Richard Moskowitz: “Plain Doctoring: Selected Writings 1983–2013”

As long as Dick Moskowitz has been in medical practice he has been thinking, and when he thinks he writes. During that time I have read most of his articles, as I subscribe to the American journals where much of his work appeared. Some of these articles were lectures delivered at the Society of Homeopathsʼ conferences in the UK. He has also written two books[*] from which some extracts appear here. So it has been a pleasure and a privilege to have this opportunity to review these fifteen essays.

I recall seeing my homeopathy college timetable for the first time and the main subject headings were predictably medical sciences, materia medica, repertory, clinical cases and most puzzling: philosophy. Dick was the first but not the only homeopath I know who has actually formally studied philosophy and that is the key to understanding his book. He knows how to think, and he knows how to express his thoughts in writing.

The essays vary in length and style, and include philosophy, autobiography, politics, and therapeutics. His journey through medical school, the early years of practice, his rejection of modern medicine and his discovery of homeopathy might be familiar to some readers but is very moving to read. His riding bareback as an independent medical advisor to women opting for home birthing is an inspiration and was the foundation of his eventual publication of a book on this topic. On vaccination he is erudite and practical. My favourite essay is on The Fundamentalist Controversy. This issue occupied the pages of Homeopathy Today (USA), the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine, and Links several years ago. It began with a diatribe against the thought and work of many of our modern heroes of homeopathy by my late friend Julian Winston. Julian used his editorials in HT to argue against innovation. I suspect that as a lay enthusiast for homeopathy he may have misinterpreted the ways that practitioners search for remedies for patients, and so discovered the potential healing powers of medicines. Dick cuts through the personal animosities and pomposities with the power of his clear healing thoughts; this is THE article, which I think is the core of the book. He also writes on malpractice, Hahnemann, childhood ear infections, diagnosis and more.

My only suggestion for improvement, if that is possible in a print-on-demand book, would be to add an abstract of the contents at the start of each essay.

There are so few books that display clarity of thought by a real philosopher of medicine, focussing on our beloved homeopathy, which are not also exhorting us to adopt a method or follow a leader. Dick is too self-effacing for that. Here we are exhorted to think and to do unto our homeopathic neighbours as we would do unto ourselves.