I recently came across this campaign for homeopathy awareness. Sounds good to me, we could certainly do with a helluva lot more awareness in this area. In fact, one of the more surprising reactions I encounter when I discuss homeopathy with otherwise well-informed people, is when they express surprise about its basic rudiments. Like the fact that there is nothing actually in the stuff. Or that it’s scientifically impossible for there to be anything in there. Or the fact that it is medically inert. Or the fact that homeopathy isn’t herbal medicine (I frequently get something like: “Oh, homeopathy does work, I saw this documentary about St John’s Wort on TV…“).
I even occasionally encounter people who purport to know (and, horror of horrors, to teach) about the health sciences but who remain somehow oblivious to even the simple point that homeopathy is a controversial subject.
So I am very much in favour of “homeopathy awareness”. Homeopathy awareness for all, I say.
Therefore, I have decided to do my bit. And to make everything all artistic, I’ve decided to pitch my wares through visual media. In fact, in keeping with the homeopathic vibe, I’ve even managed to dilute one visual medium (YouTube) into another (Prezi).
So here you go. I recommend you set everything to Fullscreen, sit back, and press play. See what you guys make of this…
[gigya id=”prezi_zc57uu6qzhin” name=”preziEmbed_n6k0mknixo5s” src=”http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”485″ height=”350″ bgcolor=”#ffffff” flashvars=”prezi_id=zc57uu6qzhin&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0″]
Brian Hughes is an academic psychologist and university professor in Galway, Ireland, specialising in stress, health, and the application of psychology to social issues. He writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, medicine, and politics.
Excellent!
Thank you, Alan!
Hey Brian. Brilliant piece of work. Watch out Neil Jordan!
I’m not a big advocate of homeopathy. And there is malpractice and people with not enough knowledge making false claims.
But there is a lot of malpractice in ‘regular’ medicine, too. And people who suffered from side effects or poorly researched medication.
I grew up with homeopathy. One thing I like is that when I have several complaints, my homeopath gives me one remedy, not a box full of tablets. Of course there are boundaries, depending on the complaint you have. But I must say that I’m happy that I never had to take any pharmaceuticals, and frankly, I’d pick a well working placebo effect over antibiotics any day!
Miro said:
“But there is a lot of malpractice in ‘regular’ medicine, too. And people who suffered from side effects or poorly researched medication.”
Yes, there is some. But that doesn’t change the lack of robust evidence for homeopathy, does it?
but why not let people do it if it works for them? there is no robust evidence for the existance of god yet people believe and – it helps them!
Agree with the article completely. The ideas are summarised brilliantly in the clip from That Mitchell and Webb Look about the Homeopathic A&E (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0).
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