QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO REPERTORY OF MIND – DR. H. L. CHITKARA :

INTRODUCTION
To achieve the goal of finding a similimum repertory is a great tool. A homoeopath has to know and perceive in patients the vast variety of symptoms of mind which are of utmost importance. At times he fails to find the correct rubric for such a symptom. To simplify this task Dr. H.L. Chitkara made a list of these mental symptoms in the form of catch words.

AUTHOR
-DR. HARBAN LAL CHITKARA
-DR. H. L. CHITKARA
Born in Pakistan in 1924 & grew up in a family of Unani medicine practitioners. He graduated in pure and applied mathematics, together with Hons. in English literature. He worked in a Govt. accounts office in Delhi. While in service, was fascinated by the study & practice of homeopathy.
He appeared in the 1st examination of D.H.S. and topped the list of successful candidates in 1966. He got completely involved in multifarious activities of homeopathy- academic, Journalistic, & professional organization, along with private practice. For more than 35 years, he was Chief Editor of the Homeopathic Sandesh and Resident Editor for the Homeopathic Heritage. His other interests are in the study of alternative medicine, literature and languages.
CONTRIBUTIONS
• Word Index Of Expanded Repertory Of Mind Symptoms-1990
• Relationships Of Homoeopathic Remedies - New Compendium-1991
• Best Of Burnett-1992
• Quick Reference Guide To Repertory Of Mind-1993
• New Comprehensive Homoeopathic Materia Medica Of Mind-1994
• Update Additions To Repertory Of Mind1998
• Definitive Dictionary Of Teminologies Of Mind In Homoeopathy-2000
• Repertory Of Striking Rubrics Of Mind In Homoeopathy-2002
Quick Reference Guide to Repertory of Mind
This book is a corrected, revised and enlarged edition of the earlier edition issued under the title, "Word Index of Expanded Repertory of Mind Symptoms".
1st Edition – 1993
Reprint Edition – 1996
Title page its mentioned –
“Technique Promisalone Homoeopathique”
Promisalone ia an acronym for
PRescribing On MInd Symptoms ALONE.
This is title of series of books the author has written especially on Mind symptoms.
SOURCES
• Synthetic Repertory Volume –I
• Kent’s Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica (6th edition)
• A Concise Repertory of Homoeopathic Medicines – Dr. S.R. Phatak (2nd edition)
The author has thanked his friend B. P. Rao for drawing the list of major rubric headings of the Synthetic Repertory Volume – I, preparing a fair copy of the manuscript for the press and generally overseeing the printing.


CONTENTS
• Preface – Which is written by Dr. H.L. Chitkara.
• Introduction – To the book where the idea behind this work and plan & construction are explained.
• List of Main Rubric Headings of Synthetic Repertory Volume I
• Word Index

PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND
It does not have any philosophical background, as it is a Word Index for the mind symptoms arranged alphabetically for easy reference.
According to author – “To be exact, in the present form this work is truly a concordance of the rubrics of the mind and could have been titled as such. But the new title is more expressive of its utility”.


CONCEPTION –
Dr. Chitkara found among a group of practitioners interested in practice of Homoeopathy based on Mind Symptoms Alone, lacked general unawareness regarding the value and easy usage of the repertory as a whole.
The 1st Vol. of Synthetic Repertory gives a very comprehensive list of mind rubrics but to locate a particular rubric was difficult. Even the 12 page index at the end was found to be inadequate. Obviously, a comprehensive index to all the rubrics was needed. Dr. R.P. Patel made a Word Index with Rubrics of Kent’s Repertory. This present work is patterned on similar lines.

Guidelines for making the Index:
• The Synthetic repertory Vol. I is the basis. To make it complete, mind symptoms from Phatak’s repertory and Kent’s repertory which were not incorporated in the Synthetic repertory are added.
• All nouns, adjectives, verbs etc. of the rubrics comprise the entries in the Index.
• Kent’s first modality i.e. time was ignored in order to cut down on volume.
• No duplicate entry in the form it appears in the repertory is found.

The format –
E.G. – Delusions, calls, absent persons, for.
In this rubric there are three catch words – calls, absent and persons. In this Index this rubric appears at three places.
Absent
Calls,--- persons, for DELUSIONS 251
Call Called Calls Calling
---,absent persons, for DELUSIONS 251
Person Persons
Calls, absent ---, for DELUSIONS 251

Catch words are made main rubrics and rest of the words are kept in the same sequence with a blank space, where that word is present in the main rubric.
If one can recall even one word of the rubric, can come upon complete rubric by referring to that one word in the Index.
The entries in the Index are listed under the group headings such as:
Obstruct, Obstructed, Obstruction
Hunger, Hungry
This grouping follows the pattern adopted in the dictionaries.
Cross references are given e.g. Anxiety (See Anxious); Laughs (See Laughter)

LIST OF MAIN RUBRIC HEADINGS (WITH PAGE NOS.) OF SYNTHETIC REPERTORY VOL. I
There are 572 rubric headings from the Synthetic Repertory with page numbers mentioned in the list.
Around 716 words are added from Phatak’s and Kent’s repertory to the Word Index. E. G. Page Nos.-4,8,9,140 etc.

WORD INDEX
In the Word Index the catch words are arranged alphabetically. These catch words starting from different alphabet starts on a new page.
Each page is divided in 2 halves. On top on one side the starting word and last words on the page are mentioned. On other corner ‘Reference Guide: Mind’ is printed.
The starting alphabet is printed in bold capitals on left side of the page.
Page number is mentioned in the center at the bottom.
MERITS
• The format of the Index shows the obvious use for the beginners and practitioners.
• This work includes mental rubrics from Phatak and Kent repertory which were not there in Synthetic Repertory to make it a complete reference guide.
• Mind symptoms are not pure mind symptoms and may have body component also.
• This arrangement of words make the study of repertory very interesting and educative.
• Repertory is the index of our vast Materia Medica and this work compiled is an Index to the biggest and most important section i.e. Mind , to make our work and search easier.
DEMERITS
• Its just a reference guide and does not give any medicines across the rubrics.
• It does not directly help in repertorising a case.
• Its time consuming as after searching for the relevant rubric one has to go back to source repertory for referring to medicines.

CONCLUSION
In the book review Dr. S.M. Gunavante writes –
Without a bird’s eye view of the symptoms presented in this list, one would be like the person who gets lost in a thick jungle, without knowing the vastness and its topography. One must have a thorough knowledge both of wood and the individual trees, if he is to pick up the most relevant rubrics.
A keen student could use it for a close study of rubrics relating to things like Money and various conditions like Parturition, Menses etc.
This can prepare our minds to think of the appropriate rubrics and remedies.

REFERENCES
• Quick Reference Guide to Repertory of Mind – H.L. Chitkara
• Synthetic Repertory Volume I – H. Barthel
• A Concise Repertory of Homoeopathic Medicines – Dr. S.R. Pathak
• Kent’s Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica with Word Index
• www.minimum.com
• www.similima.com