Miasmatic Prescribing

Review

This book review is reprinted with permission from Volume 19, Summer 2006 Edition of Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by by Ivo Wiesner, PhD, Czech Republic

"If effective anti-miasmatic treatment does not take place then the miasm will persist throughout the life and will be transmitted to the next generation... "

Including the concept of miasms in homeopathic prescribing is essential in a modern world in which suppression dominates. However, it is not a rule of thumb to consider miasms in each daily prescribing. Some homeopathic practitioners do not address miasms at all. Perhaps it is due to the persisting obscure or almost magic nature of this phenomenon despite it having been described some 200 years ago and confirmed many times in practice.

Lots of people start thinking about miasms only in an emergency, when the case has got to the point of no progression and well-indicated remedies have failed. So, of what nature is the peculiar phenomenon of miasms and how to exploit it? This is the main question answered by this book.

The book starts with ten basic principles describing the phenomenon of a miasm, pointing out that it is a dynamic energy in every living creature on Earth. It has a tendency to join other already existing miasms in the body after entering it, thus creating multiple layers of miasms. If not eradicated by homeopathic treatment, a miasm is transmitted to the next generation. There always rages a battle in a patient's body between the vital force (lifepreserving energy) and the miasmatic force. This book is all about how to reverse, by homeopathic treatment, the course of this battle to keep the vital force on top.

There are six main sections in the book, beginning with the philosophy of miasm concept (Part I), followed by miasmatic diagnostic classifications (Part II), miasmatic diagnosis of clinical classifications (Part III), miasmatic ancestral tips and repertory (Parts IV and V), and finally the miasmatic weightage of medicines (Part VI) together with a useful Index.

The core of the book is represented by a large number of comprehensive tables. If you need quick answers to questions like 'What are the differentials between fears of a psoric, syphilitic or tubercular mind?' 'What type of criminal offence is growing from a psoric layer?' 'What is the miasmatic classification of physical symptoms like differential diagnosis of headache, whether it is of psoric, syphilitic or tubercular or perhaps of sycotic nature?', all the information you need is available at one glance from the book's tables. Brilliant and efficient.

There are also tabulated miasmatic tips on diseases like influenza or dementias but also on severe diagnoses like cancer or AIDS and a lot more. The book ends with tabulated miasmatic weightage of individual remedies, where each remedy is classified according to each miasm using a four-degree scale. Further, each remedy is here referred to as either cold or hot with three degrees of intensity: very useful and easy for quick navigation.

To whom may this book be recommended? Each table in the book presents tremendous diagnostic information and there are a lot of tables included. It was a really good idea to arrange such a vast amount of data in sypoptical tables instead of writing continuous text. This makes it easy even for a homeopathic novice to find rapidly the reference required for successful prescription.

A final remark. Why should we need to master the concept of miasms and the composition of miasmatic layers? Because we all have cases which cannot be started in a better way than by miasmatic treatment, because the clearance of the miasmatic stigmas and dyscrasias serves to improve immunity and strengthen the constitution, because there is no case completed to full health restoration without the inclusion of miasmatic treatment. For all these reasons it is worth studying miasms in our daily homeopathic practice, for the well-being of our patients. This book will help us to accomplish this task.

This review was reprinted from the July 2002 edition of Homeopathy in Practice with permission from the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths.

Reviewed by: Theresa Partington

Dr Banerjea is a 4th generation homeopath, whose grandfather studied with Dr J H Allen in America in the early years of the last century. He travels widely lecturing on the miasmatic approach to prescribing and is a director of the Bengal Allen Medical Institute and Principal of the Allen College of Homoeopathy in Essex. This book aims to encompass philosophy, diagnostic classifications, clinical tips, a miasmatic repertory and a guide to the miasmatic 'weightage' of remedies, in six sections.

When I see a statement such as psora+sycosis+syco-psora = consumptive miasm it tends to make me blink a bit and recall long lectures spent doodling pictures of angels struggling for footholds on a pin head and wondering if this was what it was really all about. However, generally speaking the first section of this book does actually clarify the basic concepts of miasms as layers of predisposition, referring back to Chronic Diseases and bringing in contributions from Close, Kent and Paschero. Dr Banerjea takes up at length the question of whether psora is in fact the mother of all miasms and of its relationship to scabies, taking the views that it is an acquired miasm associated with a variety of diseases with primarily cutaneous manifestations. (As he points out, if psora was the apple then Adam must have been susceptible to biting it!) He puts forward a convincing case for these and his other analyses of how miasms arrive and manifest in man. Every stage of his analysis appears in the form of linked statements, diagrammatic presentation and is summarised, and illustrated with theoretical examples - a degree of repetition that, at this stage, is quite welcome. His explanations are quite straightforward compared to some I have heard: miasms are to be addressed as they appear on the surface. Acute and semi-chronic miasms exist alongside the four 'old' chronic miasms and miasmatic interpretation of a case comes into its own when addressing suppressed or onesided cases, but treatment must be based on the whole presenting symptom picture of disease rather than on the name of the miasm. This is very much a layered approach to disease, using .the analogy of stripping petals from a lotus bud rather than peeling an onion - an analogy that, incidentally, has the advantage of providing a much more attractive book cover!

The slight repetitiveness of the first section is unfortunately carried over into the next three sections of the book. First comes Miasmatic Diagnostic Classification, where, for example five pages are devoted to comparisons of headache symptoms, and three to ear symptoms. This is very comprehensive and easy-to-refer to as it is presents the comparative materia medica in chart form. However, the third section is a similar presentation of clinical diagnoses, much of which, but not all, has already been included in Part Two. Amalgamating these two sections would have added to clarity and ease of reference and made the book a lot shorter. The problem is further compounded in Part 4, the charmingly titled, Miasmatic Ancestral Tips. Again there is new material here, gleaned from Dr Banerjea's own experience and that of his uncle and grandfather, but much of it duplicates what has been stated in the previous two sections. For example the description of diarrhea in tubercular subjects in the Aids chart is the same in the clinical and the miasmatic charts, as, of course, it would be.

Having said that, the 'Ancestral Tips' which take the form of a miscellany of observations and reflections appearing at intervals throughout the book can be very interesting and add to the originality of the work.

The repertory section is self-explanatory, giving each symptom a tick according to the miasm it typifies or noting if it is typical of a 'mixed miasm'. There are 53 pages of this and it is very comprehensive.

Part 6 is the part where remedies are listed and given grades according to how strongly they are represented resource in a given miasm. This is done in chart form under the alphabetical listing of remedies and again in list form under the headings of the miasms.

The tendency to repetitiveness apart, this book provides an exceedingly thorough and clear description of miasmatic theory and its practical application and an excellent reference resource. Real-life case examples would have been a useful addition, however, illustrating both the method in practice and the need for this approach in the first place. The lack of them does detract from its impact but, perhaps not its value as a reference book.