THE ART OF INDIVIDUALIZATION

KENT’S LEGACY

J.T. KENT

VITALISM

• “To be healthy means to be highly sensitive and responsive to life –creative, joyful, free, capable of functioning in harmony with creation. Health is a condition not only of the body but especially of the spirit, mind, and feelings.” (Alain Naude)

VITAL FORCE

• THAT WHICH INTEGRATES THE HARMONIOUS FUNCTION OF THE WHOLE ORGANISM

• FLOWS FROM INNERMOST TO OUTERMOST LAYERS OF A PERSON

• FROM THE MOST VITAL TO THE LEAST VITAL• IN ORDER IN HEALTH AND IN DISORDER IN

DIS-EASE

INDIVIDUALIZATION

• ‘JUST SO, MERCURY, ETC., -CURES THINGS MERCURIC ONLY.”

• (PARACELSUS)

SPECIFIC REMEDY

• “STRIKING, STRANGE, UNUSUAL, PECULIAR (CHARACTERISTIC) SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS … ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY THE ONES TO WHICH CLOSE ATTENTION SHOULD BE GIVEN….”

• (ORGANON. HAHNEMANN)

SAMUEL HAHNEMANN

HAHNEMANN’S CASESHOCK IN THE PIT OF THE STOMACHWORSE ON ANY MOVEMENTBETTER FOR RESTSLEEPLESS AFTER 3 A.M.RELISHES FOOD BUT SICK AFTER A SMALL AMOUNT.WATERBRASH IN THE MOUTHERUCTATIONS AFTER EVERY MEALTEMPER PASSIONATE, DISPOSED TO ANGERSWEATS WITH PAIN

WASHER WOMAN

CASE ANALYSIS

• HAHNEMANN ANALYSES EACH SYMPTOM IN RELATION TO POSSIBLE REMEDIES

• “ONE OF THE CHIEF SYMPTOMS IN DISEASES IS THE “STATE OF THE DISPOSITION”, AND AND AS BRYONIA CAUSES THIS SYMPTOM ALSO IN AN EXACTLY SIMILAR MANNER.”

• BRYONIA ONE DROP OF UNDILUTED JUICE OF THE ROOT WAS GIVEN AND SHE WAS CURED.

DISPOSITION

• “THUS ACONITE WILL SELDOM OR NEVER CURE EITHER QUICKLY OR PEMANENTLY IF THE DISPOSITION IS CALM AND UNDISTURBED; NOR WILL NUX VOMICA IF IT IS MILD AND PHLEGMATIC; NOR WILL PULSATILLA IF IT IS GLAD, CHEERFUL, AND WILLFUL; NOR WILL IGNATIA IF IT IS STEADY AND WITHOUT FEARFULNESS OR IRRITABILITY” (ORGANON. HAHNEMANN)

CHARACTERISTICS

• “IT IS THE PECULIAR WAY THAT THE SAME DISEASE AFFECTS DIFFERENT PATIENTS THAT MAKES THE SYMPTOMS STRANGE, PECULIAR AND RARE….. IN SICKNESSES THE SYMPTOMS THAT CANNOT BE EXPLAINED ARE OFTEN VERY PECULIAR ….” (KENT)

CASE – MIDDLE AGED WOMAN• WORSE AFTER EVENING MEAL. SLEEPLESS FIRST PART OF THE

NIGHT. SOUR BELCHING. SWEET THINGS DISAGREE. FOOD COMES UP. ERUCTATIONS. URGE TO STOOL WITH GAS PASSING WITH RELIEF. PALPITATION WITH FLUSHES OF HEAT ENDING IN SWEAT. FACE RED WITH FLUSHES OF HEAT. SENSATION OF SWINGING IN THE AIR. HOT ELECTRICAL TINGLING. FEEBLE INTERMITTENT PULSE, WITH FLUTTERING OF HEART. RESTLESS. SHE MUST MOVE CONTINUALLY TO PREVENT THE HEART FROM CEASING ITS ACTION. GREAT HEAVINESS OF ARMS AND HEAD; NECK SEEMS TIRED. SIGHING BREATHING. CAN’T LIE ON THE LEFT SIDE. COLD HANDS AND FEET. THROBBING AND TREMULOUS SENSATION AFTER EATING.

• REMEDIES GIVEN BEFORE: LACHESIS, NAT MUR, SEPIA, AND IGNATIA

KENT’s CASE

KENT’s CASE

CASE ANALYSIS

• “MUST MOVE CONTINUALLY TO PREVENT THE HEART FROM CEASING ITS ACTION” CLUES US IN ON THE POSSIBLE REMEDY.

• MATERIA MEDICA CONFIRMS THE GELSEMIUM IS THE REMEDY

• GELS. 77M CURED THIS CASE IN A FEW MONTHS. (KENT)

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

• The characteristic symptoms must be equally well marked, both in the patient and in the remedy… No one symptom, however peculiar it may be can be our true guide, for, unless there is a general correspondence between the symptoms of the patient and the remedy, failure will result.

• (R.G. MILLER AND J.T. KENT)

• CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS ARE THOSE THAT ARE PECULIAR, UNUSUAL, AND DISTINCTIVE, AND ARE FOUND IN FEW PATIENTS, AND PRODUCED IN THE PROVING OF FEW MEDICINES.

• (H. FARRINGTON)

• “You may have seen a hundred cases of measles without seeing that very thing… When you find that the remedy has that symptom, along with the other symptoms,

• you must attach some importance to it, and when there are two or three of these peculiar symptoms they form the characteristic features.”

• (J.T. Kent)

SOME PITFALLS

• “TO REGARD SULPHUR AND GRAPHITES AS [ONLY] SKIN MEDICINES… TO SET SEPIA ASIDE AS A REMEDY [ONLY] FOR WOMEN’S COMPLAINTS…

• TO WORK YOUR HOMOEOPATHY FOR ALL IT IS WORTH, YOU WILL HAVE TO CURE INDIVIDUAL CASES.”

• (HOW NOT TO DO IT. MARGARET TYLER)

PITFALLS

• DR. AUSTIN ASKED DR. SCHMIDT “WHICH WERE THE HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR RHEUMATISM AND, AFTER I HAD SPOKEN ABOUT RHUS AND BRYONIA, HE GAVE ME THE LAST BLOW TO MY KNOWLEDGE, SAYING SIMPLY: - “WELL MY BROTHER, I THINK IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO STUDY HOMOEOPATHY”

• (P. SCHMIDT)

DR. PIERRE SCHMIDT

PIERRE SCHMIDT

• HE WAS ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT AND INFLUENTIAL HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

• “THE GREAT TRADITION OF CLASSICAL HOMOEOPATHY WAS BEQUEATHED TO HIM…BY DRS. AUSTIN AND GLADWIN, BOTH WERE PUPILS OF KENT. AFTER A VERY VIGOROUS APPRENTICESHIP WITH THEM HE BROUGHT IT BACK TO EUROPE.”

• (THE ART OF CASE TAKING. TRANS. BY ALAIN NAUDE.)

CLASSIFICATION OF SYMPTOMS

• MENTAL SYMPTOMS• GENERAL SYMPTOMS• ALIMENTARY DESIRES AND

AVERSIONS• SEXUAL SYMPTOMS• SLEEP AND DREAMS

SAMPLE CASES

• DR. SCHMIDT’S CURED A UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF ASTHMA WHEN THE MAN REVEALED A PROCLIVITY TO SEXUAL EXHIBITIONISM. PHOSPHORUS CURED HIM. (REPERTORISATION OF SHAMELESS, EXPOSES PERSON)

SAMPLE CASE

• DR. J. WEIR CURED ASTHMA IN A 44 YEAR OLD LADY WHO WAS ALWAYS DREAMING OF CATS. ALSO SHE HAD Changeable mood,

• Weeping alternating with laughter, desire for company, fear of dark and death, suspicious, aversion to fat.

• “A BEAUTIFUL CASE OF PULSATILLA” • (JUGAL KISHORE)

• DR. WEIR WAS A BRITISH STUDENT OF KENT

DREAMS OF CATS

CASE TAKING

• PROPER TAKING OF THE CASE IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

• SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS AND QUESTIONNAIRE GIVEN IN THE ART OF CASE TAKING, SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF PIERRE SCHMIDT, TRANS. BY ALAIN NAUDE.)

• ALSO SEE OUTLINE FOR TAKING THE CASE IN A BRIEF STUDY COURSE IN HOMEOPATHY. DR. WRIGHT HUBBARD. (AN AMERICAN STUDENT OF DR. SCHMIDT.)

RELATIVE VALUE OF SYMPTOMS

• “THIS IS SO IMPORTANT THAT THE PSYCHIC CONDITION OF THE PATIENT IS OFTEN THE DECISIVE FACTOR IN CHOOSING A HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDY, BECAUSE IT IS A PARTICULARLY CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOM… FROM THE CAREFULLY OBSERVANT PHYSICIAN.”

• (ORGANON. SEC. 211 HAHNEMANN)

HIERARCHY OF SYMPTOMS• 1. EMOTIONAL - fear, anger, sexual and menstrual,

desires and aversions overall.• 2. INTELECTUAL - Thought, Comprehension, Illusions,

Hallucinations, Dreams, and Memory• 3. PHYSICAL GENERALS - Desires and aversions

relating to food, and drink. Sensations, Pains, Modalities, Concomittants

• 4. CHARACTERISTIC PARTICULAR SYMPTOMS, IN A PARTICULAR LOCATION

• 5. COMMON SYMPTOMS. COMMON PATHOLOGY.(Homeopathy and Homeopathic Prescribing by H. FARRINGTON)

PATHOLOGY

• “A KNOWLEDGE OF TRUE PATHOLOGY IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. 1. WE CAN ONLY THEREBY UNDERSTAND THE COURSE AND PROGRESS OF THE CASE. 2. WE CAN THEREBY KNOW THE SYMPTOMS THAT ARE COMMON TO THAT SPECIAL STATE, AND HENCE THOSE THAT ARE PECULIAR TO THE [INDIVIDUAL] PATIENT…”

• (R.G. MILLER)

“INCURABLE” CASE

• A MIDDLE AGED SPANISH LADY WITH A SARCOMA OF THE ARM

• FEVER STARTING DAILY AT 10 OR 11 A.M.• HEADACHE ASSOCIATED WITH VERTIGO• LOSS OF COORDINATED MOVEMENTS• INCREASED STUPOR• HEAT OF THE HEAD• ABSENCE OF THIRST• SLOW SUBSIDENCE OF FEVER BY AFTERNOON

SARCOMA OF THE ARM

CASE CONTINUED

• HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIAN PRESCRIBED REMEDY “TO MAKE HER COMFORTABLE”

• GELSEMIUM 6C IN HALF A GLASS OF WATER ONE TEASPOON EVERY HOUR UNTIL FEVER DISAPPEARED.

• “WITHIN TWO WEEKS… THE MALIGNANT GROWTH … FINALLY DRIED UP AND DROPPED OFF WHICH WAS THE END OF THAT.”

• (HOMEOPATHIC RECORDER. 1901)

HEART BLOCK CASE

• 80 Y/0 LADY IN THE E.R. PRESENTED WITH DYSPNEA AND SYNCOPE SPELLS OVER THE LAST MONTH. PAST MEDICAL HISTORY OF HYPERTENSION.

• PHYSICAL EXAM WAS REMARKABLE FOR A VERY SLOW HEART RATE AND LOW BLOOD PRESSURE. EKG REVEALED A THIRD DIGREE HEART BLOCK.

• PATIENT REVEALED THAT HER HUSBAND DIED SUDDENLY ABOUT ONE MONTH AGO.

HEART BLOCK ( 80 year old woman)

CASE CONTINUED

• BASED ON THE ETIOLOGY OF THE CASE• GELSEMIUM 200C ONE DOSE GIVEN• EKG PATTERN CHANGED WITHIN TEN

MIINUTES TO NORMAL SINUS RHYTHM• CARDIOLOGIST WAS PUZZLED ON ARRIVAL TO

EVALUATE PATIENT

DEAFNESS AND TINNITUS

• DR. SCHMIDT CURES A CASE OF DEAFNESS AND RINGING IN THE LEFT EAR

• PATIENT HAD THIS CONDITION FOR TWENTY YEARS FROM THE TIME HE SPOKE BY TELEPHONE AND FOUND OUT THAT HIS FRIEND DIED THAT MORNING.

• ETIOLOGY – FROM BAD NEWS• GELS. XM CURED

COMPLETE CASE

• PATIENT PRESENTS WITH VARICOSE VEINS, PAIN IN LEGS, AGGLUTINATED EYES IN MORNING, HAIR FALLING OUT, EPISTAXIS;

• VERY THIRSTY, CRAVES ACIDS, EMPTY SENSATION IN STOMACH, HEARTBURN. DISTENDED ABDOMEN. CONSTIPATION.

• UNREFRESHING SLEEP. DESIRE TO BE OUTDOORS.

CASE CONTINUED

• POSSIBLE REMEDIES COME TO MIND: GRAPHITES, SULPHUR, PHOSPHORUS, LYCOPODIUM, ETC.

• ON FURTHER INTERVIEW HE LEARNS THAT: “MENSTRUAL FLOW IS HEAVIER AT NIGHT”

• THIS PECULIAR SYMPTOMS LEADS US TO CONSIDER AND CONFIRM MAGNESIA CARBONICA AS OUR REMEDY.

• IT CURED HER GASTRITIS, EPISTAXIS, VARICOSE VEINS, ETC.

(From THE ART OF INTERROGATION. P. SCHMIDT)

SCHMIDT COMPLETE CASE

SCHMIDT COMPLETE CASE

REPERTORY WORK• “AFTER THE LONGEST AND MOST DIFFICULT

PART OF YOUR TASK, THAT OF INDIVIDUALIZING SYMPTOMS HAS BEEN COMPLETED, THE REMAINING PORTION, THAT OF SELECTING YOUR REMEDY WITH THE REPERTORY, IS QUICKLY DONE AND IS A SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL PROPOSITION.”

--- from HOW TO USE THE REPERTORY by G.I. BIDWELL--- DR. BIDWELL WAS A STUDENT OF J.T. KENT

CASE - INSANITY

• “VERY OBSTINATE CASE OF INSANITY”• “PRIDE AND OVER-ESTIMATION OF ONE’S

SELF; LOOKING DOWN WITH HAUGHTINESS ON OTHERS”

• “ILLUSION OF FANCY, ON ENTERING THE HOUSE AFTER WALKING AN HOUR, AS IF EVERYTHING ABOUT HER WERE VERY SMALL, AND ALL PERSONS MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY INFERIOR, BUT SHE HERSELF … SUPERIOR.”

CASE CONTINUED

• “PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS DISAPPEAR AND MENTAL SYMPTOMS APPEAR AND VICE VERSA.”

• PAIN THE WHOLE LENGTH OF THE SPINE ALTERNATED WITH THE MENTAL SYMPTOMS.

• PLATINA GIVEN• “IMPROVEMENT BEGAN THE FIRST DAY…

WELL NOW 15 YEARS.”(LEADERS. E.B. NASH, P. 187)

INSANITY

GENETIC ABNORMALITIES

• K.B. IS A 7 Y/O ASIAN GIRL ADOPTED FROM CHINA AS AN INFANT.

• PAST MEDICAL HISTORY: RECURRENT BOUTS OF PNEUMONIA, ASTHMA, FREQUENT COLDS. IMMUNODEFICIENCY: ABSENT NATURAL KILLER CELL FUNCTION (PER GENETIC DISEASE SPECIALIST)

CASE CONTINUED

• MAIN COMPLAINTS: 1. RECURRENT PNEUMONIA – 7 BOUTS A YEAR

• 2. ASTHMA WORSE IN COLD WEATHER AND CHANGE OF WEATHER

• PHYSICAL EXAM UNREMARKABLE• TALL, THIN CHILD, RESTLESS IN HER SEAT

CASE CONTINUED

• GENERALS: HUNGRY MOST AT 7 A.M.• TAKES SOCKS AND SHOES OFF BECAUSE

OF HEAT. SOME THIRST FOR COLD DRINKS. CRAVES CHOCOLATE MILK.

• SENSITIVE TO BOTH COLD AND HEAT. FAINTY IN HEAT. SWEATS EASILY ON HEAD.

CASE CONTINUED• MENTALS: SOCIAL. FEARLESS.

IMPATIENT. CONSOLATION IS OK. WEEPS WITH ANGER.

• SLEEP: POSITION IS ON HER BACK WITH HANDS OVER HEAD. TALKS AND LAUGHS IN SLEEP.

• FLAT WARTS ON LEGS AND BACK• MAPPED OR GEOGRAPHIC TONGUE

NK CELL DEFICIENCY

NK CELL DEFICIENCY

NK CELL DEFICIENCY

CASE ANALYSIS

• REPERTORISATION ESPECIALLY OF UNCOVERING, SENSITIVE TO BOTH HEAT AND COLD, FEARLESS, SLEEPS WITH HANDS OVER HEAD AND LAUGHS IN SLEEP

• SULPHUR CONFIRMED• SULPHUR 1M EVERY FOUR MONTHS THE FIRST

YEAR (PATIENT DID NOT FOLLOW UP)• SULPHUR XM MONTHLY OR SO FOR THE LAST

FIVE YEARS. • NO PNEUMONIA. NO TUMORS THAT ARE

COMMON IN THIS CONDITION

GENE EXPRESSION ACTIVATION STUDIES: HOMEOPATHY

• DEMONSTRATING ANTICANCER PROPERTY OF AN ALKALOID FROM GELSEMIUM

• ARNICA MONTANA REDUCES DNA DAMAGE IN E. COLI

• GELSEMIUM CHANGING GENE EXPRESSION IN HUMAN NEUROCYTES

• “CANOVA” COMBINATION REMEDY SHOWS LYMPHOCYTE PROLIFERATION

CLINICAL COMPARATIVE MATERIA MEDICA

• BETWEEN BRYONIA AND PHOSPHORUS IN PNEUMONIA

• 1. BRYONIA• MORE TOXIC, HEAVY, SLIGHTLY CYANOTIC• AVERSION TO DISTURBANCE, PAINFUL

COUGH, PAIN IN THE CHEST RELIEVED BY PRESSURE –LYING ON THE PAINFUL SIDE.

• WHITE COATED TONGUE

BRYONIA CONTINUED

• THIRSTY FOR LARGE COLD DRINKS.• PAROXYSM OF COUGH RELIEVED BY

HOT DRINKS• AFFECTS RIGHT LUNG USUALLY• DEVELOPS MORE SLOWLY

PHOSPHORUS

• MORE ANXIOUS, FLUSHED, NOT CYANOTIC• ALSO THIRSTY FOR COLD DRINKS . TONGUE LESS

COATED.• DISLIKE PRESSURE ON THE AFFECTED AREA• LIES ON THE UNAFFECTED SIDE.• LOWER LOBE OF LUNG MORE COMMON• COMES ON MORE ACUTELY(From Homeopathy in Practice, D.M. BORLAND)• (ALSO – FOR ACUTE CHESTS SEE POINTERS TO

THE COMMON REMEDIES BY M.L. TYLER)

COMPARISON: BRYONIA & PHOSPHORUS

COMPARISON: BRYONIA & PHOSPHORUS

CONCLUSION

• VITAL FORCE FUNCTIONS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE

• CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS ARE MORE DISTINCTIVE IN THE MENTAL AND GENERAL SPHERE

• MENTAL STATES HAVE A PROFOUND EFFECT ON THE PHYSICAL ORGANISM

OUR MIND• “An enemy can hurt an enemy, and a man who

hates can harm another man; but a man’s own mind, if wrongly directed, can do him a far greater harm.

• A father or a mother, or a relative, can indeed do good to a man; but his own right-directed mind can do to him a far greater good.”

• (The Dhammapada, The Path of Perfection, trans. by Juan Mascaro).