| Sept
1990, Fatima, 62 years old, single, retired civil servant. She lives with
her single brother and sister in her parent’s house. (Brazil)
Synthesis
of the consultations from Sept 1990 to Nov 2004
Severe scoliosis which impedes deep inspiration
causing many respiratory problems. (Colds, pneumonias, asthmatic
bronchitis, dyspnoea going up stairs, tiredness, watering nose from
changes to cold weather)
Stools usually from soft to diarrhea; she evacuates
involuntarily every time she urinates. Abdominal bloat, colic, cannot
tolerate pressure around the waist.
Glaucoma for the last 10 years. The eye drops cause urinary incontinence,
so she has to go all the time.
Vegetarian, loves sweets, eats little. She is
not hungry and is afraid the food may harm her. She is underweight.
She is very thirsty but only drinks small amounts at a time.
Varicose veins in the legs, more on the left.
Congestive head ache with a sensation of heat and heaviness on her
head, worse in the morning. Intense weakness, sometimes feels as
if she may faint, cannot stand for long, she ‘drags herself along’
causing cold sweat to break out.
Ice cold legs, loss of sensation in the feet,
cramping during cold weather.
‘I
am completely depressed, my life has no meaning, I am bored, I am
indifferent to everything, I feel no emotion, I have no feelings
but that of total failure, a wasted life. … I feel inferior, I have
no sparkle … I do not enjoy the things I enjoyed before (shopping,
going out eating)…. I have the impression there is a barrier in
front of me, a wall … I avoid people … I don’t want to go out …
I want something but I don’t know what. I am ungrateful, I have
all I need but I cannot think of the good things… I have the impression
I will never be well again. I only think of the bad side of things,
what may happen to me. The bad news I hear on television or the
radio keeps going round in my head, it is what is going to happen
to me…’
Anguish
when she wants to go out. ‘I spend hours arranging my things,
I touch them but can’t decide where to put them and time goes by,
I get worried. Everything I do is because I have to, not because
I like to.’
Extremely
meticulous: ‘I cannot stand disorder; everything has to be in
the right place.’
She
does not accept her age: ‘I always felt younger.’
Ambivalence
and duality: ‘I feel double, part of me wants to be better, another
part not, a part of me wants to change, another part not, part of
me does not want to put on weight because I will lose all my clothes
but I have always been frustrated with being thin.’
Aggressive,
no patience, tolerates no contradiction: ‘I cannot stand the
intervention of others, it is always me who imposes, I have never
tolerated any orders from others. I am critical, intolerant,
radical, aggressive.’
Great
sense of culpability: ‘I dwell on past regrets. I feel guilty
not wanting to get better, not to have a goal in life but I don’t
want to annoy myself with the problems of others … even with my
sister’s who does everything to make me feel better, I am hard,
unpleasant. I feel guilty about the past, about having done what
I should not have done or not done what I should have, … not having
helped my other sister (married with children).
Part
of me is lazy, it makes me feel uneasy, guilty, I am worried about
it. I have lots of rancour about what people told me or did to me
in the past, I forgive but do not forget.
Nostalgia
for the past : ‘I am nostalgic about the times when I went out,
travelled, enjoyed myself. I feel a prisoner of the past, I feel
as though I belong to another era, before all was better: people,
places, restaurants, I cannot get used to it…. Nowadays all is mediocre,
art, music, food…’
‘I
hate moving things to different places, I hate to touch them.’
She
keep everything, throws nothing away. ‘I find it difficult to
detach myself from objects, journals, old clothes… , I keep everything,
even old packaging material; I cannot make the decision, I keep
everything in one room (called the room of the nuisance)… I cannot
give away what is mine, one day it could come in handy. I would
like to get rid of all these ‘things’. I would like to but I cannot,
I may need it one day. This possessiveness is terrible, I am egoist,
tight,…’
Much
rancour towards her brother: ‘He helps the youngsters, he gives
them all he has, his money, he allows them to take advantage of
him and I have the impression it is me who is being taken advantage
off. My brother and sister are generous; they think about
the others, I feel guilty to be like what I am.
(Note:
she never wanted to pay for the consultation and would negotiate
till the end.)
Everything
is dirty: ‘I feel dirty, my mentality is polluted, grey, it inhibits
the passage of good feelings … I am disgusted, sometimes I wake
up with a bad taste in my mouth.’
Never
had any sexual relationship. ‘I never fell in love, I have
always suppressed my sexuality… Sometimes I get excited, for no
reason and I wet myself, as if I were an animal. … I am shocked
about the behaviour of the youth of today: they dress badly, they
have no dignity, they display their bodies. I don’t go to the cinema
anymore because the films are shameful, indecent, filled with naked
women. ‘
‘I
was very religious (Catholic). The family always went to mass. I
was mystic, I could concentrate myself for things to happen. I participated
in many meetings about ‘mental power’. I was strong. I could see
things, obtain results. Now I don’t have the faith anymore, the
power is gone. .. I listen everyday to a radio program by a famous
priest, it makes me feel good, I believe in him but I do not have
faith as before.’
Dreams
often that she walks in the mud, paths full of mud. She associates
the mud with the dirt inside herself and the colour of her expectorations.
She keeps washing her hands.
She
is very well dressed with a perfect hairdo and makeup. Her skin
appears old, yellow, she is very thin. She has tics of the eyelids/eyes.
Her abdomen is swollen, hard and painful. During auscultation, wheezing
and a few crepitations are heard at the bases of the lungs more
to the left.
Over
the 14 years of follow up, I prescribed: Ars-alb, Anac, Thuya, Lac-c.
They procured some ameliorations but no break-through. The glaucoma
worsened and she was nearly blind now.
After
having again read through the case I decided to use Vipera, based
on the themes of the remedy by Dr. Fayeton:
Refuses any change due to nostalgia of the past
Immobility and conservatism
Keeping things in the right order, keeping tidy
Nastiness
Sadness and ennui
The forbidden
Resentment
There
are themes which were not present in Dr Fayeton’s work:
Shame about sexuality (theme of the forbidden)
Dirtiness and mud (immobility)
Duality, ambivalence
Barrier, wall (immobility)
Fear of going out (immobility)
Food that may harm
Isolation, does not want to meet anybody
Other themes are present that we can find in
the pathogenesis of Allen and a case presented by Dr. Fayeton:
No appetite, not hungry
Sluggish
Weakness
Fainting
Excessive eliminations
Blindness
The Dynamism:
The loss: According to the hypothesis of the AFADH,
the loss for Vipera is: the incapacity to enjoy a new experience,
new things. Loss of the delight one can find in change. Loss of
the acceptance of the benefit that can arise from change which is
normal in the human condition.
My patient could not enjoy the present and was
fearful of the future because she refused any new experience, no
change in routine: she was a prisoner of the past.
The nostalgia: She still lives in her
parents’ house, she complains about the immorality of modern life,
she is a prisoner of another time.
Culpability: She dwells on past regrets
and feelings of guilt. She feels guilty of not wanting to get better
and not having a goal in life, for being tough on her family, not
having done what she should have done, for being lazy.
The punishment: The present is not lived
(enjoyed), her attachment to the past paralyses any movement forward
or it is perceived as suffering (physical and psychological: fears,
blindness, boredom, does not want to age, pains, difficulties walking
(=going somewhere), difficulties breathing (=exchanges). The future
is full of bad things.
Egotrophic reaction: The need to accumulate
everything in a room, intestinal bloat, thirst (which can only be
quenched with small sips of water).
Egolytic: Feeling of total failure, feels inferior
to others, isolates herself from others. She feels dirty: this is
normal because she cannot change anything, she cannot even breathe
deeply.
Alterlysis: cannot tolerate any intervention from
others, not even from her siblings who try to help her.
The affected levels:
Nutrition: cannot eat, fear the food will hurt
her, weight loss, thirst and not being able to drink much, excessive
diarrhoea and constant need to urinate.
Locomotion: she drags herself, tired
Improvement: early ageing
Generation: sexually repressed which shows on
occasions through certain moments of sexual excitement, animalistic.
When she is 76, I prescribe Vipera 1M
Evolution from Nov 2004 – December 2008.
She is now 80. She has not managed to gain any
weight but she eats well and does not worry about putting on weight.
She has one cold in the winter which passes without any complication
after one or two doses of Vipera 200. (She used to suffer with respiratory
problems all the time) Her dyspnoea no longer prevents her from
walking for ½ hour in the garden.
The glaucoma is better, intra-ocular pressure
has stabilised, she uses less eye drops. Stools are still not firm
but there are no more involuntary evacuations and no more abdominal
crises.
Cardio-respiratory checks show emphysema and
increased atrial pressure and extra-systoles but she does not want
to take the medicines for fear they may harm her.
She has taken a taxi on several occasions (weekly
and without complaining about the fare) to go shopping or go to
mass.
On occasions she complains she does not have
the physical abilities of the past but feels well in general. She
now accepts life with its inconveniences and limitations without
complaining.
There is no longer the sensation of a barrier
or wall, no more depression, boredom (apart from some occasions),
no more sensation of dirt. When there were workmen in the house
last year she said: ‘it was annoying but I made the best of it,
I arranged things so it did not inconvenience me too much.’
Two years ago, she decided to have her cataract
operated on; she now sees better. She reads the paper everyday
without complaining about the bad news.
After the 2nd dose of Vipera 10M she
started talking about her sexuality. ‘I looked at the cleavages
of women and I had obscene thoughts, I found it degrading, I could
not stop myself. I have always had sexual thoughts full of sins,
it was a vice, it hurt me but I could do nothing about it.
… I always dreamt of somebody ideal, but I never came across this
person, I never fell in love. I envied my sister who was very pretty.
I was frustrated. .. I would never have been able to have a family.
I am not made for children and I would never have had any
patience with children.’
She started to clear out the room with the annoying
things, but there are too many things, ‘I tried to throw out journals
and magazines but I cannot see an end to it. It is difficult, it
is as if I have to change my person,… out of 10 things I throw away
3.’ She does not keep anything anymore, after three days all magazines
and papers are thrown out even when she has not finished reading
them.
One thing had not changed, she still does not
meet up with other people: ‘I don’t want to be bothered with their
problems.’
She does not complain about the cost of the consultation
anymore and for Christmas I received a nice present: a jewel and
perfume.
According to the hypothesis by the AFADH, Vipera
envies the Divine perfection: refuses change, cannot arrange anything.
When one accepts that change is necessary, things are not perfect.
Vipera does not tolerate the lack of perfection which is a normal
part of humanity. My patient told me recently that the priest
in her church told her often: ‘but you are not perfect’.
Following
this case and the study of the remedy, I have had 9 more successful
cases of Vipera, four of them had the theme of dirt and five had
the theme of a barrier, a wall.
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