Learn a remedy through cases-Staphysagria:
Liberating Balm for the mortified, oppressed and suppressed
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2002 Jul / Aug VOL 4 NO 4.
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Staph
"Homoeopathic remedies do not evolve, but our understanding of their uses does. Staphysagria is not a particularly well-known remedy and consequently not widely used by most Homoeopaths. It has never been granted the rank of ‘polycrest’ or ‘constitutional remedy’, yet perhaps it deserves a higher rank than presently accorded to it." That is how Dr Karl Robinson commenced his well-thought out article - "Staphysagria: evolution of a remedy", replete with beautiful cases. The essay was written as far back as 1982. Though several years have elapsed, this statement is still substantially true as one does not easily recognize that remedy in everyday practice. It has to be prescribed more on its essence than on symptoms.
Dr Hering wrote that the remedy produced "Hypochondriasis; apathy; weak memory; caused by unmerited insults, sexual excesses or by persistently dwelling on sexual subjects. Suffering from pride, envy or chagrin. Fretful peevishness, with excessive ill humor. Very sensitive to least impression; least word that seems wrong hurts her very much." Clarke was more specific "Staphysagria is a remedy for anger and the effects of anger, especially if the indignation cannot have its natural expression." It is applicable to a gentleman who was "insulted and being too dignified to fight, swallowed the wrath and went home sick, trembling and exhausted". Kent says "He goes home and suffers; he does not speak it out, but controls it and then suffers from it." Such gentlemen are rare nowadays. It is rather more suited to situations where the patient is unable to express his/her anger or other emotions of displeasure. If involved in an argument or confrontation, they can’t respond -they can become speechless. They may tremble when angry. Many a time the insults may be unmerited. The important keynote is that they are worse from suppression of anger and get physical pathology and aggravation of all symptoms from suppression.
As another author expresses it (discussed later) the Staphysagria patients exhibit "much helplessness against emotional challenges." Similarly as Vithoulkas points out that "Problems of Staphysagria begin when the person does not allow the natural outlets of the emotions to be expressed. Women become passive with a kind of sweetness. There is niceness, a sensitivity. They prefer to please rather than hurt, to be gentle even though inside they suffer a lot." Thus it is an excellent remedy for ailments from anger not fully expressed or partially expressed. Such situations are more common in army and police establishments where subordinates would have to implicitly obey their superiors and put up with their abuses and taunts; daughters-in-law from Anacardium mother in laws or husbands or widows or divorcees who have to live with relations under humiliating circumstances or present day IT professionals drawing fat salary but who get unceremoniously thrown out of job overnight with termination notices, and of course children who have stepmothers. Students subject to ragging or being bullied by superiors. The common thread is: Dignity or honour is wounded and at stake in these situations.
Often it is not evident in patients when they come for treatment and will come out only their life situation is gently and fully explored. One woman completely stopped showing her sexual feelings. because when she was newly married, she expressed her sexual desire for her husband when he came home from work. He made a joke about her amorous advances. That was too much for her. It was not anger but insult to her dignity as a woman and wife. It is observed from cases that women need more of this remedy than men.
The following cases demonstrate the different situations where this remedy is curative.
Case 1:
An extremely beautiful woman, aged 36, came to Dr Karl Robinson complaining
of constant nausea, recurrent headaches, diarrhoea and loss of appetite. She
lost 10l bs in a month. She was also terribly depressed and admitted to crying
when alone. Her life situation was one of physical abuse at the hands of her
husband and later on she had to raise her children for 10 years on her own.
"I have allowed people to impose on me. I stayed with my husband because I
loved him. He stayed because I was his shield and he pushed me around and beat
me. I thought that he would change." She was also unhappy with her parents
who borrowed money from her frequently and when she wanted some loan from them,
they were mean to talk of her executing a promissory note for the loan. Further
when she was to appear for a job interview, she wanted the children to help her
with the dishes but the boys started fighting. This time she exploded; on
another occasion fed up with her husband she wanted him to leave her but he
wouldn’t go. She got so frustrated that she tore her dress. This case shows
that these patients though suppress their emotions, can explode into violent
rage, but such outbursts are infrequent and usually months apart and in
between they continue to be sweet; their pent up anger and damage to their self
respect and dignity is not fully ventilated.
The history further revealed that she was married six times
and went into each marriage with full commitment but her husbands, she said,
drained her completely and hurt her too much. She also said that she married her
sixth husband under duress as her would-be mother-in-law made a surprise
announcement in a get-together, without her consent and made her place the ring
on her future husband’s finger. Though her husband was nice and worked hard to
support her and the children, it did not work out. He was also a dullard.
She presented a perfect picture of Staphysagria and was given a dose of
that in 200th potency. A day later, she said that she was
much better and less depressed. After 2 weeks she reported that she was doing
very well; not only that all her symptoms disappeared but she was also able to
say no to her husband when he approached her and wanted to come back.
Before that remedy she could have given in and allowed to be used as a doormat.
-Karl Robinson
Case 2:
A 40-year-old woman consulted for her rectal bleeding but she did not have
piles. A probe into the causation showed that 10 months earlier the patient had
an unpleasant confrontation with her landlord. He had wrongfully accused her and
her husband of using drugs for which she reacted with fury, as the allegations
were totally false and motivated and the accusations were very demeaning to her,
as she had never used any illicit drug in her entire life. The landlord
similarly accused her of other wrong doings. This was a case of wounded dignity,
which aroused the anger in the patient resulting in rectal bleeding; this was
controlled by allopathic drugs. After 10 months the bleeding recurred, this time
following an incident involving her daughter, who was bullied and roughed up by
some older girls in school. The patient was very furious, boiling literally with
rage and revenge but there was no way she could give vent to her pent up anger.
The discharge of anger was in the form of resumption of her rectal bleeding. The
doctor prescribed Staph 30 on the symptom of suppressed and not fully
ventilated anger and in a few hours the patient said, "I felt very relaxed
and sleepy". About her anger she said, "I couldn’t even think of it
any more. It was as though it had passed a long, long time ago and was not
relevant." Though the remedy dissipated her anger, it took 4 days for the
rectal bleeding to stop. Dr Robinson adds that during this time, an interesting
thing occurred. The rectum, which was painless till then, became painful
temporarily under the influence of the medicine and passed off some days later.
(That was the aggravation of the medicine). "The point in this case was
that the patient had not been suppressing her anger, either in the first or the
second incident. However, she was unable to fully release it." Hence
the rectal bleeding to complete it.
-Karl Robinson
A similar situation where this remedy would be useful is when there is fear and its repression. The fear may be of operation or attempted rape etc. Here is such a case.
