An eye-opening but heavy-handed look at the medical profession from a doctor who turned his back on its standard practices.
In an essay collection that’s part memoir, part homeopathy textbook, a doctor embraces the ideals of patient-centered treatment and attacks hallmarks of traditional medicine, including vaccination.
As a medical student in the 1960s, Moskowitz never intended to pursue holistic medicine—at the time, few American doctors had even heard the term—but he quickly grew disenchanted with the approaches he encountered in the established medical community. Doctors, he felt, tended to see their patients as manifestations of disease rather than as people. They treated illness as an invader to be beaten into submission, not as a natural part of life. He happened upon homeopathy partly by accident, when a patient asked him to help her give birth at home. Away from the sterile, highly regulated hospital environment, he was able to let the patient be her own guide, and he assisted her only minimally. The appeal of this approach led him to embrace homeopathy and its mission to promote self-healing. The collection’s first essay offers an illuminating look at what drew him to this approach, but later essays appear to be meant for a more specialized audience. Some first appeared in homeopathy journals and require more than a layman’s familiarity with the field; others list recommended remedies for common disorders affecting pregnant women and infants, which may not interest some readers. Repetition plagues the later chapters, with many essays addressing the same themes, sometimes verbatim. The overall tone may be off-putting to readers who don’t share the author’s disdain for traditional medicine, which Moskowitz accuses of being “driven mainly to achieve effective control and dominion over every identifiable aspect of the life process,” calling its proponents “smug” and “self-righteous.” His invective against vaccination, in particular, which he blames for the proliferation of chronic ailments from ear infections to epilepsy to autism, will likely challenge the views of average consumers of Western medicine.
An eye-opening but heavy-handed look at the medical profession from a doctor who turned his back on its standard practices.Pub Date: June 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482338010
Page Count: 408
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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