From Our Rich Heritage
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Jan / Feb VOL VIII NO 1.
Compiled by:
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Ars-iod / China-ar / Kali-carb / Kali-brom / Kali-bichrom / Psor / Stram

According to Dr Scholten the essence of this remedy is the delusion that they are guilty if they do not do their duty. The urge to work is very strong. The restlessness is particularly obvious in the way they have to keep moving their hands and they have to have a job on hand. When they can't work any longer, for instance after retirement, they become anxious and more restless. They feel that they are neglecting their duty. They suffer from a delusion to be the object of God's vengeance, which can be in two ways: either God can take out His revenge on them or it may be that God orders them to avenge something.

Dr Ananda Zaren stresses that in this remedy there is tremendous fear that something horrible is going to happen and there is an inner state of insurmountable anxiety. This leads to an element of craziness and mania and development of phobias. In one case of an elderly lady treated by her, the patient exhibited a state of panic and undue anxiety resulting in compulsive behaviour such as checking and rechecking things: locked the windows, oven was turned off, water taps were closed, before leaving her apartment. Such patients could exhibit extreme anxiety, properness and rigidity in controlling their lives or could develop persistent thoughts, throwing themselves compulsively into busy activities with restlessness, hysteria, fear of insanity because they are out of control.

Case 5
A 40 year old bank officer consulted Dr Praful Barvalia for peptic ulcer and migraine. He had lost his father at quite a young age. Basically he was quite sentimental, had strong attachments to his mother and siblings. He worked hard to bring prosperity to the family. He did MCom while working & got a bank job.

Complaints: He used to experience hyper acidity before exams and when the workload increased because of anxiety. After 10 years he was transferred to Mumbai but was very anxious for his family and constantly worried about them. Though the posting had good opportunities for further promotions he left it within one year and returned to his hometown. The characteristic concomitant of migraine AGG summer and sentimental disposition with strong attachments and anxiety for the family clinched the prescription for Kali-bich, which cured him. This is a case where with the change in environment his sentimental disposition became a liability giving rise to disease.
Dr Praful M Barvalia - Disposition and environment - IJHM Vol 27 No 3

Case 6:
A young boy of 22 years consulted Dr Meena T Mankani on 11-3-92 for his 'anxiety neurosis'. His chief complaint was an 'intolerably intense fear and anxiety' from which he was suffering for the last two years, ever since he started studying for CA. He was elder of two sons of a lawyer, was intelligent and had always passed his exams with distinction. After completing commerce degree, he was unable to secure a good job. His father was an average corporate lawyer and had several health problems and there was a possibility that he might become unfit to work and lose all his clients. He, therefore, decided to study CA and then take over father's business clients and earn a decent living. However he realized later that percentage of passes in CA exams was only 2% and it was not going to be as easy as he had thought. This low margin, coupled with his extreme hurry to finish his CA as early as possible so as to take over his father's business before it was too late, created an intense anxiety in him. He used to have great anxiety before exams along with constant fear of failure. When the new examinations were approaching, he was losing confidence in his own ability and lost his appetite and sleep. He had heavy hair fall in bunches along with profuse dandruff, reddish acne on face, chest and back.

The analysis of the case reveals a strange and peculiar reaction to his situation as a disaster and fear everything will be over if he does not become CA soon enough. There was absolute discouragement in the face of challenges. The rubrics considered were:-

1. Mind, fear, disaster of (KR 44)
2. Mind, fear, misfortune of (KR 45)
3. Mind, delusion, fortune, he was going to lose his ( KR 26)
4. Mind, fear, failure of in business (KR 45)
5. Mind, fear poverty of ( KR 46)
6. Mind, Despair (KR 35)
7. Mind, anxiety, fear with (KR 6)

Dr R Morrison writes: "The essence of Psorinum is poverty ie poverty consciousness. The patient seems to expect poverty and disappointment or is unable to think in more expansive terms. He accepts a limited job and is humble in living conditions. There is fear and anxiety concerning the health, prosperity and the future in general. This leads to marked depression and a despairing outlook. Eventually suicidal feelings and thoughts predominate"

Case 7:
The strong connection between the mother's state during pregnancy and the child's illness is being increasingly documented and there are several cases, where the Homoeopathic remedy was selected mainly on the basis of the mother's state during pregnancy. It is as if the state of the parents, in terms of their thoughts, feelings and physical condition especially of the mother, gets transmitted to the foetus, apart from genetic coding. This is a case where the mother's extreme anxiety during last few months of pregnancy affected the child tremendously. A 20-month old girl was brought in for skin lesions and a bad temper. The mother, who is a psychiatrist, said, " If she doesn't get her way she will throw a temper tantrum. She will yell and scream and bite. Sometimes she will sit on the floor, sometimes lie on it. She will strike herself, pull her hair and sometimes she knocks her head against the wall or floor".

She had trouble falling asleep and insisted on her mother lying down with her on the floor. She refused to go to sleep alone. If she was left alone, she will yell and scream and the mother was afraid that the child would jump out of the crib. One peculiar symptom was that from time to time she would stare thoughtlessly, wordlessly for three to four seconds. This occurred many times a day. She had fear of dogs and fear of being left alone. During sleep her head perspired. She bruised herself easily and when in her crib, she would press her body strongly against the headboard. She liked to play hide and seek.

Asked about the mother's state during her pregnancy, she stated that " I was very anxious for three to four months before psychiatry exams which was due one month before the expected delivery. The anxiety was overwhelming and I was unable to sleep. Sometimes I trembled inside. I had a thought that I had failed. The female examiner particularly picked on me more. I felt humiliated and angry". She admitted to experiencing claustrophobia on the elevator or feeling trapped in a small place. Her worst fear was being buried alive. In 1976 when she was assaulted at night in another country by some one with a switchblade she was mortally afraid at that time.

Rubrics for the child:
Rage, fury: Bell, Stram
Bite, desire to: Bell, Stram
Shrieking, in children: Bell, Stram
Striking himself: Bell, Stram
Striking, knocking head against wall: Bell
Head motion, throwing backward: Stram
Fear, of being alone in night: Stram Jumping, bed out of: Bell, Stram
Hide desires to: Bell, Stram
Fear, of dogs: Bell, Stram

Staring thoughtless: Stram
The mother's state during pregnancy was also covered by the same remedy against the rubrics:

1. AF anticipation, sleepless, from anxiety.
2. Trembling internally.
3. Fear, narrow places of
4. Mortification. Delusion, body alive on one side and buried on the other
5. Fear of being murdered. Stramonium is common in these rubrics. (See how wonderfully our provings match the disease state in this case.)

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