The Restless Child
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 May / Jun VOL 5 NO 3.
Dr Prashant Shah
'Jalap / Opium / Pall
Case 3
Baby NS was brought to me for the complaint of telling lies. Her mother described her nature as follows.
"She is a very intelligent girl and has her own identity. She mixes very fast and makes friends easily and has good sense about keeping relations. It is there from beginning of childhood. She has an extraordinary sense about purchasing household things, decoration etc. she started talking at the age of seven months, and at the age of 1, developed the art of conversation.
She is extra-ordinary bold, but very submissive with her teacher. Previously she was brilliant in studies, but after changing school performance started deteriorating gradually. Once the Principal inquired about her fall in grades and to defend herself she fabricated a nice story. She made her Principal believe that both her parents are working so they are not able to pay attention to her. In fact her mother was a brilliant student in her time and gives full attention the patient.
Once made a story about film star Shahrukh Khan. She told all her relatives in a party that she met him in Bombay. When her relatives asked her mother, it embarrassed her, for it was not true.
She likes to decorate dining table with imported crockery. She very much likes the company of friends, relatives and guests. She loves them and likes to entertain. She is excellent in hospitality.
In school whenever she gets good marks, immediately she shows it to her parents. But if her performance is not good either she tells lies or hides it. She also lies about her homework. If she is punished in the assembly, she never tells her parents.
At the age of 1 ½ yrs, she remembered many stanzas from Sanskrit books. She has a very sharp memory and is very intelligent. But she misuses it some times."
My Observation
She was very lively while talking to me. She accepted some of the facts without any hesitation or denial in the first interview. She talked to me at length and I also felt like talking to her.
My understanding about this case is: The crux of the problem was lack of appreciation. She wants to be appreciated by those around her. This she achieves by fabricating stories, decorating house, talking and by performing well at school. But after changing her school her performance has gone down. In order to balance this her stress on other activities increased. When the stress increased too much, her performance deteriorated gradually. She started telling lies to balance her feelings and relieve her stress.
I took following rubrics into consideration to prescribe her medicine.
1. Delusion, appreciated she is not
2. Longing for good opinion from others
3. Desires flattery
I prescribed Palladium 1M, 1 dose on 9/2/96. After 15 days her mother reported that there is marked change in her nature. Every 15 days she reported good improvement. She responded very quickly to the medicine. On 9/6/96 she reported significant change and desired to stop the medication.
Palladium is a metal placed before Platinum. It has delusion of growing tall while walking in evening.
In the past, evening was a time to show one self off by dressing well etc. When Dr D Chabbra proved this medicine, one theme which came out was height/length. Too short, too big. That is the problem of Palladium. Feeling short and so wants to be big.
"Very" is a word which is frequently used while narrating this case because "very" is used as an adjective. She wants that 'very' to be inculcated in her personality. While Platinum does not need to exhibit it because it is spontaneously present in them.
