Do the concepts of the direction of disease and of healing, the degrees of hierarchisation, the notion of common symptom, general symptom and particular symptom, and the importance given to the affects in determining the homeopathic remedy appear in the Organon, or are they the testimony of Kent’s personal experience in the context of the United States of his time? The reader will find these answers in this work, notably through an exhaustive study of a work by Swedenborg which allows an understanding of the evolution of homeopathy in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century.

Dr Kent’s work on the philosophy of Homeopathy ranks among the finest works of world literature. It is indispensable to the homeopath, for it is the key that opens the storehouse of knowledge concerning the art of homeopathic healing. A complete knowledge of this work clarifies many obscure points of the Organon and enables the physician to perceive the homeopathic truth more deeply. To use the repertory expertly, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of the content of this book. To show how to study the materia medica in order to grasp it fully and apply it successfully, this work has no equal.
A.H. Grimmer, 1900

In presenting Kent’s work, Franck Choffrut sets out the context in which American homeopathy developed. This context is at once medical, social and religious. The chapters devoted to American Protestantism in general and to Swedenborgianism in particular are especially illuminating both with regard to the subject of this book and as an aid to understanding the mentality of contemporary Americans, a mentality which, for Europeans and the French in particular, remains especially difficult to grasp.
Excerpt from the preface by Dr Patrice Josset, Director of the Dupuytren Museum, Head of the teaching of the history of medicine at the Pierre and Marie Curie Faculty of Medicine (Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris VI)

Franck Choffrut is a homeopathic general practitioner in the Paris region. A teacher at the CEDH, he is also a lecturer at the Ibn Sina Faculty in Rabat.

A bilingual French–English text that allows one to go to the sources and grasp many aspects useful to understanding homeopathy as it presents itself today. An illuminating journey through the various currents that accompanied its emergence and evolution in the United States, notably the influence of Swedenborg and American Protestantism.
It is a valuable and useful aid for approaching Kent’s thought and for understanding the points where certain aspects of his statements may at times have been interpreted, if not transformed, much as those of Hahnemann may have been. Many of the themes addressed are important to understand in their essence and in the way they are considered: vital force, the causes of disease, miasms and their impact on the conception of Hahnemannian thought.
A useful work for making explicit a mode of thought whose repercussions remain present in certain ways of approaching homeopathy both in theory and in practice today, but also for shedding light on an approach often poorly known in its fundamental aspects.
A most interesting cultural contribution and an easy read, providing indispensable additional information on points often overlooked or rather poorly known by many practitioners.
To be read by all — beginners, seasoned homeopaths or any public interested in the evolution of medical thought, and particularly of homeopathy.
Dr Geneviève Ziegel

What a pleasure to discover Professor J.T. Kent’s lectures translated and abundantly commented on by Franck Choffrut, homeopathic physician, teacher and historian of medicine, who had already enthralled us with his book on Hahnemann’s Organon.
As a continuation, he shows us the fate of homeopathy almost a century later in the United States.
If one knows Kent’s repertory and materia medica well, this lecture series, delivered in 1900 at the height of American homeopathy, highlights the importance of strict adherence to the law of similars, Kent’s conception of psora and the unity of prescription.
This book is much more than a translation. Each lecture excerpt is preceded by a short introduction summarising, without bias or indulgence, Kent’s remarks by placing them in the historical context of the time. The major themes addressed by J.T. Kent are grouped together and subjected to a rigorous analysis under the medical, religious, philosophical and social light of early 20th-century America. The author notably reveals the impact of the New Church (Swedenborgian) on homeopathy in general and on Kent in particular.
This formidable piece of research, strikingly topical, should interest enthusiasts of the history of homeopathy and enable today’s therapists not to repeat the mistakes that led to the rapid disappearance of homeopathy in the United States.
Dr Jean-Lionel Bagot