Method: The Landscape of Homeopathic Medicine Volume 2 - Part Three: Exploring the breadth, context and application of different clinical approaches in the practice of homeopathy

by Alastair C Gray

This book untangles the perceived complexity of homeopathic prescribing and explains why homeopathy is the way that it is today. To the immense frustration of researchers, patients and educators, there is no one-way, best and obvious practice with which homeopathic clinicians do their work. Homeopaths use different methods to get their results, not just one. While the underpinning principles, sometimes called laws of homeopathy are clear, and explored by some of the giants of homeopathic literature, individual interpretation of those principles and the needs of the immediate patient and the specific clinical setting lead to an overwhelming difference in the delivery of homeopathic medicine. Quite simply, the practice of homeopathy is different in Germany, India, the US, the UK, Ghana, Argentina, New Zealand, and Canada. More importantly it is different in different parts of those countries. One homeopath prescribes predominantly in one way in one part of the city, and another homeopath, perhaps just down the street prescribes in a different way. The reality of homeopathic practice is that of course all homeopaths each have their own individual style. It is often said that no two homeopaths think, reason, or prescribe in the same way. Therefore, students need to know when to apply these different methods. This work on method is therefore based on the assumption that Hahnemannian homeopathy serves as the building block, the cornerstone and the foundation. While Hahnemann's is a style of homeopathy that is still practiced today, others such as Kent in the 19th century and Whitmont in the 20th century steered homeopathy in a different direction. What is bemusing to homeopathic students, and eventually becomes clear to all practicing homeopaths, is that the differences in style of prescribing come down to a few very fundamental issues. It is ultimately the individual interpretation of the basic principles of totality, peculiarity, what health is, what cure is, and what disease is that demarcates practitioners and their prescriptions. While examining the different methods of prescribing in this book, I will argue that it is a different understanding of the healthy person that drives why Hahnemannian homeopathy and Kentian homeopathy are fundamentally different. It is ultimately the reason why the Sensation Method is different from the Keynote Method. Built on the work of Watson (1991), Tyler (1927), Mathur (1975) and P Sankaran (1996) this book explores the meaning and understanding of the totality of symptoms in homeopathy. This concept is what fundamentally distinguishes between different styles of prescribing for the most part. It is my sincere desire that this book serves as a vehicle to assist homeopaths. To the clinical researchers reading, this book might help explain why they receive opposition to a clinical trial or research design in which they are involved. To the interested patients of homeopathy, this book might explain why their homeopaths do what they do in the clinic. To the experienced homeopath, this book might be useful to assist in gaining a deeper understanding of unfamiliar methods, or explain why patients of homeopaths using these unfamiliar methods have been prescribed certain remedies. To homeopathic students, this work will assist in untangling the complexity with which they find themselves wrestling. The aim is to create awareness of the lineage from which the case taking and method of practice comes. To acknowledge that there are different methods, homeopaths, graduates and students would do well to read some history, read the original works of the great homeopaths of the past, read, learn, read more and learn more again. In this book, I've attempted to not only rely on my interpretation of the works of the great homeopaths over the last 200 years, but also look at some of the interpretations of those homeopaths by other experts and encouraged them to contribute.

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2019