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

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

‘We have 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 Friend with 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. Brown maintained and offered numerous examples where allopaths ‘stole’ remedies and therapeutic ideas from the homeopathic camp while, at the same time, defaming the ‘new medicine.’

‘Our friends of the old school [conventional medicine], while running down our principles of treatment as unscientific, call us the “grave of medicine”, term us “absurd” while refusing to meet us in consultation and preventing us becoming members of the various medical societies, or holding any public appointments in connection with hospital or otherwise; while calling themselves “regular” practitioners, and us, consequently, irregular ones -in other words, professionally tabooing us; ...yet they show clearly how our principles and practice are adopted by them, though without any acknowledgment or any hint of the source from which the “new” treatment is obtained’.–p. 51.

This special chapter ends with the suggestion that Mary Todd could have received several remedies, for example:

‘...Clematis, Coffea, Hyoscyamus, Ignatia, Lachesis, Mercurius, Nux vomica, Opium, Pulsatilla, Sepia, and Syphilinum. What was actually recommended remains a mystery, perhaps to be revealed in future findings of homeopathic Dead Sea Scrolls’.–p. 53.

Appendix 4 considers several case studies and treatments from the work of Selden Talcott, MD, the doctor who served at the helm of America's first and foremost hospital, the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital (founded 1874). That institution was devoted to the care of the insane or mentally ill or as those persons might be referred to today as ‘persons with special needs’ [(2)]. Middletown and the Westborough and Gowanda facilities, which were mostly homeopathic, are discussed but several other, quasi-homeopathic facilities are described in Chapter 10, ‘Disciples and Satellites of the Mother Church’. Those covered include Butler Asylum (founded 1844), Cincinnati Sanitarium, Easton Sanitarium, Stamford Sanitarium and Fergus Falls State Hospital. Kantor also includes, in this chapter, brief vignettes of several figures of importance: Alonzo P. Williamson, Amos J. Givens, N. Emmons Paine, Samuel Worcester, Orpheus Everts, George Washington Richards, James P. Pursell and C. Spencer Kinney. Kantor offers far more in the way of discussion when dealing with Talcott (to whom this book is dedicated), Clara Barrus and Samuel Worcester.

Appendix 4 also considers treatment and remedies in a comparative fashion for a few syndromes, e.g. melancholia, paresis, mania, dementia and epilepsy:

‘In epileptic dementia we sometimes find Belladonna, Cuprum aceticum, Laurocerasus, Enanthe crocata, and Solanum carolinense of service in relieving unfortunate symptoms. Enanthe crocata has done much good in the relief of epileptic insanity. Solanum carolinense has been used, but its effects seem to be cumulative, and while the fits [seizures] may be checked for a season, they return with renewed vigor, and in a dangerous way’.–p. 234

‘For the relief of the epileptiform seizures, Veratrum viride, Cimicifuga, Cuprum metallicum, and Laurocerasus. For the intense restlessness, anxiety, and expansive ideas, together with rapid emaciation of strength and flesh, you may use, according to the symptoms, Aconite, Arsenicum, Belladonna, and Cuprum. Alcohol produces artificial and temporary paresis, and is therefore homeopathic to the genuine article. It may be administered in small doses, sometimes with benefit. Good whiskey, in one-half ounce doses, may be given once in three or four hours when necessary. These remedies have thus far not proved curative, but have sometimes afforded relief, and have seemed to effect a prolongation of life and an increased comfort to the sick one’.–p. 235.

Further along in this appendix, two cases, ‘maniacal attacks’ and ‘depressed, suicidal and violent but not dangerous’, are briefly presented. They were gleaned from the 24th Annual Report of the Middletown Hospital. This latter case concerned a patient who was admitted on 3 October 1892 and discharged about a year later on 26 September 1893. She received several remedies, - ‘Hyos., Bell., Arsen., Aloes, Verat. alb., Sulph., Gels., and Sepia’.–p. 238.

This 270 page book will continue to broaden one's homeopathic horizon and serve to entertain as well. There is the usual index, a lengthy bibliography and plentiful notes–yet many of these are without exact citings. Also included are aphorisms from Hahnemann's Organon as they relate to mental illness: Paragraphs - 210,1,2,3,4,5,6 and 221,4,8,9. A glossary of antiquarian psychological terms is thoughtfully included and a discussion of Iris R. Bell and Gary E. Schwartz's paper, ‘Enhancement of Adaptive Biological Effects’ is offered. Strangely, this paper's title is inaccurate and comes without a citing. [(3)]

Lastly, the chapter devoted to Baseball Therapy is entertaining and noteworthy as it chronicles the development of the game of baseball as innovative therapy!

‘America has always enjoyed watching a group of skilled players club, hurl, and snag a ball in competition, and baseball has been a favorite since English colonists brought it over amid their baggage. Always fun, entertaining, challenging, and good exercise, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that anyone conceived of baseball's value as therapy'.–p. 97.

Talcott, in 1888, witnessed a baseball game and noted how the patients and attendants became captivated by the sport. The following quote was included in the 1889 Annual Report of the ‘Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane to the State Commission in Lunacy’ and relates baseball's positive impact on the mental health of patients.

‘The beneficial effect of the national game upon those whose minds have been depressed or disturbed is very marked. The patients in whom it had hitherto been impossible to arouse a healthy interest in anything seemed to awaken and become brighter at the crack of the sharp base hit. Even demented patients were eager watchers of the game. No game has ever excited such universal interest on the part of the inmates of the asylum. Even those who were very sick would insist upon being propped up by pillows so that they could look out the windows and watch a game while it was in progress’.–p. 100.

My recommendation, in regard to this unusual, entertaining volume, is PLAY BALL !

Notes

Others, aligned with this philosophical stance, include David Cooper, MD (1931–1986) and David Rosenhan, Ph.D. (1929–2012), who wrote, respectively, Psychiatry and Anti-psychiatry (1967) and On Being Sane in Insane Places (1973). Perhaps the person you might be most familiar with, Ronald David ‘R. D.’ Laing, MD (1927–1989), was also a staunch anti-psychiatrist. He authored several important works, albeit within the self-help genre, e.g. The Divided Self (1960), The Self and Others (1961) and The Politics of Experience (1967).

‘Insanity, a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world’. and ‘Where can you scream?

It's a serious question; where can you go in society and scream?’ are just a couple of Dr Laing's quotes of a telling nature.

Publication History

Article published online:
21 January 2023