Book Review
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 Mar / Apr VOL II NO 2.
Reviewed by
Dr M L Dhawale
Title: Perceiving 1
Author: Dr M L Dhawale
Pages: 560
Abstract Charts: 65
Price India: Rs 400
Foreign Price: USD 25 (Incl Air Mail)
Perceiving 1 is a collection of Papers written by the late Dr M L Dhawale between 1979 and 1982. Author of the internationally acclaimed book Principles & Practice of Homoeopathy - Part 1 - Homoeopathic Philosophy & Repertorization (1967), Dr M L Dhawale (1927 - 1987) was a clinician par excellance, and a noted medical educationist. This book presents Homoeopathy in its entirety, and has been hailed as an excellent didactic presentation. In the 33 years since its publication in 1967, Generations of Homoeopathic students continue to find it most useful.
He was also the moving spirit behind the I C R Symposium Volume on Hahnemannian Totality (1978), which has been a path-finder in Homoeopathic Philosophy, Practice and Education, an inseparable Trinity. The 47 Papers of the Symposium Volume, with Sections on Miasms, Repertorisation and Remedy Portraits are very useful.
Perceiving 1 is a collection of Papers and Lectures range over field of Homoeopathic Practice, Education and Research and represent M L D's unique insights.
Perceiving as a phenomenon has three aspects:
- The object to be perceived;
- The Instruments or the medium of perceiving, and
- The perceiver. All these objects can and do influence the process and the outcome profoundly. Optical illusions are a result of a deviation or a manipulation in one of the three. Purification of all three, on the other hand, will result in an unusual clarity of vision.
...perceiving predominates.
And who perceives?
The senses through the nerves. It is a physiological process.
By the self through the mind - it is a psychological process.
What clouds the mind? What clarifies it? What role does Hahnemann's 'Unprejudiced Observer' play in this process? How to train the mind to perceive the patient truly & well? Perceiving 1 handles all these issues and many others.
The book brings out in a beautiful manner the basic philosophy behind the ICR methodology. It is also useful to anybody making basic efforts in the related fields. For example, Area C: Perceiving Groups: deals with issues that have to be grappled with by any teacher. Area G: Perceiving Management: has some seminal ideas in the field of Management by Results (the MBO Approach) as well as on Medical Auditing as a means of quality control in the field of medical care.
The book supports a rather a novel approach to Homoeopathic Practice. Dr Dhawale claims, and rightly so, that after working out a case, it should be possible to prognosticate fully. The acute Remedies that the patient will need, the manner in which a complicated case will unravel so that each presenting totality can be handled, the course we expect the case to take- all of these become clear to the perception of the physician. Once these therapeutic Objectives are set, the Clinician can manage and assess the progress of the case in the light of these Objectives. This approach also makes it possible to assess performance in an institutional set-up.
Homoeopathy treats the individual, not the disease. Clinical Research in Homoeopathy, therefore, has to be based on quality and not quantification as in other systems of medicine. Dr Dilip B Dikshit in Mumbai worked out the ideas that Dr Dhawale was forever propounding, in the case of Leprosy with phenomenal results. This can be applied by any individual doctor in his private clinic, too. This is dealth with in Area F: Perceiving Research and puts forward an operable system.
What links the patient, the physician and the remedy-portraits in the H M M, is the pain and the suffering of the patient. Dr Dhawale says,' H.M.M. is a pure record of pathos.' The writings in Area H: Perceiving Homoeopathic Materia Medica focus' on the core issues in the perceiving and application of the HMM. Indeed, these writings have been the base on which clinicians the world over have built the further edifice of all -remedy pictures currently in vogue..
Dr Dhawale believed, along with many other professionals with a social conscience, that physicians should make an extra effort to reach our less fortunate brethren and help them through our medical skills. He felt that the rural-tribal population is closer to Nature and hence more responsive to Homoeopathy, which is a natural system of medicine. Hence rural health-care experience would enrich the clinicians. Area I: Perceiving Rural Health: presents Dr Dhawale's basic ideas in this area, along with the draft outline of a whole system for rural-tribal health-care. We are glad to let you know that we follow in his footsteps in the rural-tribal belt of Palghar-Manor near Mumbai.
The book is a must for a physician busy in his consulting, the teacher professing the noble task of influencing young minds in the right direction that Homoeopathy entails and the clinical research worker on the path to break new ground in the treatment of a variety of challenging clinical conditions.
Contents
Area A: Perceiving: Totality
Area B: Perceiving: Man
Area C: Perceiving: Groups
Area D: Perceiving: Education
Area E: Perceiving: Professional Competence
Area F: Perceiving: Research
Area G: Perceiving: Management
Area H: Perceiving: Homoeopathic Materia Medica
