de Vatsala Sperling |
Review by VatsalaSome homeopaths are prescribers, some are writers, some come with an innate ability to teach and inspire, and some others have the talent for participating in decision-making committees and organizations, and they tend to become the spokespersons for homeopathy, a few even become the tradition keepers of our vast pharmacopeia, and they get into manufacturing of remedies.
Homeopathy benefits from each of these outpourings of human talent and devotion to the chosen subject, and whatever we can do to further the cause of homeopathy, I believe, we should do with enthusiasm to ensure the future of our chosen profession, though to many others, it may seem like much ado about nothing.
Well, you just read a phrase I borrowed from the title of the book that I will be telling you about, “My Journey in Homeopathy, Much Ado About Nothing”. When I was asked if I could review it, what drew me to the book is this phrase, “much ado about nothing”.
My teacher, the late Misha Norland, used to make funny statements of similar types, ‘…the remedies…they are NO-THING … ’ and then he
would go on to add, “remember, 1M works differently than LM1 though they contain no-thing…’ In his funny way, Misha was teaching me that, while containing nothing, our remedies have the energy signature of the medicinal substances so that they do the job of healing when chosen on the
basis of homeopathic philosophy contained in the Organon. Back to much ado about nothing, coming from Francis Treuherz. You could safely consider it as a self-deprecating joke, because whatever, he did or did not, has been presented in a paperback of 505 pages. Now, that is much, much ado about nothing.
In the publisher’s note, Manish Jain, the director of B Jain publishers writes, “This book is the author’s invitation to travel through the challenges of homeopathic living and being. It is an opportunity to benefit from the observations, contemplation, and meaning-making of an accomplished homeopath who nurtured the flame of homeopathy in a world continuously challenged by the very notion of its existence.”
These words from the publisher say to us, jokes aside, this book might let us understand how a truly committed homeopath lives and
breathes homeopathy every single day of his life for over 40 years and does everything within his means to find out the boundaries of
homeopathy. Francis is very comfortable on the hot-seat, so to speak, as shown by the flow of four different interviews. He is taking the interviewers on a fun ride, giving generous glimpses of his life and work as a homeopath and his openness to hearing all different viewpoints about homeopathy.
This is something the younger generations of homeopaths need to think about. As homeopaths, we must keep our eyes and ears open and absorb all different flavors of homeopathy while we remind ourselves again and again that whatever we learn is for the benefit of our patients. Though treating one’s own family is the hardest thing to do, Francis narrates a few events where he succeeded. His mother improved on Psorinum (she had lived thru the era of depression and deprivation in Germany), his dad got better on Ambra grisea (his cough aggravated in company), and when both Francis and his wife came down with COVID, they took help from various remedies. But COVID is just one of the many instances when Francis used homeopathy for himself. He was turned onto homeopathy by his dentist whose brother was a homeopath.
Recently, I had read another book, “Faces Of Homeopathy, An Illustrated History Of The First 200 Years” and that book had mentioned the homeopathy scenario in England. In the current book, particularly in the chapter on Philosophy, People and Places, I get Francis’ personal recounting of the grand homeopathic history of Liverpool, England. Francis has invested a significant bandwidth of his curious mind to understanding and writing about the viewpoints of key innovators at the turn of the century, the founder of Anthroposophical medicine, Rudolph Steiner, for example, and how his ideas run parallel to Hahnemann’s.
There is a chapter on “Origins of Kent’s philosophy”. This would be intriguing to many who thought so far that Kent’s philosophy was of course based on the Organon. There is no denying that it was, however, Kent was also influenced by spiritual scientific works of Swedenborg, as evidenced in his Lesser Writings, leading to the question, can a medical practice with a deep spiritual inheritance be considered as science, or whether the spiritual aspect is essential for an effective practice of homeopathy. Constantine Hering was also influenced by Swedenborg’s philosophy and he was in-fact a member of the first society of Swedenborgians in Philadelphia. Our growth in practice is based on our successes and failures in treating the cases that come our way and seeing these cases in the rear-view glass helps us cherish the victory of homeopathy in our clinics. Francis has done this bit in the chapter, “Clinical work” starting with the first patient he saw in 1984. Professional ! Engage ! Diseases Calculators Course "
After reading a few of his interesting cases, we come to “Homeopathic Helpline”. Francis worked with another homeopathand answered telephone calls 365 days a year offering help to everyone in crisis who called. Sounds like 911 of homeopathy, but 911 is simply a call for emergency medical help. On reading this chapter further, you will see that Homeopathic Helpline did much more, as evidenced by over 165,000 calls over a 12-year period, from people in every walk of life.
After recounting his navigation of the National Health Services and offering us a few of the reviews he wrote for various books on homeopathy, Francis Treuherz treats us to homeopathic humor: for this and to get a belly-laugh, please read “How many homeopaths it takes to change a light bulb” and “Flushing, a comedic materia medica”. These are funny. I am happy that I got to read this book, “My Journey in Homeopathy, Much Ado About Nothing.” It gave me a close view of the ups and downs, thoughts, experiences, observations, recollections, and deep awareness of homeopathy of someone like Francis who has lived and breathed homeopathy for over 40 years. I hope you will decide to read it too and enjoy doing so. |
