Thematic group analysis of selected matridonal remedies

Group analyses of homoeopathic remedies is a relatively new methodology, linking biologically related substances via their common symptomatology. At a very basic level of understanding, group analysis is an attempt to identify a mechanism for understanding groups of related remedies, according to the natural classification of various sources such as minerals, plants and animals used in homoeopathic practice. This does not only offer new aspects to well-known remedies but illuminates the smaller, less well-known remedies, resulting in a more comprehensive and rounded understanding of the materia medica (De Schepper, 2006). Sankaran (1994) and Scholten (1996) have developed the group analysis approach to help understand remedies and gain deeper insight into them. The aim of this approach is to find symptoms, themes and pathological tendencies that are common to all the remedies within a group and hence enable a homoeopath to more accurately see a remedy’s ‘picture’ as well as to gain deeper insight into the group of less well-presented remedies. This study is based on identifying themes and sensations which are common in the selected matridonal remedies of gestation and postpartum period. Lac maternum, Aqua amniota humana, Vernix caseosa, Umbilicus humanus and Placenta humana were selected because they are the matridonal remedies that are commonly used. There is not enough information available because very few studies were conducted on the matridonal remedies in the past. There is a gap in the literature to ascertain their themes, for example the group of remedies for the gestation and postpartum period have not been studied. The researcher conducted this study to assist with conditions in the newborn and diseases that perpetuate as the child is growing, as a result of complications during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Tables and rubrics were used to set out data in a systemic manner for comparison, where the significant data was organised into thematic sub-divisions. The materia medica of the selected matridonal remedies were recorded and compared with each sub-division of the materia medica delved. Common themes from the selected matridonal remedies were extracted, recorded and compared. The sensations that emerged were determined and compared. Ten characteristic rubrics of each remedy were extracted and thereafter repertorised. The top three emerging similar remedies were then compared to each other. The researcher employed the manual keyword searches. Original provings of the selected matridonal remedies were reviewed. The researcher then extracted the symptoms, common characteristic sensations and themes amongst the selected matridomal remedies. The materia medica of the selected matridonal remedies were compared because the selected matridonal remedies are inadequately portrayed in the materia medica, repertory and computer software such as Radar Opus 10 and Encyclopaedia Homoeopathica (Wulfsohn 2005). The researcher successfully extracted and compared the remedies of repertorial similarity to the selected matridonal remedies. A computer repertory search using Radar Opus 10 was used to list all the rubrics containing the selected gestational and postpartum matridonal remedies. From the remedies where rubrics were available. Restrictions were set up; whereby smaller rubrics were used because they portray the close picture of the selected remedy. The selected matridonal remedies were individually studied and classified according to Sankaran’s group analysis to successfully compare the thematic analysis of the selected matridonal remedies with existing group analysis data (sankran1994). The sensations that were identified for the selected remedies were used to formulate the basic themes of the selected matridonal remedies. The miasmatic classification of these remedies was used to support these themes.