by Betsy Levine
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IT'S BEEN JUST one year since I began to learn about homeopathy. I've been doing a fair bit of reading (and rereading) of literature based on original work as well as various interpretations, simplifications, distillations, and syntheses. I started at the back of The Consumer's Guide to Homeopathy, and was immediately impressed with the resource section: the annotated bibliography, software, organizations, sources for remedies, training programs, certifying boards, journals and newsletters. I'd stumbled across many of these resources already (through Jon Haworth's Homeopathy Home Page and its links or through antenna.nl/homeoweb) but I appreciate the comprehensive list – and off screen, at that. The only hole I noticed in an otherwise great resource list is a gaping one. There is but one source listed for books, tapes and software: Homeopathic Educational Resources, the author's own company.
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I had a little trouble deciding who the intended audience was when the book was conceived. Who is this "consumer" of homeopathy, anyway? If the book really intends to introduce homeopathy to the "consumer" looking for safer, gentler alternatives to conventional medicine, I think it is a bit off the mark. It's too dense and theoretical for anyone who hasn't witnessed the power of homeopathy first-hand. For those who have, a chapter like "What Skeptics Say and How to Respond to Them" might be a trifle irrelevant.
These criticisms aside, I found many of the chapters enlightening. The first two introductory chapters set out in succinct and direct language many of the important philosophical tenets of homeopathic medicine in a less simplistic way than other "consumer guides" have done. The comparison of homeopathy's role in various countries provides a helpful perspective for those "undergrounders" in the U.S. particularly, where, as Ullman reports of a New England Journal of Medicine study, "70 percent of people who used alternative treatments did not tell their physicians about it." And the chapters on clinical studies managed to reduce statistical jargon to understandable language while giving a broad overview of some of the studies that have been done (with sources cited). The strongest chapters, I thought, were those discussing professional homeopathic care: what sort of training a homeopath might have, different approaches to the practice one might encounter in various homeopaths, evaluating a homeopath, costs, insurance coverage or lack therof, what to expect from a homeopath, what he or she will want to know, and so forth. Here Ullman's broad knowledge provides valuable insights that can help a newcomer venture into the world of qualified professional homeopathic care. The long section titled "Can Homeopathy Help Me? Specific Conditions" covers a good bit of ground and is valuable for its viewpoints regarding self-care versus professional care and its overview of what can be accomplished with homeopathy (although the remedy suggestions and individualizing advice seem a bit cursory). This entire section might have benefitted from a few concrete examples and stories about real people, especially in the discussions of treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer, AIDS, and drug addictions. These are such difficult – and all too common – problems that so many people have struggled through as they've watched loved ones suffer, thinking that there must be a better way. I appreciate the straightforward, balanced, factual approach, but there is room for some inspiration.
In summary, The Consumer's Guide to Homeopathy, The Definitive Resource for Understanding Homeopathic Medicine and Making It Work for You is at its best when being a "Consumer's Guide" (i.e., helping one choose a homeopath, pointing out some of the clinical studies on the efficacy of homeopathy, and providing resources for further study). "The Definitive Resource for Understanding Homeopathic Medicine and Making It Work for You" it is not. That is a good hunk of a lifetime of study in the wealth of literature and experience that is homeopathy.
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