This book is huge, even though it's only about 34 diseases. It's filled with case studies that easily transform into CA state board test questions.
My study partner went through and pulled every one of these case studies out to memorize them. I found myself doing the same, since I disagreed with Giovanni's diagnosis about 25% of the time... I had to memorize his diagnosis anyway. In one case, he got no result, and consulted with a Chinese doctor, who diagnosed the patient the way I had when I firsted saw the signs and symptoms!
What's really infuriating is when he uses a rationale to diagnose something one way in one place, but then doesn't consistently apply that in other cases.
So, we are required to know Giovanni's opinions and diagnosis style even if they may be wrong. It would have been nice to see - in a reference book - a separation between mistaken treatments and ideal/accurate treatments.
Also, there are short sections on western diagnosis in some diseases... but be careful, because biomedicine frequently revises its understandings. This is NOT your source for clinical biomedical info. It may be easy to understand, but may not be up to date or accurate.
There is an interesting section on distal points and their target areas.
As with Giovanni's book, the Foundations of Chinese Medicine, it's not always clear if his ideas come from classical CM or from his own mind. I'd caution the reader to balance their understanding with the works of Wiseman, Deadman, and Sionneau.
