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Sane Asylums: The Success of Homeopathy before Psychiatry Lost Its Mind
• Examines the success of homeopathic psychiatric asylums in the United States from the 1870s until 1920
• Focuses on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, which had a treatment regime with thousands of successful outcomes
• Details a homeopathic blueprint for treating mental disorders based on Talcott’s methods, including nutrition and side-effect-free homeopathic prescriptions
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, homeopathy was popular across all classes of society. In the United States, there were more than 100 homeopathic hospitals, more than 1,000 homeopathic pharmacies, and 22 homeopathic medical schools. In particular, homeopathic psychiatry flourished from the 1870s to the 1930s, with thousands of documented successful outcomes in treating mental illness.
Revealing the astonishing but suppressed history of homeopathic psychiatry, Jerry M. Kantor examines the success of homeopathic psychiatric asylums in America from the post–Civil War era until 1920, including how the madness of Mary Todd Lincoln was effectively treated with homeopathy at a “sane” asylum in Illinois. He focuses in particular on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital, where superintendent Selden Talcott oversaw a compassionate and holistic treatment regime that married Thomas Kirkbride’s moral treatment principles to homeopathy. Kantor reveals how homeopathy was pushed aside by pharmaceuticals, which often caused more harm than good, as well as how the current critical attitude toward homeopathy has distorted the historical record.
Offering a vision of mental health care for the future predicated on a model that flourished for half a century, Kantor shows how we can improve the care and treatment of the mentally ill and stop the exponential growth of terminal mental disorder diagnoses that are rampant today.
• Focuses on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, which had a treatment regime with thousands of successful outcomes
• Details a homeopathic blueprint for treating mental disorders based on Talcott’s methods, including nutrition and side-effect-free homeopathic prescriptions
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, homeopathy was popular across all classes of society. In the United States, there were more than 100 homeopathic hospitals, more than 1,000 homeopathic pharmacies, and 22 homeopathic medical schools. In particular, homeopathic psychiatry flourished from the 1870s to the 1930s, with thousands of documented successful outcomes in treating mental illness.
Revealing the astonishing but suppressed history of homeopathic psychiatry, Jerry M. Kantor examines the success of homeopathic psychiatric asylums in America from the post–Civil War era until 1920, including how the madness of Mary Todd Lincoln was effectively treated with homeopathy at a “sane” asylum in Illinois. He focuses in particular on New York’s Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital, where superintendent Selden Talcott oversaw a compassionate and holistic treatment regime that married Thomas Kirkbride’s moral treatment principles to homeopathy. Kantor reveals how homeopathy was pushed aside by pharmaceuticals, which often caused more harm than good, as well as how the current critical attitude toward homeopathy has distorted the historical record.
Offering a vision of mental health care for the future predicated on a model that flourished for half a century, Kantor shows how we can improve the care and treatment of the mentally ill and stop the exponential growth of terminal mental disorder diagnoses that are rampant today.
- GenresHomeopathyNonfiction
406 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 23, 2022
11 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 2, 2023
Whew. This book is a hot mess. I picked it up because my Grandma worked at Middletown State Hospital in the early 1930s & I was hoping to find out what it was like for her. Instead, I got 200+ pages of incoherent ranting, written in a style similar to throwing spaghetti against the wall & seeing what sticks. One sentence is not germane to the next. It's just downright awful. And I have no idea what happened to MSH. When & why did it close? Did MSH continue to retain its compassionate care, or did it become something resembling Cukoo's Nest? I'm curious if anyone actually read this book before it went to print. Sorry, but I wouldn't recommend this book to ANYONE!
February 19, 2025
I’m studying to become a homeopath and heard an interview with the author and was very much looking forward to the insights of this book. Unfortunately i couldn’t get past the first 2 chapters to be honest. It’s really not a readable book.
April 12, 2024
This is a pretty interesting book. It seems to be well researched, as there is a lot of documentation, citation, etc. The book is readable, although it may be longer than it needed to be. I'm glad I read it.
July 30, 2023
an interesting look at what homeopathic treatment was: humane and optimistic and how it was destroyed by commercial interests.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews