Homoeo-Jyoti 1965-66 Two days with Misha Norland
NATIONAL JOURNAL HOMOEOPATHY 1993 Mar / Apr VOL II No 2.
Dr Parinaz Humranwala.
` Merc / Thuj.
Introduction.
The foundation for Homoeopathic Research is celebrating the Bicentenary of Homoeopathy
during the year 1993, by conducting various educational programmes for the benefit of
Homoeopathic physicians, students as well as lay people. One such event was a seminar with
Misha Norland organised on 13-14th February, at Nanavati Hospital Auditorium
Bombay, which was attended by over 140 participants from all over the country and a few
from abroad.
The foundation has formed a bicentenary committee which includes prominent citizens from different fields, who are working to propagate the science of homoeopathy. Some of the committee members are Dr. B.N Chakravarty. Shri M. I. Patel, Shri. N.H. Ambani, Shri. Nana Chudasama. Shri Kalyanji Shah Dr. B.K. Goyal The FHR is initiated by a homoeopathic couple Dr. Rajesh Shah and Dr. Rupal Shah. It is requested hereby that all the homoeopaths should actively participate in the various educational activities.
Case 1.
Misha began with a video case. The case of the bewildered. The remedy
prescribed in turn bewildered the audience. The lady had physical complaints like cyst,
adenoma, recurrent muscles strains which took long to heal.
Mentals
As a child she hated school for its strict rules. She was considered
delicate due to her health problems. Sadness prevailed in her childhood. At the age of
four, she took Hypericum to bring out poisonous effects, but it did not work. A few months
before she was conceived her mother had aborted. During conception, the most prominent
feeling in her intrauterine life was of living or dying: Her mother expired of cerebral
haemorrhage when she was in her teens. She had nightmares of being pursued, with dreams of
falling from a height. Fear of dark and a feeling of being at fault. She was bewildered at
the criticism that came her way and hence stumbled thru life trying to please others. This
made her a peoples pleaser. careful with replies to questions asked. She wept during the
interview was fidgety and talked about her strong belief.
Taking into considerations the concept of not being attached to her body.
and her revelation of her thoughts in intrauterine life, dreams of falling, being
considered delicate she as prescribed Thuja 10 M one dose
Video of the follow up showed subsequent improvement.
Case 2
Miss A.W. aged 25, 5 feet 6 inches in height, medium built, slightly plump
with a bubbly personality, came dressed in red and white. Her complain was Psoriasis on
her elbows, shoulders and knees. This started at 15, when she was cramming for GCE
"O" level examination. At 16, she took up employment with her father with whom
she argued constantly. Many of her arguments centred around her current boyfriend who was
an ex-convict. She described him as an awful man and very violent. I was madly in love
with him but it was like living on egg shells all the time. I never knew what he would say
or do from moment to moment. Her father was a very strict man who ran a hotel and was most
particular about correct behaviour especially at meal times. He brought me up to be very
tidy and beat me if i were naughty. Her mother was an alcoholic.
When A.M was 12, she suffered from migraine headaches. The headache was
frontal, like a tight hand bursting, worse from stooping and motion.
At 13 she suffered from glandular fever.
I am obsessive about hygiene I like to take a bath daily. I wash my hands
all the time. At the news agents where I work. I wash my hands every hour because I cannot
bear the ink soiling my hands. I wear rubber gloves at home to do the housework. I would
not eat vegetables, if I so much as see least evidence of maggot. I would never eat
lettuce or strawberries (except out of a tin) I would never go for a swim in the sea
because the water is dirty. The man with whom I live has children. I cannot bear them. I
feel they are dirty. When I first moved in with him, I was very jealous of them but it is
getting better. I hate the chaos that they create around the place and the mess they make.
Sometimes I feel they are really disgusting. I desperately want to have a baby of my own.
We are very happily engaged but last year I had an abortion. Now I feel very bad about
that.
At work I want things done well I use up all my niceness at work.
Therefore, when I get home i shout at the children. I am impatient. "She says that
she is speedy and even talks rapidly. She calls herself neurotic. "I worry about all
manner of small things and small traumas, deworming the cat for instance".
Her menses are heavy. The week before the flow begins she feels weak, with
aching and heaviness. She feels murderous the week before. Easily upset by everything even
trivia. She can become violent in arguments. "I have got my thumbs into his
neck".
I love people. I go out to people in distress and do what I can to help
them".
She is chilly and has icy feet in winter.
She sleeps like a log. It takes me an hour to wake up in the morning she talks in her
sleep.
Fear: Worms , dirt childbirth.
Craves: bread and butter, cereals potatoes, fat, avocado, pears, chocolate, fish and eggs.
The Search for the Core:
Our search for the distinguishing feature of the case is made easy because
there are two aspects which are of over riding importance. In the first place, we are
struck by A.Ms obsessiveness about dirt, maggots and childrens mess. In the second place,
by her premenstrual symptoms, It is natural for a woman to see reality through the
magnifying glass of her feelings at this time. However her murderous impulses are extreme.
In the language of Kents repertory we would consider the rubrics in the mind section Anger
from contradiction as an adequate translation for "I am easily upset and can become
violent in arguments and kill". Sudden impulse to even trivia. " I have got my
thumbs in to his neck:. Also of interest in the description of her adolescent relationship
with the ex-convict. He was a very violent man. It was like living on egg shells all the
time".
We may hypothesise, that in order to break away form her parents, she fell into a relationship with a man, who carried forward a syphilitic note of her background. (Her mother is an alcoholic; her father is very strict). If we couple this information with the obsessive hand washings, we will be tempted to prescribe Syphilinum. Indeed in Kents repertory it is the only remedy listed in the Mind section rubric, Washing always, her hands. Her fathers strictness, particularly in respect to correct behaviour at meal times (we recall that he ran a hotel and was very fastidious), may well offer an explanation for her obsessive washing of her hands. Were this case, we would be led to reinterpret her fear of dirt in the light of her parental conditioning. How does she feel?. We have to imagine her reaction upon discovering a maggot on a piece of lettuce or in a strawberry, or her feelings about the dirty sea or about the mess that the children make. She says, "Sometimes I feel that they are disgusting:. The concept of disgust seems to sum up her feelings. If we now repertories disgust and the aforementioned rubrics we come to Mercurius as the primary remedy.
The mind symptoms of Mercurius bring out this personality, for it is the only remedy in the rubrics. Delusions, fancied living things were creeping into the mouth at night and living things creep into the vagina at night. such as worms and maggots, a natural state for the buried corpse in the coffin at night. This state of mind gives us a natural sense of what Margaret Tyler called. the inwardness of drugs" Even in an early stage of chronic Mercurius pathology we find physical symptoms associated with rotting and decay such as excessive salivation, offensive perspiration, glandular swellings, ulceration with no tendency to heal and mental symptoms of disgust or hostility. The patient may develop obsessive traits such as feeling impelled to touch things or as in the case of miss A.M, to wash hands frequently, in order to keep the pervading sense of the Syphilitic miasm at bay. It is clear from a perusal of the mind section of the repertory that a major focus is upon delusions specifically relating to crimes, enemies, injury, mutilation and thieves, while the rubric, Escape attempts to further highlights the paranoid state of mind. These internal motifs of persecution and destruction are expressed outwardly as impulse to kill. This is so because any sustained state of the inner being, any frozen psychological posture is compensated for by a reciprocal and opposite gesture towards the world. The inner state is protected by the outer opposite activity or facade. C.G. Jung, in his dream seminars wrote "the psyche is a self regulating system that maintains its equilibrium just as the body does. Every process that goes too far immediately and inevitably calls forth compensations and without these there would be neither a normal metabolism nor a normal psyche. In this sense we can take theory of compensation as a basic law of psychological behaviour. Too little on one side results in too much on the other, Similarly, the relation between conscious and unconscious is compensatory.
The Synthetic repertory has eleven sub-rubrics to the major rubric; Kill, desire to. Knives and razors feature frequently. In the light of this Syphilitic posture, we can appreciate that Mercurius is the only remedy listed in bold type in the rubric. "Anarchist, revolutionary It also appears in Moral feelings want of , criminal disposition to become without remorse. Naturally this state of mind represents an advanced state of pathological breakdown and it is indeed unusual for patients such as these, to come into the consulting room. Miss A.M. is not sick, despite the fact that "she uses up all her niceness at work". However, she rebelled against her strict father who beat her, by involving with an ex-convict and in doing so moved from the frying pan into the fire. into the hands of a criminal boyfriend who kept her on egg shells, because she never knew how he would act or whether he would beat her.
Since Miss A.M. has no internal physical pathology and is young and vital, there is no obstruction to the administration of high potencies. However it is well known that Mercurius when given in high potencies to patients with skin pathology is likely to aggravate. Also bearing in mind Hahnemanns second aphorism gentle cure, Mercurius 1 M potency was selected.
Follow-up.
After 13 days, she rang up to say that the psoriasis spread all over the
body with violent itching, four days after the medicine. Now she experienced confusion and
could not make up her mind for anything, however she is less argumentative. Herings law of
cure supports Miss As remedy reaction.
After 3 months.
In the first month she was depressed along with confusion and refused to
talk to her boyfriend. Psoriasis grew worse. Problem at work persisted. However she began
to feel more confident about her opinions, that she was right. (AM s indecisiveness was
the result of her intensification of a presenting symptom under the action 0f the remedy.)
Now she has become very energetic, does not wash her hands as frequently and psoriasis
improving.
After six months:
Started itching all over though no eruption are visible. Psoriasis only on
the palms. On questioning, she was found to have stress due to impending wedding, she
finally called it off and felt a lot better. She could not tolerate pressure at work and
gave her job, thereby making a strong decision. The children do not seem to be so dirty.
We are witness to a partial relapse brought about by psychological stress, which is now resolving of its own accord and hence it would be a mistake to repeat Mercurius as this could lead to an overstimulation of the vital force and initiate a full relapse.
Misha stressed that our hope, as a therapist, is that the reorganised vital force, will bring such strength to the organism, as well maintain integrity, despite the inevitable stresses of life. In the above case we see that this process has been initiated and that the underlying miasm has been addressed, through the use of a classical antisyphilitic remedy.
Two other interesting cases of Borax and Hyoscyamus were also discussed. The two day seminar was interesting and gave us a deep insight into our prescriptions. We hope the FHR brings forth many seminars and discussions with excellent teachers to enlighten the audience.