The homeopathic examination is called an interview. This is true to its nature. The patient describes his or her problems, and early on the homeopath does not interrupt at all. He only invites more talk. He urges the patient not to leave out any "trifle", any detail. He is busy taking notes, and later returns to some points of the patient's description to ask for details.
To a homeopath it is valuable that the patient describes his troubles through his own words. The Materia Medicas also use simple words in their descriptions, avoiding the so called medical terms, which might be strongly suggestive of a particular allopathic diagnoses. If the patient, endeavouring to please or save time, for instance says: "I had a laryngitis", it is necessary to correct him and ask what was really wrong with him. Then the correct answer might be: I had a sore throat, more so in the morning than at night, the temperature was 37°C, I felt tired, ...etc.
The patient must relay his entire history of health, should mention his occupation and his position, the homeopath would ask him about his hobbies, his fears, his desires, his dreams, he is interested in the outer influences that may effect the illnesses and complaints (heat, cold, movement, etc.).
The examinations in our group proceed as follows: I conduct the interview with the patient, the others ask the supplementary questions, then I suggest the remedy, and in the end we discuss it. We refer to the repertory and the Materia Medica, mostly using
During those four years, the group has seen a fair number of patients, and we were able to observe a number of cures of seemingly incurable conditions. At the same time many of these people knew nothing of homeopathy to start with, and were just clutching at those proverbial straws. Mostly they had no idea, why the homeopath questions them about so many unimportant things.
I recall one beautiful case of Lycopodium. It was a young attractive woman, a musician by profession. As she sat down on the chair, she bore an expression of defiance. It said that she was not to be coaxed too easily, and that she was not at all sure about this humbug about homeopathy.
Nevertheless, she began to talk about the state of her health and her biggest problem, as she stated, were the gynaecological discharges persistent for the past nine years, which had got worse after the childbirth two years ago. The discharge was white, itchy,
accompanied by pains in her vagina. The itch and the pain often made sex impossible for her. The discharge always became worse about a week after menstruation. At the same time she felt pains on the right side of her abdomen, which went on for about six years. She sometimes suffered from headaches, mostly when the atmospheric pressure was low. Before menstruation acne would appear. The skin on the right forearm became rough and dry, it had begun on the right arm and later had appeared also on the left arm.
The lady was then invited to talk about her entire health history. She said that she went through: whooping cough, pneumonia, recurrent infection of the middle ear, influenza, constipation.
It was then essential to establish her psychological profile. In this area the patients themselves are never too revealing, it is necessary to ask selective questions. The questions must not be suggestive and they must not invite straight answers, yes or no. Naturally, the questions must be related to the notions and areas that are described in the Repertory and the Materia Medica. The interview should also not follow the lines of any particular remedy, which we might perhaps "suspect". All too easily we could convince ourselves into believing something that is not true. The questions should by no means be urgent, the patient must answer them freely and without any pressure. Thus we found out that: she liked to socialise, but did not feel well in a large company of people. She
suffered from a stage fright before public performances. In the morning she was usually morose, irritable, and wanted to be left alone. She was competent at school, wanting to be an achiever. Sometimes she could get angry and may "blow out". She was sensitive to smells. She cried in her sleep.
Much important general information can be gained from the eating habits. She said that she preferred hot food and hot drinks. She liked sweets. She mentioned something that is described in the Materia Medica as a key symptom: even after a small amount of food she had a sense of fullness in her stomach.
Very important general information, which helped to ascertain that the remedy was Lycopodium, was the sense of chilliness, but also intolerance to heat, to hot sunshine.
I only recount the information, which during the talk with the patient I had considered to be valuable in our search for the similium. Naturally, her disclosure also contained much useless information.
The patient was invited to talk first of her problems not because they would be most important to the diagnoses, but simply because she herself gave them importance. Once she had begun to talk, it was easier to communicate with her and gain the more
substantial information.
The most important information was: the sense of fullness in the stomach after a small amount of food - a key symptom (Pulford. M.Med.), the development of symptom (rough skin on right arm) from right to left - a key symptom, more symptoms on the right side (abdomen, skin) - a general symptom. The mental characteristics and the related eating habits perfectly fitted into the remedial picture.
All the key, mental and general symptoms described were compared with the Repertory and the Materia Medica and thus the remedy was basically found. It was only necessary to determine that the pathology, which brought this woman to us, agreed with the remedy, that the remedy was capable of curing it. For instance, fluor, the discharge, is mentioned in the Repertory in connection with one hundred and forty remedies. Among them, in the second (a lesser) degree, is also Lycopodium. Similarly with the stomach pains and headache. She was given one dose of Lycopodium D 400, and she had left.