Homeopathy - Hippocratic Medicine
Morrish, Mo

Homeopathy - Hippocratic Medicine

Printed in the UK, hard back, 88 pages

ISBN978-0-9544766-5-6
Size130 x 190mm
Weight0.19kg
 
Price£5.99
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This book weaves evidence, stats and facts, deep homeopathic philosophy and ancient wisdom to create an engaging and convincing promotion of homeopathy as an important and meaningful system of medicine in today’s healthcare. The book is perfect for anyone interested in homeopathy, one of those books that homeopaths pass on and give away to patients and people that want to know more. Great for the general public, those that maybe a little sceptical, students and homeopaths.

As we move through a global pandemic it seems timely to re-examine our understanding of health and care. Homeopath Mo Morrish’s latest work makes it clear that health is more than just the absence of illness, but the means by which people can enjoy the fullest life possible. He suggests that while many people live longer many of them rely on an increasing number of medications, further suggesting that they are not, in fact, healthy.

Drawing on thinkers such as Hippocrates and Einstein he challenges mainstream medicine for its over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and the tendency to treat symptoms rather than the underlying imbalances which give rise to them. Un-packing homeopathic practice Morrish confronts its sceptics with an evidence-based comparison of homeopathy with mainstream medicine and strongly advocates for an integrated approach to healing, greater inclusivity. Given that sickness on this planet has not decreased by half of one percent, might it not be time to work together?

This powerful book is an enjoyable and refreshing review of the fundamentals of what we do as homeopaths, placing our work within a wider medical context and helping us to be more informed and prepared to participate in the much-needed public discourse on how to re-invigorate our health service in a post-pandemic world. It is a timely and engaging reminder that homeopathy just makes sense.

From the author
“My experience is this: Through thirty years of homeopathic practise, I have helped several thousand people restore themselves to health, or to significantly improve their health, without causing any harm. I consider this to be a reasonable, ethical, honest and helpful way to earn a modest living chiming, as it does, with the Hippocratic dictum of: “Either help, or at least do no harm. This little book concerns all that I have found to be true within this experience.”

John Morgan, MRPharmS, RSHom
Helios, Managing Director & Superintendent Pharmacist. Hippocratic Medicine is another beautifully crafted book by Mo Morrish and the School of Homeopathy which presents, in a clear and very readable way, the contribution homeopathy brings to the practice of medicine and the art of healing.

The philosophy and guiding principles of homeopathy are a teaching for life and Mo’s books are not only very informative but are always presented in a way which resonates with our own subjective experience and what we feel to be true.
 
Drawing from his many years of practise and the wisdom of the founding fathers of medicine, Mo guides the reader through the many questions one may have about homeopathy, healing, health and disease. The book is suitable to give to someone new to homeopathy as well as the serious student or practitioner. All will find his engaging style thought provoking as he reminds us that both art and science are essential for effective healing with the guiding tenet of “do no harm” at its centre. This book a timely reminder of the importance of homeopathy in the world and the power it has to improve the health of humanity to those who are open to hearing its message. Thank you Mo for sharing more of your wisdom, understanding, experience and compassion with us.

Foreword
Dr Michael Dixon LVO, OBE, MA, FRCGP, FRCC
This book is an excellent description and defence of homeopathy. It is pithy, elegantly written and argued with integrity. It is also a great read with wonderful quotes.

I see it as a plea for personalised medicine rather than simply the application of population-based evidence.  Good medicine needs to include both.  As the author says, we must not polarise between Western medicine and complementary medicine as both have their place or, in his words “both approaches are helpful”. I also see this book as a plea for a form of medicine that goes with the grain of nature and nudges our own natural processes of healing and health. Conventional medicine, which has been so effective in so many ways with diseases such as cancer and heart attacks often works by challenging and reversing nature’s processes. Again, there is room for both perspectives but wherever possible there is a strong case - in terms of safety and sustained effectiveness as well as a human and economic case – for supporting rather than confronting the forces of nature.

I am not a homeopath but simply an observer. What I do observe is that many of my patients are being helped by homeopaths. I observe consultations that are often more personal and have more depth than I am able to offer in the standard ten-minute NHS consultation. I also observe my own profession feeling threatened and defensive in the face of a model of healing that they cannot understand or explain. I also observe that when it comes to research, we are too often asking the wrong questions and getting the wrong answers. As a pragmatic GP, I am not too concerned as to whether a patient’s recovery is due to the medication, his own characteristics, those of the therapist or, indeed, the interaction between them. What I really want to know is something along the lines of “if a patient has headaches, irritable bowel or a sense of hopelessness, for instance, which treatment is more effective – conventional treatment or seeing a homeopath?”  In too many areas, we don’t have the answers and the much-needed research has not been funded by an NHS that unfairly spends 0% of its research budget on complementary medicine.

Covid has changed everything. We are now living in a time of uncertainty when we need to view the world with new eyes.  In this new world I think we will regard it as strange that an NHS that spent £127 billion in 2016 felt it appropriate to cut its relatively tiny budget of £92,000 on homeopathy.  It was an act of meanness supported by some over vociferous clinicians, scientists and senior managers. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what any of them think - it is the patients that matter.  They are quite rightly the focus of this book, which I see as a healing of the divide between the conventional and the complementary. In a pluralist society, we must keep our minds and hearts open and I believe that this book will be helpful to patients, therapists and clinicians of every kind.

Hippocratic Medicine

Contents
Foreward   8
Statement   11
Introduction   13

Health   16
Sickness   19
Help   20
Harm   22
The World   24
The Human   26
The Individual   30
Susceptibility   32
Science and Art   35
Hahnemann   37
The Unprejudiced Observer   39
The Principles   40
The Potencies   45
The Provings   48
The Practice   51
How does it Work?   58
Evidence   62
Scientists   66
Scrutiny   71
Homeopaths   74
Homeopathy   76
Homeopathy and the NHS   78
Unifying Medicine   82

References   84
Further Reading   87
Acknowledgements   88

Reviews
As we move through a global pandemic it seems timely to re-examine our understanding of health and healthcare. Homœopath Mo Morrish’s latest work makes it clear that health is more than just the absence of illness. It is the means by which people can enjoy the fullest life possible. He suggests that while many people live longer many of them rely on an increasing number of medications, further suggesting that they are not, in fact, healthy.

This small book is beautifully presented, simple and elegant. It is very aesthetically pleasing and its words are beautifully choreographed.  It is  perfect for anyone interested in homœopathy, one of those books homœopaths pass on and give away to patients and people that want to know more. Great for the general public, those that maybe a little sceptical, students and homœopaths themselves.

This book weaves evidence, statistics and facts, deep homœopathic philosophy and ancient wisdom to create an engaging and convincing promotion of homœopathy as an important and meaningful system of medicine in today’s healthcare.
NZ Homœopathic Society


I like this book for its simplicity and the succinct way that each chapter has been written.  It’s informative and, as I read through the book, I am reminded of all the aspects of homeopathy that, once qualified, we don’t even think about.  These include basics around health, our principles, our practices, our profession and much more.  It is an easy book to pick up and put down as each chapter is pithy and to the point. 

After finishing the book, I was reminded of how proud I am to be part of this amazing profession, which provides a safe, effective and healing medicine. So, who would benefit from reading it?

I did, as it was a lovely reminder of all that is great about homeopathy.  I also think it would be good for students to read at the start of their training, as it would give then an overview explaining all the different aspects of homeopathy.  It would be beneficial to loan to patients who have a limited understanding of homeopathy to broaden their knowledge and understanding of this subject.  It would also be useful if you wanted to give information on a specific aspect of homeopathy to anyone enquiring, explained in simple, understandable language.  For these reasons I would recommend this book to any homeopath to have as a useful reference tool to use in their practice.
Elizabeth Angell MARH, Allience Register of Homeopaths


I was given a copy of this book to review when I was Editor of New Homeopath and, having enjoyed reading it I gave it away, which is what the publisher suggests one might well do: "The book is perfect for anyone interested in homeopathy, one of those books that homeopaths pass on and give away. Consequently, I could not find my copy when asked to review it for this issue. Here we have the strength of this little book in a nutshell: Its destiny is to be given away, again and again and thus to find its way into the hands of those who need it most.

This is an invaluable book for students of homeopathy. It gives them the information they need to explain to family and friends what they are inspiration to continue to practice by placing homeopathy in the context of Hippocratic medicine as a whole, whose mission, paraphrased by the author is, "Either help, or at least do no harm."

Valuable data
The book contains some valuable data, for example, that 50% of NHS treatments in a BMJ study of effectiveness as reported in RCT selected by clinical evidence were of unknown effectiveness. The author also cites recent RCT trials and other studies of homeopathy that report major improvement of conditions including childhood eczema or asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal problems and migraines.

Dr Michael Dixon, LVO, OBE, MA, FRCGP, FRCC, who chairs the College of Medicine and wrote a foreword to the book, sees it "as a plea for personalised medicine rather than simply theapplication of population-based evidence. Good medicine needs to include both. As the author says, we must not polarise between Western medicine and complementary medicine as both have their place."

Mo Morrish has some great turns of phrase that will make students of homeopathy, practising homeopaths and other interested readers stop and ponder the wisdom of his words. One example is on the subject of dosage and potency, a big part of what makes homeopathy personalised medicine. Morrish writes, "You are a one-off event in space and time and what is best for you is likely to be different to what is best for someone else."

Balanced and reasonable
Something that is unique about this book is its emphasis throughout on the vital roles of both homeopathy and conventional medicine. This is a strength as it makes it clear the author is balanced and reasonable in his approach and thereby gives the impression that homeopaths in general are balanced and reasonable in their approach, which of course they are.

Containing many thought-provoking quotes as well as solid, fact-based information on homeopathy and its place in the past, present and future of medicine, one of the most appropriate to my mind is: ''All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." Schopenhauer.

It is that one small book that needs to be on every student and practitioner's desk.
Helen Tye Tai kin, PhD, RS HomSociety of Homeopaths

Helen Tye Tai kin, PhD, RS Hom, graduated from the College of Homeopathy in 1992 following a career in the city of London as a Eurobond salesperson. She then completed Jeremy Sherr's Dynamis School course in 1993, practising in London until 1998 when she moved to California. Her studies continued, and she completed a PhD on Somatic Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her homeopathic practice integrates somatic depth psychology and homeopathy.

 

Mo Morrish

About the author
Mo Morrish, BSc MCCH RSHom established The Homoeopathic Practice in Exeter in 1990, later joined by his wife, Ali, and now continues to practice from their home on Dartmoor.  For over twenty years he taught Philosophy and Consulting skills at the British School of Homoeopathy, as well as various other schools.

For the last fifteen years he and Ali worked from and managed Exeter Natural Health Centre, a multi-disciplinary centre which also provided community placements for first- and second-year medical students from the University of Exeter School of Medicine and Dentistry. This was part of their commitment to getting homeopathy recognized as having an important role within integrative medicine. Furthering this, Mo has also written several books which have been widely appreciated.

A microbiologist in a previous life, Mo has become a better scientist through homeopathic practice.  Poetic by nature, he is also a celebrant who, outside of “work”, loves to walk upon the moor and enjoy good food and wine with Ali and their ever-expanding family.