ISBN 10: 0443100896 ISBN 13: 978-0-443-10089-5 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data An imprint of Elsevier Limited A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © Elsevier Ltd 2007 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The right of David Owen to be identified as the editor of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Congress Patents Act 1988 Notice No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly chang- system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, ing. As new research and experience broaden our knowledge, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either changes in practice, treatment and drug therapy may become the prior permission of the publishers or a licence permitting necessary or appropriate. 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To the fullest extent selecting ‘Customer Support’ and then ‘Obtaining Permissions’. of the law, neither the publisher nor the editor assumes any liability for any injury and/or damage. First published 2007 Printed in China The Publisher's policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests For Churchill Livingstone Commissioning Editor: Karen Morley/Claire Wilson Development Editor: Kerry McGechie Project Manager: Frances Affleck Design Direction: Jayne Jones Illustrator: Robert Britton Illustration Manager: Merlyn Harvey ENDORSEMENTS At last, the first comprehensive modern homeo- This is not another study of materia medica. It is pathy textbook in English since Herbert Roberts primarily a study into the concepts that lie behind, in 1936 and George Vithoulkas in 1978, and it and the process of case analysis, developed in a way surpasses them both. Despite being a textbook and to a degree that I have not met before. It will it is exciting and innovative with time and space be a very useful textbook for students, and offer for reflection and personal growth. The inspired experienced practitioners a source for reflection choice of authors for some of the chapters (Sherr, and further development of their understanding of Norland and Curtin, for example) crosses bound- and competency with their work. aries and enlivens the discussions. Read this and Starting from a study of different models of your practical understanding of the theories of health, the book takes us through the themes homeopathy will grow. It is equally suitable for involved in simpler case presentations on to those experienced medical and professional homeopaths, in difficult cases. Whilst being primarily a theo- and for students on all qualification courses. retical discussion, case examples are frequently used for illustration and avenues provided to Francis Treuherz MA RSHom FSHom assist with the many obstacles in the way of the Registered Homeopath, Homeopathic Private homeopath. Practitioner, London and Letchworth, UK Dr Nick Goodman MbBS MFHom FACNEM A tour de force, from basic homeopathy, through General Practitioner and registered homeopath, practical application to the more esoteric Sydney, Australia boundaries of holistic thought. Something for everyone. David Owen’s style of interactive This is the most comprehensive book there is on teaching is reflected in this comprehensive the principles and practice of homeopathy. The work – if you want to be both educated and beauty of this book is that its breadth is matched challenged to broaden you horizons, then read in equal measure by its depth. No aspect of this book. homeopathy is neglected, from local prescrib- ing to Sankaran’s sensations and miasms. John Saxton BVet Med VetFFHom Cert. IAVH The style is at once practical and profound, and MRCVS President, Faculty of Homeopathy honours the many different ways that homeopa- Homeopathic teacher, author and veterinary thy is practised. I am particularly impressed by Dr homeopathic referral practitioner, UK Owen’s numerous insights into the psychodymam- ics of the homeopathic history, and his emphasis One of the confusing aspects of homeopathic on the homeopath’s own personal evolution. In practice has been the apparently random focus his own words, by reading this book the student’s of different prescribers on varying aspects of a work is transformed ‘from being a necessary task particular case. David Owen presents a theoreti- to being an opportunity for growth’. cal background from within which to understand and work with this phenomenon. From the out- Dr Philip Bailey MBBS MFHom set he makes it clear that this book should bring Private Practitioner and author of Homeopathic the reader to ask and meditate on questions, as Psychology (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, much as it may provide some answers. California), Fremantle, West Australia v Endorsements This book drips holism and there is wisdom here and challenged to review issues of health, self, aplenty. Speaking as someone who has wrestled illness, caring and treatment. This weave is practi- with homeopathy for 30 years, David’s book cal and accessible, rooted in clinical practice and touches on concerns and connections that any examples, yet tackles at the same time the pro- serious practitioner will share. I predict it will found issues and questions which homeopathic become a classic. practice and training raises. This is an important step forward in homeopathic textbooks that I Professor David Peters, would recommend whatever your current level of School of Integrated Health, University of West- practice. minster, London, UK This exceptional book gathers, reflects on, and David Reilly deeply enquires into, the evolving principles of Consultant, Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital; homeopathy in a way that encourages any practi- Researcher and Teacher, Glasgow Homeopathic tioner to develop themselves, their understanding Academic Centre and their art. Written with an approach that invites reflec- tive pause, the reader is supported, encouraged vi THE ‘FIVE THEMES’ There are five themes which run across the sec- therapeutic process. It is more than a record of the tions and chapters of the book. These are repre- consultation as case skills facilitate what can happen sented by small, stylised icons within the text to in a consultation, it determines what the patient help highlight and connect the themes. chooses to reveal, the level at which the consultation takes place and the depth to which the homeopath perceives. Philosophy The principles and key concepts that provide the conceptual framework on which the clinical prac- Case Analysis tice of homeopathy is based. Allowing the student Case analysis allows what is perceived of the and practitioner to address the practical and theo- patient to be matched with what is known of retical challenges of contemporary homeopathic the remedies; according to homeopathic princi- practice. ples. It governs the order, pattern and interpre- tation that emerge in the healing process. The Materia Medica variety of case analysis strategies and method- ologies available to the homeopath is a major The materia medica of remedies is central to factor that determines the breadth of their clini- understanding how homeopathy is practised. cal competence. How the remedy pictures are developed and the different ways the pictures are expressed provide the foundation and building blocks that allow the Case Management homeopath to both understand the patient and to prescribe rationally. The many different ways the The prescription of a homeopathic remedy is only remedy pictures can be expressed informs the very one part of the therapeutic and healing process. way a homeopath thinks and is able to perceive a In each case the illness, the patient, the homeo- patient. path and the effect each has on the other needs to be considered. Case management brings together The Case the science of the homeopathic therapeutic system with the artistry of the caring and healing clini- The homeopathic case puts the relationship between cian. Focussed on the process of cure and care of the homeopath and patient at the heart of the the patient. vii CONTRIBUTORS Helen Beaumont MB ChB DRCOG MRCGP MFHom Peter Gregory BVSc VetFFHom Cert. IAVH MRCVS Homeopathic Physician and General Practitioner, UK Veterinary Surgeon, UK Iris Bell MD PhD David Lilley MBChB(Pret) FFHom(London) Professor, Department of Family and Community Homeopathic Physician, South Africa Medicine, USA Misha Norland RSHom FSHom Maggie Curley MB ChB DRCOG MFHom Homeopathic Physician, UK Homeopathic Physician and General Practitioner, UK Tony Pinkus BPharm MRPharms LFHom David Curtin MBBS MFHom PCH MCH(hon) Homeopathic Pharmacist, Director (Ainsworths), UK Homeopathic Physician and General Practitioner, UK Jeremy Sherr FSHom MCH Bac Philip Edmonds HND DSH RSHom Homeopath, UK Homeopath, UK x FOREWORD It is not easy to write a different book about kind of approach. The third model is the holistic homeopathy. This book manages to be different. model and this has already become a mainstream Health care needs something to change. Chronic view in undergraduate medicine, and especially in diseases are increasing throughout the world and postgraduate general practice training. It is some- health services in every country are straining times referred to as a ‘biopsychosocial model’ and under the burgeoning demands of people who are as such r epresents a significant advance on the suffering. No government seems to be able to put ‘biomedical’ one. It refuses to be reductionist and sufficient resources into health care to stem the places the patient as a person at the centre of the tide. The Faculty of Homeopathy, under David care process. The holistic model focuses on the Owen’s Presidency, developed a 25-year plan in whole of the patient’s suffering rather than solely the year 2000. The plan was firmly based on the on their pathology. Eric Cassell in The Healer’s foundation of our recognition of two important Art reflects this as a move away from a focus on points. Firstly, that there is a desperate need for disease to a focus on illness. These three models a new kind of medicine for the 21st Century. The bring us up to the current state of the art in the existing model is just not good enough. Secondly, practice of medicine. Inspiringly, David Owen that homeopathic medicine is ideally placed to goes on to outline two further models which chart contribute to the creation of exactly the kind of a path to a future, better, more effective medicine. medicine that the 21st Century world needs. The holographic model is really unknown in the The structure of this book is founded on that the biomedical and even biopsychosocial models. first recognition. What might a new kind of medi- Indeed, it is only rarely mentioned by those who cine look like, and how will it relate to the cur- claim to practise holistically. I know of only one rent model? The five models of health laid out in therapy which really understands it and which the introductory chapter and which are then used uses this model in daily practice – homeopathic as the entire framework of this text are, firstly, practice. The idea that when a patient presents the pathogenic model – this is the predominant their suffering; everything is connected and every model of health underpinning the dominant bio- symptom, every area of disturbance reveals the medical model. It is highly reductionist and fun- same underlying problems and issues is fundamental damentally based on a machine-like metaphor to the homeopathic approach. For a doctor, such where parts become damaged or broken and an approach is very, very exciting. It means that need to be replaced or fixed. Arthur Frank, in all the patient’s symptoms can be understood to his excellent The Wounded Storyteller, describes reveal the fundamental, underpinning disorder. this as the ‘Restitution Narrative’ – ‘I’m broken/ But more than that, it also reveals the exact, best, my xxx is broken . . . please fix me’. The second unique therapeutic intervention for that patient. model is the biological model. This model has It is the antithesis of the one-size-fits-all approach developed from the pathogenic model as under- of modern pharmacology. This would be enough. standings from complexity science have illumi- The vision of the holographic model would give nated the processes of systems rather than only us plenty to explore, research and develop to of components. As a model, it is more complex create a new 21st Century medicine. However, and more accurate than the pathogenic model there is yet another model here too – the rela- but it is still really the same reductionist, ‘fix me’ tional model. This, again, builds on strands and xi Foreword developments of recent years. Balint groups from homeopathy. Homeopathic medicine does already the 1950s introduced general practitioners to ways use all these five models of health and any health of understanding the significance of the doctor– care professional would find that their work patient relationship and showed them how to be would be enhanced and their rewards increased aware of their own responses to patients and even if they learned how to integrate homeopathy into how to use this awareness therapeutically. Sadly, what they already do. This book is not just about the Balint movement has been washed away by theory and models, it lays out the ‘how to’ of an approach based on targets and box-ticking. homeo pathy. Medicine NEEDS these new models of health to I hope you enjoy this book. I am very sure that be developed and widely disseminated. reading it has the potential to change your profes- You would think that all this would be quite sional life. enough. It is exciting and it is visionary and it should provoke any doctor to think more deeply Bob Leckridge BSc MB ChB MFHom about their practice. However, this particular Specialist in Homeopathic Medicine book does even more than this because it lays 2006 out extremely clearly the way to practise xii FOREWORD By his choice of title, David Owen has set himself medica, but the text is interspersed with numer- in a proud tradition, for his Principles and Practice ous clinical vignettes, giving the flavour of clinical of Homeopathy is far from being the first book practice. It also reflects the burgeoning diversity of this, or similar, title. Illustrious antecedents of the contemporary homeopathic scene. include Richard Hughes’ slim volume of the same The great and unique strength of Principles title, now over a century old. Herbert Roberts’ and Practice of Homeopathy is its multi-faceted nature: Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy, between no other pair of book covers will you find published in 1936. ML Dhawale’s three-volume the breadth of approach, by authors who know their Principles and Practice of Homeopathy published topic in depth, distilled with such brevity and clarity. in 1967 and Ernest Roberts’ recent Homoeopathy: No one author can claim the depth of expertise in all principles and practice. But best known to contem- areas required for a modern c omprehensive textbook, porary British homeopaths is Charles Wheeler’s and in a welcome development, in line with modern classic Introduction to the Principles and Practice of practice, a number of chapters are written by experts Homoeopathy which went through three editions in the areas, each with an introduction by Owen him- between 1919 and 1948. Many British homeo- self. There are chapters on veterinary homeopathy, paths of recent generations were brought up on homeopathic software, Miasms (by David Lilley) and ‘Wheeler and Kenyon’ (Douglas Kenyon became the Sankaran method (Helen Beaumont and Maggie co-author for the third edition). Curley), among others. David Owen himself contrib- The comparison between David Owen’s book utes a series of thoughtful concluding chapters which and Wheeler and Kenyon is a gauge of how home- cover the management of difficult problems and the opathy has evolved over the last 60 or so years. ‘self-maintenance’ for homeopaths. All are interspersed The older book has a bare 50 pages of principles, with case histories, illustrations and points for reflec- followed by 300 of materia medica and a mini- tion. repertory. Each medicine monograph starts with an account of the nature of the substance, fol- Dr Peter Fisher lowed by its toxicology and pharmacology before Clinical Director describing its homeopathic uses. By contrast, Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital Owen’s book contains no systematic materia 2006 xiii