STRANGE RARE PECULIAR - S.R.P - in homeopathic case-taking

What is SRP?

Once a patient's case has been taken and repertorised there is often more than one remedy to be differentiated between and we may be wheiging relatively simialar criterion in that process. During the casetaking process though, the patient may also reveal a symptom or a sensation, that draws attention because it is unusual (the more unusual the better as far as the homeopath is concerned) and which we refer to as 'strange, rare and peculiar'. These symptoms should not be waived aside as not fitting in with our preconceptions, but have special emphasis placed on them as being something to differentiate and clearly portray the individuality of the case, whether we understand it or not.

Some symptoms in the remedy's Matera Medica are quite unusual too (when remedies are 'proved', the provers often record symptoms that fall under the heading 'strange, rare and peculiar'). These symptoms are unlikely to be common to many remedies so if we also find this 'strange, rare and peculiar' symptom in a patient and also in a remedy, then the homeopathic match is made all the easier for it. Consequently (and although it might be irrelevant to an allopathic doctor, and the patient may even be shy of mentioning it), the more strange, rare and peculiar a patient's symptom is, the greater help it is to the homeopath because the less remedies there are which are likely to have that SRP symptom.

This once again underlines the difference between allopathic and homeopathic approaches. Allopathy looks for symptoms that are common in order to make a diagnosis whereas homeopathy looks for symptoms that are uncommon in order to individualise.

Examples of just a few SRPs:

GENERALITIES; JUMPING; sensation, internally (3) : croc., mosch., spig.

GENERALITIES; SHOT, rolling through the arteries, sensation of (K1400, SRII-581, G1154) (1) : nat-p.

GENERALITIES; VAPORS, smoke, fumes, as of, internally (22) : ars., apisin., bar-c., brom., bry., camph., carb-v., chin., ferr., ign., ip., lyc., merc., mosch., nux-v., par., puls., rhus-t., sabad., thuj., verat., zinc.

GENERALITIES; WIND, draft, sensation of (K1422, SRII-760, G1171) (53) : Chel., Lyss., cist., laur., mez., mosch., nux-v., acon., agar., asaf., asar., bar-c., calc., camph., canth., caps., caust., chin., cimic., coloc., cor-r., croc., cub., cupr., graph., hep., lac-d., lach., med., naja, nat-m., ol-an., olnd., petr., ph-ac., phos., plat., puls., ran-b., rhus-t., sabin., samb., sep., spig., squil., stram., sulph., syph., ther., thuj., thyr., valer., verat.