Building Nitric-acid Portrait through Dreams
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 Jan / Feb VOL II NO 1.
Dr Nina H Doshi
'Nit-ac
Each remedy embodies a wide range of symptoms and personality traits, of which the individual patient is only a part- a facet of the whole.
A remedy's description must make an emotional impact ie it must be able to absorb the tension among its competing elements. Nitric-acid has both indifference in its nature as well as hatred and vindictiveness. Some patients may present the apathetic state while some others the vindictive nature.
My special interest has always been to understand a remedy through dreams, which I feel are the key to the inner human being. Dreams depict such raw and naked emotions that if we can understand them, they will reveal the human being to us in his whole entirety.
So let us now endeavour to form a portrait of Nitric-acid through dreams.
Dreams, the gateway to an inner world, reveal in a visual language, the repressed experiences and processes of the subconscious. Dream images, however, strange and meaningless, are symbolic structures. Dreams play a vital role in exploring a patient's subconscious.
Here is an attempt to present the purpose behind the dreams that occur in Nitric-acid.
Portrait Of Nitric-Acid Through Dreams
- Amorous - depicts the increased sexual drive of the Nitric-acid.
- Anxious Dreams in the morning, on falling asleep, ameliorated on waking, or rousing the patient. The central theme of Nitric-acid is the continuous effort to ward off danger. Here the danger could be concerning health, work or from enemies.
- Dreams of Banquets, Carousing, Drinking, Feasting: Nitric-acid, like all acids is an extrovert- lively and fresh.
- Dreams of Business of the day, the morning or the previous day. The person cannot relax, nor can he afford to make mistakes, and in this competitive world, he has to desperately struggle for survival. No disposition to work. Discouraged. Want of confidence.
- Confused - sees danger everywhere and fear of going wrong.
- 6. Continuation of former ideas on or after falling asleep. Obstinate, headstrong: cannot let go.
- Dreams of Having Committed A Crime. He is tremendously suspicious, mistrustful, sees danger everywhere, conscientious.
- Dreams Of Dead, dead bodies, death, made to die. Acids destroy and failure means death to him. He has a strong fear of death.
- Fantastic, Elation and lively.
- Frightful, nightmares - even during amorous dreams. Always dissatisfied and miserable even in joyful circumstances.
- Quarrels. Aggression, has to fight his own battles. They force their will upon the situation inspite of opposition, until they cannot go any farther. They cannot accept things not going their own way. Cannot let go; clings.
- SAD. Strives to get recognition at work to compensate for the unsatisfactory, emotional relationships, which makes them prone to disappointments and depression. Extreme mental dejection. Unfit for work, sits and weeps. Feels no one does anything to please him.
- Strange, Vexatious; fretful and irritable over trifles. Weeps from discontent.
- Visionary, Vivid. Leads a long unforgiving battle. Remembers every offense in detail. Now to study the remedy from another angle, let me now tell you a small story about.
A country man's son trod upon a Serpent's tail by accident. The snake turned and bit him and he died. In a rage, the father got his axe, pursued the Serpent and cut off its tail. In revenge, the Serpent began stinging several of the Farmer's cattle, causing him severe loss. There was no choice, a truce had to be called. The Farmer thought it best to make it up with the Serpent. He brought food and honey to the mouth of its lair, and said to the snake: "Let's forget and forgive; perhaps you were right to punish my son, and take vengeance on my cattle, but surely I was right in trying to revenge him; now that we are both satisfied why should not we be friends again?"
"No, no," said the Serpent; "take away your gifts; you can never forget the death of your son, nor I the loss of my tail".
The moral of this AESOP's fable is an apt title for the following Nitric-acid case which says that those injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten.
Case 1 - The Unforgiving One
An Aside: Embarking upon matrimony is like skydiving: a big risk and a big thrill. All
that one has is faith, a fragile belief that all will be well. Sometimes the turn of events may make one unhappy, but whether he will forgive and forget or be vindictive and unforgiving depends on the predisposition and is a pointer for our remedies. In this main character of our case was a person estranged from her family; she was filled with hatred of person who had offended, recalls disagreeable memories vividly.
A mere mention of the M-in-law and our Mrs SP spits fire and hatred. Why so?
When asked, eyes filled with tears, reveals that after marriage she was driven away to her maiden home by her husband and MIL who wrongly accused her of having TB before marriage and marrying without revealing this.
She fought for her rights and after 2 years the in-laws relented and brought her back. She now has 3 grown up children but her resentment to MIL continues unabated. She feels no compassion for her MIL's problem and ill-health . She feels it is a pay-off and has a stern 'serves her right' attitude.
She retaliates and is constantly at loggerheads with her husband too but manages to carry on.
She is forever taking up a cause to fight. Earlier when her youngest daughter eloped to marry outside her community and the whole family went against them, she took up the cudgels and got them accepted by the family. Currently, her brothers have kept their 90-year father in an old people´s home. She is very upset and quarrels with her brothers to reinstate him his rightful place. Thus she constantly invites everybody's wrath and insults. She brings her sufferings to center-stage in her talks and wallows in self-pity - feels she cannot afford to be sick as no one will look after her, as her children are all married.
She constantly dwells and talks about her disappointments- about her daughter's pitiable condition, about her past suffering, about her own father. She accuses husband of being inconsiderate of her sufferings.
Her facial expressions are one of frowning, disdain and she is forever complaining about all the work she has to do single-handedly with no help from MIL. She ends up pitying herself.
These peculiar mentals: self-pity, anxiety, irritability, headstrong and hatred led to Nitric-acid 1M.
Physical Symptoms:
Painful Rt knee joint, localized to the popliteal fossa,
Pain < ascending, descending. Agg sitting cross-legged.
Acidity
Headache.
Follow-Up: 1 week later: relief in all symptoms but she developed cracks angles of mouth with raw, painful, acrid thin discharge. No previous H/o any skin problems. She was kept on placebo and in 2 weeks the skin gradually cleared.
Kent says Nitric-acid patients are often sensitive to medicines esp high potency. Indeed they prove every remedy given too high.
I once had a case of Nitric-acid who, after taking the dose at 8.45 pm at night, slept at 11 pm and suddenly woke up feeling restless, uneasy and would not get sleep till 4.30 am.
Repertory: restlessness, uneasiness midnight after until 4 hrs.
Relationships Of Nitric-Acid:
How will Nitric-acid relate to others in the family? Why did irreconcilable differences continue to exist between her and the MIL, as also the husband. To understand this, I studied Nitric-acid in conjunction with the remedies of the family. Fortunately, both of them are also my patients. Their remedies were:
MIL: Lachesis
Husband: Nat-mur
Our relationship table shows that Nitric-acid is inimical to both! That explained the continued enmity between them. But why is it so?
Lachesis - is nervous, excitable, and loquacious. Egoistic. Thinks herself under superhuman control, thinks she is hated or despised. Suspicious.
Does not want to attend to business; mocks and is hateful.
Natrum-mur - has fits of passion. Hateful to person who offend him. Detests consolation and fuss. Reserved. Easily angered. Company distresses. Hypochondriacs. Boisterous grief. Dwells on past unpleasant memories. Revengeful.
Case 2
Here Nitric-acid was given on the following physical symptoms:
Apthous stomatitis
Constipation
Headache < Menses during with nausea
History of recurrent boils in the eye, AGG during menses before with itching.
Intermittent profuse menstrual flow
No dysmennorhea
Numbness, tingling of fingers and hands
Heartburn AGG fasting, with sour eructations
Fungal infection of the groin
Recurrent colds with yellow discharge
Yellow nasal discharge
Burning soles
Allergy to metal
Mentals:
Violent temper, anger when wrongly accused, speaks out, easily offended, AGG by noise, anxiety with frequency of urination and stools, dominating, disciplined, works hard, wants things done her way. Motion sickness, allergic to smells, desires for sweets, cold, milk , fruits. Offensive sweat, burning urination sometimes. Dreams of being lost in a jungle.
Itching, small, black, vesicular warts with burning urination. Raw anal warts. Eruptions around the anterior angle of the anus. Pustular, painful non-itching, inflamed. H/o anal coitus, and husband having a similar condylomata and the pathological smear diagnosed it as gonococcal condylomata accum.
Nitric-acid 1M 2nd dose given
Mentally became better and leucorrhoea decreased, warts reduced in size
Conjunctivitis and cold appeared, which also subsided in due course. After all this, patient was much better.
In fact Phoolan Devi characterizes Nitric-acid to the tee!
