Spirit of Homeopathy

From the Book

For a long time there has been little original writing concerning the theory and practice of Homoeopathy... In Rajan Sankaran's new book we have something fresh and interesting, bursting with the ideas of this famous Bombay clinician...

The book is divided into four sections:

• Philosophy
  
• The Mind
  
• Case-Taking and Finding the Remedy, and
  
• Materia Medica

A number of major themes can be traced throughout the book which is basically an expanded version of lecture notes from the last five years. These unfold as the author tells the story of flow his ideas developed, starting with the insight that "potentized remedies have dynamic effects only" and ending with examples of his "situational Materia Medica"...

Sankaran is a master detective and with a great knowledge of the Repertory he uses the much neglected sections on delusions and dreams in new and imaginative ways, taking a remark of the patient or an observation and translating it into Repertory language with great skill.

The book is an inspiration for us to "free up" in our use of the Repertory and to consider the meaning behind our patients' remarks...

In his situational Materia Medica Sankaran puts into imaginative nutshells the basic delusions or unsuitable postures of a number of homoeopathic medicines...

There are other ideas in the 44 chapters of Sankaran's book. I have not mentioned his discussion of compensated and uncompensated symptoms, his use of dreams, his techniques of case-taking, or the idea of polarities within a homoeopathic medicine.

Not all of these ideas are new, but putting them into his own framework Sankaran often makes them more memorable and more relevant.

British Homoeopathic Journal

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Details

The Spirit of Homeopathy, by Rajan Sankaran, was published in 1991.

This work serves as an introduction to Sankaran's theory and practice of homeopathy. Sankaran describes the development of his ideas from the effects of potentized substances to 'situational materia medica'.

Divided into five sections the book covers: Philosophy, Mind, Case Taking, Finding the Remedy, and Materia Medica.

Sankaran homeopathic thought process starts from what he calls 'situational materia medica'. This is inappropriate behavior that develops after the result of a traumatic situation.

This state is maintained by the basic delusion that forms the central disturbance. It is this central disturbance that Sankaran strives to perceive and then cure.

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Heritage

The book is divided into five sections:

Philosophy
The Mind
Casetaking
Finding the Remedy
Materia Medica

Sankaran introduces his idea of "situational materia medica" which postulates that disease originates from traumatic situations in which the person adopts a behavior to help with the situation, but the behavior continues after the trauma is past, and this results in sickness-- which is an inappropriate response of mind or body.

This state of mind and body is maintained by what Sankaran terms the central disturbance.

The core of the central disturbance is the basic delusion (the imaginary situation to which the organism reacts) and it is this central disturbance that has to be perceived and then cured.

Julian Winston writes: The first book written by Rajan Sankaran, the son of P. Sankaran, a great Indian homeopath.

From:
The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature
copyright 2001 by Julian Winston
Reprinted with the permission of the author

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Author

Rajan Sankaran

(1960 -     )

Dr. Rajan Sankaran was born on May 24, 1960, in Mumbai, India. Inspired and nurtured by his father, Dr. P. Sankaran, Rajan graduated Gold Medallist from the Bombay Homeopathic Medical College in 1981. He is the Assistant Professor in the department of Repertory in Smt. C.M.P. Homoeopathic Medical College, Mumbai and is attached to its hospital as the Honorary Physician.

He is the Editor of the Asian Edition of the Homoeopathic Links and is also the Vice-Chairman of the International Council for Classical Homoeopathy (Asian Region).

Throughout his twenty years of practice Dr. Rajan has worked to unearth a system for homeopathy that gives consistent results. He has given us the classification of remedy states into kingdoms and has added miasms to the already known ones.

His concept of disease as a Delusion changed the process of case taking from mere data collection to understanding the patient beyond the physical level.

In the year 2000 Dr. Rajan began work on classification of the Plant Kingdom remedies, and also introduced the concept of Vital Sensation. His findings further extended his ground breaking approach to classical homeopathy.

Dr. Rajan has taught since 1986, in UK, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Austria, Australia, Russia, Greece, USA, Germany, New Zealand, The Netherlands and Spain. He is affiliated with the CMP Homoeopathic Medical College.

Dr. Sankaran has written the following books:

• The Spirit of Homoeopathy
  which explains his concept of disease as a state.
   
• The Substance of Homoeopathy
  which explains his idea of miasms, classification of states, as well as his idea of classifying remedies and states into kingdoms.
   
• The Soul of Remedies
  in which he has given his understanding and essence of a hundred remedies.
   
• Provings
  a compilation of the provings of eleven remedies.
   
• The System of Homoeopathy
  which gives a detailed report for over 40 successful cases and explains, step by step, his system of working with cases using the concepts of delusions, miasms, and kingdoms.
   
• The Sensation
  Sankaran's homeopathic understanding of kingdoms, potency, miasms and case analysis.
   
• Sensation Refined
  continues with the work started in The Sensation and clarifies issues faced by practitioners of his method.
   

In addition to publishing his own books, Dr. Rajan also edited the works of his father, Dr. P. Sankaran, creating two volumes called Elements of Homoeopathy.

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Reviews

Two Reviews:
1. LINKS
2. THE HOMEOPATH



LINKS
Reviewed by Viktor Jenni

This book gives the essentials of Sankaran's approach in homoeopathic case taking and case analysis.

He teaches that we should try to find the basic delusion, the central disturbance of our patients by observation of behaviour, gestures and the account of the patient. In an unprejudiced manner we should then use our imagination and empathy to reduce the symptom to one central idea of the case. (See article in Links 1/91 and in this issue).

With this idea we should go to the Repertory and try to find the rubric which is fitting best to the central disturbance of the patient. Of course the main symptomatology of the patient, especially the mentals and generals, not so much the locals, have to be covered by the remedy chosen.

Sankaran's way of practising homoeopathy is clearly based upon Hahnemann's Organon. The important clue of the central idea/disturbance of a remedy he takes from the proving-reports of the remedies and from the rubrics, Mind, especially Delusions, Deliriums and Dreams of the Synthetic Repertory. A further special point is to use the rubrics in a wider sense.

We have to use our imagination and try to explain why, e.g. Tarentula is fond of colours or why Ars or China don't want to be looked at. Thus we find the connection between the different symptoms of a remedy found in a patient. What is behind our patient's behaviour, his feelings, his motivation? If we find an answer, our prescriptions will be more successful.

Kees Dam writes:

One of the things I like about this book is the encouragement we find in it to use the rubrics under delusions in the Mind section of the repertory. Our perception of the world can bias our objectivity: "Know thyself" and "physician heal thyself" blend here with modern quantum mechanics principles (every observation is "biased" by the observer). When we succeed in putting this into practice it can mean a "quantum leap" in our personal as well as our professional life.

Homoeopathic Links - Summer/Fall 1991
Reprinted with permission from Homeopathic Links


THE HOMEOPATH
Reviewed by Louis Klein

Louis Klein RSHom practices in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and teaches regularly in North America and Hawaii

This book has in it some very compelling and brilliant ideas about the use of classical homoeopathy in our modern time. Fundamentally, it describes Rajan Sankaran's struggle to obtain the deeper curative results of homoeopathy; a challenge with which we have all wrestled.

He states:
Each chapter deals with a specific question. Each idea in this book seems so obvious to me now but to get to it was a struggle. I wanted to share all these insights with students who might face the same difficulties that I did.

The chapters therefore, become an important guide for any serious homoeopath, whatever the experience, for Sankaran articulates and clarifies the challenges and solutions that more experienced homoeopaths have discovered. Unfortunately, the major criticism I would have of the book is its mode of articulation. It is more of a compilation of ideas and lectures than a book. I say this as a criticism because some of the jewels of ideas and practical applications are lost in a poorly formatted and poorly footnoted form.

Also, the book gives the impression that all the ideas set forth are totally original ones or simply interpretations of Hahnemann's. Therefore, there is little sense of the historical evolution of these ideas which would help the student find a more cohesive method of thinking and studying.

I found most of the ideas to be Kentian homoeopathy with some modem day interpretations. It seems it has gone out of style to give Kent as much credit as he deserves. This maybe an appropriate oversight while lecturing to a friendly audience but in a book that attempts to reach out to a broader audience it is problematic.

The other possibility for this 'oversight' is that truly Dr Sankaran believes the concepts were completely original (some are).

In this case, the dilemma presented is then: are we each, individually, re-inventing the wheel with our teaching of homoeopathy? In one section of the book Dr Sankaran seems very excited and surprised by the possibility that he prescribed Aurum metallicum to a patient who did not have deep depression or suicidal thoughts.

Yet Vithoulkas has presented this idea before (there is no reference in the book to Vithoulkas' Essences at all). Kent of course, also talks about Aurum metallicum in Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, for someone 'extremely irritable, easily angered, is worried over trifles and easily excited'. (page 194), not necessarily suicidal.

Dr. Sankaran, does though, have a new bent on many of the remedies he describes in his book and what is very helpful is showing the use of the Repertory in studying and deeply understanding materia medica.

Again, on the positive side, Sankaran not only deals head on with fundamental philosophical questions but primarily approaches the practical ones of how to get the deeper results we are looking for as serious practitioners. As stated, the main thrust of the book is Kentian, or why one should rely more heavily on deeper mental symptoms or the 'core disturbance' than pathological particular symptoms.

His argument is a personal one, since Rajan Sankaran comes out of India, a country which has at the same time embraced homoeopathy in a big way, yet has many practitioners utilizing pathologically specific or keynote prescribing. He tells us how he evolved into a classical homoeopath:

"Once I got out of the college, I started working with the Repertory because of prior familiarity with it and I started repertorizing cases mechanically. ... Together with my colleague Dr Jayesh Shah, I started studying our cases of success and failure. What became quite obvious was that those cases in which we had prescribed on mentals and generals were much more successful than those in which we had relied upon particular symptoms or used pathology as the basis for our prescription. "

He utilizes many case examples and also even effectively describes the evolution of Hahnemann's thinking into a higher, more vitalistic level.

The overall effect of this book on me and my practice was exciting. After seventeen years of studying and practising homoeopathy I was re-inspired and excited again. I have gone back to re-studying and interpreting the repertory in the way Sankaran has suggested, focusing much more on the MIND, Delusions section.

Many of his ideas clarified and reflected much of my methodology and therefore I felt a renewed sense of confidence. With a little more work on the book (both content and its physical form) it could be the serious text book on the techniques of classical homoeopathy.

There are, though, some contentious areas of thought. There are limits to much of this methodology. I believe we have to practice with a good foundation in the literature and tradition as well as advance the science and art of homoeopathy in a creative and modern way.

In spite of the book not reaching the ideal of what it could have been, Dr Sankaran's ideas are very practical and accessible. Certainly, Dr Sankaran, by writing his progressive thoughts down will hopefully open the written field of homoeopathy and encourage more comprehensive sharing of ideas and concepts. I say written field because there is a lot going on in various parts of the world but few forums to share these views and create debate except in journals. It makes me want to share more information, in an in-depth way.

It also made me, because of certain things stated, want to study masters like Kent and Vithoulkas, and learn more about Dr. Sankaran's ideas and those of other progressive classical homoeopaths like Jeremy Sherr etc.

The other area of the book that is open to criticism, is how far Sankaran takes the idea of utilizing mentals and generals. Many of the ideas of how 'spiritual' homoeopathy is or should be I find problematic.

Are we to enlighten the patient or cure them of their chief complaint or both? I believe there are two different challenges and debatable points here. One has to do with what in the patient is to be cured and the other has to do with how we as practitioners cure it.

We may rely upon the individual underlying mental and general state of the patient in order to prescribe a remedy, but I am always reminded, that the patient may have just come to get his chief complaint cured.

Now throughout the book, the case examples that Sankaran gives are aft curative of both the main complaint and an improvement in the mental/general sphere. It is only in a few chapters that some of the more spiritual concepts of homoeopathy come to the fore.

The part of the book that is open to the most debate is the chapter on 'Homoeotherapy', where Dr Sankaran asserts that by the homoeopath (cum psychotherapist?) understanding the main delusion and repeating this back to the patient at the appropriate moment a cure, such as following Hering's Law, can be observed. I felt that leaving this chapter out would have done the book a lot of good.

This chapter does not belong in a forum of homoeopathic prescribing ideas but in altogether a new book or forum. Not because it does or does not work, but because it is dangerous in the misdirected hand and novice 'homoeopathic psychotherapist'. This is as dangerous as someone with absolutely no experience with homoeopathy treating everyone and everything with high potencies repeated.

Since it is what appears to be lecture notes and transcripts the book lacks a total coherence. This lack of coherence is reflected in the physical shape of the book: my review copy, published in India, had the cover glued on upside down (it is a paperback). Not to worry though, because after a few hours of use the cover fell off anyway. The typesetting and printing were also poorly done.

All this said, in this book is found an incisive, pragmatic brilliance that is bound to improve your level of practice and stimulate your thinking about homoeopathy. Therefore, I recommend it to all serious students of homoeopathy.

The Homoeopath Vol.12 No.1 1992
Reprinted with permission from the Society of Homeopaths

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Contents

Ch. 1 - What is Homoeopathy -- 1-4
Ch. 2 - The Story of this Book -- 5-9
Ch. 3 - What is Disease -- 10-16
Ch. 4 - Unsuitable Postures -- 17-24
Ch. 5 - Out of Proportion Reactions -- 25-27
Ch. 6 - Health and Disease: Psychological and Philosophical Considerations -- 28-37
Ch. 7 - Nature's Law of Cure -- 38-40
Ch. 8 - The Evolution of Homoeopathy -- 41-49
Ch. 9 - Central Disturbance -- 50-62
Ch. 10 - Dynamics in Disease -- 63-69
Ch. 11 - What is Curative in Medicine -- 70-75
Ch. 12 - The Scientific Depth of Homoeopathy -- 76-83
Ch. 13 - The State and the Pathology -- 84-86
Ch. 14 - Modality, Sensation and Location -- 87-88
Ch. 15 - Concomitants -- 89-90
Ch. 16 - Causation -- 91-92
Ch. 17 - Selection of the Potency -- 93-98
Ch. 18 - Repetition of the Dose -- 99-101
Ch. 19 - Acute Processesv102-107
Ch. 20 - The Homoeopathic Approach to Diabetes -- 108-112
Ch. 21 - Treating the Present State -- 113-116
Ch. 22 - Importance Given to Mental State -- 117
Ch. 23 - Components -- 118-140
Ch. 24 - Delusions -- 141-150
Ch. 25 - Aurum met and the Idea of Compensation -- 151-158
Ch. 26 - Compensation -- 159-170
Ch. 27 - Polarities Within a Remedy -- 171-173
Ch. 28 - Dreams -- 174-182
Ch. 29 - Mind and Body -- 183-189
Ch. 30 - The Application of the Repertory -- 190-206
Ch. 31 - The Heart of Case Taking -- 207-216
Ch. 32 - Some Hints on Case Taking -- 217-219
Ch. 33 - Techniques of Case Taking -- 220-235
Ch. 34 - The Essence of Case Taking -- 236-237
Ch. 35 - Perceiving -- 238-241
Ch. 36 - Bringing Out the Patient's Picture -- 242
Ch. 37 - Selection of the Remedy -- 243-248
Ch. 38 - Homoeo-Psychotherapy -- 249-256
Ch. 39 - The Situational Materia Medical - Its Orgin and Utility -- 257-258
Ch. 40 - Discovering the Situational materia Medica of Remedies -- 259-268
Ch. 41 - Situational Materia Medica of Some Remedies -- 269-309
Anacardium -- 269
Argentum nitricum -- 270-271
Calcarea silicata -- 272-274
Carcinosin -- 274-276
Causticum -- 276-277
China -- 277-278
Fluoric acid -- 278-279
Graphites -- 279-282
Ignatia -- 282-284
Kali brom -- 284-285
Lac caninum -- 285-286
Lachesis -- 286-287
Lycopodium -- 287-291
Lyssin -- 290-295
Natrum carbonicum -- 295-296
Opium -- 296-298
Psorinum -- 298-299
Rhus tox -- 300-301
Silica -- 301-306
Stramonium -- 306-308
Tarentula hispanica -- 308
Thuja -- 309
Veratrum album -- 309
Ch. 42 - Comparison of Remedies Using Situational Materia Medica -- 310-311
Ch. 43 - Remedy Relationship -- 312-316
Ch. 44 - Lesser Used Remedies -- 318-324
Glossary -- 325-326
To the Reader -- 327
Index -- 328-329

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