Structuralism and the Plant Kingdom vol. 1: Monocots

Recensie

This book review is reprinted with the permission from the Summer 2011 Edition of The Homeopath.

Reviewed by Tina Burchill

I am not sure how Stephanie Nile has managed to condense such a wealth of information into such a small volume, but condense it she has, with the end result being a packed little book bursting with ideas. However, I fear that there is a little too much going on and at times it is tough going to keep up with the different concepts and theories, pulled in not just from the world of homeopathy, but also from botany, psychology and Eastern philosophy.
Promised in this first volume, focusing on the monocots, is a combination of the work of Dr Rajan Sankaran and Dr Jan Scholten, offering us a way of better understanding the plant kingdom. Nile says in the book's introduction that "homeopathy needs to be mapped onto a contemporary landscape". What the author does is to take a step back from Sankaran's work with families to look at the bigger picture - where the family fits into the classification system within the plant kingdom, and how their evolutionary struggle for adaptation has influenced the picture.

The next step is to apply the concept of "stages", as set out by Scholten on the periodic table of the elements, using the metaphor of the life stages of development from birth to death. Nile suggests that the "miasms" as suggested by Sankaran fit "naturally" into Scholten's stages. Converting them, she says is "like converting Fahrenheit and centigrade.. .it requires a bit of jiggery pokery." It's a fascinating and challenging idea. Nile, a zoologist who describes herself as "first and foremost a systems analyst" has put together a well researched book with a neat "periodic table" at the back, suggesting how the monocot plants compare to the minerals. Her materia medica brings together a variety of information, many of the remedies little known, and suggests similarities with the minerals in the corresponding stages and rows.

The summary and epilogue give a good brief overview of the sensations and themes of the classification hierarchies, but I would suggest that readers study this before looking at the individual remedies.

While overall I found this book useful, and I am sure I will dip into it again, I found much of it confusing and difficult to understand. For me, the inclusion of the discussions of psychology and the "types" didn't seem to be relevant to the structure/sensation approach and the model being put forward and added to the confusion. Perhaps my uneasiness with this book lies in the apparent juxtaposition of these two approaches - while it was fascinating to look at plants in this way, and attempt to make our job at pinpointing the precise remedy easier and to understand how mineral and plant remedies can complement each other, I wonder whether the very nature of plants makes it impossible to squeeze them into the periodic table. While great work has been done by both Sankaran and Scholten, their approaches are different, and for me, overlapping them in this way didn't quite work.

This book review is reprinted from Volume 25, Number 1 , Year 2012 edition of the Homoeopathic Links - International Journal for Classical Homeopathy

Reviewed by Jay Yasgur, USA

Zoologist and software technologist, Stephanie Nile, is onto something; could it be weaving a broader web in order to bring more of homeopathy into focus?

While Volume 2 (endocots) is not too far from publication, this present volume attempts to create links between the plant kingdom and Scholten's "stages' of his Element Theory (mineral kingdom). Could she be trying to create a "periodic table of the plant world"?

Though the beginner can appreciate bits and pieces of this work, one needs to be grounded in basic new wave literature in order to fully comprehend this British homeopath's growing body of work. In addition to her fresh contributions she injects personality into the equation, namely the "five personality trait system" as pioneered by Costa and McCrea. Like many of us who strive to bring order to the subjective, Nile uses the positive aspects inherent in this system and attempts to analyse personality traits found in the plant kingdom in relation to the "stages" and "series" of Scholten's map.

"Grouping (clustering) of similar symptoms (usually expressed as rubrics) can, therefore enhance our understanding by giving rise to a hierarchy of relationships. The base of this hierarchy is a small set of interdependent personality traits. The traits included in these sets are sufficient to characterise any remedy and give reliable indications of well-defined and global 'Stages', each of which naturally slot into social strata described as the 'Series'." -ibid, vi.

In an appendix, the author offers the periodic table overlaid with the monocot plants. This is a helpful study guide and mnemonic device. Additionally she draws upon Sankaran's ten miasms to "highlight how a range of personality traits can be arranged in a logical sequence." Nile does this by beginning with the gentle psoric and ending with the destructive, syphilitic and leprotic pair.

I am not quite sure if she manages to make herself thoroughly understood, however. In fact, I don't know if any of the new-wave homeopathic practitioners are making their methods understood, at least that is, in the print media. Grasping the material in a seminar is one thing but explaining it via books or articles takes a different talent - an ability to present concepts in a clear, orderly and systematic way. That takes a good thinker and writer which asks that one be able to put his feet into the shoes of the reader.

This nearly two hundred page quality hardback contains forewords by Brazilian homeopath Jose Mirilli and Rumen Stoydiev, a Bulgarian homeopath. It contains the following chapters: Introduction to Structuralism and the Plant Kingdom, Development of the Stage Concept, Differentiation, Materia Medica (Magnolids, Commelinids) and the usual concluding essays/appendices and useful Index of Orders, Families and Remedies.

As a sampler from the materia medica section, I offer her presentation of Cubeba (Piper cubeba) Cubeba (Piper cubeba)

An aggressive and ill-humoured state, which can lead to excesses of debauchery, cruelty and malice. There is not spiritual dimension. Nothing is left but the extremes of either lamentation (Mirilli: apathy) or excessive pleasure.

Rubrics:
• Speech Incoherent. Obscene, lewd talk. Shameless, Eccentric. Desire increased.
• Starting. Excitement, feverish. Restless, anxious, irritable.
• Delusion unfortunate. Feels unfortunate. Morose.
• Malice, [dreams of cruelty.] Envy. Wicked disposition.
• Dreams: Exciting. Amorous. Parties. Fights. Fire.
• T.E Allen: Furious insanity, with wickedness; he breaks everything within his reach, out of sheer malice.
• Mirilli (Apathy): Fits of dejection, apathy, insensibility; is indifferent to everything.
• Sensations: Trembling and shaking. Cutting (ovaries). Burning (abdomen). Desires: Almonds.
• Therapeutics: Cystitis. Urethritis with mucus, burning or cutting. Prostatitis with yellow discharge.
• Miasm: Cubeba has anti-Syphilitic and anti-Leprotic layers.
• Bio-Strategy: The pungent peppery taste in the Piperales is caused by Piperien, which increases the bioavailability of selenium, coenzyme Q10 and curcumin (from turmeric). It has anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant effects.
[Ref: http ://drzarkov.com/delano/Articles/ piperine-multiplies.html] -ibid, pp. 54,5.

Not taking anything away from new-wave homeopathy, let's hope that someone steps forward to write a cogent book or article series (it might be helpful for each of the journals to publish it) which takes the baby steps necessary to create a firm enough foundation for the reader to really appreciate what Nile and others are saying. In other words, what's needed is a crystal clear explanation of new-wave homeopathy which the lay homeopath or intelligent person with a basic knowledge of homeopathy can understand. That's something that needs to be written and written soon.