Homeopathic Types
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A total of 60 of the most important homeopathic types are described in this book. Together with well-known remedies such as Aurum, Pulsatilla, or Staphisagria, there are also descriptions of seldom remedies such as Lithium or Lac delphinum, which are increasingly used nowadays.
To give the types a vivid pictorial quality, 28 remedy descriptions are supplemented with 60 reliable photographic portraits by Dr. Hellmuth Beuchelt. Together with the finely judged descriptions, the result is a unique insight into the most important remedies.
Homeopathy is now over 200 years old. To begin with, diseases and symptoms were described. In recent decades, we have discovered other and more profound aspects of homeopathic remedies.
Vithoulkas described the essences of the remedies. Think of the open Phosphorus type who can easily get to know people, and is sympathetic to the feelings of others. The next step of this development was to ask ourselves the question why? Why is the Phosphorus type so sympathetic? It turns out that behind this behavior there is a fear of losing contact with others, so the person ends up all alone in the world.
Homeopathic literature has not kept pace with the developments of the last few decades. The old works just describe complaints and constitutions. Frans Kusse has filled this gap. In this book, we can find descriptions of homeopathic remedies that reflect the current state of knowledge.
Frans Kusse writes grippingly and with refreshing clarity. He has always been keen to spread his knowledge of homeopathy widely. And this is exactly what he has achieved here after we have read this work, his portraits will remain engraved in our memory. I can recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the current developments in homeopathy.
From the foreword by Jan Scholten
Subtitle | 60 of the most Important Constitutional Types with Photographs |
---|---|
ISBN | 9783941706590 |
Author | Frans Kusse |
Type | Hardback |
Language | English |
Publication date | 2010 |
Pages | 244 |
Publisher | Narayana Verlag |
Review | This book review is reprinted from Volume 2, 2011 Edition of Spectrum of Homeopathy with permission from Narayana Publishers . Reviewed by Sue Spurling Indeed, the simplicity of this book, in the way it is written and displayed, belies the depth of information within. Upon completion, one puts the book down with a far greater understanding, not only of the remedy pictures, but of why and how individuals behave when in a particular remedy state. Kusse brings a huge amount of information together in one piece of work. As we know, homeopathy is an evolving healing modality. We have different ways of finding remedies beyond repertorisation, through the work of homeopaths, such as Scholten or Sankaran and their work on developing classification systems of minerals and plant remedies. We have been given a wealth of information about human responses to life, through the proving of the jewels in the work of Tuminello and colleagues. There seems to be a growing thirst for developing our understanding of human behaviour and the responses / reactions to life experiences. Much of our human drive, and hence behaviours, is about keeping ourselves safe in what at times seems a hostile environment. There is a growing body of knowledge that has been produced about early experiences, particularly prenatally and around the time of birth through the work of Philip Bailey, Patricia Hatherly, Farokh J Master, Tinus Smits, Luc de Schepper, and of course Jan Scholten and Rajan Sanakaran. Massimo Manglialavori has explored the concepts of safety in his work on the sea remedies. Identifying behavioural and psychological characteristics is not new. Hahnemann himself, in 'Organon of the Medical Art', talks about the importance of identifying psychological symptoms and illustrates how, through observations of people exhibiting particular traits, they have been healed by the same remedy that produces those behaviours. Catherine R Coulter has given us a wonderful gift in her in-depth psychophysical analyses of particular constitutional types, in the 'Portraits of Homeopathic Medicines'. Volumes 1 to 3. Over the years, we have built up an extensive knowledge of how people behave in given situations and what their resistances and obstacles to cure are. In more recent times, we have further looked at, and understood why, behaviours are exhibited. Natrum's insecurity and reserve, for example, comes from 'her' being unsure of who she really is and how 'she' is not very good at making decisions. Because of a lack of confidence and self worth 'she' is easily offended and upset if criticised. 'She' does whatever she can to cover up and compensate for her vulnerability and so presents a completely different picture to the world - that of being somewhat aloof, proud, even contemptuous, only wanting the best in everything, but what does she look like? Kusse has used photographs to demonstrate how people may look when in, for example, a Natrum muriaticum or Carbonicum state. The text is informative and offered in a clear and engaging manner, which is free from jargon. His words leave clear images in ones mind together with a greater understanding of how people may develop states of disease. If I have any personal criticisms of the book, it is in its lack of discussion in relation to what one is looking for in the photographs of people in particular remedy states. The actual information about the remedies is without question invaluable. Some discussion of the identifying features of a person's countenance in a given photograph would have been helpful, especially when one is acquiring the skills of facial analysis. This particularly applies to those remedy chapters where there are several photographs with a range of different features. In the chapter on Aurum metallicum, there are photographs of remedy states of two salts of Aurum - Aurum muriaticum natronatum and Aurum iodatum (none of aurum metallicum). There is definitely a heaviness about the two women's faces and a certain look for dependability. As with Children's Types, it would appear that the target audience for this book is homeopaths, but it speaks to a lay audience as well. If that is the case, the introduction seems very brief and almost cursorily brushes over a few aspects of homeopathy. Because each section in the introduction is so brief, it is not clearly linked to the content of the book and does not easily flow into the body of the text that follows, which is extremely informative. I would also have liked to see more current photographs used, as they would better reflect current life issues and appearance. The remedies covered in the book include those from the mineral and plant kingdoms, nosodes and a Lac remedy - Lac delphinum. The remedies are discussed alphabetically and, as the title suggests cover the major constitutional remedies in practice. Each remedy chapter has a theme as part of the title, which encapsulates the central essence of the remedy, for example, "Spasmodically holding on and preserving" for Cuprum metallicum and "A stable family home, stylish and self-confident" for Silicea terra. Crtiticisms aside, Kusse builds strongly not only on our current information of constitutional remedies but also shows how to recognise the behaviours concerned, and gives great insight into background reasons for these behaviours, in such an engaging way that the remedy pictures will be well remembered. This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of knowledge of human behaviour and Materia Medica. |
Review
This book review is reprinted from Volume 2, 2011 Edition of Spectrum of Homeopathy with permission from Narayana Publishers .
Reviewed by Sue Spurling
Frans Kusse has extended his work on Children's Types in his latest work on sixty of the most important constitutional types. In this book, Kusse presents characteristic features of people in particular remedy states, using photographs by way of illustration. When one picks up this book, one should not be lulled into thinking that this is just another take on homeopathic Materia Medica, with the addition of photographs to illustrate how patients in particular remedy states may look. It is so much more and it is important to acknowledge the amount of work that will have gone into its development and the observations that will have been made to demonstrate how we may observe our clients with greater awareness and clarity.
Indeed, the simplicity of this book, in the way it is written and displayed, belies the depth of information within. Upon completion, one puts the book down with a far greater understanding, not only of the remedy pictures, but of why and how individuals behave when in a particular remedy state. Kusse brings a huge amount of information together in one piece of work.
As we know, homeopathy is an evolving healing modality. We have different ways of finding remedies beyond repertorisation, through the work of homeopaths, such as Scholten or Sankaran and their work on developing classification systems of minerals and plant remedies. We have been given a wealth of information about human responses to life, through the proving of the jewels in the work of Tuminello and colleagues. There seems to be a growing thirst for developing our understanding of human behaviour and the responses / reactions to life experiences.
Much of our human drive, and hence behaviours, is about keeping ourselves safe in what at times seems a hostile environment. There is a growing body of knowledge that has been produced about early experiences, particularly prenatally and around the time of birth through the work of Philip Bailey, Patricia Hatherly, Farokh J Master, Tinus Smits, Luc de Schepper, and of course Jan Scholten and Rajan Sanakaran. Massimo Manglialavori has explored the concepts of safety in his work on the sea remedies.
Identifying behavioural and psychological characteristics is not new. Hahnemann himself, in 'Organon of the Medical Art', talks about the importance of identifying psychological symptoms and illustrates how, through observations of people exhibiting particular traits, they have been healed by the same remedy that produces those behaviours. Catherine R Coulter has given us a wonderful gift in her in-depth psychophysical analyses of particular constitutional types, in the 'Portraits of Homeopathic Medicines'. Volumes 1 to 3.
Over the years, we have built up an extensive knowledge of how people behave in given situations and what their resistances and obstacles to cure are. In more recent times, we have further looked at, and understood why, behaviours are exhibited. Natrum's insecurity and reserve, for example, comes from 'her' being unsure of who she really is and how 'she' is not very good at making decisions. Because of a lack of confidence and self worth 'she' is easily offended and upset if criticised. 'She' does whatever she can to cover up and compensate for her vulnerability and so presents a completely different picture to the world - that of being somewhat aloof, proud, even contemptuous, only wanting the best in everything, but what does she look like?
Kusse has used photographs to demonstrate how people may look when in, for example, a Natrum muriaticum or Carbonicum state. The text is informative and offered in a clear and engaging manner, which is free from jargon. His words leave clear images in ones mind together with a greater understanding of how people may develop states of disease. If I have any personal criticisms of the book, it is in its lack of discussion in relation to what one is looking for in the photographs of people in particular remedy states. The actual information about the remedies is without question invaluable. Some discussion of the identifying features of a person's countenance in a given photograph would have been helpful, especially when one is acquiring the skills of facial analysis. This particularly applies to those remedy chapters where there are several photographs with a range of different features.
In the chapter on Aurum metallicum, there are photographs of remedy states of two salts of Aurum - Aurum muriaticum natronatum and Aurum iodatum (none of aurum metallicum). There is definitely a heaviness about the two women's faces and a certain look for dependability.
As with Children's Types, it would appear that the target audience for this book is homeopaths, but it speaks to a lay audience as well. If that is the case, the introduction seems very brief and almost cursorily brushes over a few aspects of homeopathy. Because each section in the introduction is so brief, it is not clearly linked to the content of the book and does not easily flow into the body of the text that follows, which is extremely informative. I would also have liked to see more current photographs used, as they would better reflect current life issues and appearance.
The remedies covered in the book include those from the mineral and plant kingdoms, nosodes and a Lac remedy - Lac delphinum. The remedies are discussed alphabetically and, as the title suggests cover the major constitutional remedies in practice. Each remedy chapter has a theme as part of the title, which encapsulates the central essence of the remedy, for example, "Spasmodically holding on and preserving" for Cuprum metallicum and "A stable family home, stylish and self-confident" for Silicea terra.
Crtiticisms aside, Kusse builds strongly not only on our current information of constitutional remedies but also shows how to recognise the behaviours concerned, and gives great insight into background reasons for these behaviours, in such an engaging way that the remedy pictures will be well remembered. This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of knowledge of human behaviour and Materia Medica.