Book Review from 

The Homeopath (Spring, 2008), the journal of the British Society of Homeopaths

by Francis Treuherz

"This is a warm gentle friendly sort of book, an earth mother of a book, full of nurture and kindness. Ildiko Ran is a homeopath in Massachusetts, apparently with origins or connections with Israel and Hungary. Her colleague and student Anna Menyhért, is a Hungarian and is also a professional writer. The intention of the book is both as an introduction to the ideas of Rajan Sankaran for homeopaths, and an introduction to homeopathy for prospective or new patients, from the particular stance of Sankaran.

The first 30 pages of the book are devoted to a description of the system and techniques of homeopathy, with brief references to history and other methodologies, but mainly describing the way to discover inner core of sensation, accessible to the homeopath through the words and gestures used by the patient. This is echoed again in the brief introduction to each kingdom, described in the other mineral, plant, animal. There is a short reference to miasm, but I think no mention of Nosodes. There is the briefest of endings named ‘epilogue’.

The main body of the book comprises lengthy descriptions of eleven cases. These narratives and commentary display the core sensations of the Sankaran method of revelation and interpretation of each case. The writers are at ease with their analyses as they unfold how they interpret the language and movement of each patient, and w the patients improved. The reader is slowly and humanely taken under the skin of the method. Much attention is paid to the gestures made by the patient and the patients are repeatedly asked to explain what the gesture means to them. The patients seem to recover well; the intervals between the follow-up consultations are sufficiently long to assess progress. There is a more than adequate display of the characteristics of the kingdoms with only a bare minimum of materia medica, but the remedies are discussed in the context of each patient. They range from rare remedies to new discoveries: Apis mellifica, Baryta carbonica (and sulphurica), Falco peregrinum, Helium, Lac delphinum, Oxygenium, Piper nigrum, Technetium, Thlaspi bursa pastoris; the remedies are not all mentioned in the index.

I did not really follow the theoretical explanations on pages 24 and 140 of the separation of sensation from emotion… ‘The power of homeopathic case taking lies in the power of the fact that it does not involve the emotional layer.’… I do not see this as a fact but hypothesis, and one that runs contrary to my own experience.

This is a valuable book, with clues for practitioners and patients, showing the homeopath as painstaking modern healing detective."

Spring 2008, 26:4. The Homeopath p.141