Sane Asylums: The Success of Homeopathy Before Psychiatry Lost Its Mind by Jerry M. Kantor, LAc, CCH

Abstract

Sane Asylums: The Success of Homeopathy Before Psychiatry Lost Its Mind by Jerry M. Kantor, L.Ac., CCH (Foreword by Eric Leskowitz, MD) ISBN: 978-1-64411-408-7; $25.00; “6 9”; 270 pp. quality paperback;www.healingartspress. com ‘Wehave deceived ourselves that having a home and being mentally healthy are our natural conditions, and that we become homeless or mentally ill as a result of ‘losing’ our homes or our minds. The opposite is the case. We are born without a home and without reason, and have to exert ourselves and are fortunate if we succeed in building a secure home and a sound mind. ...the terms ‘home’ and ‘mental health’ refer to complex, personal traits-as-possessions, which must be acquired, cultivated, and maintained by ceaseless effort’.–Thomas Szasz (p. 9; quoted from Szasz’s book, Cruel Compassion: Psychiatric Control of Society’s Unwanted). (1) You don’t have to read this book as, judging from its title, you can imagine it to be a positive narrative for our cause; and that’s just what it is. However, do read and enjoy, that is my advice. Jerry M. Kantor (b. 1948) is a licensed acupuncturist and certified classical homeopath (CCH) and faculty member of the Ontario College of Homeopathic Medicine (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). He was the first acupuncturist to receive an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Anaesthesiology. Dr Kantor conducts his private medical practice in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). Insane Asylums is Dr Kantor’s fifth book, the others being, Interpreting Chronic Illness: The Convergence of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy and Biomedicine (2011), The Toxic Relationship Cure: Clearing Traumatic Damage from a Boss, Parent, Lover or Friendwith Natural, Drug-Free Remedies (2013), Autism Reversal Toolbox: Strategies, Remedies, Resources (2015; 2nd 2022), Heymischer Homeopathy: The Schmendrick’s Guide to Remedying Yiddish Kvetches (2017; Chaim Yankel, Kantor’s pseudonym). In 12 chapters and 5 appendices, the author spells out the successes which homeopathic therapeutics had at several mental institutions in the United States during the turn of the 20th century. In Chapter 4, Dr Kantor discusses, in some detail, the madness which befell Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband’s assassination. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th President of the United States, served from 1861 to 1865, when he was killed by John Wilkes Booth on April 15 of 1865. Lincoln continues to be much revered in the United States. In this extraordinary chapter, the author discusses the charming yet mentally unstable widow the Lincoln family’s positive relationship with homeopathy, (Abraham was a believer), the mental health trial of Mary Todd and Richard J. Patterson, a compassionate allopathically educated physician who took special care of the widow at his sane asylum, Bellevue Place located in Batavia, Illinois. It is true that Patterson did not keep adequate treatment records of his charge but it is known that he leaned heavily toward homeopathic therapeutics as well as other natural methods. To this end, Dr Kantor states the following which suggests how blurred lines were at that time between the two camps of medicine: ‘In a non-regulatory era before professional boundaries were mapped, respected, or enforced, the practice of conventional medicine and homeopathy overlapped. This was not surprising since all physicians, not just homeopaths, retained the prerogative to control the level of dilution of medicines they would themselves compound’.–p. 49. To support other thoughts in this regard, Kantor cites The Permeation of Present-Day Medicine by Homeopathy, a 1904 book penned by a British homeoapth, Dr David Dyce Brown.