How to Learn Homeopathy - Repertories

by Dana Ullman, MPH ©2006

A "repertory" is a listing of symptoms and those substances that have been found to cause and cure each symptom.  For instance, one would use a repertory to look for a compilation of those medicines that are good for headaches that occur in the front of the head in the morning (in the "head" section, under the subsection "pain," under the further subsec­tion "frontal pain worse in the morning").  After reviewing a sick person's various symptoms in the repertory, one can then obtain more detailed information about each of the possible medicines by looking them up in a materia medica.  A repertory and a materia medica complement each other.

Studying the homeopathic repertories in a group can be fun.  It is common for new students and even experienced homeopaths to have difficulty finding certain symptoms anywhere in the repertory.  Getting a group of people to find a symptom can be a game, the winner being the first person to find it.  It's also inter­esting for a person to give the group a list of symptoms as an exercise to see how many people find all the symptoms.  These games can be a playful and effective way to learn.    

Below are some great repertories.  Although it is ESSENTIAL to have several repertories, it is also VITAL for serious students and certainly for practitioners to have one of the expert system homeopathic software programs.  See what is available by clicking HERE. 

• Repertory of Homeopathic Materia Medica, by James Tyler Kent, MD (This is the classic repertory.and it is a great price for a 1,500-page hardback book!)
• Homeopathic Repertory: Tutorial and Workbook, by Karen Allen (This is a very useful tutorial and workbook that help you learn what is in and how to use the repertory.)
• Synthesis, by Frederik Schroyens, MD (This is the most popular and respected modern repertory in print form.)
• Homeopathic Clinical Repertory, Robin Murphy, ND (This repertory does not give reference to the sources of its symptoms, but some people like that it lists symptoms alphabetically rather than the model developed by Kent and others. Murphy also has some sections that no one repertory has, including toxicological exposures and modern pathology terminology)

The best source of homeopathic books, tapes, home medicine kits, and software is:

Homeopathic Educational Services

2124B Kittredge St.

Berkeley, CA 94704

(510) 649-0294

(510) 649-1955 (fax)

E-mail us

DANA ULLMAN, MPH, is one of America's leading advocates for homeopathy. He has authored 10 books, including The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy, Homeopathy A-Z, Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants, Discovering Homeopathy, and (the best-selling) Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (with Stephen Cummings, MD). He is the founder of Homeopathic Educational Services, America's leading resource center for homeopathic books, tapes, medicines, software, and correspondence courses. Homeopathic Educational Services has co-published over 35 books on homeopathy with North Atlantic Books. Dana writes a regular column for the wildly popular website, www.Huffingtonpost.com (to access these articles, click HERE!).

For people interested in some of Dana Ullman's earliest writings, you can read his undergraduate thesis at U.C. Berkeley in 1975 on "Human Learning." Honor students at UC Berkeley who wish to have an independent major (and who do not want to have a regular generic major) are required to write a thesis.  This paper on "Human Learning" provides insights into Dana's early synthetic and integrative thinking.  The beginning of the article and its definition of "science" may be of special interest.  Also, Dana creatively chose to use his own invented pronouns to replace the masculine emphasis of "he," "him," and "his," with "che," "chis," and "cher."