WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 30116
[post_author] => 5
[post_date] => 2023-02-13 11:38:34
[post_date_gmt] => 2023-02-13 10:38:34
[post_content] => ‘Spare Us’: this is Prince Harry’s autobiography, ‘Spare’, as renamed by exasperated Royals.
And “spare us!”, the homeopaths sigh, as yet another journalist perpetuates ill-informed myths about homeopathy, as for example last week in the Telegraph[1]
Among other soundbites from ‘Spare’, an extract that name-checks homeopathy has been widely trailed in the media. The tantalising combination of ‘feuding princesses’ and a ‘controversial’ therapy strongly associated with previous generations of Royals is just catnip to a certain type of hack.
That quote in full: “Willy had a cold: he was sneezing and coughing, and Meg ran upstairs to get him some of her homeopathic cure-alls. Oregano oil, turmeric. He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies”.
Media treatment has largely focussed on the dynamic between the soon-to-be-estranged couples portrayed in this vignette. But some have homed in on Meghan’s holistic offering, as in the Telegraph piece.
Neither of the ‘cure-alls’ mentioned in the princely ‘tell-all’ is homeopathic in any sense. A little-used homeopathic remedy made from sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) is at times confused with wild oregano (O. vulgare). The source of Meghan’s herbal oil is the latter. Nor is turmeric (Curcuma longa) logged in our Materia Medica.
It is moot to wonder whether Harry and Meghan understand the difference between homeopathic and herbal remedies. After all, it may have been the book’s ghostwriter, a “Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter”, who thought fit to slip ‘something homeopathic’ into the tiny anecdote. Stirring things up by invoking the Royal Family’s well-known links with homeopathy? Who knows.
No journalist seems to have questioned the origin of Meghan’s offering (herbal immune support products popularly used for colds – probably quite suitable for Prince William’s symptoms as described). The Telegraph’s writer goes to town regurgitating all the familiar anti-homeopathy tropes, interspersed with some vaguely balancing quotes that only serve to drive the piece to its predictable conclusion: the cursory reader will only take away the baseline message about homeopathy as (at best) benign bunkum.
Inadvertently - or perhaps advertently - the prince's ghostwriter styles Wills'n'Kate as part of a new era of science and reason. The new, yet non-young, King is painted as well-intentioned but rather ineffectual. Chiming in, the Telegraph article paints the King’s holistic interests and commitment to homeopathy as rather yesteryear.
The 21st Century take on health is one of contradictions: growing belief in ‘the’ science, increasing trust in high-tech medicine - while pulling in a different direction we find a real demand for integrated models of health and for living more naturally. The princely anecdote encapsulates that contradiction.
It's all grist to the mill of the media machine. Homeopaths are left with the ongoing conundrum of how to communicate essentials of a complex healing art.
[1] Flic Everet (2023). The Royal Family Swear by Homeopathy, But Is It Just Nonsense?. Telegraph. Print edition: 6 February 2023, p.8
Suse Moebius RSHom
Material published in this section of the website does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Society of Homeopaths.
[post_title] => Suse Moebius : Spare us Nothing
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => closed
[ping_status] => closed
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => suse-moebius-spare-us-nothing
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2023-02-13 11:38:34
[post_modified_gmt] => 2023-02-13 10:38:34
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://homeopathy-soh.org/?post_type=blogs&p=30116
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => blogs
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
‘Spare Us’: this is Prince Harry’s autobiography, ‘Spare’, as renamed by exasperated Royals.
And “spare us!”, the homeopaths sigh, as yet another journalist perpetuates ill-informed myths about homeopathy, as for example last week in the Telegraph[1]
Among other soundbites from ‘Spare’, an extract that name-checks homeopathy has been widely trailed in the media. The tantalising combination of ‘feuding princesses’ and a ‘controversial’ therapy strongly associated with previous generations of Royals is just catnip to a certain type of hack.
That quote in full: “Willy had a cold: he was sneezing and coughing, and Meg ran upstairs to get him some of her homeopathic cure-alls. Oregano oil, turmeric. He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies”.
Media treatment has largely focussed on the dynamic between the soon-to-be-estranged couples portrayed in this vignette. But some have homed in on Meghan’s holistic offering, as in the Telegraph piece.
Neither of the ‘cure-alls’ mentioned in the princely ‘tell-all’ is homeopathic in any sense. A little-used homeopathic remedy made from sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) is at times confused with wild oregano (O. vulgare). The source of Meghan’s herbal oil is the latter. Nor is turmeric (Curcuma longa) logged in our Materia Medica.
It is moot to wonder whether Harry and Meghan understand the difference between homeopathic and herbal remedies. After all, it may have been the book’s ghostwriter, a “Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter”, who thought fit to slip ‘something homeopathic’ into the tiny anecdote. Stirring things up by invoking the Royal Family’s well-known links with homeopathy? Who knows.
No journalist seems to have questioned the origin of Meghan’s offering (herbal immune support products popularly used for colds – probably quite suitable for Prince William’s symptoms as described). The Telegraph’s writer goes to town regurgitating all the familiar anti-homeopathy tropes, interspersed with some vaguely balancing quotes that only serve to drive the piece to its predictable conclusion: the cursory reader will only take away the baseline message about homeopathy as (at best) benign bunkum.
Inadvertently – or perhaps advertently – the prince’s ghostwriter styles Wills’n’Kate as part of a new era of science and reason. The new, yet non-young, King is painted as well-intentioned but rather ineffectual. Chiming in, the Telegraph article paints the King’s holistic interests and commitment to homeopathy as rather yesteryear.
The 21st Century take on health is one of contradictions: growing belief in ‘the’ science, increasing trust in high-tech medicine – while pulling in a different direction we find a real demand for integrated models of health and for living more naturally. The princely anecdote encapsulates that contradiction.
It’s all grist to the mill of the media machine. Homeopaths are left with the ongoing conundrum of how to communicate essentials of a complex healing art.
[1] Flic Everet (2023). The Royal Family Swear by Homeopathy, But Is It Just Nonsense?. Telegraph. Print edition: 6 February 2023, p.8
Suse Moebius RSHom
Material published in this section of the website does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Society of Homeopaths.