A Selection and Compilation of the thoughts, practices, prescriptions, philosophy, materia medica, debates, lectures, articles, book reviews and humour.
What you have in your hands is a book that reflects the experience of an internationally recognised contributor to the growth of homeopathy since the 1980s. The title My Journey in Homeopathy ~Much Ado About Nothing~ reflects Fran’s sense of humour – this book is his 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.
The book seems like a novel where the author is talking to us, sharing his nuances and experiences and some brilliant works done worldwide:
- One chapter ‘Getting Stoned was not Fun’ is a very interesting one where he shares his battle with kidney stones and how on taking the medicine Calculus renalis (medicine prepared from E.P Anshutz own kidney stone and how after continuing the medicine for three months he had not suffered from it till now). This medicine can also be used for stones of salivary gland.
- A chapter on Elizabeth W. Hubbard (a student of Pierre Schmidt and a well known American Homeopath) presents the biographical elements of the physician, such as that for three years she edited the magazine ‘The Homeopathic Recorder’, she also made house calls in her convertible Rolls Royce. She had the privilege of being taught by Boger, Roberts, Gladwin, ML Tyler, JH Clarke and many more.
- A chapter on ‘The Rabies Miasm’ is written, and who himself keeps Lyssin 200 in his first aid kit. Here Francis has shared Hahnemannian’s approach along with Tafel’s. More enlightment on rabies miasm is given by Dr SP Dey’s experience while treating cases. Some rubrics from Complete Repertory regarding the miasm are also mentioned in the chapter.
Keeping up with this, the book has many other intriguing and informative chapters.
Moreover this book captures the innovation and creativity that ensured that future, in the context of the challenges many of us faced and continue to face in practicing, teaching and promoting a wonderful loving medicine. The book is a collation of interviews, articles, histories, characters, cases, remedies, practice audits, discussions and book reviews published by the author in a valuable single document. It is a unique book in the annals of homeopathic publishing, a record of part of one homeopath’s output.
You’ll unearth insights on how this inspirational and resourceful homeopath made a difference with clinics in the National Health Service and 25 years of acute and primary care telephone prescribing on the Homeopathy Helpline.
- Author: Francis Treuherz
- ISBN: 9788131923801
- 505 pages
- Paperback
- Published in 2022
- Printed in India
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, from the 'New Homeopath', Journal, Winter 2022 edition. Reviewed by Tony Pinkus.
As the years slip by, I'm ever more conscious of the legacy we pass onto the next generation of homeopaths. We become so immersed in our work, honing our skills, and being of service to patients, that before we know it decades have flashed past. Then one day we turn around and notice that older generation we so admired have silently passed the baton to us.
Life is after all a journey of collective experiences not a destination, and we have a responsibility to teach from the knowledge we accumulate in transit. Fran's new book 'My Journey in Homeopathy, Much Ado About Nothing' reflects this well. In his own inimitable style, Fran has compiled something of everything he's ever written in a 500-page volume. Rounded off with two pages of toilet humour.
His passion for history
I've known Fran for over three decades and was delighted to be presented with a copy of his new book to review. His conversational style accompanied by a wealth of facts and history is what I expect from a man who arguably owns the Guinness Book of records award for books on homeopathy. History is definitely his passion and audiences have been charmed by an encyclopaedic knowledge about the minutiae of our forebears. The book allows him free rein to expound upon the history of homeopathy in Liverpool, the origin of Kent's philosophy and links with Swedenborgian teachings. He adds in a chapter on the underpraised Elizabeth Hubbard Wright and touches on Steiner and his roots with Goethe. This is an assemblage of many of his published writings structured around six headings, from interviews, through Familial Homeopathy and Philosophy, to Clinical Work, a Debate and Book Reviews.
Wading through the chapters, it's clear Fran is summing up his life's work as a practising homeopathy, providing a legacy to inspire younger minds. He paints a picture of the everyday realities, joys and challenges gained in the solitary role of practitioner. Through good fortune he's enjoyed the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams within the NHS and establish successful, audited outcomes with many patients. The scope and variety of these patient encounters are beyond the normal breadth of a homeopath's experience. Predating this he emphasises the benefits he accrued working in intensive camps in India and a sojourn in Vithoulkas's Greece early in his career.
A good part of the text reflects on this NHS experience, and he provides a good account of the nature of that practice and his freedoms within the different teams he worked alongside. To appreciate the large number of patients he consulted within the NHS he presents an impressive, audited account of the Bounds Green practice in some depth which provides a good opportunity for readers to walk in his moccasins.
Dismissive authorities
Sadly, his noble efforts over a decade practising homeopathy within four London BHS surgeries was stymied by political changes in governance. And as promising a breakthrough his efforts proved in those practices, the prescription of homeopathy within the NHS renders this now an anachronism. It's incredibly sad to read how, despite successes recognised by the practice partners, Fran was dismissed when policy changes slashed the practice's right of self-governance. Those of us working in the NHS are dismayed by the arrogance and idiocy of such mindlessness. Disregard for the poor and elderly, as children and indigent patients are denied access by cruel authorities dismissive of the obvious advantages.
On a lighter note, I do recall his mischievousness. One April Fool's Day when he was practising at Pietroni's practice in Marylebone, he sent in a prescription for a Mr S U Perman who required three powders of Kryptonite 10M. I duly coated three sachets in a medication of Fairy Liquid and sent them to him
Tony Pinkus is CEO Ainsworths and Dean of Pharmacy Faculty of Homeopathy.
My Journey in Homeopathy, Much Ado About Nothing by Francis Treuherz, is reviewed by Vatsala Sperling RSHom.
Francis is an accomplished homeopath, writer, archivist of homeopathy literature, and explorer of humanity.
Some 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 flavours 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 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.
After reading a few of his interesting cases, we come to “Homeopathic Helpline”. Francis worked with another homeopath and 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 humour: 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.
Review by Dana Ullman:
Before discussing the contents of this book, I feel compelled to tell you something about its magnificent author! Francis Treuherz is a mensch of a human being (“mensch” is Yiddish for meaning a person of high integrity)…and he may be one of the rare persons who is just as super passionate about homeopathy as I am (this is Dana Ullman writing this). Not only does he have a passion for the practice of homeopathy, but he has a very special passion for the HISTORY of homeopathy. In fact, THIS book is full of truly fascinating stories from homeopathic history, including many stories that are not available from other sources. Also, Francis Treuherz owns the largest private library of homeopathic books and journals in the world…and what’s more is that he also owns a wide variety of “homeopathic paraphenelia,” that is, museum-worthy statues, posters, badges, and a variety of “things” that were once owned by very famous homeopaths or homeopathic institutions.
This book also includes two articles that were published in homeopathic journals on the history of Swedenborgian thought in homeopathy (Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist and mystic who had a great influence on leading American homeopaths in the 19th century).
This book is also full of clinical cases in which Treuherz tells you something vitally important about a rare homeopathic medicine…and why YOU should know something about it!
Ultimately, this book is a compilation of articles that Treuherz has gotten published in a wide variety of journals and publications…and all of this is “under one roof” in THIS book.
This book is ideal for skipping around and reading whatever subject intrigues you…OR it is the type of book that is fun to open randomly to any page and to read what is there!
Review Published in Simile, March 2023 written by Gill Graham
Much Ado About Nothing was one of Shakespeare's most enduring romantic comedies. There is however, nothing vaguely romantic about Francis Treuherz's latest book, but it does reflect the humour which is part of the author's character and also the perception believed by many that there is 'nothing' in the remedies. We know this not to be true and that practiced according to strict principles, it is a powerful system of medicine. I feel this is what Francis is out to prove by using such a 'polar opposite' title. So, we start the book, knowing that Francis will take us on a journey, which will cover his experiences to prove that homeopathy is most definitely 'something'.
The book has many very diverse chapters, from when he was a student, his teachers and those he came to respect the most who had a strong influence on him. I loved his description of the meetings with Harris Coulter, their friendship and mutual respect. This is just one story; countless others are contained within. I see the book as a culmination of a life dedicated to his passion for his subject. It neatly brings together many of his interviews, book reviews and much of his work, in one place. It goes off at tangents at times, venturing out into his Jewish faith and how this is linked in many ways to homeopathy, often becoming one subject, as interwoven as he suggests they are.
The book is a success in that it is reflective of the life of someone who is passionate about his subject. The chapter discussing his time with the NHS and his abject disappointment when he was forced to leave his position. "I wept ..." shows how connected and entrenched he was in his work; one can feel his disappointment and grief at the situation. Similarly, The Homeopathic Helpline is featured, a popular homeopathic consultation phone line for acute problems, that attracts patients from around the UK, where Francis assisted his friend and colleague David Needleman the founder; the chapter discusses it provenance and how invaluable it continues to be.
I learnt a lot about both homeopathy and Francis in this book.
It is varied in its content, touching on homeopathic history, case reports, book reviews (by him and on his own books,) miasms, remedies and much more. It culminates in a chapter called 'Fran's indefatigable humour' followed by 'Toilet humour as only Fran can' which echoes an important part of his personality; his quick wit! I would describe it as a comprehensive collection of all aspects of life as a homeopath, the challenges, successes and the rich web of interactions we all experience. On completion, we are aware of Fran's important role as a leader in our field and his vast contribution to our profession over the years.
