Roger van Zandvoort
The Complete Repertory Mind hb
Reading excerpt
The Complete Repertory Mind hb
of Roger van Zandvoort
Publisher: IRHIS
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Foreword
In 1974 after studying a variety of alternative therapies I discovered homeopathy. I was
deeply stirred by its life-affirming philosophy but what really captured my interest and
heart was Kent's Repertory. Leafing excitedly through its pages a new future opened for
me. It led to my quitting my kayaking and photography careers, attending medical school,
engaging in homeopathy full time, helping to found the Hahnemann Clinic in Berkeley
and creating MacRepertory. Quite a change.
I had found a therapy that dared to look deeply into the mystery of life and explore
realms beyond our materialistic lives. It was eye opening. I learned that homeopathic
remedies are some sort of energy, archetype or concept. Being energy, one dose might
last years. Disease, the terror of most people's lives, is simply a way for our subcon-
scious to get our attention and an attempt to balance the stress of our lives. Treatment is
aimed at the individual, rather than the disease. The cure is much more than removing
rashes and reducing epileptic attacks. The remedies should transform the stuck emo-
tions as well. And the remedy does not do the healing, rather the patient does. Though it
all sounded wonderful it was a bit hard to swallow.
But sitting solidly in the midst of this seemingly magical therapy was the repertory. It
was the proof that there was some truth to the miraculous claims. And as I became more
enthusiastic it was the anchor that grounded my soaring idealism with reality, reliability
and trustworthiness. Over the last twenty years Kent's Repertory has been my favourite
reading; its pages becoming increasingly dog-eared until one copy had to be replaced
and then another. Eventually the love of it spurred me to spend years creating
MacRepertory. I think that because we homeopaths touch the essential mysteries of life
we especially need something earthy, true and practical.
I am deeply honoured to be able to write an introduction to a book that enriches one of
our most important homeopathic anchors and reweaves the fabric of the therapy.
I met Roger van Zandvoort and his wife, Annemarieke, in 1988.1 immediately noticed
three things about Roger: his enthusiasm was contagious, his hands strong and his nose
impressive. Over the years I have come to appreciate that his hands are built for creat-
ing, his nose for sniffing out small inconsistencies and his enthusiasm for encouraging
colleagues and keeping himself working long after others would have quit. His atten-
tion to detail, diligence, self-effacement and loyalty give him many of the gifts needed
for an exhaustive life's work of creating a new repertory.
Why do we need a new repertory? After all there are already more than a hundred avail-
able. There are general repertories like Kent, Bonninghausen, Knerr, and Allen, and more
specific repertories like Berridge, King and Winterburn. Despite this wealth of informa-
tion few homeopaths use anything but Kent. It has been the standard to which all other
repertories have been compared. It is the repertory on which nearly all homeopaths
have based their practices. It is rich in symptoms, well verified, well organised and con-
sistent. Unfortunately it is also very incomplete.
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Excerpt from Roger van Zandvoort: the Complete Repertory mind
Foreword
There are hundreds of thousands of additional symptoms buried in the other classic
repertories . For most of us the challenge of learning new formats and abbreviations
have kept us from exploring them. It is our loss. As we focus more and more on the truly
homeopathic symptoms, the ones that set our patient apart form all others, we find that
we desperately need access to every symptom ever observed or cured.
The creation of a repertory is a daunting task. There is the decision of which books to
include and the verification of their sources. The compiler has to learn more than any
other homeopath about their quirks, strengths and weaknesses. In the process s/he has
to discover how Kent made his decisions. There is the inclusion of a symptom in a par-
ticular rubric. Not an easy task as in truth we know that no symptom exists alone. Symp-
toms are always the expression of a whole person, a piece of a whole archetype or Ge-
stalt. Like holograms, each symptom contains the universe of the archetype within it;
perhaps fuzzy, the definition hard to see, but always containing the stamp of the arche-
type upon it. The compiler has to decide which of these different symptoms are suffi-
ciently similar to include together.
Then there is the grading. One author used four degrees, another two. Historically,
provings and cured cases have been graded differently. In provings the intensity is ig-
nored, and the degree is based on the number of provers with the symptom. For in-
tensely proven remedies this results in many bold listings, just because there were many
provers. In cured cases the degrees are often related to the intensity of the symptoms
cured. In compiling a new repertory the compiler must carefully develop a strategy for
how to approach each book and each addition. Additionally our source material is hardly
perfect. Many of our provings involved only a couple of people
Poisonings often brought out symptoms that actually belonged to the patient, not the
poison. Provers had illusory symptoms from the act of a proving. Some of the cured
cases were cured by placebo effect. And some cured cases only cured local symptoms,
not the patient. The compiler needs to tread slowly through this material as through a
mine field, foot by foot, rubric by rubric.
Roger has indeed walked carefully; often hours were been spent on a single rubric, doz-
ens of books were consulted for a single addition. In the process he has learned amazing
things about the origins and personalities of different repertories. And to Roger's credit,
in difficult areas when he was not sure he asked for help from some of the world's most
discriminating homeopaths.
The creation of the Complete Repertory is much like that of Kent's Repertory. Both are
compilations of other repertories; Kent included the information of Lee, Clarke, King,
Lippe, Bell and Allen, etc., while Roger added Boericke, Bonninghausen, Knerr, Stauffer,
Boger, Phatak, etc. both relied on colleagues for help. Both verified the additions by
returning to the original source. Both laboured for years with love. The result is that you
are holding in your hands the greatest repertory ever created. I want to state that fact
clearly especially as I know that Roger will not. It includes all of the rubrics found in
many more repertories and countless additions from dozens of other books.
VI
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Excerpt from Roger van Zandvoort: the Complete Repertory mind
Foreword
Though I have only played a small part in the creation of this work, its release is a sort of
personal milestone for me, the completion of a circle. The repertory that enchanted me
into homeopathy and has been my constant companion for most of my life has been
transformed. And Roger with whom I've hiked mountains, kayaked among whales,
travelled thousands of miles and spent many nights deep in discussions about home-
opathy has made a rare, incredible, tremendous contribution. I feel excited about its
future and deeply proud of him.
May this work help you to heal everyone you touch.
David Kent Warkentin
24 March 1994
Marin County, California
VII
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Excerpt from Roger van Zandvoort: the Complete Repertory mind
Roger van Zandvoort
The Complete Repertory Mind hb
Hardcover
596 pages, hb
publication 1998
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