Homeopathic Remedy Pictures

Review

This book review is reprinted from Volume 100, Number 4 Winter 2007 Edition, with permission from American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine.

Reviewed by George Guess, MD, DHt

If only the study of materia medica were this easy and this fun! Inspired and written by Alexander Gothe, illustrated by Julia Drinnenberg, Homeopathic Remedy Pictures: Studying with Cartoons, is a simple material medica of 50 remedies, the central ideas of which are illustrated with cartoons. What a fine idea!

For the beginning student, this work will help fix certain remedy characteristics in the mind, courtesy of some indelible, some inspired images. A learning tool that tickles! Admittedly, the material medica coverage is sparse, though well and concisely written,one page being devoted to each remedy;ah,but the chuckles to be gained are many.

For knowledgeable practitioners and experienced homeopathic veterans, this light-hearted approach to materia medica refreshes and energizes. Many of the cartoons are dead-on, brilliant characterizations. A perusal of these pages will brighten tedious moments and cultivate jolly camaraderie when shared with colleagues. Two of the cartoons are reproduced here, sadly without the bold colors that really make them stand out.

The book would make a great gift or a fine addition to any practitioner's waiting room or library. I highly recommend it.

 

This book review is reprinted from winter 2007 Edition, with permission from The Homeopath.

Reviewed by Petra Wood

As a community education tutor I am always on the lookout for potential teaching aids, so this book caught my interest as a visual aid.

The book is set out in large format and covers 50 well-known remedies. As in any materia medica which is restricted in the number of remedies it deals with, the choice of remedies seems a little random. Many of the remedies included are major polychrests but also a lesser-used remedy slipped in, Aethusa. The major nosodes Carcinosin, Medorrhinum, Psorinum and Tuberculinum are covered, but Syphilinum is missing.

Each remedy is introduced with one page of text, including a short description of the original substance with regard to the doctrine of signatures, followed by three pages of cartoons in colour. For some reason Chelidonium has only two pages of cartoons. This is a small glitch in the general layout, which otherwise is very clear and accessible. Remedies have headers in alternating colours and the remedy name is printed on each page for ease of navigation.

The remedy information is well researched with a strong emphasis on the different stages of pathology. The text is bulleted into paragraphs throughout but I found this rather forced sometimes. Highlighting the keynotes throughout the text instead would have very much improved the ease of access to information and would have helped the visual impact.

At times the book seems unclear as to which audience it is aimed at. On the one hand the author over-simplifies when explaining the miasms. On the other hand the use of medical language in disease names is quite advanced. This becomes particularly difficult when it combines with problems stemming from its translation from the original German. For example Morbus Bechterew might be well known on the continent, but it is usually referred to as ankylosing spondylitis in the English speaking world.

There are other little hiccups stemming from translation: For example 'obstipation' might be found in the dictionary but using 'constipation' instead would have been more helpful.

The biggest assets of the book, however, are undoubtedly the cartoons. If the book does nothing else for you - it will make you laugh! The author has to be credited for his ability to provide the necessary information to the illustrator who did a marvellous job of putting keynotes into pictures. I would have liked to see an index or mini-repertory included in the book as a quick reference to finding a remedy when a particular picture has stuck in your mind.

I will be using this book as a teaching aid and can surely recommend it for that. First and second year students will probably find it very helpful, too. I would also consider it for a busy waiting room or simply for its humour.

 

This book review is reprinted from Volume 20, Winter 2007 Edition, with permission from Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by Francis Treuherz, UK

What fun! - a hilarious illustrated book of materia medica translated from the original German. We are all invited to laugh at serious matters. Perhaps all these years we have been taking ourselves too seriously. Here are 50 remedies, a page of descriptive text for each one, concentrating on the causes, course and development of the illness and the individual. Then there are approximately 14 full-colour captioned cartoons for each remedy, on large glossy pages just smaller than A4. I really enjoyed this book.

I am not sure if anyone will buy this book mainly for the text but it is well written, accurate, lively, and based on a comprehensive bibliography of classic and contemporary materia. It is the cartoons which provide the added value; they are funny, and an exciting new approach to study. Here each cartoon illustrates a symptom, often a peculiar and characteristic symptom. Imagine a haughty constipated traveller sitting on a toilet with her suitcase - Platina. Or a child under an umbrella asking mother if God also gets wet when it rains Calcarea carbonica. The only book I can think of which is close in style is the Song of Symptoms by PH Sharp, first published in 1949 under the pseudonym of Patersimilias. It is now only available second hand or in an Indian reprint. In that earlier book each remedy has a poem and a caricature.

This book of cartoons does have some problems and they are mainly to do with language. I firmly believe that translations should where possible be written by native speakers of the new language. This book was translated into English by a German; we do not know if she was also a homeopath. The captions do not always use the common homeopathic language of symptoms from materia medica and repertory, many of which would not have required a translation at all, as the terms already exist. So some of the (unintended) hilarity arises from the mistakes or the clumsy Germanic turn of phrase. Aethusa is shown laughably as an old man with a beard in a baby's pram as a hypocratical face instead of Hippocratic. Natrum muriaticum has persevering thoughts instead of persistent, while Natrum sulphuricum has grievances for grief. And no one today uses the term obstipation - Bryonia.

Despite these shortcomings this lighthearted addition to our bookshelves makes me laugh, which must be a fun way to learn. How will I ever look at an egg timer again without thinking I shall die when the sand runs out - Aconite? It deals fully and frankly with lavatorial and anatomical matters. The last cartoon in the book shows a male Zincum patient who urinates better sitting down: he is on a chair with his flies open, facing the toilet bowl: you could not make it up.

 

This book review is reprinted from Volume XXI Winter/Spring 2008 edition, with permission from Simillimum.

REVIEWED BY MELANIE GRIMES

The secrets of homeopathic remedies - put in a nutshell in a humorous way.

From Aconite to Zincum, 50 remedies are portrayed in this book.
In order to simplify the path for students of homeopathy, and to create a visual -learning aid, the authors created a memorable study guide using cartoons to picture the otherwise dry rubrics.

A cartoon of an old woman knitting while sitting on the chest of a reclining gentleman illustrates Bryonia's rubric, Pressure ameliorates complaints. Who can forget such an image? Desire to go home in the same Bryonia collection, shows the movie alien, ET, bandaged, on a stretcher, being carried by two medics while pointing his long finger to a distant yellow orb.

Each page contains three to four images, with about 10 cartoons for each remedy.
For instance, the aforementioned Bryonia chapter also illustrates the rubrics: Desire for withdrawal and warmth, Great fear of poverty, Stubborn closed mistrustful (preference for tried and tested things), Any motion aggravates acute complaints, Very dry skin and mucous membranesgreat thirst, Obstipation accompanied by very dry stool, Stitching pains, Dry hard painful cough (holding the chest tight ameliorates pain) and Most important remedy in appendicitis.

This is a thorough glimpse into Bryonia, covering the basics that a beginning student will need to remember in order to begin successful prescribing.

While keynotes are not the end-all and be-all of homeopathy's extensive curative action, we all must begin somewhere. Having a picture of a remedy's depth, its main rubrics, the generalities, mentals and areas of effective action, are good places to start.

This book is a valuable learning tool for student homeopaths, especially the visual learners. It would be an excellent addition to any beginning homeopathic course, and can be used by advanced practitioners as a handy desktop reminder. I have been using it with my students, and found students of all ages relished the simplicity and entertaining manner in which the materia medica is presented.

To the authors, I say, there are 4000 more remedies in our materia medica. We're ready for more.