Clinical Focus Guide Vol. I., by Louis Klein www.homeopathycourses.com
I’ve known very little of Louis Klein but what I read here I liked. Louis, who has been practicing for a quarter of a century now has also been teaching the Master Clinician course in Canada. Hence, the book is geared towards more experienced homeopaths.
What I love about this materia medica is the choice of remedies. Mid-sized remedies; Absinth, Alcohol, Bryonia, Carbolic acid, Cenchris, Cinnabaris, Crotalus, Lecithin, Lyssin, Mancinella, Morphinum, Oleum jecorum, Solanum tuberosum, Veratrum viride and Viola odorata. He shares his insights and experience of these remedies that are more often required than we’d expect and Louis shows us the way with his unique style.
His choice of remedies does not end there. He gives us his clinical experience of remedies he’s proved like Earthworm, Arg. Sulph, Loxosceles reclusa and Coriandrum aswell as provings of others; Chocolate, Hydrogen, Neon, Aranea ixobola and Sycotic co.
Each remedy study is divided as follows. A lengthy description of the patient needing the remedy – based on his experience of course and therefore requiring the reader to test it for themselves. He follows this with the meaning behind the name of the remedy and Source Notes which describes the nature of the substance. He then gives the remedy a miasmatic classification followed by the Clinical Focus Guide which is a listing of the symptoms and sensations to be expected from the remedy and its clinical application.
He then enhances the study with insightful descriptions from some well respected authors and finally gives a list of remedy relationships.
A few minor things tripped me up. Phrases such as “paragraph two eleven,” the abundance of spelling mistakes, the unnecessary abbreviation “apt.” on page 138 which I assume means “apartment.”
Again like the book on Birds we find no shortage of references to abuse though this time the emphasis is on ritualistic abuse. Again a list of pharmacies providing the new remedies would be appreciated. (Louis does refer to Hahnemann Labs, a link to which can be found on his website).
In this materia medica Louis presents clear pictures and is very readable making it akin to Kent’s lectures. My only quibble is in Neon (p, 208) we find “poor incarnation” a symptom…
Louis also groups remedies into “Homeopathic groups.” I’m sure students on his course understand his thinking but Louis neglected to explain this idea here. For example, the remedy Oleum jecoris aselli fits into Oil group, Halogen group, soft-sided creative group, pre-historic group and sea groups. Does this complicate things? Staying with the same remedy, I wonder how many miasms a remedy can cover. Here Oleum jecoris is listed as sycotic, ringworm, psoric and tubercular.
This is a wonderful addition to our other materia medicae and explains the remedies clearly and thoroughly, so much so that I’d be surprised if most homeopaths couldn’t find more use for the remedies here. I do think more justice would have been served to this excelllent volume if it was hardback.
The book is available from Minerva and Narayana as well as other suppliers.