Phenomena and Facets (A New Approach to Homeopathic Prescribing)

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Dr Rajesh Shah is a global homeopath, researcher, and the director of Life Force Homeopathy in Mumbai, India. He is a pioneer of online medical practice and has treated patients from over 180 countries - a world record.

He has developed many new homeopathic medicines, including those from biological sources such as HIV nosode, Hepatitis C nosode, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis nosode, Cancer nosode, Malaria nosode, and more. He has conducted many RCTs, drug provings, experiments in animal models, as well as in-vitro studies with many new and old homeopathic medicines in collaboration with reputed institutions such as Haffkine Institute, ICT (UDCT), IIT-B, Tata Memorial, Nair Hospital, etc. He has also conducted research on defining the force parameters for standardization of potentization. Besides which, he has introduced a scientific method of development of nosodes.

Dr. Shah's research papers have been published in several peer-reviewed, international journals. He has authored several books. He was on the faculty at CMPH Medical College, Mumbai University and is an internationally recognized teacher and key-note speaker who has conducted seminars and workshops for practitioners across continents.

Dr. Shah's scientific approach to homeopathy has helped introduce novel and invaluable concepts to homeopathic research and practice.

He lives with his family in Mumbai.

I know Dr Rajesh Shah as an astute clinician and meticulous researcher. But little did I know that he had keen interest in the study of materia medica against the background of drug proving and repertory also. I personally feel that because of his observational skills, he has written this book for disseminating the homeopathic fraternity his innovative ideas for the study of materia medica vis —a — vis patient’s profile.

Candidly speaking, the concepts of facets and phenomenology introduced by the author are completely new to me. As regards his concept of facets, Dr. Shah has tried to analyze the psychical dimension of homeopathic materia medica. He explains that facets consist of existence of specific combination of symptoms proved together in the same prover. When such a match is observed in a case, the remedy that emerges must be considered provided it is supported by other prescribing criteria. The matching of this group of symptoms in the patients with those found in the medicines during proving is the core idea of facet concept.

The Phenomenological approach is yet another novel idea that the author has presented to the profession in this book. He wants to convey that when a phenomenon occurring in the patient is matched with the remedy that has the same phenomenon during the proving, then this remedy should be considered for prescribing, if other supporting data are available. On perusal of the ideology of Dr Shah, I am convinced that he has diligently put all efforts to convey the message how to implement his new thoughts for revisiting homeopathic materia medica and remedy selection.

The illustrious case profiles in this manuscript are meant to expand the perspective of clinicians to experience materia medica - oriented practice; to identify and answer fundamental questions in treatment of patients holistically. The layout of each chapter of the book is well - designed and balanced in relation to its contents.

The most exquisite section of this book is the chapter where Dr Shah has applied the concepts of facets and phenomenology in the study of repertory and has proposed some new additions to the repertory.

In the post - Hahnemannian era, many authors and practitioners of homeopathy have laid down their own concepts and ideologies for perceiving the portrait of patient in order to determine the similimum which have been accepted or rejected by the fraternity. Although the thumb rule of homeopathic practice is to erect the totality of the sick individual to match with a remedy profile, yet in reality, it’s a difficult task to practice due to various reasons. I would like to say that the new concepts of facets and phenomenology put down by Dr Shah should be thoroughly studied and analyzed by the profession and if convinced, should be utilized in their practice for the benefit of the patients. In this context, I would quote the following advice of Christian Gottfried Hahnemann to his son Dr. Samuel Hahnemann: "Prove all things; holdfast that is good".

This book is the fruit of over fifteen years of research in the development of a tool to help the homeopathic practitioners in the art of prescribing. Today, I am happy to offer it in the form of a book to homeopaths worldwide.

In the year 1985, as a young, enthusiastic, homeopathic doctor, I was exploring all possible methods of harnessing the massive amount of data available to us in the homeopathic materia medica and applying them to clinical practice. There were many approaches and methods explored by earlier teachers at my disposal. For example, Kent advocated the method of configuring certain symptoms into personality types. Dhawale’s method was similar, but he integrated it with the Boenninghausen and Boger approach. Vithoulkas advocated the approach of understanding the essence of remedies. These were among the most popular, appealing, useful techniques in practice.

I was in the habit of routinely referring to the source data (provings), especially, TF Allen’s Encyclopaedia, Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura and Hering’s Guiding Symptoms, rather than merely relying on the Materia Medica. In this process, I realized that there were many possible ways of looking at the remedies. It became clear that there couldn't be a single perspective to any polychrest. It also became crystal clear that certain images or concepts that were formed around the remedies were actually nothing more than the profiling of only some parts of the totality.

I further realized that the actual totality of any remedy could not be fixed into any remedial prototype. Homeopathic remedies are understood and prescribed on the basis of their effects on humans (or animals) - largely through drug-proving, and their toxicological effects. The outcome of any drug-proving cannot be confined to a single prototype or personality. It can be defined only through symptoms or clusters of symptoms. Similarly, the same remedies cannot be logically applied solely on the ground of some single or fixed image of the remedy. It would be biased and limiting if we judge or identify any remedy by a certain fixed profile. Every remedy may have several such profiles, and this could help us identify the remedy, and not miss it.

I have opted to give the name Facets to such remedy profiles. Further investigations and practical application led to the discovery of various Facets of remedies. These are described in this book, as this discovery allowed me to use homeopathic medicines beyond fixed images or prototypes.

Similarly, while frequently perusing through the pages of drug- provings, I observed that the symptoms often appeared in a sequence - as an occurrence of two or more expressions. For example, anger leading to a desire to strike. It was found that similar expressions are also observed in patients. When medicines were prescribed on the basis of such occurrences, rather than a single symptom, the remedy selection became simplified. I have opted to name these occurrences as Phenomenon, and I have extensively used this concept in my practice spanning over thirty years. In the pages that follow, I shall share this knowledge with the readers. These approaches were conceptualised around 1990 and the book was written around 2006. The publication was delayed due to my increasing focus on homeopathy research.

The Phenomenological approach discussed here is not related to any similar, known concepts in philosophy, psychology or spirituality. Further, the suggested concepts are to be considered complementary to our existing tools of prescribing. Also, it must be kept in mind that there is a risk of certain errors in the data recorded in the original source books of symptoms (such as Allen’s Encyclopaedia and Hering’s Guiding Symptoms); and the limitations as well, which need to be factored while applying this new approach. Since the practice of homeopathy is based on empirical knowledge, the approaches discussed in this book are to be used as additional tools facilitating the journey of prescribing.

My sincere gratitude to my wife, Dr Rupal Shah, for her support and critical review of these concepts since their inception. My thanks to the several institutes across the world, where I was given the opportunity to teach and share my findings, over the last two decades. My thanks to Dr C Nayak for writing the foreword, to my peers who've said kind things about me, published on the pages of this book and the editors for their help.

I am hopeful that this little contribution will help homeopaths in their mission of treating patients.

**Contents and Sample Pages**