finding a possible simillimum.
Even when she is using the computer, if she does not know the exact rubric she is looking for she will find it in the book and then look it up on the computer-since it is easier to scan the actual pages than scroll the screens.
She finds that the three volumes are useful in that she can, when comparing rubrics, have all three open at the same time rather than having to flip back and forth in the larger single work (which does come with three sewn-in ribbon markers).
She finds that the italicized indications of other possible related or similar rubrics as given in the Mind section are very helpful in practice especially if you are a beginner and unfamiliar with a repertory. For example, "Fastidious" is cross referenced to "Carefulness," "Conscientious about trifles," and "Rest, cannot when things are not in proper place."
Knowing who made the additions is important because "some you can trust absolutely, and some less so."
Having many of the well-proven new remedies like Ozone, Marble, Hydrogen, and Bamboo included has been useful in clinical practice. "I had a case where I had used Nux vomica with little success, although it seemed well-indicated. When looking at the case a second time I noticed that "bamba" appeared in several rubrics, including the same unique food desires as Nux vomica. Bamboo proved to be a useful remedy."
Of the book, she says, "Having used it for a while I would hate to be without it."
And this seems to be the sentiment of many other homeopaths to whom I have spoken. It is big, heavy, bulky, and certainly not light reading. But as a source for symptomatology, it is certainly a leader.
HOMEOPATHY TODAY
May 1998