Portraits of Homoeopathic Medicines – Volume 1 by CATHERINE R. COULTER

Description

Catherine Coulter’s book is the first psychological description that widens the personality picture of the substance patterns beyond the hitherto standard enumerations (frequently overlapping) of relatively single criteria such as jealously, fear, de-sire to be alone, etc. Psycho logical patterns are at least to some extent inherent as parts of an overall constitution—notwithstanding the fact that they may also, to varying degrees, be subject to environmental modification. Her book deserves to be studied by every homoeopathic prescriber as well as by the practicing or research psychotherapist. To the former it offers widening of perspective for remedy selection, while the latter can gain new insights into constitutional data and the possibilities of a new typology that bridges the gap between psyche and soma. Here is a view of therapeutic possibilities beyond the limits of a purely psychological approach to personality problems. It is to be hoped that this book will also stimulate new re-search into the relation of constitutional and environmental factors as well as verifications of the clinical data offered here. Homoeopathy bridges the Cartesian body-mind split. The body-oriented physician in the past has tended to gloss over psychological determinants and their fine points in the genesis of illness. The psychologist on the other hand has lacked adequate specific data for linking biological factors with psychic dynamics. This book is primarily descriptive of psychological features. An adequate selection of a remedy cannot safely rely upon a psychological picture alone. There are still too many inadequately defined lines of demarcation, possibilities of temporarily shifts in moods and overlapping. No matter whether one tries to help somatically or psychologically, the leading somatic guiding symptoms and modalities must also be considered.