Integrity of Homeopathy

Sheilagh Creasy
Verlag Peter Irl: Buchendorf, Germany, 2007
Price: € 34, 00, ISBN 978-3-933666-19-2

This book starts with Sheilagh Creasy presenting her ‘beliefs in Hahnemann's concepts of miasms’. Using her many years of clinical experience and of teaching homeopathy she present her experience of using miasmatic approaches in the treatment of chronic disease. Using a series of case reports, in depth studies of miasms (Psora, Syphilis, Sycosis and Tubercular) and their associated remedies. She starts from the premise that miasms (these 4) have been ‘maligned and ignored’ and her book does a good job of explaining the thrust of the 4 miasms covered and the associated remedies.

Behind this miasmatic and materia medica information there are many useful pointers in the clinical management of chronic disease, although some of them, such as the idea of latent and active miasms could benefit from further explanation. This book would be a useful companion for the more serious student of homeopathy or for any practitioner revisiting the way they work miasmatically, particularly for those who want to broaden the remedies that they think of in associated with different miasms. In practice I suspect this will be a book for those who have experienced Sheilagh Creasy's teaching and want to have a book to refresh them of some of the concepts and teaching she has covered.

Although I enjoyed some of her more personal diversions into different ideas and concepts, it is sometimes difficult to separate out hypotheses from information that is verified. It is perhaps unfortunate that her first chapter, while accurately talking about Hahnemann's Swedenborgian influences, presents her opinion that Hahnemann may have been a Jew as if it were well established.

On the positive side however, there are numerous insights into materia medica that her clinical experience brings, such as the comparison of different calcium and potassium salts, the idea that remedies that fit on one level reveal deeper acting (and often miasmatic) remedies as deeper aspects of the case. The book is a reminder of her wide range of clinical experience including, for example a discussion on the treatment of an AIDS patient who had also suffered Syphilis and the treatment of the early stages of Tuberculosis. This is a reminder to all those who have worked in homeopathy for a long time that they have valuable insights for our profession and we are indebted to all those that take the time to record them.

The book, like many things worthwhile, is not immediately accessible or easy to dip into, but students and practitioners who are prepared to look below the surface and who are not put off by a lack of structure will get a lot from it.