Alicia Lee: “Homeopathic Mind Maps. Remedies of the Class Aves – Birds”

All there is to know about the homeopathic use of bird remedies today – this could be the summary of a review of this amazing book, with an emphasis on “all”. But this book doesnʼt only give us all we can know; it structures this vast knowledge in a very clear way. Already known for her mind map books on more “classical” remedies, Alicia Lee has now extended her successful method of summarizing remedies to the realm of birds, a group of remedies that didnʼt have more than two or three specimens just a few years ago.

Within the last decade the knowledge of this group has exploded to more than 160 bird remedies available in pharmacies and 60 of them proved. Leeʼs book covers almost 90 bird remedies, based on their provings and on case studies. She seems to have worked through all available material and condensed it to one mind map page for each bird (sometimes two when provings were very different) and one additional page for each bird group (order). The book starts with a survey of the birdʼs taxonomy, which is as much under discussion amongst biologists and subject to change as the taxonomy of many other remedy groups.

This is followed by an explanation of how the mind maps work.

The difference between a mind map materia medica and the well-known symptom lists lies in the ability of a mind map to also show the inner structure and interdependence of the many different symptoms. As we know from our healing experience, symptoms not only coexist, they are related and in many ways interrelated. The typical materia medica does not reflect this, but only gives a list. If you read Kentʼs lectures you will see one of the great early attempts to transmit this understanding of interdependence of symptoms and to draw a living “picture” of a remedy. This takes many pages of text and a strong capacity of imagination on the readerʼs side to keep all the symptom connections in their mind and “see” the picture. A mind map goes one important step further and directly shows the full image. The relevance of this obviously depends mostly not only on the authorʼs great diligence but on her competence and deep understanding of the remedies.

Thus we can watch the basic theme of the bird class – freedom and restriction – unfold in a hundred different ways, as the mind maps start with the essential understanding and develop through mental and emotional symptoms to general and local ones. They are not only given of single remedies but also of orders of the bird class and of the whole group of birds as such. So the basic issues are developed through several stages of differentiation, just as a careful case analysis should also do. Symptom tables of the families assist the differential diagnosis of the unique expression of the family theme within each single member. A picture of each bird completes the impression of the remedies.

Of course we will always have only a few patients in our practice needing bird remedies. But if we find one through careful analysis or well-described sensation, this is the book to decide which bird it is.