Arjen Pasma: “Practice Makes Perfect. Practice Book for the Repertory”

Arjen Pasma is an experienced Dutch homeopath and teacher who has written an excellent study and practice guide to the repertory. For both beginning and somewhat more advanced students this book can greatly help in navigating the challenge of studying the repertory. The first chapter consists of 42 series of exercises, beginning with introducing people to the structure of the repertory, with repertory exercises taken from all sections of the repertory and then gradually developing in difficulty. Chapter two gives ten series of exercises from Malawi where Arjen also worked (he also spent time in Kenya), so the book furthermore embraces the challenges of the repertory for non-European societies. Chapter three then gives the answers to all the series, with an excellent description of the meaning of the rubric and comparative rubric analysis. This is a strong aspect of the book. Chapter four gives the answers to the Malawi exercises. However, some of the best work in the book follows in the next chapters, including a summary about the structure of the repertory, then articles about the repertory and repertorising; then a chapter on locations in the repertory of pain rubrics, remedy relationships, explanation of key symptoms, an index of words present in Synthesis 9.1, and finally an index of words present in the Essential Synthesis.

I particularly like the last two chapters as they offer the student the opportunity to cross-reference rubrics, to search for words found in the repertory and generally as an aid in navigating and studying the repertory. It is interesting that the author has spent time in Africa and taught there as I have also spent time in Kenya and Malawi and at times questioned the usefulness of the repertory in such cultures, where English is not the first language and where the complexity of the repertory can create more confusion unless a person is willing to endure a steep learning curve. A case could be made for a much simpler repertory than currently found, and the author does discuss this a bit when talking about the Essential Synthesis. However, perhaps more could be addressed here if the repertory is a learning tool that we want to introduce to African students, especially for those people using homeopathy in basic rural situations. It doesnʼt need 1000 remedies in a repertory to prescribe in such situations, as the authorʼs own cases reveal and it could be good for the author to address this interesting challenge when taking homeopathy to developing countries. But this is a highly recommended study manual on the repertory.