The Boger-Boenninghausen Characteristics Repertory comes into its own when a practical approach is called for in cases lacking mental symptoms. It suits repertorising acutes, and it is valued for its Fever, Chill and Heat chapters.
C. M. Boger read Bönninghausen in the original German and took the plan of the Therapeutic Pocket Book as his model. He enlarged it into one volume that gathers Bönninghausen’s repertories: the Repertory of Antipsorics, the Therapeutic Pocket Book, Sides of the Body, and the repertory parts of his works on intermittent fever and whooping cough. To these Boger added remedies proved after Bönninghausen’s death.
When to use it
The BBCR helps most when the mental symptoms are not marked, or when the patient cannot say much about their loves and hates, desires and aversions. If the case is rich in physical symptoms, whether particulars or generals, it can prove handy, especially where there are concomitants to the chief complaint.
Concomitants
A concomitant appears before, during or after the chief complaint and has no pathological correlation to it: an accompanying motif to the main melody. Because it seemingly has no relation to the leading symptoms from the standpoint of theoretical pathology, it often reveals the patient’s susceptibility, and it is a likely candidate for the strange, rare and peculiar symptoms of Hahnemann’s §153. There are 2631 concomitant symptoms in the BBCR! The CLAMS mnemonic keeps them at the front of the mind: Concomitants, Location, Aetiology, Modalities, Sensations.
In RadarOpus
- To find the BBCR concomitants in Synthesis, search for the word “during”: the concomitant rubrics from the BBCR have been incorporated into Synthesis.
- Where the aetiology is pronounced, Boericke’s repertory comes into its own.
The BBCR is also part of the 17 Classic Repertories bundle. For a guided tour in screenshots, see the BBCR page on radaropus.com.
