An old patient of mine, a trend forecaster and an aspiring actress, came to me after a session with one of her companies for auditions and film making. It was a seven day project for which she had enrolled. She was the eldest of the group, approximately 50 years of age.
P – I was asked to do the sensual roles for auditions. I thought of it as normal, because all the candidates were asked to do the same. During this course, the director had started liking me and wanted me to have sex with him; in return to which he promised to make me the heroine of the next ad film he is directing. I strongly disagreed to it. I felt humiliated. It was day 5 of the 7 day course.
The next 2 days were difficult for me to survive. The director was not normal and started ignoring me. Even though I was the best actress in the entire course, I was not given any role. I am really upset doctor. I am not able to control myself.
D – Not able to control yourself, as in?
P – You know doctor, I have been a divorcee since 30 years now. I have been a celibate since then. But this director has done something to me I feel.
D – Meaning?
P – I constantly feel that the director is listening to all our talks. He is standing behind me and listening to our talks. He is laughing at me.
D – Okay, and?
P – One thing I feel shy to tell you Doctor.
D – What?
P – I have been masturbating too much after that incident. I wake up and mast-urbate till I get exhausted and again in the afternoon and evening and at night, I keep thinking about this incident and masturbate. I am completely tired and exhausted.
D – Okay. And?
P – So Doctor, get me out of this. I feel lifeless and exhausted now. I am just sitting in the house alone and not talking to anyone. It took me 4 days to come to you for help.
D – Any peculiar change in appetite, thirst, stools, urine, sleep?
P – I have started having intense craving for juices. I sip juices all day, no food just juices. They keep me refreshed.
D – Okay, anything else?
P – Get me out of this phase. I want to get back to my work.
ANALYSIS –
This case, was indeed a different one when it comes to a charitable practice. The patient is constitutionally on Natrium Muriaticum for her hair loss and irritable bowel syndrome. Now, for this particular episode, the first thought was – Does this require treatment?
Recollecting Dr Hahnemann’s Organon of Medicine, 6th edition and his aphorisms on mental diseases § 210 – § 230.
In § 214, Dr Hahnemann quotes “The instructions I have to give relative to the cure of mental diseases may be confined to a very few remarks, as they are to be cured in the same way as all other diseases, namely, by a remedy which shows, by the symptoms it causes in the body and mind of a healthy individual, a power of producing a morbid state as similar as possible to the case of disease before us, and in no other way can they be cured.”
He further adds, in § 217, “In these diseases we must be very careful to make ourselves acquainted with the whole of the phenomena, both those belonging to the corporeal symptoms, and also, and indeed particularly, those appertaining to the accurate apprehension of the precise character of the chief symptom, of the peculiar and always predominating state of the mind and disposition….…., a remedy which in its list of symptoms displays, with the greatest possible similarity, not only the corporeal morbid symptoms present in the case of disease before us, but also especially this mental and emotional state.”
In § 221 Dr Hahnemann answers the query by quoting the following “If, however, insanity or mania (caused by fright, vexation, the abuse of spirituous liquors, ..etc.) have suddenly broken out as an acute disease in the patient’s ordinary calm state, although it almost always arises from internal psora, like a flame bursting forth from it, yet when it occurs in this acute manner it should not be immediately treated with antipsorics, but in the first place with remedies indicated for it out of the other class of proved medicaments ….. in highly potentized, minute, homoeopathic doses, in order to subdue it so far that the psora shall for the time revert to its former latent state, wherein the patient appears as if quite well.”
And in § 222 he says, “But such a patient, who has recovered from an acute mental or emotional disease by the use of these non-antipsoric medicines, should never be regarded as cured; on the contrary, no time should be lost in attempting to free him completely, by means of a prolonged antipsoric treatment, from the chronic miasm of the psora, which, it is true, has now become once more latent but is quite ready to break out ane…;
Thus, I knew that the case needs to be evaluated as the totality of characteristic symptoms had completely changed. The previous constitutional will not work as an acute and it requires an acute medicine for this state to improve and then follow her again with her constitutional treatment.
Characteristic Totality of the case –
- Delusion hearing voices
- Delusion being laughed at
- Indifference to life
- Sexual desire increased
- Masturbation tendency in females
- Desires for juicy and refreshing things
- Exhaustion and tiredness after masturbation
So by Dissecting the Totality of the case –
Mental Characteristics –
Physical Characteristics –
According to the above Analysis,
Phosphorus, Phosphoric acid and Veratrum Album come up for discussion.
Veratum Album – has more of delusion and mania with destruction and cutting and tearing things, and cursing and being rude. The characteristic desire of juicy and refreshing drinks is met well by Veratrum Album, but it does not show the picture presented by the patient, as Veratrum is associated with COLLAPSE, but that collapse is from a loss of fluid or mental emotions or hemorrhage, where this patient presented with EXHAUSTION and not faintness or collapse. Also, the cold perspiration was not seen in the patient.
Phosphorus – is a remedy which is very close to the totality of the patient especially the delusions of hearing voices and being laughed at. The characteristic layer of EXHAUSTION and lifelessness is not so prominent in Phosphorus. It covers the deliriums and delusions, and even the physicals of weakness and desires. It doesn’t build a bridge between the patient’s symptoms and repertory & Materia Medica.
Phosphoric Acid – the exhaustion and tiredness from sexual excess is a characteristic of ACID group of remedies, especially with marked desire for juicy and refreshing things.
References –
(Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparison of the leading remedies of the materia medica – H. C. ALLEN) –
Phosphoric Acid
- Best suited to persons of originally strong constitutions, who have become debilitated by loss of vital fluids, sexual excesses (Cinch.); violent acute diseases; chagrin, or a long succession of moral emotions, as grief, care, disappointed affection.
- Ailments : from care, chagrin, grief, sorrow, homesickness (Ign.); sleepy, disposed to weep; night-sweats towards morning.
- Is listless, apathetic; indifferent to the affairs of life; prostrated and stupefied with grief
- Onanism; when patient is greatly distressed by the culpability of the act.
(Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica – JOHN HENRY CLARKE) –
- Illusions of the senses; hears a bell pealing; sees only ciphers before his eyes.
- Great indifference. A complete indifference to everything; not a soporous, delirious, or irritable condition, but simply an indifferent state of mind to all things; patient does not want anything, nor to speak, shows no interest in the outside world.
(Salient Materia Medica and Therapeutics – C. L. CLEVELAND) –
- Nervous system, debility without erethism, either from nerve waste or depression, causing a condition like ordinary results of sexual excess, continued grief, or over-exertion of mind or body.
(Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica – C. HERING) –
- Hypochondriasis from sexual abuse.
- Listless, apathetic; remarkable indifference to everything in life; especially if there be emaciation and debility.
- Ailments from care, grief, sorrow, chagrin, homesickness or disappointed love
- Disinclined to work.
- Dread of the future; brooding over one’s condition.
TREATMENT –
PHOSPHORIC ACID 200 CH
5 cup method
Three times a day for 1 day only.
Placebo daily twice for a week.
FOLLOW UP AFTER A WEEK –
P – I didn’t get any thought of masturbation that morning and thereafter. I still feel tired, but I am able to work now. The exhaustion seems to be reduced. I have even started eating my salads and I still love to sip juices.
D – Okay.
RX –
NATRIUM MURIATICUM 30CH
5 cup method – 3 times a day for 1 month
(Natrium muriaticum being the constitutional and anti-psoric remedy for this case)
The above state has never returned and the patient has been well with her Irritable bowel and hair loss.
CONCLUSION:
Application and use and Organon of Medicine and its principles are of utmost importance in clinical practice and the reference to Keynotes (which are repeatedly confirmed by the Masters) should be a daily practice with every beginner.
Dr Hahnemann has very clearly mentioned all answers to the diseases he saw 250 years ago and of the diseases which are going to come up 250 years later. A daily reading and understanding of Organon of Medicine will suffice every Homoeopath’s satisfaction and will reflect in his practice.
