Phillip A. Nicholls

The Dialectic of the Hospital in the History of Homoeopathy

The emergence and growth of specifically homoeopathic hospitals (and general practitioners) in nineteenth century Britain was fuelled by much the same kinds of forces that had stimulated the development of health care resources more generally. In addition, of course, homoeopaths were keen to use their hospitals as a way of celebrating their distinctive mode of medical practice. This optimism, however, was destined to remain unfulfilled: the hospital as an environment for the delivery of care would eventually prove itself to be of much less advantage to homoeopaths than to regular practitioners. Indeed, this paper will argue that the hospital actually embroiled homoeopaths in three distinct dialectical and damaging processes – processes which help us to understand the eventual stagnation and decline of homoeopathy from the late nineteenth century onwards.

> zurück zur homepage

> zurück zum Inhalt des Bandes