In Search of the Later Hahnemann
This book is the story of Samuel Hahnemann's practice of homeopathy in Paris during the last years of his life. It is based on his actual casebooks, which up till now have been left substantially unexamined in a German library.
It was to Paris that Hahnemann had moved with his young second wife, Melanie, and here that he completed the second edition of his Chronic Diseases and the final revision of his major theoretical work, the Organon. We see him putting into practice the implications of his thinking on chronic disease, experimenting with some of the new remedies being developed by himself and others, and pushing his conception of the infinitesimal dose to undreamed-of lengths in the LM potency.
The whole range of his Paris patients appear in these pages, many of them famous, others obscure, and still others who had travelled from elsewhere in Europe and the Americas to seek his help. We see him grappling with the scourges of the time, such as consumption and the consequences of venereal disease, as well as with conditions which had been caused or further complicated by previous treatment.
Some of the cases are quoted at length, and there are nine double-page facsimile spreads of case notes made either by Hahnemann alone or else in conjunction with Melanie. There are successful cures, but we also see him making mistakes, improvising, getting stuck and lost in his cases, yet always trusting in the process he had himself formulated. We see him as a whole person and witness the process of the learning and making of homeopathy.
'Handley is a historian by training and her general approach creates a feeling of confidence in the reader that she has got her facts right. ... I have long been convinced that it is impossible to understand homoeopathy in depth unless one does make the effort to come to grips with its historical foundations. I should therefore say that this book will be essential reading for any serious student of the subject. Handley is to be congratulated on making this material available in a scholarly but readable form.' - British Homoeopathic Journal
Rima Handley taught medieval literature at the universities of London and Newcastle for several years. She subsequently trained and now practices both as a homeopath and a psychotherapist. She was the co-founder of the Northern College of Homeopathic Medicine in Newcastle.
- Author: Rima Handley
- ISBN: 9780906584354
- 235 pages
- Paperback
- Published in 1997
- Printed in United Kingdom