The Essential Synthesis

Frederik Schroyens
Homeopathic Book Publishers: UK, October 2007
Price: £65.00, ISBN-13: 978-09557151-0-5

It is very rare to come across a book, which has less information than its predecessor – but this one has! Furthermore, this is the first printed repertory with a dedicated veterinary section!

Most people who practice homeopathy will, at some point, have come across Schroyens' Synthesis. My first copy of Synthesis (7th edition) was the biggest book I've ever owned! I have used it since I started treating animals with homeopathy and it has never failed to deliver the information I sought. Since then, I have acquired the electronic version included in the RADAR program. With all the new updates it has become quite a challenge to find the remedy I'm looking for. In all the new repertories we find numerous ‘new’ remedies, which sometimes have little relevance to veterinary work. Human therapists might have the same problem: should I go for the obvious polychrest or try a ‘small’ remedy? Many of these medicines have gone in the repertory with little (if any) proving, perhaps only with information from one case. The dilemmas presented by too many choices have gone into the thinking process behind this little masterpiece: we want to be able to go ‘back to basics’, to look up rubrics with remedies which have been proven and which information we can rely on.

The ‘package’ comprises:

1. The book – The Essential Synthesis concise, reliable, accessible

2. A textbook of repertory language for The Essential Synthesis

3. Installation CD for searching for rubrics

The result is impressive: a portable and more usable book. If it is reliability in the information, that you want, this is the book for you.

The repertory offers an easy to use thumb index. Inside, the emphasis is on clinically confirmed information. The page layout is familiar and easy to use but incorporates nice changes in structure – pain rubrics and sub-rubrics added to the main rubric where appropriate. This structure was introduced with Synthesis 9.1.

For me the textbook is the ‘best’ part. This little book complements the repertory in many ways:

1. A whole chapter with veterinary information. This chapter contains symptoms interesting for the veterinary surgeon and all the remedies of veterinary origin. It also has a list of veterinary concepts leading to the relevant symptom in the repertory – a fantastic tool for beginners as well as more experienced veterinary homeopaths.

2. A list of abbreviations of remedies found in the repertory

3. A list of keywords referring to page numbers in Synthesis

4. An extended list of localisations. In the alphabetical list you can search for a localisation and you'll know in which chapter symptoms of this localisation can be found – excellent! Especially as the answer might be in more than one chapter, so this will help you not to overlook the symptom you need.

The CD offers a read-only version of the Essential Synthesis with all author references and all cross references. There is a maximum of 3 cross references referring to the biggest rubrics to give the most practical proposals first. The author references have been omitted from the printed version to simplify the content and make the book more usable, but as this information is included in the electornic version the information has not been left out. All the authors included have a minimum reliability so that immediate checking of the source is less needed.

The CD also contains the ‘Textbook for Repertory Language’ including an explanation of 1.500 key symptoms, full catalogues of remedies and author references, a families database, a relationship of remedies database and much more. And as if this isn't enough: you have the option of printing a repertorisation grid if you wish to repertorise manually.

With this package you have all the help you need on the go; you have the choice of using the Full Synthesis 9.1 (which has already been published) or this additional version. The Full Synthesis is there if you want to use modern proving and contemporary clinical experience alongside more classical approaches. The Essential Synthesis offers condensed, simplified and easy manageable information, which should take the ‘mystery’ out of repertorisation for most people working with homeopathy – human as well as veterinary.