USING FACIAL ANALYSIS
Facial analysis is an important part of case taking because a
correct analysis will determine the dominant miasm of the patient.
This is no accident or chance analysis. Our facial structure
(in fact our whole being) is determined by forces that have come
together to make matter (us). These forces are simple energies
that behave in predictable ways – the laws of physics, mathematics,
chemistry and homœopathy are all observable outcomes of these
forces.
There are many ways we can interpret these forces – through disease,
through behaviour, through sensations and through the face. However
human beings are complex creatures and it is easy for us to misinterpret
the outcomes of these forces.
Examples:
- A dictatorial, aggressive person – psora,
sycosis or syphilis?
- A happy gentle laughing person – psora, sycosis
or syphilis?
- A cruel, intimidating person – psora, sycosis
or syphilis?
- A disease with dry skin – psora, sycosis or
syphilis?
- A disease with ulcers – psora, sycosis or
syphilis?
- A disease with tumours – psora, sycosis or
syphilis?
Answer – any of these persons or diseases can be found in any
of these miasms.
And these examples don’t even include the other four miasms –
tubercular, syco-psora, syco-syphilis and cancer. Each of these
miasms may also contain any of the examples above.
So how does a miasm help us in choosing a remedy? Or in understanding
a case?
A miasm is dictated by the energies that drive it:
Psora – outward
Sycosis – circular
Syphilis – inward
All diseases are found in all miasms. All behavioural types
are found in all miasms. However when studied carefully, there
is a dominant state to every person and to every remedy. When
these are matched successful health outcomes will result. These
forces have shaped our physical being and are observable through
the face.
In the clinic it helps to keep things very simple – both for
practitioners and for our patients. Patients often just want
to get better and aren’t always interested in deep mental or emotional
probing.
A simple way to determine a miasm is to study the shape, size
and setting of our facial features. Combined with a thorough
case taking, correct rubric choice and repertorisation, a successful
remedy can be found quite easily.
This case demonstrates how a polychrest is found to improve impaired
speech in a young boy.
BOY AGED 3 AND A HALF – PRESENTS WITH STUTTERING
June 2005
This young boy came to the clinic with the problem of stuttering.
His mother observed that the stuttering was particularly bad at
the beginning of a sentence but improved as the speech continued.
It is also worse when he is excited. His overall health is good
and he has only had one or two small colds and never been given
any antibiotics. He is generally in good spirits and gets on
well with his family and friends. Whether alone or with company
he is quite content. Sometimes he has bad dreams and will wake
anywhere between 1am and 5am. Occasionally he finds it difficult
to get to sleep. He had a water-birth, his diet is healthy and
the only food he really likes (his mother doesn’t approve) is
meat.
We use three simple steps to find a remedy
1 – Case analysis
2 – Repertorisation
3 – Miasm as determined by facial analysis
The remedy is given according to the sensitivity of the patient
and repeated as required.
Case Analysis
We are looking for the totality of symptoms based on three areas
- Mental – one or two obvious rubrics will be
required
- General – four to six general rubrics must
be included as this is how the body is displaying its imbalance
- Physical – one or two rubrics if the physical
rubric has strong impact on the patient
A thorough case taking will include the following aspects of
a patient
- Current emotional state
- Previous emotional state
- Recurring events in their life
- Current physical state – with modalities for
each complaint
- Previous physical state – with modalities
for each complaint
- Relationship to the environment
Repertorising
From these areas rubrics are chosen. A question we are often
asked is why we use rubrics containing so many remedies?
Answer – because our remedy will be included in these rubrics.
Smaller rubrics may not include our required remedy – we can lose
sight of our remedy when using smaller rubrics.
Large rubrics contain 30-500 remedies
Small rubrics contain < 30 remedies
When using large rubrics it is similar to casting a big net into
the sea to catch as many fish as possible. The chance of our
remedy being in the catch is high. Then we do a sort, to exclude
all the remedies we know cannot be right.
How do we know what these remedies are?
Each of the major polychrests has been studied and classified
according to its dominant miasm. We are only interested in the
remedies that match the miasm of our patient.
So we look at the large amount of remedies that have been thrown
up in our repertorisation – perhaps as many as 20 or more. Miasmatic
classification allows for six sevenths of these remedies to be
ignored (as they belong to a miasm different from our patient)
leaving us with 2 or 3 remedies to consider.
CASE CONTINUED
A case with only one presenting problem is always a difficult
one to prescribe on. With this young boy only three rubrics could
be chosen.
SPEECH & VOICE; SPEECH; stammering (94)
GENERATLITIES; FOOD and drinks; meat; desires
(52)
MIND; DREAMS; nightmare (163)
Eleven remedies show under these three rubrics
Nux Vomica– 3,2,4
Sulphur – 2,2,3
Mag Carb – 2,2,1
Mercury – 3,1,1
Iodum – 1,1,2
Phosphorus – 2,1,1
Staphysagria – 1,2,1
Carcinosin – 1,1,1
Helleborus – 1,1,1
Nat Mur – 1,1,1
Sepia – 1,1,1
Finding our patient’s miasm
We know that character, emotions and diseases cross all miasms.
So to find our patients dominant miasm we must use a method that
is the least open to misinterpretation. Our patients face is
a concrete way to determine which forces are dominant in them.
These forces are leading to their current out of balance state
whether physical, emotional or both.
We are all born with these forces intact within us. They are
both a positive and negative experience. When overburdened (stress
of any type) these forces become unsteady and we display both
emotional and physical symptoms to demonstrate how stressed we
have become. However these forces can never be removed (or we
wouldn’t be us) but they can be calmed. A remedy properly selected
calms down these forces leaving us free to use them in more positive
ways.
Facial analysis is a fascinating and simple way to know exactly
which miasm (forces or energies) are part of our inheritance.
Once determined a remedy that matches both the miasm and the case
can be selected.
CASE CONTINUED
One of these eleven remedies was chosen and the stuttering stopped
the next day. By using the patients facial features as our sole
guide to their dominant miasm the remedy can be chosen.
This boy’s facial features were analysed as follows
| Psora (yellow) |
Sycosis (red) |
Syphilis (blue) |
| Ears |
Chin
Lips
Eyes
Eyes
Nose
Forehead
Bridge of nose
Hairline
Teeth
Smile |
Chin
Ears
Teeth |
This boy is dominantly sycotic (red) and needs a remedy from
this group. He is given Sepia 30 to take daily for a few weeks.
On day 2 of taking the remedy his stuttering stops completely.
Four months later (October 2005) there is some return of the stuttering.
A single dose of Sepia 200C and the stuttering stops again. In
March 2006 the stuttering makes a mild return – a single dose
of Sepia 200C and it stops again. In July 2007 there has been
no return of his stuttering.
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Victorian College of Classical Homœopathy
Established in 1989 in Melbourne, Australia VCCH has proudly
taught homœopathy to both undergraduate and post graduate students.
The college led by principal Grant Bentley, has focussed solely
on using facial analysis (HFA) to determine patients’ miasms since
1999. A leader in this new method, the college aims to bring
HFA to the homœopathic world by incorporating the best of homœopathy
as our forebears promoted
Hahnemann – potentised medicine, single medicine, totality of
symptoms, miasms
Boenninghausen –general rubrics and repertorising
Kent – the person as a whole
Allen/Roberts – facial features and miasms
www.vcch.org
Current books by Grant Bentley
Appearance and Circumstance – 2003 – Miasms, facial features,
photos, cases – how HFA developed and its application
Homœopathic Facial Analysis – 2006 – the how to of HFA
– a desktop guide to facial analysis contains hundreds of photos
and sketches with defined parameters
New book – to be published 2008 – the forces of nature, positive
and negative aspects of these forces, our faces, our grouping
(miasm), universal forces and their impact on history and social
times.
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