Homeopathic Clinical Cases Vol 1

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Homeopathic

CLINICAL CASES

Vol. 1

Presentation and Analysis

by the method of

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis

Athos Othonos

Homeopathic Medical Doctor

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

A CASE OF LACHESIS

1.1 The homeopathic case taking begins from “Good Morning, doctor!”

1.2 Non-verbal clues

1.3 “Maidservant”!

1.4 Loquacity and syphilitic behavior

1.5 Present Disease

1.6 The syphilitic image of “the mother that sacrifices herself for her

close ones”

1.7 Syphilitic accusations for other doctors

1.8 “That‟s how false diagnosis is reached in Homeopathy!”

1.9 Reconfirmation questions

1.10 Overprotective and religious hypocrite

1.11 Syphilitic inconsistencies

1.12. Syphilitic Exaggeration

1.13 Again, back to reconfirmation questions

1.14 Necessary explanations and support

1.15 Fixing the patient‟s wrong conceptions

1.16 Why a homeopath must be a doctor

1.17 Giving directions to the patient

1.18 Standard explanations and standard questions

1.19 Idiosyncrasies “live among us” and “inside us”!

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1.20 The question is: “What are your motives when you learn or teach

Homeopathy?”

1.21 Repertorising and Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis

1.22 If you don‟t remain moral then your knowledge is lost

CHAPTER 2

A CASE OF VALERIANA

2.1 The “Granny” Medicine, the “Mother” Medicine and the

“Grandchild” Medicine!

2.2 Present Disease

2.3 A brief necessary introduction to Homeopathy

2.4 General physical questions

2.5 General psychological questions

2.6 Evaluation of headaches and evaluation of aversion milk

2.7 Tracing possible idiosyncrasies by Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis

2.8 Ironic and temperamental

2.9 Nervous symptoms, insecurity and extroversion

2.10 Tracing fixed ideas, jealousy and insecurity

2.11 Intellect and ambitions

2.12 Final diagnosis and explanations to the patient

CHAPTER 3

A CASE OF STRAMONIUM - MOSCHUS

3.1 “Soul leaves the body first and then mannerism!”

3.2 “…as if I am in the bottom of the sea drowning!”

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3.3 Nervous, neuro-vegetative or hysterical symptoms?

3.4 Differential diagnosis of fears and suicidal tendency

3.5 Tracing Irritability

3.6 A possible case of Stramonium; differential diagnosis from Aurum

3.7 Differential Diagnosis from other hysterical idiosyncrasies

3.8 Repertorising has become a modern homeopathic curse

3.9 Prescription time

CHAPTER 4

A CASE OF NATRUM CARBONICUM

4.1 Present disease and allopathic history

4.2 Tracing his miasmas and idiosyncrasy

4.3 Explanations to the patient

4.4 Evaluation of heat and cold

4.5 Sweat, taste, position of sleep

4.6 Individual history and its importance in idiosyncratic diagnosis

4.7 Evaluation of irritability

4.8 “Tidy or untidy?”

4.9 Evaluation of introversion

4.10 Evaluation of fears and overprotectiveness

4.11 Self-confidence and sexual desire

4.12 Tracing several possible idiosyncrasies

4.13 Final diagnosis

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CHAPTER 5

A CASE OF NUX VOMICA

5.1 Genotype first and then Phenotype

5.2 Hierarchy: first the whole picture, then psychological symptoms and

then physical symptoms

5.3 Present Disease

5.4 The homeopathic point of view about bacteria and viruses

5.5 How allopathic diagnosis of disease can indirectly help us towards

homeopathic diagnosis of idiosyncrasy


5.7 The pace of interrogation


5.9 Analysis of irritability, arrogance and tidiness

5.10 Introversion/extroversion, fears and fixed ideas

5.11 Differential Diagnosis


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PREFACE

This book is about Homeopathic Clinical Cases which have been

recorded by me. They are presented and analyzed live, step by step, to my

students who are medical doctors trained in Homeopathy.

My main aim is to initiate my students to the art and science of

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis (MID), a special method of

homeopathic diagnosis developed after many years of clinical practice.

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis is based on the general miasmatic and

idiosyncratic picture of the patient taken as a whole in accordance with

Classical Homeopathy. As a result I am not interested so much in the

specific symptoms of the disease but on the contrary I greatly value the

general physical and psychological characteristics of the patient when in

a state of health.

Thus, in everyday clinical practice I make no use of any Repertory or

Materia Medica or Computer Expert System of any kind. The above are

not needed if the doctor is well acquainted with the Miasmatic

Idiosyncratic Homeopathic Materia Medica, that is, with the “essence”

and true picture of the basic Homeopathic Idiosyncrasies.

Step by step, I show to my students how to “translate” any image, sound,

smell and touch projected by the patient into valuable miasmatic and

idiosyncratic information. The same “translation” is done for every

intention, thought, opinion, emotion and behavior of the patient.

Moreover, valuable diagnostic information is drawn from his secondary

behavior, that is, from the “image” he projects to others. This is of great

value especially in syphilitic idiosyncrasies.

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All the above “translated” data gradually reveal to the eyes of the

experienced and unbiased homeopathic doctor, the “puzzle” or “picture”

or “essence” of the person that corresponds to a certain Homeopathic

Idiosyncrasy. This is very essential in Classical Homeopathy. Once you

have revealed the idiosyncrasy of the patient you can administer the

similar homeopathic remedy and achieve a successful treatment.

Much said! Enough with theory! The cases speak by themselves! Do

enjoy them!

Important Note: Anyone who wants to fully understand Miasmatic

Idiosyncratic Diagnosis apart from this book must read my books:

1. Homeopathic Materia Medica

2. The Art and Science of Homeopathic Case Taking

3. Homeopathy and Universal Laws

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CHAPTER 1

A CASE OF LACHESIS

1.1 The homeopathic case taking begins from “Good Morning,

doctor!”




1.5 Present Disease


close ones”


1.8 “That’s how false diagnosis is reached in Homeopathy!”







1.15 Fixing the patient’s wrong conceptions




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1.20 The question is: “What are your motives when you learn or

teach Homeopathy?”


1.22 If you don’t remain moral then your knowledge is lost

Good Evening! Tonight we move on to the second part of our lectures,

the advanced and more live. We will hear recorded clinical cases and at

times stop and analyze these cases by the method of Miasmatic

Idiosyncratic Diagnosis.

It‟s time to reap what we have sown! It‟s action time! It‟s time for you

and me to check what have you learned! It‟s time “to catch fish”. No

more theories. We have a man in front of us talking live and a doctor in

front of us asking live; and that‟s how things are done in real life, in a

homeopathic medical office. You may not see the patient but I will tell

you all what is needed about his image.

Let‟s move on! From time to time I will stop the hearing for comments.

During the hearing any time I ask a question and the patient answers I

want you to write down any important symptom along with its evaluation,

for example irritability grade 2 or 3. You should skip any physical or

psychological characteristic that is not important or that is not of grade2

or 3. Whenever you can‟t make up your mind about the specific rubric

that corresponds to the patient‟s answer you can note down his exact

words in brackets if you think that they are of any value.

It is also crucial to note down and evaluate any non-verbal information as

well as your comments about the feeling that the patient creates to you.

For example I say “hello” to the patient and he makes a certain remark

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irrelevant of his disease. If you think that this is important you can write

down his exact words and your remark like “loquacious”, “rude”,

“vulgar”, “biting”, “ironic”, etc. But be very careful not to jump hastily

into conclusions.

As the hearing goes on whenever a certain idiosyncrasy crosses your

mind don‟t forget to write it down on the top right side of your paper as

possible idiosyncrasy of the patient. You will have to take it in

consideration during the procedure of case taking and reject it or confirm

it at the end during differential diagnosis. While hearing the answers of

the patient if this certain idiosyncrasy matches again and again his

symptoms and image, then underline it once, twice or even three times

accordingly. This procedure forces you to become an active listener and

not a passive one and that is what I, myself actually do while taking the

case. And that‟s what makes me also an active case taking doctor and not

a passive one.

Try to be brief regarding your notes. For example you can write h3,

instead of hot 3 or irrit2 instead of irritability 2 using the abbreviations I

gave you. It‟s now time to listen to the patient. Open your ears, minds and

hearts and listen!

1.1 The homeopathic case taking begins from “Good Morning,

doctor!”

-Hello, doctor! How are you? How are things going on? Are you fine?

-Yes, fine, thank God.

-The little girl in the photo in the waiting room, is it your daughter?

-Yes, she is my daughter.

-All the best! She is a real beauty! Do you have other children also or is

she the only one?

-I have two more daughters, older ones.

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-Two more! Wow! Three daughters! That‟s a blessing! I also have two

daughters, I had them married and each one has given me a daughter.

-Well, that‟s a lot of women!

-I now have four daughters! That‟s a very good thing! It‟s a blessing from

God!

It‟s time to stop the hearing. Please, tell me what you have noted down up

to now. Always bear in mind that the homeopathic case taking starts from

the very first contact with the patient. From the very moment he calls us

to fix an appointment. Let me remind you that we have dealt for a whole

lecture with non-verbal information that can be drawn from the patient,

i.e. how he fixes his appointment, how he behaves at the waiting room,

the way he sits on the chair, his body structure and style, etc.

If you start noting down information only after you have asked him

“medical questions” you have already lost too much and too valuable!

Although it may seem strange to you, I have already reached my final

diagnosis of the “simillimum” of this patient with much certainty solely

from her non-verbal characteristics and from our first “non-medical”

conversation. I have already noted down her most possible idiosyncrasy

and you will confirm this later so as not to be biased during your hearing

of this case.

It‟s not that I am a magician! It‟s just that firstly she is a typical case

already giving us a lot of information and secondly I have a lot of

experience in Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis. Believe me, you will be

able to do that after only a few years of training and practice; take my

word for it! So it‟s time to listen to your remarks and observations.

-I noted down a certain comment she did.

-What comment?

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-The one about your daughter‟s picture.

-What information can you draw from what she said? Don‟t tell me yet

what idiosyncrasy her comment reminds you of. First give me a rubric or

even a comment.

-Loquacity.

-Right! We have the first signs of loquacity! Never be absolute and

definite about anything. We have the possibility of loquacity. What

possible loquacious idiosyncrasies can you think of?

-I think that she is a Lachesis case.

-Any other loquacious idiosyncrasies or any idiosyncrasies that are very

social and talkative?

-Pulsatilla.

-Yes, Pulsatilla and also Phosphor and sycotic Sulphur. Ok? Don‟t stick

to only one idiosyncrasy. Let your antennas, your minds and your hearts

open! In this case I would note down Lachesis as my first choice and then

Pulsatilla as a possible second choice.

Now I start building scripts and stories inside my mind. She is a woman

around sixty years old, very talkative and asks things that usually

someone that comes to my office for the first time doesn‟t ask. So she

sees that picture in the waiting room and starts chatting about my children

and about how nice is to have children and grandchildren from her own

experience, etc. The very minute she behaves like that we start noting

down Lachesis and Pulsatilla.


Let me give you some more clues about her, some more non-verbal

information since you haven‟t seen her and you don‟t have an image of

her in your mind. She is slightly fat and has the body type of Lachesis,

the one that Allopathic Medicine calls “Cortisone Facies”. She is also

dressed in a kirsch style just like Lachesis does.

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Clues start piling up in favor of Lachesis but be careful! Underline

Lachesis but still don‟t be biased. Remain unprejudiced observers. We are

at the case taking phase that we gather information and we note down

things. It‟s not yet the phase of reaching to final conclusions. Let‟s go on

listening to her case again. Stay tuned and open your senses, minds and

hearts!

-What do you do for a living?

-I am a private employee.

-What exactly do you do?

-I am a maidservant for old people.

-Before we go on to see what brings you to me I am going to perform a

quick check up because in Homeopathy we are interested to examine you

as a whole…

-I brought some test results with me, they are not recent ones, only the…

-We will see them later on. We will see them…

-It‟s about blood glucose…

-Let me first do to you a quick check-up and we are going to see your test

results right away. Let me check your blood pressure first.

-Yes, yes.

-Did you ever have problems with your blood pressure?

-No. I never had high blood pressure! I always had low blood pressure, a

100 or 105 since… the last thirty years.

-I see…

-I never…

-Give me a minute to examine your blood pressure and we will talk about

everything…

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-Yes, doctor!


-It‟s time to interrupt the hearing for comments. Let me hear your

remarks.

-That word “maidservant” seems peculiar to me.

-Excellent! Bravo! “Maidservant”! What kind of a word is this! Even a

person with not a sensitive antenna would notice that.

-What does she mean by “maidservant”?

-She wants to say that she takes care of old people and she uses this old-

fashioned term. But you see we are not interested in the etymology of the

word because we are not literature teachers; we are homeopathic doctors.

We have an ordinary low-class woman and when I ask her “What do you

do for a living?” she says: “Maidservant for old people”. The question is:

“Why does she use such an unusual word?” It‟s not a word commonly

used in every day conversation; it‟s an old-fashioned term. In fact it‟s a

word of Ancient Greek origin (“therapenida” from “therapevo” = to

nurse).

My guess is that she uses this very formal old-fashioned word because

she considers what she does as something depreciatory from a social

point of view. So instead of saying “I take care of old people” that could

cause – according to her - in other‟s minds the picture of a woman wiping

dirty old men full of shit, she employs this nice formal old-fashioned term

for her job. It‟s not that she is pompous like a Platina. In fact a Platina

would feel shame to say that she does such a kind of job.

Please, be very careful about what I say! The above don‟t reflect any

personal opinion of mine. I don‟t consider taking care of old people as

something depreciatory. Of course, not! This has to do with certain social

opinions and what really interests us as homeopathic doctors is how this

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certain individual interprets things. We are mainly interested in her

subjective, individual interpretation of the one and only reality.

As doctors and especially as homeopathic doctors we shouldn‟t judge

people according to social patterns or according to our individual patterns

and opinions. That would be very wrong and would moreover spoil our

diagnosis. But that doesn‟t mean that we don‟t take in consideration the

usual social patterns, the prevailing social patterns, since these affect

most of our patients.

We are interested in what is peculiar about our patient. And a woman of

her age and class using such an unusual and old-fashioned formal word

for her profession is definitely something peculiar and strange and thus

characteristic. She uses a pompous term for a socially depreciatory job.

That‟s an exaggeration! And from what I have taught you exaggeration is

a characteristic of…

-Lachesis?

-Yes, but don‟t just stick to a certain idiosyncrasy. Exaggeration is

characteristic of Syphilitic Miasma and syphilitic idiosyncrasies. So apart

from noting down Lachesis on the top right part of our paper we also note

down “syphilitic miasma” or “3”, which is the abbreviation for the latter.

Write it down, now! See how we draw information in an indirect way

when it comes to Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis?

What other information do I have from the previous conversation? I

confirm that she is loquacious. She has an unrestrained loquacity. As you

must have noticed I find it very difficult to stop her from talking in order

to move on to the check-up that I want to do first before starting

questions. She keeps telling me that she has some test results and I keep

telling her that I will see them later on. I am forced to interrupt her many

times in order to go on. So I have confirmed “loquacity” and I suspect

that she “exaggerates” and that she is probably “syphilitic”. Let‟s return

back to our live case.

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-What‟s your usual blood pressure?

-110 over 65.

-I see.

-I even had 170 many years ago, about 14 years ago but it was a rare

thing. Normally my blood pressure is what I told you.

-From my check-up I see that your blood pressure is 110 over 60 and

your heart rate is 86. These are normal ratings.

-Yes, yes!

-Let me check you with another special device now.

-Oh, I know this device!

-How‟s that?

-I‟ve been treated by Mr. X the homeopathic doctor and by Mrs. Y the

homeopathic doctor.

-So let me examine you…

-Yes. What do you want me to do? Simply hold it?

-Hold this a bit tight and I will examine your ear externally so as to trace

your basic predispositions, that is, the weak points of your organism.

Your spine is very sensitive. Did you have any problems with your spine?

-Yes! I have suffered with my back…

-I also see that your knees are sensitive. You also have a sensitive

hormonal system and a sensitive peptic system. Do you have any

symptoms from your belly like pain, distention or constipation?

-Not particularly.

-I also trace a lot of tension, a lot of anxiety. You have a very sensitive

Autonomic Nervous System.

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I must again interrupt for comments. Have you any other clues up to

now?

-…

-Ok. We reconfirm her loquacity. But have you noticed that she has an

urge to tell me that she has been examined in the past by this and that

homeopathic doctors? The question again is why does she do that?

-For self-confirmation or to show that she knows a lot of doctors.

-Not for self-confirmation. I believe that she does very well with herself.

She hasn‟t got any self-confirmation problems at all! It is I that i am the

receiver of her message! She wants me to take care of her, to give special

attention to her case. The message is: “You must know that I have also

been treated by other homeopathic doctors that are your professional

rivals, so be careful and take a good care of me or else I will return back

to them!”

-You mean to say that she tells you that on purpose?

-Yes, indeed! That‟s exactly what I mean! It‟s a deliberate action. There

is a definite purpose to it. It‟s not something accidental. She just isn‟t a

psoric Pulsatilla who says something without any hidden and intentional

purpose. It‟s a meaningful action due to her syphilitic miasma. Get it? See

how we trace her miasmas and her Simillimum? That‟s what I mean by

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis!

Our questions are never accidental and so is our evaluation of the

patient‟s answers. We grab the patient by the throat! We are not just case-

takers or indifferent recorders of the patient‟s answers. We are not

employees of a company that does market research so as to simply write

down our clients answers to a certain fixed questionnaire. If you just

write down things passively so as to pass these answers to a superior for

evaluation then you‟ve already missed the most valuable clues.

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Any homeopathic case taking should be “aggressive”, active and a

detective-like procedure; a Sherlock Holmes action! Our aim is to strip

our patient naked from all his masks, from all his fake images, from all

the lies he tells to himself and others so as to reach his real self, his naked

self, the truth and nothing but the truth. We want to see him as he is and

not as he seems to be. We want to get rid of any social mask he carries

with him. We want him naked because that‟s the only way to reach a

correct diagnosis of his idiosyncrasy and the only way to cure him

successfully.

That doesn‟t mean that we don‟t respect him or that we judge him or that

we want to expose him in any way. We are not being smart to him and we

are very cautious, discreet and tactful. But that doesn‟t mean that we have

to buy all the crabs he is selling to himself and to others around him.

Let‟s move on to our hearing.

1.5 Present Disease

-Let me put things in an order. What is the main problem that brings you

to me today?

-Well… it‟s my nervous system.

-What do you mean by that?

-Well… let me start from the very beginning of things. The last five years

I had to face excessive physical work.

-I see.

-Too much physical work! Too many obligations! My kids were engaged

and I wanted to help them get married… too much work, my feet were

killing me, my back also… all these things together… and in order to

cope I had to take pain killers. But not just one or two! I was taking even

seven a day so as to cope with my shift because my work is very difficult

and there were also times that I worked 24 hours round the clock…

-How many pain killers did you say that you have you been taking?

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-Around seven a day.

-I see.

-So I‟ve reached a certain point… nevertheless, I was in a very good

mood, I was so pleased to cope with all that I had to do, I did what I

wanted to do, I was working and… not to mention that I really needed the

money… so I helped my second child to get married on May and in

October my husband died.

-When did that happen?

-Two years ago.

-He died from what?

-It happened unexpectedly just one week after my youngest daughter‟s

marriage. He had that cough… anyway we went to the hospital, they told

us that he had lung cancer that also spread to the glands and to the

center of the skull and so we did chemotherapy. But they told us that he

had two types. The one was oat cell and the other squamous.

-I see.

-Squamous, was it? I think so, well… something like that. Any way he had

two types of cancer. The one, the more primitive one, the squamous did

not react to chemotherapy and so we had to do radiotherapy. We did

radiotherapy, he improved but the combination of chemotherapy and

radiotherapy decreased his white blood cells down to only one hundred.

On leaving the hospital with so… he obviously caught a cold while

walking… what you can expect from a person with only one hundred

white blood cells… anyway we knew he didn‟t stand a chance…

-So, I understand that you were already very tired and then this thing

with your husband happened and things got much worse.

-Then I continued taking all those pain killers in order to take care of my

grandchildren and then my older daughter got pregnant… and… well I

had a very tough day today… (tears)

-Don‟t feel bad to express yourself… let it go. If you suppress it, it will

only become worse.

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-I managed to keep some kind of balance for the kids because… but then I

just couldn‟t pull myself together.

-What did you feel then?

-I just couldn‟t walk. But I kept working, working all the time because I

wanted to complete my Social Insurance stamps project so as to earn a

better pension. There was a point that in order to go to work I had to

support myself on the wall while walking. I couldn‟t walk. I felt swollen

all over like a balloon ready to burst. I happened to work at “X”

hospital.

-What‟s left of all those symptoms now?

-Well I did some tests and they found that I had something going on to my

liver. I realized that it was due to pain killers and so I stopped them. It‟s

been two years since I stopped pain killers… I take not even one. I kept

not being able to walk. I feel my feet, my knees as if cut. My hands as if

cut here; weakness. On top of that my thyroid got worse. It has countless

nodules. They just can‟t count them.

-When was the first time that nodules were traced in your thyroid?

-Then.

-You mean two years ago?

-I suffer from hypothyroidism for many years, around ten years. And I am

on T4 treatment.

-I see.

-For a while that treatment managed to keep things steady and then I

stopped it. They told me that it has caused goiter to me.

-Let me check your laboratory tests.

-Ok. But I don‟t know if this is…

-Please, give me your file.

-But I have other tests also.

-Don‟t worry I will check all of them.

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-I was in a hurry and on leaving the house I took everything with me, all

the files mixed up and did not have the time to check what you may need

or not.


close ones”

-Well, it‟s time for a break. Before we go on we have to discuss; any

comments?

-I believe that she is that kind of person who is always complaining that

she tires herself for others. She adopts the role of the “victim” although

she likes interfering in all matters. You can understand that she interferes

to her daughters‟ life when she says “I had them married… I did this… I

did that, etc”.

-So, you think that she projects to us a certain kind of image. Isn‟t it so?

What kind of image is this? It‟s that kind of image that usually a low-

class Lachesis projects to her close ones and to society. That she is the

mother and woman that sacrifice herself for her family. That she was

working hard although she couldn‟t walk and had to take pain killers by

the dozen so as to cope with hard work. That her husband died tragically

and was left alone to take care of her children and again take of her

children and always take care of her children and so on!

There is an exaggeration, a syphilitic exaggeration to her sayings. A

psoric Pulsatilla, for example, would not have exaggerated like that even

if she had lived likewise. On the contrary, this woman exaggerates and

projects the image called “I am the mother that sacrifices for her

children”.

Do you remember when I referred to idiosyncratic pictures while

lecturing on Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Materia Medica? Does this case

remind you a certain image of Lachesis? I mean the image that she

projects to others that she is that fine mother that sacrifices for her

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children and family? The one who is the “victim” of life situations? So

we are justified and have every right to write down “loquacious 3” and

“Mrs. Kate 3”.

(There isn‟t any proper word in English for the translation of the Greek

word “katina” so I use the word “Mrs. Kate” or “Kate” and I explain how

this word originated in modern Greece. About 50 years ago many poor

young girls came from their small villages all around the country to

Athens to work as maids to rich houses. At that time the name “Katina or

Katerina or Kaiti” (Kate in English) was very popular for young peasant

girls. These girls were considered by their Athenian employers as low-

cultured, gossipers, always dealing with little unimportant every day

matters, cunning and devious. After some years and up to now, this term

is used for any woman of any age, either of low-class or not, who is of

low culture, dealing with little every day matters, gossiper, cunning and

devious. It‟s also used as a verb “katinizo” (behave like Mrs. Kate) to

express the same traits of character. As a matter of fact many young low

class girls of that time on the process of becoming grownups were

affected by the idiosyncrasy Lachesis which has these certain traits and

even today Lachesis is a very popular idiosyncrasy among Greek women

over 45 years old.)

But please, be very careful! I don‟t use the word “Mrs. Kate” with a

depreciatory disposition. I only give to it the usual meaning that it has to

our everyday Modern Greek society. It‟s just a descriptive term and not a

depreciatory on my part, comment.

I am also justified to note down “exaggeration 3”. This tendency for

exaggeration is obvious also from the fact that she used to take so many

pain killers. She also says that she couldn‟t walk but at the same time she

says that she continued working long hours; you see the one excludes the

other.

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You must have also noticed that she tends to show off to me her medical

knowledge although it‟s but a very poor and confused one. She refers to

the two types of her husband‟s cancer, the course of his disease, the

treatments he has undergone, etc. On top of that on the one hand she

brings her laboratory tests to me in order to tell her my scientific opinion

and on the other hand she lectures to me about it! Isn‟t that a syphilitic

state?

-Yes, indeed!

-We have already reached to a miasmatic and idiosyncratic diagnosis of

the Simillimum with much certainty because she is such a typical case. I

deliberately chose this as our first clinical case because it‟s a

characteristic and easy case. Nevertheless if we had to do with the “tough

businesswoman” image of Lachesis things would not have been so easy.

But this “Mrs. Kate” Lachesis image is so crying out: “Give me Lachesis,

give me Lachesis!” (laughing)

But, this doesn‟t mean that we will stop taking our case and give Lachesis

at this very moment. We still have to differentiate from relative to

Lachesis idiosyncrasies that are also in the habit of faking, for example

hysteric idiosyncrasies. Anyway, I must say, that her symptoms are not

that hysteric so as to suspect a hysteric idiosyncrasy, let‟s say Cimicifuga.

During case taking we should also note down her specific diseases, the

time of their onset and the possible circumstances during which they

appeared. In this case the patient admits that her problems started after

becoming very tired from work and family taking care and especially

after her husband‟s severe disease and death. We note down “ailments

after family problems” something that definitely suits Lachesis due to her

great attachment to family matters.

You must have also noticed that since I had a clear picture of the patient‟s

idiosyncrasy I tried to overcome her loquacity or else I would need a

whole day to complete my examination. That doesn‟t mean that we

24

shouldn‟t listen patiently to our patient but on the other hand when you

have such a loquacious patient you must focus on what‟s important for

you as a doctor.

It‟s your duty as doctors to check all the test results that the patient carries

with him no matter if he is already diagnosed and labeled with certain

diseases. Never consider as granted the diseases that the patient tells you

he has. It‟s your obligation to confirm or reconsider any allopathic

diagnosis and even reconsider his allopathic treatment if needed. Many

times I have examined patients and found out that they didn‟t suffer from

the diseases they have been diagnosed for or that they suffered from

another disease.

At times the diagnosis of the disease was correct but although they were

cured a long time ago they still they were on unnecessary medication.

Don‟t hesitate to order new diagnostic tests if needed either to confirm or

reject the diagnosis of a disease. You see, you should always act as a

doctor and never limit yourself to being just a homeopath. For me being a

homeopath is being a doctor that acts in a homeopathic holistic way.

Let‟s move on.


-It was summer, must have been July, last year when I went to Mr. X

(homeopathic doctor).

-Yes.

-I told him that I know you, he told me that you know each other, that you

had some time to… I went there because my hairdresser told me so… you

were at Piraeus for a while?

-No.

-Never?

-Never!

25

-I thought so because my brother was treated by you and I had the

impression that you had your office at Piraeus.

-No, not to Piraeus.

-Were you here?

-I had my office for one year at the center of Athens and after that, since

many years I am here at Galatsi area.

-I see! Anyway, ok… nevertheless, I was treated by that doctor last

November… I woke up, I slept… I had a very nice weekend, I woke up

around 5 o‟clock Monday morning and I was dizzy and stumbling. You

see I use to wake up for work around 5.30 a.m.; around 5 o‟clock. I used

to go…

-Were things turning round?

-Yes, that‟s exactly what happened! (She stands up and shows to me how

things were turning round)

-Oh, I see.

-And this happened while I was still in my sleep. I woke up and

couldn‟t…

-When did you say that this happened?

-Last November. I was under homeopathic treatment, I had already

slightly improved, and I know it was still very early to see great results…

I know that homeopathic medicines take a long time to act… well to cut a

long story short I went to the hospital, they kept me for four days and they

found that… you can see the papers from the hospital right there on my

file…

-I can see it.

-They found nothing pathological… there are some test results here also,

let me show you… they found nothing abnormal but a professor asked me

what happened in my life. I didn‟t say a word, I just looked at him and he

said: “I get it!”. He understood that something had happened, any way…

26

-You see, this kind of vertigo is mostly caused by stress so when a doctor

finds nothing abnormal it is expected to ask if something happened.

-I also did other tests…

-I see that you had a CT scan and it was normal. You also had an

ultrasound of your carotids and it was also normal.

-Yes, yes, there was nothing wrong with it, nothing wrong. I was ok until

December. From that time on I was worse again. I believe that I was

maybe… I don‟t know, at the beginning of depression. That‟s how I felt. I

stopped being treated by Mr. X (the homeopathic doctor) and then I went

back to him on May and he told me that my treatment was spoiled by the

turpentine they used so as to paint the radiology department of the

hospital…

-I see…

-I started treatment again, I was slightly better and then I had severe

problems with my back. I just couldn‟t do anything. The minute I woke up

at night I wore my supporting back belt but still I couldn‟t stay standing.

On wearing my belt… this test here I think it‟s called glycohemoglobin…

because my blood sugar was high…

-You have blood sugar 167.

-Yes, and he asked me… I was treated by a dietician because I had

gained many kilos, I was 83 kilos… I only have these prescriptions of the

doctor, I don‟t have all others, I have only the first prescription and this

here is the last one. These two were easy to find… this prescription I had

to repeat it two more times… that is, I started things from the

beginning…

-You mean that you took Ignatia 1M the first day and the second day

Ignatia 10M?

-I did as he ordered, the way you see there on the prescription.

-I see, I see!

27

-Why did I leave Mr. X? Because my back gave me a lot of pain and I

also had pain here on my hip and it was impossible for me to walk and

they gave me a pain killer at work. So I phoned him to ask him if that pain

killer affected my homeopathic treatment. He told me “No” and I told

him “I‟m in great pain” and he told me “I don‟t know”. I may have been

a nuisance at that time calling him, I don‟t know, but he also told me

“Take care of your back because when it comes to this case I can‟t help

you, I can‟t do anything about it”. I did some bathing in the summer and

my back got a lot better.

It‟s time to stop the hearing for the sake of discussion. Listen to me.

There‟s this woman and the hairdresser tells her to go to that doctor and

she goes. Does that ring a bell to you? I say that we have to do with a

“Mrs. Kate” case. I repeat again that this word is used for the sake of

description only and with the usual meaning and that doesn‟t mean that I

have any kind of negative feelings towards her.

Then, she jumps into an irrelevant matter: “Did you ever have your office

at Piraeus?” and then again returns to what she was saying. As I have

already told you during Materia Medica lectures this jumping from one

subject to another, even to irrelevant ones, is characteristic of Lachesis

loquacity.

Another important clue is that she accuses others to me, as Lachesis most

of the times tends to do. Being a syphilitic person she finds an indirect

way to accuse other doctors and say that they are useless. She does that

on purpose so as to flatter me in order to take good care of her.

Then she says “I know that homeopathic medicines take a long time to

act…” and someone could think that she is positive towards Mr. X

finding excuses for him and the next minute she says that Mr. X did not

help her. This is a “blow hot and cold” technique, very frequently

employed by Lachesis and syphilitic individuals! It‟s what I have told

28

you many times about Lachesis that for example she will tell you about

her husband “My husband is so good but… but… but…” and after one

good thing she finds ten bad things to say against him!

But you may also come up with a Lachesis patient that has exactly the

opposite behavior: She may start saying so many good things about her

previous doctor and then find an excuse that she stopped going to him

because “he was expensive” or “because he was far away from her

house”. Both of these seemingly opposite behaviors/phenotypes are but

secondary behaviors belonging to the same primary behavior, to the same

genotype. She does this so as to make you try to win her as a patient and

at the same time not charge her much. Again you see clearly the element

of expediency which is a syphilitic trait.

Have you noticed that even if I didn‟t ask her, she told me: “Why did I

leave Mr. X?” and gives a certain reason? Mr. X told her something about

her back pain and she interpreted it that he couldn‟t help her or that he

didn‟t want to help her. What matters is that she accuses previous doctors

on purpose, so as to motivate me to take a good care of her. See how

things work! What matters is not so much the behavior of any patient but

the intention that lies behind it!

Another clue is that she had a nervous vertigo about a year ago and this is

something common for Lachesis when upset. Many times she says

something for which she seems to be certain and then the next minute

adds: “Maybe”, “I don‟t know”, “I am not sure”, “I think so”. This is

hypocritical behavior and hypocrisy is definitely a syphilitic element and

also belonging to Lachesis.

Up to now I have noted down: “Loquacity 3”, “Mrs. Kate 3”,

“Exaggeration 3”, “Hypocrisy 3”, “Accuses other doctors 2” and

“Syphilitic 3”. You won‟t find most of these rubrics in any Repertory but

29

it doesn‟t matter. What matters is that these characteristics are very

important and critical for our diagnosis of the patient‟s idiosyncrasy.

I must, of course, stress that for the time being, all these are merely clues.

We haven‟t yet reached our final diagnosis and it‟s not yet a certainty that

she is Lachesis indeed. Clues keep coming and piling up, but still we

should not stop gathering data yet. We should not be hurried and

impatient. Up to the very minute of writing down the prescription or even

up to the very minute the patient leaves our office, new clues could alter

our final conclusion. Let‟s move on.

1.8 “That’s how false diagnosis is reached in Homeopathy!”

-Are you now still in pain regarding your back?

-Very much! Nevertheless I wake up in the morning, I am in pain and I

feel… but then while walking things get better. What really troubles me

is this melancholy, this depression as I call it but I don‟t have any suicidal

tendency.

-I see.

-It‟s just that I have that… being absolute, being… sometimes also that…

that I am all the time tired.

-Whenever you are forced to…

-If I am forced to then I manage to work.

-So when you have to do something do you manage to do it?

-Yes, I work all the time, I never sit to rest even for a minute.

-From what I see here these are the medicines that my colleague gave you

for your back pain: Rhus Toxicodendron 30CH, ten capsules.

-I don‟t know anything about it. I told him…

-You have been taking these for five days, one in the morning and one at

night.

30

-He told me “I will give you this and that” and I told him “Well, doctor,

these are all Chinese to me”.

-I see.

-I am not a doctor… I don‟t know… you do. Well you see…

-Are you on any other medication at the moment?

-I am on T4 only.

-Only T4.

-T4, 75mg and at times 100mg… the endocrinologist at the hospital

proposed that I should take also some thyroxin…

-Ok…

-Because my gland was dried out. I was completely dried out. Anyway,

now… in the past T4 100mg caused weeping to me. But I can‟t be sure

about it because…

-Does tight clothing annoy you?

-Yes, now they do!

-If you wear something with tight neck or a polo neck blouse not to be

able to stand it?

-Yes, yes, I pull it all the time!

-Or if your bra is even a bit tight not to stand it and the minute you enter

your house to take it off?

-Yes, yes, the happiest time is when I take it off!

-So, anything tight annoys you either pressing your belly, your chest or

your neck?

-Yes, yes, yes! The only tight thing that I can stand is my shoes. I want

my feet to be pressed firmly to my shoes and not be able to slip out.

Well it‟s time to stop this rushing stream of words of our patient that

threatens to drown our brains! (laughing). While talking about depression

31

she says: “But I don‟t have any suicidal tendency”. I don‟t recall asking

her that! Not even her previous statements could drive us to such an

extreme conclusion. So why does she say such a thing? Simply because

she knows that she is exaggerating about her so called “depression” and

she doesn‟t want you to think that she is “on the edge”. See how quick

and perverted her thoughts are? She is definitely syphilitic! Now let me

ask you something. Do you think that this person is tired or not?

-No, I don‟t think so!

-But, nevertheless, she says that she is “tired 3”! What do you say my

dear colleagues? Is she tired or not?

-One thing is certain: She is a very strong person.

-My dear fellows, how could we say that she is “tired 3” when she is

doing all that tremendous amount of work? All these statements about

exhaustion are nothing but crabs. She is not tired! Ok, she may be doing a

lot but she is not tired; she copes with all of it and goes on.

So, if you have a “case taker” who believes everything his patients tell

him and writes down “tired 3” and then goes to the Repertory or to the

Computer Expert System and searches for “tired” idiosyncrasies, then he

is all wrong! That‟s how false prescription is reached in Homeopathy!

She may be projecting this to me but I don‟t buy it! But, still, interpreting

her behavior, I draw some other very valuable characteristics. That she is

exaggerating and that she is hypocritical. See what matters in true

Homeopathy? Not what the patient says but what we conclude from it!

-But if she isn‟t tired why does she say so?

-To make an impression; to attract interest; to project a certain image: the

image of the tired, suffering woman.

-And for what reason? Shouldn‟t we examine the purpose of this

behavior?

-Yes, certainly! She projects this image so as to attract attention and

manipulate people around her. Her motive is to dominate, to rule, to do

32

things her own way. She does this to her husband, children and close ones

and even to her doctor.

She also says: “Well, doctor, these are all Chinese to me” and a minute

ago she was lecturing to me about her disease, test results and medication

as if she were a scientist and had a firm opinion”. My conclusion is that

she is hypocritical. Is hypocrisy anything else than saying something and

doing the opposite? Isn‟t hypocrisy to pretend to be humble and at the

same time be pompous and project knowledgeable opinions about all

things! That reminds me of those priests and bishops that are flattered to

be called “your holiness” and “your highness” and at the same time

pretend to be humble. Scribes and Pharisees! Let‟s move on.


-Does it sometimes happen that you wake up suddenly at night due to a

chocking sensation in your throat that makes you jump out of bed?

-Oh yes, especially lately. And I also feel a smarting sensation in my

throat.

-Do you easily wake up in the morning?

-No, I never did. It was hard for me to wake up at 5 a.m., very hard.

-But if you sleep many hours and you wake up late in the morning do you

feel…

-Refreshed?

-No! I mean if you feel worse instead of better.

-No, no, I feel better.

-So, you feel better…

-But even now I just can‟t sleep long hours.

-How many children did you say you have?

-I have two daughters.

33

We cut the hearing for comments. As you must have noticed I cut to the

chase and go straight to reconfirmation questions because I am already

very certain that she is most probably a Lachesis case. In addition, I have

spent enough time fighting her loquacity and little doubt is left to me

about her idiosyncrasy. That‟s why I suddenly ask her if she has aversion

tight clothes or if she wakes up with a chocking sensation at night or if

she feels tired when sleeping long hours. All these are strong Lachesis

characteristics.

-But she was negative about that last one…

-Yes but she probably wakes up tired because due to her work and family

matters she sleeps late at night, has to wake up very early and does not

get enough sleep. Anyway, that doesn‟t mean that a certain person has to

have all the characteristics of an idiosyncrasy in order to match it. Even if

some parts of a puzzle are absent that doesn‟t erase the whole picture.

Why do you think I ask about how many children she has? Don‟t forget

that on entering my office and on asking about my children she already

told me that she has two daughters. I am not that forgetful and certainly I

am not asking for reasons of social conversation. No! I just open a

conversation to this certain matter because I want to confirm what I have

already suspected: that she is an overprotective “Mrs. Kate” mother.

That‟s why I ask her!

And as you will further see I do it in an indirect way because it would be

foolish and wrong to ask her directly: “Are you overprotective to your

children?” It would seem as an accusation and she wouldn‟t answer

sincerely. Let‟s go on.


-How old are your daughters?

34

-The one is 27 and the other 22 years old.

-Even if they are grownups now, are you still worried about them?

-Oh yes! Very much, very much!

-Even when they go out and are slightly late?

-Yes, yes, of course!

-Even now that they are grownups do you still tell them “Eat!”, “Dress

well!” and “Be careful!”?

-Yes! If their husbands aren‟t nice to them or if they don‟t indulge them I

get angry and upset, yes, yes, yes!

-When facing problems or misfortunes do you often feel the need to draw

comfort from faith in God or from praying?

-Yes, yes, yes! That is indeed my comfort, my refuge! But lately my heart

is frozen. I find no joy in anything while in the past I was happy even

from little things. I was so much enjoying my life and feeling nice. I could

be easily pleased. But now joy is a rare thing.

-I see.

-Recently my first grandchild was born. My husband wasn‟t there to see

it, he didn‟t make it! I felt a great coldness in my heart. There are times of

course that I feel joy, there are some times indeed the last six months, but

most times I feel nothing.

Again, it‟s time for conversation and evaluation of what she said. There

are so many comments on my part that in the end you„ll consider me a

great gossiper! (laughing) Now, watch carefully! We have already

confirmed that she interferes to everything; to her children and I say even

to her grandchildren or even to her son in laws.

She is around 60 years old, has raised her children, her children start

giving birth to her grandchildren and still she wants to interfere to her

children‟s and grandchildren‟s life! Not out of altruism! This is a clear

35

case of tendency for domination. She may project this tendency covered

in a veil of “pathological love” for her family but I just don‟t buy it. This

is all crab to me! Just bullshit! This may seem on my part as

insensitiveness but my job is to have a clear sharp mind and see things as

they are and not believe to false fairy tales that people project to others. If

I am tricked by the patient I simply won‟t be able to help him.

Another thing about her: Religious hypocrisy! She said about faith in

God: “Yes, yes, yes! That is indeed my comfort, my refuge!” If I

“translate” it correctly she isn‟t the woman that has a true faith. She is the

one that pretends and shows off that she is a true believer. Being a true

believer and being a hypocrite believer are two different and in fact

opposite things. Again we come across her syphilitic ability to pervert

things. Let me ask you another thing: Is her heart “frozen” as she says?

-Her heart frozen?

-Yes, that‟s what she said. Is her emotion flat? Does she need Psorinum?

Because if she is indeed as she says she may need Psorinum.

-No, I don‟t believe she is like that.

-Could she be Sepia who also can‟t find joy in anything and her emotion

is flat? Is her heart frozen?

-No.

-How frozen is her heart? I insist asking. I want evaluation from you. Is

she frozen emotionally at grade 0, 1, 2 or 3? Be careful! Never investigate

things only by your mind. Use also your heart and your whole existence.

It‟s not only what a person tells you that matters! It‟s also how he says it!

Does this person look “frozen” emotionally to you? Good God, no! From

the minute she entered my office she hasn‟t stopped talking, laughing,

expressing emotions, accusing others and communicating! Only because

she used the terms “depression”, “melancholy” or “my heart is frozen”

should we accept it? No! For God‟s sake, no!

-But what about her attitude towards her first grandchild? She does not

want it and doesn‟t feel love towards it!

36

-Come on! Give me a break, will you! She may say whatever she likes! I

don‟t buy it! I bet she is as overprotective to her grandchild as she is to

her daughters.

-I am also sure that she interferes a lot.

-You bet! She is a natural at it! It‟s in her blood! It‟s in her idiosyncrasy.

She just can‟t help it! Let me be clear again. I am not accusing this

woman right now. I don‟t have any negative feelings towards her. I am a

Sherlock Holmes right now dressed as a doctor. I try to be unbiased in

order to “strip” her from lies and see the truth unmasked in order to help

her.

It‟s true that my expressions may seem slang or even vulgar to some of

you but I must be sharp and emphasizing in order to give you the truth

and nothing but the truth, in order to penetrate not only the veil of her

illusions but also the veil of your illusions too! Am I clear enough? I

think I am!

If we accept what she tells us, if we are deceived by her false syphilitic

image and her projected false intentions then we are screwed. We„ve lost

the case! We will prescribe a psoric medicine instead of a syphilitic one.

We will prescribe for example Pulsatilla or Phosphor instead of Lachesis.

And thus we won‟t be able to help her. And if we are sincere to ourselves

we must never say “Homeopathy didn‟t help you!” but instead we ought

to say “I couldn‟t help you!”

During this case taking I haven‟t followed the usual procedure: general

physical questions, general psychological questions, reconfirmation

questions. She was so loquacious and such a typical homeopathic picture

that she forced me first to confirm that she is Lachesis as I have suspected

from the very beginning. Then I proceeded to the usual physical questions

just in case I missed something or just in case she was a relative to

Lachesis idiosyncrasy but not Lachesis.

37

The very analysis of this case is done right now, live, in front of you. I

haven‟t listen to this hearing before our discussion and this recording

happened some days or weeks ago. Let‟s go on.


-Are you hot or cold in general?

-I don‟t like heat. I can stand cold and feel better in cold than in heat.

-I see.

-When I turn on the heater even slightly I want to sleep with windows

open.

-How about irritability? Do you easily get angry?

-Irritability? I was never irritable!

-Never?

-Never, ever! Not even in my menopause phase.

-Did you have flashes of heat during your menopause?

-Yes, I had plenty, yes, and for too long. Now I feel angry; a certain kind

of anger.

-Why so? You are angry about what?

-I get angry on trifles.

-Do you express your anger?

-No, no!

I just can‟t help interrupting the hearing. What did she just say? She said

that she is angry about trifles while a minute ago she said that she was

“never, ever” irritable! This is a clear inconsistency. Our goal as doctors

is to find out why she has this inconsistency. Is she idiot? Is she

38

dementing? Or is she a syphilitic idiosyncrasy saying other things and

doing other? Our patient is definitely not stupid or suffering from

dementia. On the contrary she is very smart and even cunning. Thus, as a

result we end up considering this inconsistency as a syphilitic behavior

and especially as a Lachesis behavior.

What else have I noted down in the form of rubrics? “Worried about her

children 3”, “Overprotective 3”, “Religious hypocrisy 3”, “worse heat 2”,

“history of flashes during menopause 2”. The last one is also a Lachesis

symptom. Now, what about irritability? I note down “Irritability 2”,

“Expresses her anger 2”, no matter what she says. Let‟s move on.


-I may get angry with the baby; my daughter‟s baby is now 26 months

old. I adore it! She is… she is the light of my life, I could say! Ok, it will

be naughty at times, but then what can I say to a baby?

-Right.

-You see I get angry and so I avoid letting my daughter bring it to me for

babysitting, but on the other hand I feel bad about it.

-Do you easily cry?

-Yes, yes.

-Will this happen also in front of others?

-I try to avoid it, but when I am alone I cry a lot.

Comments, please! She said: “She is the light of life!” Wow! Aren‟t such

exaggerated statements a characteristic of syphilitic individuals? If she is

“the light of her life” how come she avoids babysitting it? Because the

baby, the “light of her life”, makes her angry! You see, Lachesis creates a

vicious circle and in the end she is trapped herself into it. On the one hand

39

she suppresses others and on the other hand she is suppressed by these

relations.

It‟s what happens with the shepherd and the sheep. He enslaves them in

order to make money and at the same time he becomes their slave since

they depend totally on him and he must therefore satisfy all their needs.

Perpetrator and victim caught in the same spider net woven by the

perpetrator.

She is overprotective and repressive to her grandchildren but she is tired

and wants to find a moments peace also. But how can she avoid “the light

of her life”, as she frequently says to her daughter, thus giving her the

right to ask for baby-sitting all the time? So she tries to find excuses to

avoid babysitting, for example that she is tired or sick.

Someone could say: “Come on! Isn‟t she human? Doesn‟t she have the

right to rest as any human being could ask? Give me a break, man! You

are the one who is exaggerating right now!” Well, sorry but that‟s not the

right diagnostic attitude on the part of the doctor! It‟s not my job to

participate in a conversation with her about her excuses. I am not a judge

and it‟s not my concern to find who is more right than the other, she or

others around her.

I am a doctor. My sole aim is to take an objective picture of my patient.

To diagnose what‟s his trap and prescribe that similar medicine that will

help him get out of his trap. If he wants to get out, of course! So, it‟s not

my job to empathize with her or to give her right or wrong. It‟s not my

job to fight alongside her against the “unjust society” and “vain life”!

What really interests me is to diagnose that she is exaggerating and that

this may point out Lachesis. Let‟s go on.


40

-You are also very emotional, aren‟t you?

-Yes.

-So easily moved?

-Yes, I do!

Let me interrupt again. I seem to be doing a great mistake at the moment.

I always keep telling you that during case taking we don‟t guide the

patient by asking for example “You are emotional, aren‟t you?” Instead I

always tell you to ask in a more general way like “Are you emotional or

not?” So, why on earth, am I doing the opposite from what I told you?

I do it on purpose because I have already reached with great certainty to

my diagnosis and the only thing I aim at is to give her a push, a motive,

an excuse to take out her exaggeration. I induce her to play the role of the

victim! This will reconfirm my original diagnosis of her syphilitic

miasma and her Lachesis essence.

She may be a cunning fox but I have to be more cunning for the sake of

true diagnosis. Pulsatilla is the true emotional idiosyncrasy, thus she has

nothing to do with this behavior because this is a syphilitic behavior.

Pulsatilla is on the contrary psoric regarding ideas and principles and

sycotic regarding expression. See how valuable is the knowledge of

Miasmas when it comes to diagnosis and differential diagnosis? Shall we

move on? Ok, let‟s go.

-What about your personal problems, deep felt matters and misfortunes?

Do you want to talk about it, discuss it with others?

-No.

-None?

-Look! Let me tell you something. I never had friends and friendships.

41

-Why so?

-I always believed that nobody could be my friend the way I understand

friendship. For example some people confided to me their deep felt

matters and I never revealed it. I never trusted people. On the other hand,

I never had such close discussions with my husband.

Well, more comments. Is she introvert or extrovert?

-She is not extrovert.

-She says that she has no friends but the question is “Do you believe

her?”

-Well, I say that she is extrovert.

-You see, Lachesis may be also extrovert but usually she is introvert

because she is afraid that others may gossip about her. She is such a

gossiper herself that she believes that, as a rule, others do the same thing.

So she is suspicious most of the times. Let‟s move on.

-I see that you are very sensitive!

-Yes, doctor! Very, very sensitive!

-You keep thinking about all things; investigate all things, being fussy!

-Yes, damn me! Yes, a lot!

-Not just sensitive, but over-sensitive!

-Yes, yes doctor!

-So, as your doctor, what is it that I see in you after I have examined you?

I will tell you what I see to confirm that I got you right, that I understood

you well. I would say that many people are confused regarding your

personality. Those who are not so close to you, who don‟t know you well

may say “a very strong person” and may even say that you are even a bit

harsh. On the other hand, those who are very close to you, who know you

better may say: “What a sensitive person! She is oversensitive!”

42

I would say that they are both right in some way. How is this possible?

It‟s possible because you are both very strong intellectually but also very

sensitive emotionally. Mentally you are very strong; you have a quick,

effective thinking; very energetic and restless so if somebody forces you

not to do anything and rest you will get sick in a few days.

Your mind works at very high speed so it‟s always difficult for you to be

tuned with slow thinking people. Or when they are slow moving people. If

imagine that when you work with slow moving people you tend to do it all

by yourself. But, on the other hand, you are very sensitive emotionally.

You think a lot. You investigate things a lot. You deal a lot with little

things. You easily get upset with little things.

-Bravo! You are so right doctor! That‟s exactly who I am!

-And I think that you try very hard to be alright with yourself and all

others and when you discover that there are no mutual feelings and no

positive response then ingratitude drives you crazy! I would also say that

you are being very strict with yourself. You accept no excuses. You press

yourself a lot. I say all these in order to understand if I got you well.

-You are so right! You are so inside my mind!

It‟s time for comments. Sometimes at the end of my case taking, when I

have reached to a final conclusion I talk to my patient and tell him what I

have understood of him. I tell him what I think is his “essence”. I do this

for two reasons. First this is a special way to reconfirm my diagnosis and

secondly this reassures him that I really got him and this makes him feel

safe and hopeful for the outcome of our treatment. But, I try to be very

careful, that is, whenever I have to do with syphilitic persons that project

a different image from what they really are, what I say to them has to do

with what they project and not with what they really are.

-You mean that you tell them what they want to hear?

43

-Mostly yes! If you can‟t tell someone the bitter truth then you are in

some way forced to tell him his “own” truth. It may not seem a nice or

moral thing to do and that‟s why I do it only at the office as a mere

medical technique. My intention certainly isn‟t to grab her money. If my

intention was syphilitic and egoistic that would be immoral and

unacceptable. Only if my motive is to gain the patients trust, only If I

intend to use it for his own sake so as to be patient and cooperative, only

then am I excused to act like that.

Be careful! Lachesis is cunning and therefore she wants to have a smart

doctor standing opposite her. If I was that kind of doctor who made all

the time flattering comments in order to gain her as client she would have

said to herself: “Oh my God, what a slimy moron!” Don‟t you ever think

that patients are stupid just because we happen to know a few more things

about idiosyncrasies! What I have described is just a personal technique

of mine that is used strictly in specific cases and with moral intention. It‟s

time to proceed to the phase that we explain to our patient how he will

apply his treatment. Let‟s move on.


-Well, I told you my conclusion because…

-Yes, I know, yes…

-You had so much troubling you, they kept piling up and at the end you

collapsed.

-I knelt!

-Both physically and psychologically. And you know what? When you feel

tired due to psychological reasons this is worse than being tired from

physical exertion. You may dig for hours and not feel as exhausted as you

feel when you are stressed or upset.

-You know something, when I was helping my girls for the wedding

ceremony I was tired to the limits. I used to work night…

44

-I see.

-…then I slept for two hours and then I got up, went home and worked

like hell.

-In general you are a strong and active person but when somebody is

distressed…

-Yes, yes, now I am totally…

-I know…

-And I strongly believe that, that vertigo was… you see I was ready to get

better and that vertigo…

-I see…

-Homeopathy did help me but that vertigo was the death blow.

-I understand.

Let me stop for a minute. What I do at this point of examination is human

support. I say some things to show her that I understand her and support

her and I communicate emotionally with her. I try not to overdo it and not

to act in a strange or unaccepted way. As a rule I try to give explanations

to my patient about the causes of his disease, his present status of health

and what one can expect from my treatment. We must express ourselves

as doctors to the patients using simple terms and in a few words and

furthermore, in a human manner.

Many doctors speak in a scientific and very formal manner using

statistics and numbers and that‟s wrong. The patient wants clear and

simple explanations not lectures. Accordingly if I go to a lawyer I don‟t

want him to confuse me with legal terms and formal conversation. “Keep

it simple”, is always a very good rule. Let‟s move on.

1.15 Fixing the patient’s wrong conceptions

45

-Don‟t worry! We‟ll fix things. Don‟t worry!

-Yes, yes.

-I have seen this kind of problems been overcome by our treatment so

many times that I don‟t worry about it. I believe that as soon as the

“batteries” of your Nervous System are charged, you„ll do fine.

-My Nervous System… that‟s what I believe too doctor, my Nervous

System is completely ruined.

-We‟ll take care of it, don‟t worry.

-Are all these things caused by my thyroid?

-No.

-Does it have to do…?

-Don‟t be confused! It‟s simple. Your Nervous System collapsed and this

affects your thyroid and in turn this gland may affect your Nervous

System. It‟s a vicious circle. The one thing affects the other and so on.

Let me interrupt for an important comment. At this point I try to fix the

patient‟s wrong ideas about his health problems, wrong ideas that

Allopathic Medicine inserted into her mind. She tells me: “Are all these

things caused by my thyroid?” Being homeopathic doctors we are aware

of the Law of Hierarchy and the Law of the Whole. Imbalance and illness

begin from up downwards but secondarily the malfunction of a lower

organ can, in turn, affect the function of higher organs. So I explained to

her this law in a few simple words without insisting on theoretical

matters.

You see, wrong ideas and opinions about reality can and may cause

imbalance and illness if they are combined with other causes of illness.

Many people think that ideas are just words that have no effect on the

material body but this is totally wrong. When you have a wrong program

or a virus in your computer doesn‟t this cause malfunction to your

system? How can this not be of significance when it comes to wrong

46

ideas fixed into our psyche and brain? There are consequences for every

wrong idea that lies into our psyche and brain. When I say “wrong” I

always mean any deviation from normal, from natural.

That‟s the reason why during our first lectures we‟ve talked about

Universal Laws and how they can be used to judge if something is natural

and normal or not. Using these laws in three special lectures we have also

traced what is normal or abnormal in family, affairs and sexuality and

gave examples of how our false ideas can create problems, imbalance and

illness.

For example this certain woman has wrong ideas and attitude towards her

family and children. She has that domineering attitude, wants to control

everything and decide about everything and becomes overprotective.

Doesn‟t that affect her psychology and body function? Doesn‟t that affect

her children? It certainly does!

The etiological chain of Illness, as we‟ve many times said, is: Intentions,

Desires, Miasmas, Idiosyncrasy, Mental Patterns, External Conditions,

etc. Do you think that all these are theoretical without any practical

value? I don‟t think so! I‟ve already given you a specific example, an

individual case in which all these play a significant role; in fact, a very

important role! For example, we‟ve used all these in diagnosis when

judging if she is really tired or not; if she is “Mrs. Kate” or not; if she is

faking or not. It‟s time to move on.


-This weariness I feel, this weakness…

-It‟s definitely psychological.

-Psychological?

-Definitely psychological. When…

47

-Isn‟t it caused by my thyroid?

-No! It‟s clearly psychological.

-Isn‟t it caused by the nodules of my thyroid?

-No, it‟s not caused by your thyroid since your blood tests show clearly

that your thyroid hormone levels are normal. So, your thyroid‟s function

is normal and cannot affect your psychology. Your thyroid hormone

levels are normal; only the levels of your anti-thyroid antibodies are

slightly increased. There is no problem regarding the function of your

thyroid gland.

-I thought that maybe my thyroid was the problem…

-No! You may have nodules in your thyroid gland but they don‟t affect its

function, its hormones level.

-At the hospital they told me that I should be operated and have my

thyroid removed.

-I don‟t think that there is such a need if we take in consideration both

your test results and your condition. Moreover I expect you to be cured

by our treatment and avoid such unpleasant things.

It‟s time for comments. Let me ask you something: If I wasn‟t a medical

doctor and did not know how to evaluate her test results, her condition

and the medication she is on, how, on earth, could I treat her? Why

should he trust me? I must be a doctor to apply Homeopathy and in fact a

very good one. A good homeopath must first be a good medical doctor.

This is absolutely necessary because Homeopathy is Medicine after all.

Whenever a patient comes to us we have to treat him as a whole

according to our homeopathic laws. We have to treat both his mind and

his body. How can we act as some homeopaths or even as some

homeopathic doctors do, and say “I will only ask you if you are cold or

not, if you like sweets and if you are irritable. If you have any diseases

and physical symptoms or for anything that has to do with tests or drugs

48

you should consult an allopathic doctor!” Is that Homeopathy? No! Is that

Medical Practice? Of course not!

Let me tell you something. Let‟s suppose that our patient has tachycardia

and great irritability that are caused by his hyperthyroidism. If I am not a

medical doctor and I am not aware of this, then I could consider these

symptoms as idiosyncratic characteristics of my patient and prescribe a

wrong homeopathic remedy.

Furthermore, if I am not a medical doctor how can I evaluate if he really

needs the chemical drugs that he takes for his thyroid? And if he doesn‟t

need them how can I take the responsibility to gradually stop it? Isn‟t my

medical duty to overcome any obstacle that obstructs my treatment? How

can I cure any person if he takes chemical drugs that not only he doesn‟t

need but on top they cause him a pharmaceutical hyperthyroidism?

These drugs may not spoil the energy action of my homeopathic remedies

but they cause an artificial disease to my patient and block his system. I

definitely have to be a medical doctor and a good one in order to diagnose

such obstacles and moreover to propose medical solutions. Let‟s move

on.


-So, you‟ll be taking my medicines as follows: You will have one separate

capsule and you will use it in the morning of the first day. After that

you‟ll have one flagon with 30 capsules from which you‟ll take one

capsule per day every morning five minutes before breakfast, on empty

stomach. This treatment will last for one month and you will consult me

again in about one month‟s time, see how things went and decide how to

proceed from that time on.

-Should I continue taking the drug given by the orthopecic?

49

-Yes, you should continue Glucosamine Sulphate, because it helps your

joints.

-I see, I can take it; because it helped me.

-Yes, there is no problem taking it together with our medicines.

-So, I can take it…

-It helps your joints and we don‟t have to do with some kind of drug with

severe side effects.

-What about those drops that is for the swelling of my feet? My feet

become enormous…

-I will take care of your feet, don‟t burden your organism with too much

drugs.

-Ok. It‟s just that I have this flagon full of such drugs… should I toss it

away?

-I checked it and my opinion is that there is no need for it.

-I see, I see, OK.

Well, let me make some remarks. Again we come across the absolute

need that a homeopath should necessarily be a medical doctor and a good

one. She places on my desk several chemical drugs that she already uses.

I have to decide for her. Should she continue them? Are they really

needed? Do they help her or not? Do they have severe side effects or not?

Can all these be combined with my homeopathic treatment or not?

In this specific case I told her to continue the drug given for her joints

because it didn‟t have severe side effects on the one hand and it could

give some help to her joints on the other hand and later on, if she

improved we could stop it. I told her to stop taking the other drug given

for the swelling of her feet because I knew from my experience that not

only it wouldn‟t help her but it also had some severe side effects. You

see, there are some drugs that you can stop from the beginning of the

50

treatment, some that must be stopped gradually and some few ones that

it‟s wrong to stop. How can you decide about such things if you aren‟t a

doctor?

And what, on earth, is this ridiculous conception: “I am a homeopath but

I am not a doctor!” How can you practice medicine without being a

medical doctor? Would it seem a normal thing to you if somebody told

you: “I teach kids but I am not a teacher!” or “I fix cars but I am not a

mechanic!” or “I will built a house for you but I am not a civil engineer!”

or “Get on my plane but let me tell you that I am not a pilot!” (laughing)

It‟s very important that the doctor is approachable. You have to be. You

have to have the patience to explain in simple words to the patient what to

do, when to do it and how to do it. Some doctors say: “My job is to write

it down to you and the pharmacist will explain all about it”. It‟s as if they

are telling the patient: “Hey, lady, don‟t bother me with such little stuff

because I am a great doctor and I don‟t have time to explain such little

things to stupid people!”

You see, we must as doctors realize that we have a human being facing us

and asking our help. It‟s true that sometimes some patients are indeed “a

pain in the ass”, but still they are patients, that is, suffering people and we

have to have patience. Let‟s go on.

-There is a slight possibility, when you take the first capsule, during the

first hours or few days to have a headache or feel sleepy. I say that to you

so as to expect it and not worry about it. This is not a side effect. On the

contrary it‟s a very good sign for me that our treatment has begun. We

name this “Therapeutic Aggravation” and if it doesn‟t happen that don‟t

mean that you are not going to get well. It‟s not necessary to happen and

in fact most of the times it doesn‟t happen.

51

Therapeutic Aggravation can only cause what I‟ve already told you and it

can never aggravate psychological symptoms. It affects only physical

symptoms and only those that you already have. It‟s never a problem

because it quickly passes off and gives place to general improvement both

physical and psychological. You will call me in two weeks‟ time to inform

me how are you going on and in one month‟s time I will see you again in

my office. Ok?


So, that‟s what case taking is all about. Let me tell you something. As

you will find out during our hearings to come, I usually use standard

questions during case taking and standard explanations to the patient

regarding how to follow the treatment. Life, experience and routine force

you to act in a rather standard way. But, most of the times, it‟s not what

you say that matters but how you say it and who you are. Words are

communication signs. It‟s who uses it that gives color and brightness to it.

As you must have noticed case taking as I see it, is a complete allopathic

and homeopathic examination. It includes present disease, pathography,

test results, medications, homeopathic case taking and the art of human

communication. That is how I do things and that is what I propose to you

to do. Any questions?

-If I examine a person that I know well, then it‟s easy to see his

inconsistencies and from his past life to know if what he says is as he

says it is. But when I am to examine a stranger, a person that I see for the

first time then you definitely must have some great experience in order to

say “things aren‟t the way he presents it to be”.

-On the contrary I tell you that when you examine a close friend it‟s even

harder to be objective! That‟s because you have already a picture in your

mind that is not always unbiased. Your emotions are involved most of the

times and they don‟t let you see clearly. On the other hand, when you

examine a stranger there is a lack of any emotional interference and you

tend to be more objective.

52


So, when you‟ll become well acquainted with human idiosyncrasies,

you‟ll be surprised to see that your mother, father, wife and kids aren‟t as

you‟ve imagined! And I do hope it will be a nice surprise and not a

terrible one! (laughing) All these people that we see in our office, for

example the “Mrs. Kate” Lachesis, the cruel Arsenicum or the psychotic

Hyoscyamus, are indeed people that “live among us”.

These people are the parents of some of us, or the kids of some of us or

the companions of some of us. Moreover these idiosyncrasies affect also

us and “live inside us”. It‟s not something that affects only others! It

definitely affects us also! You see doctors aren‟t excluded from illusion

and illness! (laughing)

1.20 The question is: “What are your motives when you learn or

teach Homeopathy?”

Each and every one is affected by illusions. Psoric persons have psoric

illusions that aren‟t in general less illusive than sycotic or syphilitic

illusions. Today, our hearing had to do with a syphilitic person and it may

seem a kind of an extreme case to you, much different from your illusions

because it happens that most of you are psoric persons. But nobody is

excluded from illusion if you happen to live on planet Earth!

Nevertheless, it‟s not accidental that in the beginning of these lectures

there were plenty more students from all miasmas and now most of you

left are psoric persons.

This is not accidental. Up to a point it has much to do with the way I

teach Homeopathy. For example, a syphilitic person would like to learn

Homeopathy in order to dominate others and gain money and fame and

not in order to heal and help others. Moreover he would have liked to

learn it quickly and superficially and he wouldn‟t stand me talking for

53

hours about philosophy and Universal Laws and ethics and all those un-

profitable things that I dwell on. Apart from that I didn‟t promise any

fancy diplomas to you so what motive do I give him so as to have the

patience to withstand my busting his balls with philosophies? (laughing)

Anyway, I made it quite clear to you from the beginning of this course

that I promise you nothing else but to do my best to transfer to you

everything I know about Homeopathy. If I wanted to take advantage of

you in any way I would have done it like some other homeopathic

teachers do. I would have promised fancy diplomas, I would have filled

your heads with promises for money and glory or I would have promised

that you will become my close associates. I could also have flattered you

in order to become my fans.

Being an experienced homeopathic doctor I have the ability to diagnose

the idiosyncrasies and miasmas that affect you and I could easily

manipulate you. I would promise money to the greedy one, fame to the

ambitious one, ideals to the idealist, religion to the religious one, security

to the insecure one and so on. I wouldn‟t do anything different from what

politics, salesmen and “gurus” of any kind do to their “clients”.

On the contrary, from the first minute I took care to give you

counterincentives by saying in a straight and clear way: “I will give you

any knowledge I have about Homeopathy and as long as I am in the mood

to do it. You‟ll get no diplomas of any kind from me. You aren‟t going to

be my associates when you complete the course and you‟ll have to be

independent. I will help you as much and as long as I can, I don‟t want

any money of yours and then you‟ll be on yourselves”. In fact I do

wonder why you are still here listening to me! (laughing)

I am not interested in manipulating you and taking advantage of you. I

was treated that way when studying Homeopathy and I don‟t want to

make the same mistake either to myself or to you. I have one more reason

54

to avoid any “business co-operations” with you. I am afraid of my egoism

and ambition and I don‟t want to become just another “great professor-

guru” sucking money and ambition out of you. In a few words, I don‟t

want “to become a caliph instead of another caliph” as “Is-No-Good”

wants to become in the homonymous comic. (laughing)

Don‟t forget that most of those who have been trained hardly and cruelly

as trainee soldiers become hard and cruel trainers in the end. Also, most

repressed people often become the worst repressors later on and many

poor people become the most scrounge nouveau riches and so on.

That‟s why I try to speak straight and clear to you. I think that this is the

best for you and primarily for me. Even if some of you don‟t have the

ability or the will or the time to become homeopathic doctors I really

don‟t give a dime about it! It‟s up to you! At least, I did enjoy teaching

you!


As our first clinical case I must admit that I have chosen a long and

characteristic case. Due to her loquacity you may have become a little

tired and dizzy. But that was her main idiosyncratic characteristic:

loquacity and especially syphilitic loquacity. In fact it was a typical

Lachesis loquacity that you‟ll never forget! How can you! (laughing)

-She didn‟t say any specific physical symptoms like specific pains, etc.

-We were not interested about such symptoms.

-Moreover we haven‟t asked her about her physical symptoms.

-Why should I? She didn‟t have any symptoms leading to the diagnosis of

a specific physical disease. Moreover, from the homeopathic point of

view why should I ask in details her physical symptoms? What good

would it make to me regarding diagnosis of her idiosyncrasy? I practice

55

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis as a method of homeopathic

diagnosis. I don‟t do Repertorising!

If I did Repertorising dwelling on her physical symptoms, it would have

been as if I had a treasure full of gold in front of me and I had picked that

bronze worthless bijou and looked at it amazed with that stupid happy

expression on my face. If I started asking “How is your pain? When do

you have it? What makes it worse or better?” then I would have lost my

focusing. I would have lost my concentration on that ocean of

characteristic valuable mental symptoms and non-verbal clues that this

person presented from the first minute she entered my office. So, why

choose faux bijou when I have in front of me real diamonds?

Furthermore, if I dealt with her physical symptoms, her being such a

syphilitic and inconsistent person, she would have given me such

incredible answers that I would end up in false diagnosis. Or I would end

up prescribing a superficial idiosyncrasy based mostly on physical

symptoms and I would have lost the diagnosis of her true miasmatic

idiosyncratic nature. Therapeutic results would have been superficial or

none.

If I focused on her physical symptoms or disease I would have given her

Rhus Toxicodendron or Bryonia as the previous homeopathic doctor did

and accomplished partial alleviation but not constitutional treatment. Or if

I didn‟t focus on her miasmatic background I would have done the same

mistake as the previous doctor who prescribed Ignatia 1M for her based

on the fake secondary picture of the “hurt and disappointed victim of life

cruel circumstances”. And I would have prescribed again and again,

Ignatia 1M, Ignatia 10M and so on.

Can you picture the dead end that faces any doctor that hasn‟t got the

correct attitude and technique regarding homeopathic case taking? In

order to have correct diagnosis and good therapeutic results you have to

56

have the right attitude, correct theory, true knowledge of the

idiosyncrasies and the right technique. As Hippocrates said Medicine is

both Art and Science.

Let me tell you something else. To be honest, I would be deadly bored if I

did Repertorising like a robot asking this specific physical symptom and

then that and then look at the Repertory or at the Computer Expert

System and then back to the physical symptoms and so on.

A man is but his soul! A man is not his body! I am interested in grabbing

him from the throat and strip him of all his fake images and see straight

right into his mind and soul through his eyes. And say: “What are you?

What kind of a man are you, for God sake?” And the answer would be his

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Identity! And the medicine that I would give him

would cure him in depth. I wouldn‟t care to judge him the least and I

would respect him the most but I wouldn‟t buy his crab. I wouldn‟t care

about his bronze bijou. I would only be interested in his gold and

diamonds!

Whenever I have a patient in front of me I feel that I have a unique

individual facing me; a special human being; a puzzle to be solved by me.

True homeopathic knowledge gives me the incredible ability to read his

mind and soul, to see his malfunctions, to see the causes of his imbalance.

This gives me the incredible chance to learn from his mistakes and not to

do the same mistakes myself. Got it?

This is what is “magic” in Homeopathy; this is what is “magic” to my

eyes! When you refuse Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Homeopathy and choose

Repertory, then magic changes into masturbation; a mental masturbation!

(laughing) Repertorising resembles mechanic masturbation while

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis resembles a complete psychosomatic

orgasm! What would you like to choose for you? (laughing)

57

That‟s why I often say that there are as many Christianizes as many

Christians; as many loves as many lovers; and as many Homeopathies as

many homeopathic doctors. If you want light you have to earn it. If you

want to stay in the dark you just don‟t have to do anything.

1.22 If you don’t remain moral then your knowledge is lost

You must realize that if you didn‟t have the will and patience to listen and

assimilate the past 19 long lectures then you wouldn‟t be able to

understand and enjoy today‟s analysis of this live clinical case. There is a

certain line of hierarchy in all things. I couldn‟t just start your training

with analysis of clinical cases. What would I analyze if you didn‟t know

anything about Universal Laws and nothing about the fact that Illness is

caused by the violation of these laws.

If we haven‟t discussed thoroughly the causes of Illness and haven‟t

referred to miasmas and human idiosyncrasies you wouldn‟t be able to

fully understand why and how Lachesis causes psychosomatic illness to

this specific woman of our case. If we haven‟t talked about what is

normal and abnormal behavior in a family how could understand the

pathology of this woman? You wouldn‟t understand the syphilitic and

domineering attachment of this mother to her children.

Furthermore if I didn‟t insist that the attitude of any doctor should be

moral and natural according to Universal Laws you would be in danger of

being manipulated by me and you would be facing the temptation of

manipulating your patients. And I would be in danger of manipulating

you and becoming a homeopathic “guru”. This homeopathic knowledge

that is moral, natural and positive would have easily turned into an art of

manipulating patients and people for money, glory and fans.

58

But, as people say: “Nature revenges! And this is done through the

Universal Law of Action and Reaction. Believe me! Many homeopathic

doctors started with good intentions and became very good healers but as

their intentions became immoral due to money and fame, they lost their

true knowledge and the ability to diagnose correctly.

Such a tragic case is the one we came across today. The homeopathic

doctor that this woman attended was a colleague of mine many years ago.

He was a nice young man then with true moral intentions and enthusiasm.

He was taught true Homeopathy from my teacher and from me since I

was older than him. But then after years he lost the path and ended up

giving to this woman who is a typical clear case of Lachesis, Rhus

Toxicodendron 30CH ten capsules two per day or Ignatia 1M and again

Ignatia 10M and again and again!

He knew Lachesis well, he was taught well, he knew the homeopathic

laws, he was taught the true art of case taking… he knew it all! But in the

process of life he lost his morality and so he lost his clear thinking. If

your heart is confused then your mind is also confused! Easy come, easy

go! Or to be more precise regarding true knowledge and wisdom we

should say: “With great difficulty come, easy go!”

You haven‟t studied Homeopathy theoretically more than a year and you

have only seen a few cases in my office but I believe that it was easy for

you to identify this typical Lachesis image even from the very beginning

of the case taking. But, that experienced doctor after consulting her for

months could not see this thing and give her Lachesis. What can I say!

Whom God wish to ruin he first drives mad!

Can you realize that you may be in front of a huge elephant and think that

he is an ant bear just because they both have a trunk? This happens when

you seem to see but you don‟t see. That‟s why I say again and again that

since homeopathic doctor is the measuring device of the soul and body of

59

the patient, if he is to reach a correct diagnosis he has to be well tuned

and calibrated.

I am really glad that we‟ve reached this point of theoretical knowledge

because from now on every time you‟ll hear a recorded live case or every

time you examine a patient you‟ll know that true theory is not a waste and

is fundamental for any practice.

Your training may have been done without a prescheduled program,

nevertheless, it was carried out according to my experience and according

to the Universal Laws of Hierarchy and Whole. It was imperative that

first you had to listen to theory and philosophy and then get acquainted

with the true pictures of homeopathic idiosyncrasies. Then it was time for

homeopathic case taking and now it‟s time for analysis of clinical cases.

What follows is the clinical practice next to me in my office and then on

your own. That is the correct hierarchical order of things.

Let me remind you that I taught you Repertorising only at our last

theoretical lecture and stressed to you that I only use it for acute

conditions side by side with Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis. So, that‟s

its place and usefulness. Last, alternative and supplementary! Toes are

one thing, brain is another and soul is another. There is a hierarchy in all

things and we must not violate it. Or else you‟ll have to do with the

Universal Law of Hierarchy and its anger! (laughing)

I know I have become loquacious but please don‟t give me Lachesis…

(laughing). I assure you that this is another kind of loquacity! (laughing).

It‟s a psoric loquacity regarding ideas but also a sycotic regarding

expression. I understand that you‟ve already started making guesses about

my idiosyncrasy… but what can I do! Some things are just inevitable! So

sleep on it! (more laughing)

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CHAPTER 2

A CASE OF VALERIANA



2.2 Present Disease





2.7 Tracing possible idiosyncrasies by Miasmatic Idiosyncratic

Diagnosis






Good Evening! Before we go on with more clinical cases I will make a

digression; as you must have already noticed it must be an idiosyncratic

characteristic of mine. (laughing)

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Last night I woke up at 3 a.m. and started thinking; you see that‟s not

something unusual for me. It must be my inspiration time. (laughing) It is

probably one more idiosyncratic trait of mine.

It so happened that a question crossed my mind: “What‟s Homeopathy?”

You are so damn right if you tell me: “Good Lord! After 25 years of

homeopathic practice, how on earth, can you think of such questions?”

Well, it doesn‟t seem strange to me because Homeopathy is a great part

of my life not just as a profession but also as philosophy and way of life.

Let me go on. An analogy crossed my mind. There was “Granny”

Medicine prevailing until 1850 A.D. Granny Medicine was a person with

principles and strict morality. Think of her as a psoric combination of

Natrum Muriaticum and Nux Vomica. She believed in the principles of

Hippocrates, practiced herbal medicine and was very strict about ethical

matters; she also didn‟t have much relation with Technology. So she was

very idealistic and also very conservative, finding it difficult to adjust to

technological evolutions.

Around 1850 A.D, her daughter “Mother” Medicine, that is, Modern

Medicine, being at her puberty, reacted strongly against her mother. She

was a syphilitic combination of Lachesis and Platina. She thought that she

had the ability and strength to change Medicine and Humanity in general.

She had an aversion for tradition, past ideals and conservative methods of

diagnosis and treatment. She was in favor of quick, drastic and promising

new treatments. She studied thoroughly the human body, invented

technological diagnostic tests, discovered bacteria and promised that she

would annihilate all human diseases and even overcome aging. She was

so confident and even arrogant; she started playing God!

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One must admit that she did wonderful things in many fields: modern

diagnostic tests, transplantations, operations and drastic chemical drugs

for every disease. These modern drugs stopped symptoms immediately

but did not cure chronic problems because they were simply suppressing

diseases causing many severe side effects.

Then it was time for “Grandchild” Medicine that is, Holistic Medicine to

make their debut. She had genes both from their mother and grandmother.

She was inspired by the ideals, laws and principles of her grandmother

but was also fond of technology and evolution. Being young, enthusiastic

and idealistic she now wants to renew Medicine. That‟s what

Homeopathy and Holistic Medicine is for me; the renewal of Medicine.

Homeopathy is not just a new kind of herbal medicine since it acts on the

Energy-Etheric Level, thus effecting deeper therapeutic results.

Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry have entered the energy Era the last

100 years while Modern Medicine is still dealing only with the Material

Level. It‟s time for Modern Medicine to enter the energy Era also through

the push from Energy Holistic Medicines like Homeopathy and

Acupuncture.

It so happen, of course that Homeopathy, the Grandchild Medicine is still

going through her puberty. It may move on to something revolutionary or

it may adjust to the system, as most teenagers do and become that typical,

conservative “Greek Mother” resembling Allopathic Medicine!

(laughing) It‟s up to us homeopathic doctors!

I gave my answer to my question “What‟s Homeopathy?” It‟s about time

to give your answer, each and every one of you. What‟s Homeopathy for

you? It‟s also time for you to wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning

philosophizing! (laughing)

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Now, let‟s move on to our second hearing of a live clinical case. The

procedure is as follows: we start hearing the recorded case and you note

down rubrics and comments that we shall discuss whenever we stop the

hearing for discussion. Next time I will give you a paper of mine with the

abbreviations of symptoms, diseases and usual rubrics. I will also give

you a list of usual rubrics and what idiosyncrasies usually have these

rubrics at grade 3 or 2. It‟s seems like a brief Repertory but please use it

only as I told you that we use Repertory: only as a reminder.

If you use it any other way I won‟t do anything to you until I die. Then I

will get up from my grave and haunt your office telling to your patients:

“He practices Allopathic Homeopathy! Run for your life!” (laughing)

2.2 Present Disease

Let‟s move on. This clinical case is about a young woman 25 years old.

In the waiting room I usually address my new patients using the plural

but when entering my office and after greetings I don‟t speak in a formal

manner so as to help my patient feel comfortable. That doesn‟t mean that

I stop being polite and discreet. Let‟s go on.

-Well, what brings you to me?

-Acne rosacea, as my dermatologist told me.

-Since when?

-Four years.

-Did you take any drugs or are you still taking?

-I‟ve tried several ointments and at times I‟ve used antibiotics but nothing

worth mentioning happened.

-Any other health problems?

-No, nothing worth telling you.

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-What about your menses. Is it normal?

-Yes.

-Have you done any hormonal tests?

-Yes and they were normal. My gynecologist did ultrasound to me but

there were no polycystic ovaries. Everything was normal.


-I see. Before going on I would like to tell you a few words about your

case and what we can do about it with Homeopathy from my experience.

Acne rosacea differs a lot from common acne. Common acne happens

during puberty to most teenagers and most of the times isn‟t a troubling

and insisting situation. On the contrary acne rosacea happens many

years after puberty and is a rare and more troubling disease. There is

always a skin predisposition as a background that is irritated at a certain

time giving chronic symptoms.

So, if we prescribe antibiotics we merely suppress temporarily the

symptoms and the bacteria growth but we don‟t cure the fertile ground

for the development of the bacteria so the disease keeps relapsing. A

similar thing happens if we give hormonal treatment or other drastic

chemical drugs which again suppress merely the symptoms or the

disease. Not only we keep having relapses but we may suffer from their

severe side effects. It‟s always important not to go fix the “body of the

car” and damage “the engine”.

Unfortunately, nowadays, most chemical drugs merely suppress the

symptoms or even worse the disease but don‟t achieve causative

treatment. If you enter any common pharmacy you will see at the shelves:

antitussive drugs for cough, antipyretic drugs for fever, antiemetic drugs

for vomiting, anti-inflammatory drugs for inflammations, antidepressant

drugs for depression and so on. Our aim in Homeopathy is not just to

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suppress symptoms or diseases but to cure the causes of Illness in general

so as to overcome diseases permanently.

I am a medical doctor, I was specialized in Homeopathy and I apply it the

last 25 years. From my experience such problems as yours can be cured

completely and permanently in most patients. This is done by balancing

the whole organism which in turn balances also the hormonal system.

You may wonder, of course, why any hormonal abnormalities haven‟t

been traced by the lab tests. This is not a rare thing, because normal

ranges of hormones are very wide and fluctuating all the time, so there

may be an imbalance that cannot be traced. Hormonal disorders affect

the secretion of sebaceous glands of the face thus creating a fertile

ground for acne. Subsequently, any external medication like for example

ointments are but a superficial treatment and not a curative one. We need

to act more internally and in a more causative way.

So, I will ask you several questions in order to identify your idiosyncrasy,

your personality, because in Homeopathy we always administer that

medicine which is similar not to your diseases but to your idiosyncrasy.

This homeopathic medicine will mobilize all therapeutic mechanisms of

your organism and thus balance you as a whole.

Homeopathic drugs are natural because they are prepared mainly from

minerals and plants but still they are not simply herbs or vitamins. They

are considered drugs, are prescribed by doctors and sold by pharmacies,

but, nevertheless they cause no side effects at all! They are so harmless

that can be given even to babies and pregnant women without second

thought or any special precaution.

Nor do we have any problem if during our treatment any other chemical

drug is needed. Homeopathic drugs act on the energy level and chemical

66

drugs act on the material level so there is no interference between them.

Nevertheless, the less chemical drugs with side effects a person makes use

of the better for his organism. At this point I will start asking you several

questions in order to decide what homeopathic medicine suits your

idiosyncrasy.

It‟s now time for discussion of the case. So there comes to me this 25

years old young woman with a history of acne rosacea the last 4 years.

She complained for nothing else so first I gave her a brief but necessary

introduction to Homeopathy since it‟s her first consultation regarding

Homeopathy. But even if she visited other homeopathic doctors in the

past, since there are so many weird and false ways of practicing

Homeopathy it is essential that I clear things out and present what is

correct from my point of view.

During this introduction we explain to the patient in simple words what is

it that he has and why allopathic treatment didn‟t help him. Then we go

on explaining how Homeopathy works and what‟s our experience

regarding treatment of his specific diseases. We also answer to the

question what are homeopathic medicines, how they work and if they

have any kind of side effects.

It‟s important that this introduction be done before to start asking about

his physical characteristics or personal matters. We have to explain to the

patient that we ask all these because we are interested in diagnosing his

idiosyncrasy apart from his disease and that this is a crucial thing in

Homeopathy because for each patient we administer the similar to his

idiosyncrasy homeopathic medicine.

From my experience this is a good way of making a working relation

between the doctor and the patient and then you can go asking anything

you want because a human contact has already been established. The

patient sees that he has in front of him a doctor that is human and

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approachable but at the same time well informed; that he cares to explain

to him all about his problems and that he knows well what he does and

has a certain program of treatment.

Furthermore he doesn‟t give him the impression of the arrogant scientist

that says: “I needn‟t explain anything to you because you don‟t have the

knowledge to understand; I am a great scientist and you know nothing;

don‟t ask much, just follow my orders, pay me and off you go!”

(laughing) Let‟s move on; it‟s time to start noting down what you

consider important.



-Cold.

-During winter time do you want much clothing or not?

-Yes I do, I do want much.

-What about your feet? Are they cold during winter?

-Very cold!

-Does it often happen that your feet are at the same time cold and

sweating during winter time?

-No.

-Does it often happen that if you go out after washing your hair without

drying it, to have headache or catch cold easily? I mean if you have a

very sensitive head regarding cold.

-I often have a headache if I get cold but since my hair are dense and

long I never go out if I don‟t dry it well.

-Do you usually have brittle nails, cracking easily?

-No.

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-Do your lips crack easily?

-No, not particularly.

-Is your skin dry or greasy?

-A combination of both, I would say.

-Is your hair greasy, oily? After how many days do they usually need

washing?

-I wash them day after day; they need three or four days to become oily.

-Are you thirsty or not?

-Normally thirsty.

-Do you like sweets a lot?

-Yes.

-Do you go and buy it or do you eat it only if it‟s there?

-I don‟t ask for it but if it‟s there I will eat it.

-Do you like salt and salty food or not?

-Oh, yes, I do like it.

-Does this mean that you crave salty chips and salty dried nuts?

-Yes, I eat it a lot.

-Will you add salt to your food even before tasting it?

-I do it but not always.

-Do you like fatty meat or crave fat in general?

-Yes.

-Even boiled fatty meat? I mean for example the skin of a boiled chicken?

-I don‟t prefer cooked meat. I prefer roasted meat.

-Do you like cold water?

-Not very cold.

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-Do you prefer it from the fridge even in winter?

-No, of course not.

-What about sour things like lemon and vinegar. Do you like it a lot?

-Just lemon.

-Do you like the taste of fresh milk?

-No, I don‟t.

-Does it cause you distention or indigestion?

-Yes, it causes bloating to me.

-Ever since you were a baby?

-Yes, my mother used to force me to drink it.

-What is your favorite position of sleep? On your back, on your belly or

on sides?

-On the sides.

-Left, right or both?

-Sometimes left, sometimes right.

-Whenever you lie on your left side, the side of the heart, does it

sometimes happen to hear its sound and say to yourself “I will change

position so as not to press my heart”?

-No, no.

-How about salivation coming out of your mouth to the pillow during

night time?

-From time to time.

-Did you have warts on your hands or feet in the past?

-No.

-Did you have relapsing vaginitis, urine infections or anemia in the past?

-I had anemia once or twice in the past.

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-Do you prefer the sea or the mountain?

-The sea.

-Do you like it a lot?

-Yes, very much.

-Is it the love of your life? Does it calm you even by watching it as if it

were a remedy for you?

-Yes, indeed.



-A lot.

-What usually makes you angry? What usually bothers you?

-When others press me to do something; when they insist I am pissed.

-Any other behaviors that annoy or irritate you?

-Rudeness and injustice.

-Whenever you get angry do you express your anger or keep it inside?

-If it‟s a close person I do express my anger a lot. But if it‟s at my job

environment I keep it inside. Nevertheless I will find a way to show my

nuisance.

-When somebody offends you, insults you, not necessarily at work where

you can‟t express yourself easily, will you put him down a peg?

-Yes I will; I just can‟t tolerate him being on top of me.

-How will you put him down a peg? By yelling, by arguments, by being

ironic or by being snobbish?

-I may become slightly ironic.

-If somebody greatly offends you, do you bear grudges at him, not

forgetting it?

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-If he is a close one, not so much, but at work if they do something to me I

don‟t forget it.

-Do you even want to pay back?

-No, I don‟t do it.

-Are you usually moody, temperamental? Do you have ups and downs all

the time during the day?

-Yes, that happens indeed; one time angry and then not.

-Even without any reason? I mean that you may say to yourself: “What‟s

the matter to me? Why am I angry?” and then after a while this passes off

just like that.

-Yes, that‟s me!

-If you try reading in a bus or in a car do you become dizzy?

-Yes, that‟s something that happens to me since my childhood.

-Whenever you feel sleepy do your feet or body become cold?

-Yes.

-Do you often have headaches?

-Yes, ever since my childhood.

-If you go downtown where there is a lot of traffic and people do you

often have a headache?

-Yes, I just can‟t stand traffic and crowds.

-Does your headache start there or on coming home?

-On coming home; it also causes dizziness to me.


It‟s about time to stop this hearing. I deliberately let the hearing take its

course so as not to have many interruptions as last time. I wanted you to

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feel the rhythm, the tempo of my case taking. What have you noted down

as capital, as grade three rubrics and what as grade two?

-I noted down her characteristic headache.

-What idiosyncrasies have crossed your mind?

-First Valeriana, then Natrum Muriaticum and then Nux Vomica.

-Any other comments?

-She has those ups and downs, that characteristic moodiness that matches

Valeriana.

-Other comments? Anybody else?

-I noted down the fact that when she returns home from downtown traffic

she feels that dizziness and headache which also matches Valeriana. I

would also add that she is cold grade 2 and that she has an aversion to

fresh mild since childhood.

-What idiosyncrasies have aversion to fresh milk even since childhood?

Before you answer to me, first tell me if someone doesn‟t like fresh milk

since childhood what grade of aversion is this?

-Grade 3.

-Right! It‟s grade 3 or at least 2 to 3. So, what idiosyncrasies have

aversion to the taste of fresh milk?

-Natrum Muriaticum?

-From top to bottom we first think of Silica and Natrum Carbonicum and

then Natrum Muriaticum.

-But her nails aren‟t brittle like Silica‟s.

-Right. But we are not at the phase of differential diagnosis right now; we

are at the phase of tracing possible idiosyncrasies. So we don‟t exclude

any idiosyncrasy that comes to our mind. So, up to now, possible

idiosyncrasies are first Valeriana and then Silica and maybe Natrum

Carbonicum. What else?

-Natrum Muriaticum.

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-Yes… even that and Nux Vomica. What are her main rubrics up to now?

I say that she is “cold grade 1 to 2” not to say only 1. I was not convinced

that she is very cold, at least from the way she was saying it. She has

“headaches grade 2 or even 3” because it‟s something that she has ever

since her childhood. She has “desire for salt 2 to 3” and “aversion fresh

milk 3”. She also has “desire for sea 3” which is a sycotic characteristic.

What sycotic idiosyncrasies have this characteristic? Medorrhinum, of

course! But, nevertheless, Valeriana and even Natrum Muriaticum may

have a strong sycotic tendency. Our patient also has “irritability 2 to 3”,

which is an important characteristic of hers.

-Furthermore, she says that she gets angry whenever pressed or from

injustice which are also traits of Valeriana.

-Right! I also note that she says that she expresses her anger according to

conditions which means that she is flexible and not a rigid person for

example like Platina who will express her anger under any condition. She

expresses her anger more easily to her close ones and that is also a trait of

Valeriana; when she can she is like a wild cat showing her nails to others!

She also said that even at work, she will find some way to show that she

is annoyed and that she “just can‟t tolerate him being on top of me”. This

is indeed a very strong characteristic of the insecurity of Valeriana.

2.7 Tracing possible idiosyncrasies by Miasmatic Idiosyncratic

Diagnosis

So, you see, we are already able to trace certain directions, certain

possible idiosyncrasies. That‟s how things work whenever we employ

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis that I have taught you. If I just note

down the patient‟s answers without evaluation and puzzling at that very

minute and then after ending all the questions start thinking about

possible idiosyncrasies then I‟ve lost the case. You have to ask, evaluate,

wonder about possible idiosyncrasies, note them down, ask again,

evaluate, wonder and ask again and so on. The more you ask, the more

you trace and the more you know where all this is going to.

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It‟s like that game of ten questions. A person writes down a certain object

without you knowing it and then you have only ten questions to find out

what he has in his mind. As you proceed his answers direct you to certain

routes and your questions become more specific and more targeted. First

you are guided to possible objects and finally you end up with the one

and only one right object.

Things get worse if I say I will take the case and will study it later in my

convenience to decide what to give. I did that, years ago, whenever I had

a difficult case but after a while I found out that it doesn‟t work. What

matters is “here and now” because you are in the middle of a “fight” and

you have the chance to act according to the moves of your “opponent”.

What good does it make if you film the fight and watch it later on TV?

Then, from your couch, you don‟t have the chance to fight back and

change the course of the fight.

In the office you have the chance to do differential diagnosis and ask

again and again in order to decide what the most similar remedy to his

picture is. You can change as many times as you like the “optic angle”

from which you can see the patient. You can also wonder if he is this or

that idiosyncrasy and ask specific questions that characterize the

idiosyncrasies you have in mind.

You are not a paleontologist having in front of you a dead fossil that you

have all the time to examine whenever you want. You have a living

creature in front of you who is always in motion and action and these

constant changes are the ones that will give you valuable clues for your

diagnosis.


Irony is a very strong characteristic of Valeriana. She may have said that

she is slightly ironic but I don‟t buy it. She doesn‟t want to seem “mean”

75

to me and this syphilitic state according which she is something but wants

to show that she is something else, is indeed confirmative of Valeriana.

Don‟t forget that Valeriana is syphilitic and “hidden”. She likes to project

an image quite different from her real qualities.

Our patient is also very temperamental, temperamental 3. Be careful!

This has little to do with the fickleness of Pulsatilla regarding her mood.

Pulsatilla is not moody regarding irritability; she is fickle regarding her

emotions. She is easily glad and easily depressed from slight causes

because she is very sensitive, very emotional. Moreover she is psoric and

romantic regarding her ideas but very sycotic and fickle regarding her

expression while Valeriana is syphilitic.

Valeriana has ups and downs during a day with no profound reason.

Nothing happened and nothing crossed her mind but still she has those

inexplicable ups and downs. It‟s an internal moodiness largely

independent from external factors. See how we must compare

idiosyncrasies using our knowledge of miasmas? That‟s why I call my

method Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis.

Our patient has another characteristic feature. Most of the times that she

goes downtown to the traffic and crowded places she earns a headache

that characteristically begin on returning home. And that is also a strong

trait of Valeriana. Let‟s move on to our hearing.


-Whenever in a party full of strangers do you feel comfortable or not?

Not if you appear to be comfortable but how you feel?

-Ok… if there are many unknown people I don‟t feel so comfortable but I

adjust and act normally.

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-Compared to the average of other people of your age, regarding

cleverness, smartness, I.Q. and not regarding diplomas or success, do

you feel on the average, lower or higher?

-Ha, ha… what can I say? On the average.

-When angry do you want to break something or throw something?

-No! No!

-Are you tidy? Do you want everything to be in order?

-Normally. I don‟t overdo it.

-What about your personal problems, your deep felt matters? Do you

want to talk about it to others or do you keep it inside?

-I always need someone to talk to.

-To how many people will you speak about your personal problems?

-To one or two.

-To these close persons will you speak by yourself or do you need a little

push?

-No, I talk.

-When you are upset from something personal and someone not from

your close ones has heard about it and comes to console you, how do you

feel? Do you just listen to him, feel better or does consolation annoys you

or irritates you?

-Well, I will listen to him.

-Does pity annoy you or make you angry?

-Yes it does! I don‟t like others to feel pity for me.

It‟s again time for conversation. At the beginning of our case taking the

patient mentioned incidents of dizziness. First of all I have to see if this

dizziness is pathological or not, i.e. if it‟s caused by low blood pressure or

anemia or if it‟s of nervous or hysteric origin. Now that I have a more

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complete picture of her I tend to consider that she has enough nervous

and hysteric elements, so I am justified to consider her dizziness as a

nervous symptom as is also her headaches. That is something that suits

Valeriana. Now let me ask you something: Is she insecure or not? What

have you to say?

-She is.

-My opinion is that she is cool.

-Well, I tell you that she is insecure. On the one hand you see a young

lady that looks cool, answers with certainty and without much thought,

has clear opinions but on the other hand if she finds herself in the

presence of many strangers then, although she doesn‟t project it, she

doesn‟t feel nice. This matches Valeriana‟s insecurity; on the one hand

she acts as if she is modern and strong and confident and on the other

hand whenever she goes to a new place she is anxious about the

impression she will make to others; she is very careful about how to

speak, how to dress, how to eat, etc.

Platina, on the contrary, is so confident and certain about her cleverness

and beauty and this is radiated all around her. Medorrhinum is also

confident but in another way; he has that wide-boy air: “That‟s who I am

whether you like it or not!”

Nevertheless she surely doesn‟t have the insecurity and lack of self-

confidence of Thuja or Gelsemium. The way she talks and her answer

about her cleverness have nothing to do with the above two

idiosyncrasies. When asked about her cleverness she says “on the

average” but I don‟t buy it! I think that she says so, in order not to be

characterized as freak or fruitcake. Is she in any way fastidious?

-No.

-Correct! How about introversion or extroversion?

-I think she is on the average.

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-I think that she is expressive.

-Ok, expressive, but what about introversion or extroversion?

-She might be introvert.

-I would say that from her whole picture she seems to be careful to talk

about her personals. She is careful what to say and what not to say and

this also suits Valeriana. Let‟s move on.


-Have you got any fears or phobias?

-No.

-How about fear of heights, I mean to look down from your balcony?

-Not particularly… only if it‟s from very high above.

-Does it happen that on leaving your car, house or job to have the doubt

that you haven‟t locked the door or that you have left the oven on or the

boiler?

-Once in a while.

-Will you go back to have a look at it when you are already on the street?

-Maybe, once in a while.

-Does it happen sometimes that you‟ve already checked things before

going out and then when on the street, still to wonder if you‟ve forgotten

something else?

-No, no.

-When walking on the street to have the tendency to count steps, cars, and

say “one, two, three, four, etc.”

-No.

-Are you superstitious? To say I saw this thing so things will go bad or

well?

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-No.

-Do you like mixing sweet and salty food? Eat sweet and then

immediately salt and so on?

-Not particularly.

-Whenever you are in a car next to the driver do you sometimes have the

feeling that opposite cars are heading towards you and want to step on

the breaks or shout to the driver?

-No, only slightly.

-Does it happen that you have a lot of “what if…” crossing your mind?

What if this happens? What if that happens?

-No.

-Are you afraid of diseases?

-No, not much… just like all other people.

-Whenever you listen about heart attacks, strokes, cancer, etc. are you

afraid that it may also happen to you and become worried?

-No, not particularly, only for a moment.

-Any other fears?

-I am mostly anxious about how things will go?

-Are you jealous?

-Ha, ha… at a normal degree. He didn‟t give me any reasons…

-What about your companion? Do you want not just to love you but to

show it to you all the time and deal with you?

-Ok, normally… who doesn‟t want such a thing?

Once again, we stop the hearing for discussion. I ask her about her fears

and she tells me about her insecurity regarding future. Be careful! We

always take in consideration the patient‟s present status. She is 25 years

old and starts thinking: “I didn‟t get married, I have no children yet, my

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job is not standard yet, etc…” She doesn‟t have the confidence of a

Platina and she doesn‟t have the cool feeling and the easy-going thinking

of a Medorhinum or of a sycotic person. She is a Valeriana full of

insecurities.

You see, from a certain point on I have reached my diagnosis and since

my first choice is Valeriana my aim is to confirm this or reject it.

Whatever she tells me from now on rings bells to my ears confirming or

rejecting possible idiosyncrasies.

I also check and cross check if her non verbal data, her style and the “air”

of her whole personality suits Valeriana or if some data contra-indicate

Valeriana. It‟s as if I have already placed 10 pieces on my puzzle and

these indicate Valeriana. From this time on any new piece I choose to

place tells me if my diagnosis is correct or not. If it fits it makes my

diagnosis stronger. If it‟s neutral I leave it apart and take it in

consideration. If it doesn‟t fit at all I start thinking: “Did I do something

wrong? Is she a different idiosyncrasy?” And I keep searching until I

reach a diagnosis with great certainty.

For example she has this insecurity that suits Valeriana. Valeriana is also

ambitious, wants to do much regarding her life, wants to find a man and

create a family the way she likes, wants security and standards, has

specific dreams to fulfill, wants a man that she can manipulate in order to

fulfill her dreams, etc. Is she jealous or not?

-She is jealous.

-What grade?

-Two.

-Well, I say two to three.

-And how my dear colleagues did you reach to such a conclusion?

-She said so.

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-When?

-She said that she is jealous normally.

-Yes, but the way she said it…

-Bravo! It‟s the way she said it that counts! You see I may say “yes” and

actually mean “no”. It reminds me of a certain joke: If a woman asks a

man if he could have married her and he says “Possibly” then it‟s a “no”

but he doesn‟t want to make her feel bad. On the other hand, if a man

asks a woman the same thing and she says “Possibly” then it‟s a definite

“yes” but she doesn‟t want to be considered as an easy target. (laughing)

It‟s not what the patient says that interests us; it‟s mostly what lies

beneath it, if it does. Did you notice that when he answered about

jealousy she laughed feeling embarrassed? There‟s a very good saying in

Greece: “His lips say one thing and his heart another!”

And this definitely suits Valeriana because at this age, young Valerianas

want to project the image of the “modern and liberal woman” and of

course, a liberal girl can‟t be jealous. On the other hand you may come up

to a Valeriana that answers straight away: “Yes, I am jealous, indeed and

I will tear him to pieces if he cheats on me!” She will say this laughing

but at the same time she will definitely mean what she said. You see

Valeriana is a syphilitic idiosyncrasy and may project herself in many

different and even opposite ways. The primal tendency is what matters

and not the final secondary behaviors.

There are times that she says she isn‟t jealous and at a certain point she

even believes it. But if her companion cheats on her then things turn

upside down. The once “confident” and “cool” woman becomes

pathologically jealous, torn to pieces, very insecure and revengeful!

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When I‟ve asked her if she wants her companion not just to love her but

to show it all the time she says: “Who doesn‟t want such a thing?” This

could be the answer of a Valeriana but it could also be a Palladium case.

Nevertheless, Palladium is more hysterical, more complaining and is very

much affected by the comments and opinion of others. If our patient was

a Palladium idiosyncrasy she would say that she likes others to show her

that they love her and care about her, grade 3 and she would be proud to

say it. She would also like her own people to deal with her and even if

they dealt very much with her she would still be complaining in a “kitty

cat” way.

But Valeriana wouldn‟t admit that she wants others to deal with her a lot.

Moreover, if there was an exaggeration on this matter she may even be

annoyed. This happens because she thinks that her privacy is violated.

She could also consider this behavior as hypocritical and not sincere,

since she is so mistrustful of others.

So, our patient in her own way shows that she likes her companion to

deal with her but she says “who doesn‟t want such a thing” in order to

conceal that she is abnormally jealous; again she tries to maintain the

image of the modern and liberal woman who is “cool” and never a “Mrs.

Kate” case.

She said that she is afraid of height at a degree 1 to 2. So I started asking

several questions in order to trace fixed ideas which is the characteristic

of Argentum Nitricum. Nothing confirms that and so I go on tracing other

idiosyncrasies.

You see, at first I employ no guiding during case taking. It‟s the phase of

tracing. But after a while, when the patient shows definite signs of certain

idiosyncrasies or miasmas, things change. I start guiding the case by

asking specific questions that regard specific characteristics of these

possible idiosyncrasies. It‟s not that I arbitrarily guide the course of the

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case taking. It‟s simply that life shows me certain routes and I explore

them.

In this certain case, even from the very beginning her style and non verbal

elements indicated Valeriana. But still, I started asking general routine

questions because I had to go through Phase One, the phase of gathering

information so as to be certain about my initial suspicions. During the

first phase I have to be guided in a general way and see if my patient‟s

idiosyncrasy can be listed in one of the following idiosyncratic families:

Egoistic, Neuro-vegetative, Hysteric, Nervous, Irritable, Phobic, Psoric,

Sycotic, Syphilitic, Psychotic, Intellectual, etc. It‟s time to go on.


-Do you like reading books?

-Yes, but I don‟t have time for this the last few years.

-What books do you like to read?

-History, literature, novels…

-What kind of movies do you enjoy watching?

-Quality movies.

-If you won the lottery and could make all your dreams come true what

would you like to do professionally or what would you like to do with

your life?

-I would like to travel.

-And as a profession?

-To open a store.

-What kind of store?

-A restaurant or a cafeteria.

-Any other profession?

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-I would like to become a photographer… I‟ve attended some seminars of

this kind.

-Would you like to make a career or do you simply want to make a living

out of your job in order to have a good time?

-Well, I would surely like to do something worthy.

Comments! Time for comments! I‟ve asked questions about her

intellectuality, books, movies and such staff. She doesn‟t seem to be very

intellectual as Lycopodium or Sulphur would be. Nevertheless, being a

genuine Valeriana she says that she likes reading books although not

lately, because she wants to be considered “cultured” and not an ignorant

person. But I don‟t buy it at all! Even her tone of voice while answering

does not persuade me about her answer. She simply likes to project a

certain image, as Valeriana does. You see, most of the times Valeriana is

one thing and projects another.

I also asked her about her attitude towards profession. I am not interested

in what a patient does as a profession but what he likes to do or would

like to do. Because, very often, we choose our profession forced by

certain conditions and our choice does not agree with our likes and

dislikes or with our abilities. Since I am mainly interest in what she really

likes I deliberately tell her “If you won the lottery what would you do?”

because then she feels free to say whatever she really wants.

She said that she would like to open a store or restaurant or cafeteria and

this is a sycotic answer. Don‟t forget that she has some sycotic

characteristics and that she is very fond of the sea, grade 3. But the

answer that suits Valeriana is when she says she would like to be a

photographer and that she has attended some relevant seminars. Don‟t

think that she definitely has the ability to become a good photographer or

that this is the dream of her life. It‟s rather a past teenager choice or to be

more precise a past teenager image she projected to others so as to be

considered “cultured” and “art-oriented”, etc.

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Many new data confirm Valeriana, again and again so I don‟t ask

anything else as confirmation or as differential diagnosis. I have already

excluded Silica because the latter is characteristically psoric and not

syphilitic as our patient. I also excluded Natrum Carbonicum for the same

reason and due to the lack of any other characteristics of it.

Nux Vomica does not suit the case regarding style or tendency for

fastidiousness. She was a clear case of Valeriana from the beginning to

the end. Clear, of course, for anyone who has the knowledge of

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Materia Medica and the “eyes” of the miasmatic,

idiosyncratic detective! How do I end my case? It‟s time for explanations.

Let‟s go on.

-Ok! I am done with your interrogation… your sentence is decided… I am

joking, of course! I am not here to judge people. I am here to simply

diagnose your character, your type as a person. To take a picture of you

so as to give you the homeopathic medicine that suits your idiosyncrasy

both physically and psychologically and thus help you with your

problems.

As a conclusion, I would say that many people are confused as to your

character. They may see you and think: “What a calm person!” or “What

a strong person!” or “What a confident person!” but my opinion is that

this isn‟t you! I think that you are very temperamental and that you have

a lot of inconsistencies. I mean that you may seem strong and secure and

confident but you are very insecure. Or you may seem calm but in fact

you are very nervous and anxious and at times also reactive. I also

believe that if they ask you something in a polite manner you don‟t have

any problem giving it to them but if you think that they are trying to force

you to do something or if they aren‟t straight enough then you become

very reactive…

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-Yes… it‟s true that I am a reactive person.

-Ok, then, I will prescribe for you some capsules; you will take one first

capsule…

I now stop the hearing because it‟s meaningless to hear any explanations

about how she should take her medicines, what to avoid, etc. These are

things that we have already heard during our first clinical case and there

is no reason on rehearing it since they are standard explanations done to

all patients. What really interests me is for you to understand why I said

the last sentences to her. Why I said to her a brief conclusion about her

character.

I do this for two reasons. Firstly because I want to show her that I “got”

her, I understood her, that I have a clear picture of her and secondly

because I want her to confirm or reject my diagnosis. So during this brief

conclusion I describe in a few words what her main characteristics are. Of

course, if I have to do with a syphilitic person, as is this case, I am

obliged to be very careful to what I say in order not to offend her and

even talk about her negative traits in a rather neutral or even “positive”

manner. In brief I may have to sugar the pill, but not in order to

manipulate her but in order not to offend her.

So, as you must have noticed, I grabbed her by the throat, I let her no

space for bullshit and irrelevant talking, then I traced her possible

idiosyncrasy, confirmed it, did differential diagnosis and finally gave her

the miasmatic idiosyncratic remedy that suited her whole picture. That‟s

how a homeopathic case taking should be: quick, aggressive, unbiased,

not guiding but at the same time purposeful.

I must always be ready to change my diagnosis even at the last minute

when my patient says “Goodbye doctor” if new elements come up. Even

a phrase or a gesture or a meaningful glance may change my diagnosis. If

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you are mortal you must be able to accept that you may be mistaken any

time, any place, no matter how good you are at what you are doing. “I

know one thing for sure, that I know nothing!” as great Socrates said!

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CHAPTER 3

A CASE OF STRAMONIUM - MOSCHUS






3.6 A possible case of Stramonium; differential diagnosis from

Aurum





This is a follow up case, that is, I examined this lady about a year ago,

she did well, but now she comes again to me complaining of a great

relapse. Since it‟s not her first time ever, I have valuable information

about her from last time‟s prescription. I know what idiosyncrasy she was

then and what are her miasmatic characteristics and past history. But,

nevertheless, I shouldn‟t be biased and say to myself: “I gave her that

medicine then and she did well so I will repeat it and see”. I must

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reconsider, recheck and crosscheck in order to be sure that this is indeed

again her present idiosyncrasy.

To be honest, from my long lasting experience people don‟t change

easily. My dear colleagues, we, humans, are so predictable, so

foreseeable and this is a fact even if it hurts our human egoism! Don‟t

forget the saying: “Soul leaves the body first and then mannerism!” This

mannerism is but our Etheric Body, which by nature only slightly

changes during a person‟s earthly life. Not to say that only few people

really do want to change and at the end only a few manage to change!

But, let‟s get back to our case. She is a woman around 40 years old and

she is escorted by her father. Do you think that such a thing is accidental?

Nothing is accidental in life and that‟s why, we, homeopathic doctors,

consider nothing as accidental. Her father is a low-class, ordinary person,

empathizing with his daughter‟s condition and full of anxiety. She is

always escorted to my office either by her father or by her husband. They

enter my office and I say to her:


-Come in; come in please, to talk to me.

-I don‟t know how I will be able to do such a thing, doctor!

-Why? Is your voice blocked? Are you cold?

-No, no, doctor. My throat is blocked, I have a lump…

-Like the old symptoms you had in the past?

-No! Not a chance! Worse than that! Lump in my throat, difficult

breathing, fainting tendency, my eyelids tremble, numbness…

-Please, tell me something: Since when do you not feel well?

-Since last month everything is at its top.

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-Did anything special happen?

-No, doctor. Nothing! All are fine!

-I mean if something happened to you or great changes happened to your

life.

-No, no! Nothing, nothing! I was so fine, excellent, my relation with my

husband OK, but then all of a sudden… gradually all these symptoms

began.

- (Father) She can‟t go anywhere alone doctor, I have to carry her all

around myself, she is so afraid…

-What can I do? I am so scared! I just can‟t! I feel so insecure!

-Afraid of what?

-I don‟t know! I am afraid! I don‟t know what I am afraid of! Not even to

the super market I don‟t go alone.

-Afraid of what?

-I don‟t know… I feel bad.

-Are you afraid that you might die?

-I feel that I am dying, that I collapse but at the same time I want to jump

from the balcony.

-Does that mean that you have the tendency, the impulse to do it?

-Since I have all these symptoms it‟s so easy for me to do it. If I return to

my house and there is nobody there then I could do it right away! I‟ve got

no problem to do it! Why? Because, I am so tired with this thing!

-What thing?

-With what I have due to weariness. It‟s as if I am at the bottom of the sea

and I try to get out and I am drowning and I get panicked. I get anguish

and try to do several things and I get panicked. I do several things, I am

beating my chest and go around so as not to collapse. I keep holding

myself so as not to fall.

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It‟s time for comments. What‟s the matter with this woman regarding her

symptoms? What kind of symptoms are these regarding the general

categories of symptoms that we‟ve talked about? Of what kind are her

symptoms?

-Neuro-vegetative.

-Neuro-vegetative, nervous or hysterical symptoms? What‟s the matter

with her?

-Hysterical symptoms.

-Let me remind you how important it is to distinguish among categories

of symptoms once again and ask you once again: Are her symptoms

neuro-vegetative, nervous or hysterical? Take in mind that one category

does not exclude the other.

-Where is her husband?

-Probably home or at work. Her father brought her and he seems to be

very well informed about what happens to her.

-Why? Is he living with them?

-No. He doesn‟t live with them but he keeps him busy all the time

accompanying her here and there.

Well, it‟s time for answers. I believe that her symptoms are mostly

hysterical. For a start she is definitely a plethoric person. She rushed into

my office and started saying this and that, exaggerating all the time and I

had to stop her and ask several questions in order to understand what the

matter with her, is. If you have a hysterical patient and act like an

allopathic doctor and take for granted what she says about her physical

symptoms then you are in bad trouble because you‟ll think that she has

most of the diseases that exist in this planet!

All this ocean of symptoms that are seemingly pathological is but an

illusion. It‟s not that they are physical symptoms. They are indeed

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hysterical symptoms. The way she talks and expresses herself, the fact

that she carries her father here and there although she is an adult woman

around forty, the fact that she insisted to have her father in my office

during the examination so as to convince him that she is seriously ill, all

these make me believe that she is a hysterical personality. She may also

have some neuro-vegetative symptoms or some phobias but her main

symptoms seem to be hysterical. Of course, we will see about it as her

case unfolds.

What else does she tell me? I say to her: “Come in please to talk to me”

and she says: “I don‟t know how I will be able to do this, doctor”. And I

ask her: “Why? Is your voice blocked? Are you cold?” I deliberately

asked this in order to give her motive for exaggeration although I got the

hysteric picture from the beginning and furthermore I knew her

personality from her last examination.


Then she tells me that she is “afraid when alone”. This could be a case of

Phosphor who is afraid of being alone because he thinks that he might

have a heart attack or a stroke. It could also be a case of Argentum

Nitricum who has fixed ideas about his health or a case of Arsenicum

who is afraid of death and wants someone by his side to take him to the

hospital on an emergency. But her fear is vague, it‟s not something

specific. Although I deliberately keep asking what is she afraid of she

doesn‟t give me any specific answer.

Then she says “I want to jump from the balcony”. These are the exact

words of the patient but then is she telling the truth? We should never

take for granted what our patient says and especially if he is a syphilitic

person or a hysterical one. We always have to cross check what the

patients says. If I believe her then I have to think of Aurum Metallicum

due to her suicidal tendency. I just note it down for the sake of

differential diagnosis.

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If I am not a well trained homeopathic doctor I might think: “She wants

to jump from the balcony grade 3 and she can‟t restrain herself so give

her Aurum Metallicum!” Wrong! Nothing could be more wrong, my dear

colleagues! Why? Because an Aurum person would not reveal this so

easily and profoundly and moreover in front of her father. She would

have only confided it to me, the doctor, after much pressure. Aurum is

psoric and introvert and not an exaggerating syphilitic person. See how

valuable is miasmatic knowledge!

She doesn‟t have any suicidal tendency at all! She is faking! She is giving

a performance in front of me and especially in front of her father, who

will of course inform also her husband about her “extreme” condition.

That‟s why he wanted him in my office in the first place. I told you that

nothing is accidental for the experienced homeopathic doctor. I see such

cases almost every day! In conclusion, she is faking.

An Aurum person does commit suicide and usually nobody knows a thing

about it before it happens while a hysterical person all the time says that

he has suicidal tendency to all around him just to draw attention but he

never commits suicide. He may attempt to in a most slight and non

dangerous way, ensuring his safety and especially in front of others! How

on earth can you give a performance if you don‟t have any audience? Be

careful! Our patient may be hysterical but she isn‟t stupid!

A syphilitic person and especially Lachesis could also talk about suicide.

She tells to her husband or children in a loud complaining voice: “You

are driving me to the grave! I want to die and save myself from this

burden you cause to me! You don‟t understand me and you don‟t care at

all about me!” or “You are driving me crazy!” or “You are going to make

a sick person out of me! You‟ll drive me to the hospital!” She may say to

the doctor especially in front of her husband and children: “I want to die

doctor… I know it‟s a sin, but I want to die!” or “If I didn‟t love my

husband/children I would have killed myself!”

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It‟s more than certain that she doesn‟t mean what she says! She certainly

doesn‟t want to kill herself! And certainly doesn‟t want to become sick or

die! She doesn‟t have any suicidal tendency! Not even suicidal thoughts

most of the times. She loves her life! She projects a fake suicidal

tendency deliberately in order to draw attention, create guilty feeling to

her own and thus manipulate them and do things her own way. It‟s so

simple. She declares “oversensitive” and “a victim of life and others” and

all around her must do whatever she wants so as not to “upset” her.

This is also the case with this woman. She deliberately projects her fake

suicidal tendency and this is a syphilitic action in order to manipulate her

father and husband. They keep running after her and keep satisfying all

her whims. So I start thinking: “Hysterical person or syphilitic person like

Lachesis”. After all, she is loquacious and exaggerating and dynamic like

Lachesis and she is handling her father and possibly her husband in a

very efficient way. That‟s why he wanted him in my office during

examination.

Furthermore, she presents her symptoms in a dramatic and exaggerating

way. She says: “I feel as if I am at the bottom of the sea and I try to get

out and I am drowning”. Exaggeration is a syphilitic and hysterical

characteristic. So I note down possible idiosyncrasies like syphilitic

Lachesis and hysterical idiosyncrasies like Lilium Tigrinum, Asafoetida,

Moschus, Cimicifuga, Cyclamen and Cactus. Let‟s move on.


-When you say “I am beating my chest” what do you mean?

-I hit the doors, I punch…

-Do you strike your head with your hands or feasts?

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-Yes, I have such great strength… I have no sense of my power and I

cause pain to myself.

-Do you pull your hair?

-Very much.

-Do you want to tear your clothes?

-I did it today. Today it‟s the second day that I have this thing although I

take three pills a day.

-Do you burst your anger on others too apart from yourself?

-Yes, yes!

-What do you do?

-I push them, beat them… not that I will get a knife or do such things… I

just take it out of me. I usually don‟t burst to others. I want to run away.

When others don‟t let me go away I hit them to let me go.

-Do you want to throw something or break something during your anger?

-I have the tendency to do it but I reason myself and say “Why break

things? It‟s a waste!” And then I hit myself. I do like this and like that

(she shows to me how she hits her head with her hands).

-Do you bite your hands when angry?

-Yes, yes!

-Does bright light annoy you or make you angry? For example the bright

light at night in the living room or the bright light of the sun? Not if it

irritates your eyes but if it makes you angry.

-No, I want light, I like light.

It‟s again time for comments. Is this woman self-controlled during her

anger burst or not? What‟s your opinion? You are doctors and you have

to decide! It‟s up to you to decide! It‟s your burden and your cross to

carry! The patient has the right to say whatever he wants, whatever comes

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into his mind but it‟s your obligation to clear things and come to an

objective conclusion.

-I think that she is self-controlled.

-How do you support what you say?

-Because she thinks before doing something.

-Bravo! She did say: “I have the tendency to do it but I reason myself and

say “Why break things? It‟s a waste!” So this thing reveals a person who

isn‟t uncontrolled and who on top of that behaves conscientiously for her

own interest or at least semi-conscientiously.

She is very irritable and irascible, she is not faking anger, she expresses

her irritability very much but she is not out of control and on top this is a

hysterical behavior aiming to draw attention so as to do things her own

way. Another fact that reveals exaggeration and matches her hysterical

personality is that she may take three pills a day (sedatives). Some

hysterical patients may often overdose or take any pill that is available,

relevant or not to their disease.

3.6 A possible case of Stramonium; differential diagnosis from

Aurum

What does this kind of irritability remind you of? A case of Stramonium,

I would say. She bursts her anger to herself; she hits her head with her

hands, bites her hands, pulls her hair, tries to tear her clothes and all these

help her take it out of her. All these are strong characteristics of

Stramonium.

After irritability questions I asked her deliberately about her relation with

bright light because I have already suspected Stramonium. This

idiosyncrasy usually becomes irritable from bright artificial or natural

light. She refused having this but the absence of any single characteristic

does not contra-indicate any diagnosis. It‟s a piece of information that

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doesn‟t fit to the whole image of the puzzle and has to be taken in

consideration but it doesn‟t contra-indicate our diagnosis.

So, up to now, we have many characteristics of Stramonium and

moreover, its general irritable personality. Stramonium is not a typical

hysterical idiosyncrasy although it may have some hysterical elements. I

say this because our patient is very hysterical in general.

-Isn‟t Stramonium a male idiosyncrasy?

-Not particularly. I must remind you that I‟ve told you that Stramonium is

mainly a female idiosyncrasy. It‟s not accidental that it will mainly affect

adult women or boys. Boys are not yet men and they can sometimes be

hysterical although hysteria is mainly a female characteristic.

Accordingly, it‟s not accidental that apart from boys hysteria can be

found also in gay men or in effeminate men.

I am not being critical at gay men at the moment. I just try to give you my

experience as objectively as possible. I just can‟t shut my mouth so as not

to displease gay men or for the fear of being characterized as not liberal

or as racist. Nevertheless I have already told you my medical opinion

about homosexual men during a whole lecture about sexuality.

A man could also rarely be hysterical without being homosexual but

usually unbalanced men become violent or neurotic while unbalanced

women become “Mrs. Kates” or bitches or hysterical. If the two sexes are

different in a normal state then they are expected to be different also in an

unbalanced state. Let‟s move on.

-I am a very anxious person doctor. While reading I don‟t breathe; I do

all things full of anxiety; I can‟t eat; I almost eat standing; I can‟t sit by

the table. Anything that must be done in a relaxed state makes me

nervous.

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-So, if I understood well it‟s not that you want to suicide but it‟s that with

all these symptoms that you suffer you say to yourself: “If I died I would

save myself from all this suffering”.

-Yes, yes, yes! There are days that I am like that and other days that I can

control myself.

-Are you hot or cold?

-Cold. Very cold lately! Very, very cold! Especially my hands are ice-

cold. And I feel my blood frozen, not moving! My lips and eyes are frozen.

My lips tremble all the time, are numb… I feel terrible.

Now it‟s again time for analysis. As you must have noticed it‟s time for

differential diagnosis. I ask again about her supposed suicidal tendency so

as to confirm or reject Aurum. Her answer confirms to me that she

doesn‟t have any suicidal tendency and that she isn‟t Aurum. But what‟s

more important is that she doesn‟t have the general miasmatic and

idiosyncratic picture of Aurum. Keep always in mind that the whole

picture is what counts more and not any isolated characteristics no matter

how intense they are. Anyone who sticks to details, just “can‟t see the

wood for the trees”!

Have you noticed how I ask? I say “So, if I understood well…” This is a

way of bringing back to focus a matter that I have asked for but did not

insist then. Now it‟s time to clear things completely and at the same time

do differential diagnosis.


Why do I ask if she is cold or hot? Because it‟s time for differential

diagnosis from other hysterical idiosyncrasies. Her great irritability and

hysteric personality reminds me of Moschus and because the latter is

characteristically a very cold idiosyncrasy I have to ask about it.

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See how important it is for the homeopathic doctor to have a very good

knowledge of the Materia Medica? If you have a good background of

idiosyncratic pictures inside your mind then each time a patient says

something this reminds you of certain idiosyncrasies. This knowledge of

Materia Medica is at the same time important for diagnosis and for

differential diagnosis. Let us again proceed to the hearing.

-Does it often happen that things drop down from your hands?

-Such a thing happened today.

-Do you sometimes feel as if your vision is blurred and then restored?

-Yes, yes!

-Or that sometimes you hear well and other times not so well?

-No, my hearing is ok but my eyes keep blurring at times and are numb.

-Do you often have hic-cough?

-Yes, quite often. I may have it all day. I also feel that my tongue is turned

backwards and that I am chocking. I feel that I have something big inside

my throat that is chocking me and I want to get rid of it.

-How about tendency for fainting?

-Yes and dizziness. I feel as if going to faint. My throat is squeezing me

right here and there are many times that I just can‟t talk, as if… I think

that I can‟t talk.

-Sensation as if falling from high above?

-At times when I am standing I feel as if looking like this. (from above

towards down)

-Do you have the feeling at times that a lump is rising from your stomach

to your throat and is chocking you?

-You bet!

-Do you want to swallow all the time in order to push it towards your

stomach?

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-I do have this lump and I can‟t swallow.

-Are you chocking while eating?

-Yes I do!

-Does this happen often?

-Yes, yes! I‟ve already told you that I even avoid eating.

-Does your sweat smell badly even if you slightly neglect washing

yourself or if you neglect using deodorant?

-It‟s easy to smell badly, even if a day goes by without washing.

It‟s again, time for analysis. What do I do at this phase? I took my notes

about idiosyncrasies that I keep in a dossier and I ask questions that refer

to the basic characteristics of hysteric idiosyncrasies so as to complete my

differential diagnosis. It‟s just impossible for anyone to remember all

features of all idiosyncrasies and during differential diagnosis sometimes

you need to have these notes in front of you. On the contrary this is never

done during diagnosis because at that phase if you start looking at notes

then you‟ve lost all the important verbal and non-verbal information that

the patient gives you.

Since she is so cold there is less possibility to be Lilium Tigrinum or

Asafoetida that are hot idiosyncrasies and increased possibility to be

Moschus which is a very cold idiosyncrasy. Since she is cold grade 3

could she be Arsenicum? No! I doubt it because her general miasmatic

and idiosyncratic picture doesn‟t suit the latter.

Nevertheless there are many superficial homeopathic doctors that practice

Repertorising and could easily think accordingly and say: “She is cold 3,

she is egoistic and says that she is fainting and gets very scared which is

fear about death 3, so why not give her Arsenicum?”

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But this is very wrong! It‟s so wrong to do Repertorising, so wrong to

focus on isolated symptoms or isolated groups of symptoms because you

don‟t take in consideration the general picture of the patient, his essence,

his main idea, his core. The whole is exceedingly more than the sum of its

components! The essence is above the sum of each and every symptom.

What also counts is the feeling that a patient creates to you provided that

you are a well-trained, experienced and unbiased observer.

But, only on this condition! Or else you‟ll end up like those charlatans

that have no knowledge and experience but they say that they have

“instinct” or “spiritual gift” or “supernatural perception”. You have to be

very careful about these things especially since Homeopathy is not yet a

fully recognized Academic Therapeutic System and many non-medical

doctors or many ignorant doctors are fond of becoming “gurus”. Mind

and heart, logic and feeling, knowledge and perception must always go

hand by hand or else imbalance is the result.

She told us that things drop down from her hands and this is a Moschus

feature. She also told us that her vision and hearing are weakened from

time to time and then return to normal. That can‟t be pathological since it

comes and goes just like that and especially in a hysterical personality.

It‟s a hysterical symptom and a feature of Moschus. She also has nervous

hic-cough and nervous fainting tendency. She has dizziness but not as

characteristically as Lilium Tigrinum and apart from that the latter is

quite hot.

She also has that lump in her throat that makes it difficult for her to talk

and it is chocking her. This reminds us of the hysteric lump of Asafoetida

although it doesn‟t rise up from her stomach. Her sweat is offensive and

that is also a trait of Asafoetida but the latter is hot. Nevertheless you

shouldn‟t exclude any possible idiosyncrasy due to isolated features so I

keep Asafoetida in mind not only for the present but also as a possible

remedy for the future.

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Up to now, on my list of possible idiosyncrasies there are first

Stramonium, then Moschus and then Asafoetida. See how important it is

to have a very good knowledge of Materia Medica in order to be able to

evaluate every single clue that the patient gives us during case taking? Or

else you will be examining for hours and hours asking “Are you hot?”

“Yes”, “I see, let me look at the Repertory to see what idiosyncrasies are

hot”. “Are you irritable?” “Yes”, “I see, let me look at the Repertory to

check what remedies are irritable at grade 2”. “Do you like sweets?”

“Yes”, “I see, let me look at my Repertory or Computer Expert System to

see what idiosyncrasies have desire sweet 3”, etc.

I tell you, you‟ve lost your patient! He will get so bored answering and

furthermore he will start doubting about your abilities as a doctor. To his

eyes you will resemble an employee of a statistics company whose job is

just to ask questions and write down answers without knowledge and

profound goal. You will not be the detective, the hound-doctor, the doctor

that can read his mind and see his soul!

Even if you just ask questions, note them down and then leave

Repertorising for later after the patient has gone, even then you are

wrong. You may not bore the patient but still he will understand that you

don‟t guide the case taking, that you don‟t make purposeful questions;

you just have a list of questions to ask.

To his eyes you are a listener and a typist! You are not a detective! You

don‟t fight him! You don‟t evaluate him, you don‟t question his answers.

You don‟t play with him like the cat plays with the mouse. The patient

may not be a homeopathic doctor but he is not stupid. He can feel what

you are doing. He may not know why you are asking but he feels the way

you ask, the way you do your job and the look in your eyes!

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A doctor that does Repertorising resembles those employees that perform

those standard psychological tests that are easy to find in magazines.

These tests ask standard questions like for example “Are you sensitive?

How often do you cry? If you cry every day you get 10 points, if you cry

twice a week you get 5 points and if you cry less than that you get 2

points, etc.” After completing all questions then you get a score. If your

score is from 0-15 points then you are characterized as “insensitive”, if

your score is from 15-30 points then you are “sensitive” and finally over

60 points you are “oversensitive”! Congratulations! You are now entitled

to enroll to the “OGC Club”, that is the “Oversensitive Guys Club”!

(laughing)

If you leave Repertorising for later, then you just have to evaluate written

answers without having in front of you the live picture of your patient, the

vibration of his personality and all his non-verbal data. On top of that

you‟ve lost the chance to ask questions in order to clarify and evaluate his

answers, not to mention clarification questions that serve differential

diagnosis.


In this specific casel, diagnosis started from her exaggerations, her

loquacity and the ocean of her weird symptoms to end up in three main

features: Irritability3, hysterical personality3 and syphilitic personality2.

Through specific questions we‟ve narrowed down our diagnosis to three

possible idiosyncrasies: Stramonium, Moschus and Asafoetida.

Her whole picture as well as the intensity and the specific trait of her

irritability lead me to choose Stramonium as her simillimum for the time

being. I prescribed Stramonium 1M, that is, Stramonium at the

thousandth potency. Moschus is the second possible idiosyncrasy and

Asafoetida is the third possible idiosyncrasy.

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I told the patient that I will re-examine her in one month‟s time but that

she should call me in 2 weeks. If when she calls me is even slightly

improved then I don‟t change my treatment and I wait and see and re-

examine at the follow up in one month. If when she calls me nothing

changed then I will re-consider and think first of Moschus and Asafoetida

and then of any other remedy.

You must know that, nowadays, most of our patients don‟t have a clear

idiosyncratic picture. I mean that there isn‟t only one clearly prevailing

idiosyncrasy. Next to the simillimum, lie also closely other relative

idiosyncrasies. It‟s as if the person stands on more than two legs.

Nevertheless, at a given moment, only one remedy is the most prevailing

and most similar to the patient and this is the one to be prescribed as the

simillimum. This complexity of the patient‟s picture often demands a

very good differential diagnosis.

On the course of treatment when the imbalance caused by the prevailing

idiosyncrasy comes to an end, and as life takes its course, other co-

existing idiosyncrasies may take the place of the former prevailing one

becoming in turn the simillimum. You see, life is in constant motion and

it‟s our obligation as doctors to follow her course if we want to complete

successfully any treatment and achieve cure.

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CHAPTER 4

A CASE OF NATRUM CARBONICUM














(Important Note: In the course of training the author omits the hearing of

standard parts of case taking that don‟t play any role in diagnosis or

differential diagnosis of the idiosyncrasy of the patient like greetings,

clinical examination and explanations to the patient. These parts were

not omitted in the hearing and analysis of the first clinical cases for

reasons of complete presentation.)

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It‟s time for the analysis of another clinical case. Let‟s move on without

any delay.


-What brings you to me?

-My bones and feet cause to me a lot of pain.

-You mean the joints of your toes?

-Yes and also here at my calves.

-Do you feel the pain in your muscles or in your bones?

-I can‟t be sure.

-Since when do you have these symptoms?

-It‟s been about two or three months. I had these about 15 years ago and

you treated me and I got well.

-How long did our treatment last then?

-Two or three months if I recall well.

-Did anything happen two months ago before these symptoms start? Any

kind of injury, intense physical exercise or anything that upset you?

-Nothing physical… but I was upset then.

-How long ago?

-A long time ago.

-How long? One year, two years or more?

-It‟s been two years.

-What happened then?

-Not something particular… I got divorced 5 years ago and then my new

husband is very repressive, very jealous…

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-So you feel repressed…

-Yes, yes, that‟s it!

-Any other health problems apart from this?

-I feel oppression to my chest at times.

-Since how long do you feel this oppression?

-Lately… let‟s say the last two months.

-Do you also feel a lump in your throat?

-Yes.

-Do you sometimes feel as if this lump is rising from your stomach to

your throat chocking you?

-Not from the stomach, just a lump in the throat.

-Do you often feel chocking when you eat or drink something?

-No, but my voice becomes hoarse when I have this.

-Do you feel this lump whenever you get upset?

-Yes, but other times also.

-Any other health problems at the moment?

-I have a back pain at times.

-Since when?

-The last 15 years.

-Any other health problems?

-No.

-Do you take any drugs of any kind at the moment?

-No, but lately I take aspirins for my pains.

-Did you have any severe diseases in the past or have you been operated?

-No. I had a cryosurgery for HPV.

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-When was HPV diagnosed?

-Six years ago and it was then that I had the cryosurgery.

-Any other problems?

-I often suffer from fungi at my vagina, I take drugs and ointments but

every now and then I have it again.


We stop the hearing for analysis. As expected we always start from her

present disease. She said that I‟ve examined her 15 years ago for the same

ailments, was treated for 2 or 3 months and was cured. She stopped the

treatment and remained ok and now after 15 years has the same problem

with her feet the last 2 or 3 months.

-How old is she?

-Around forty.

-As you must have noticed I insist asking why her symptoms relapsed

after 15 years. She tells me that she got divorced 5 years ago, that her

new husband is repressive and jealous and that she suffers from anxiety

the last 2 years. Then she mentions symptoms like oppression chest, lump

throat and hoarseness whenever upset.

What kind of symptoms are these? Could it be physical symptoms,

nervous symptoms, neuro-vegetative or hysterical? My first impression of

her was that she had been an introvert and psoric person. So, after

mentioning the oppression to her chest I immediately suspected Natrum

Muriaticum and asked her if she had that nervous lump in the throat

which is characteristic of the latter.

Next, I wanted to differentiate from the hysteric lump of Asafoetida but

her answer did not verify something like that. If this lump was a physical

symptom of a physical disease then she would have had it all the time and

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not when upset and it would tend to deteriorate as the physical disease

run its course.

I have already been guided to certain directions. Let me remind you that I

often told you in the past that the kind of symptoms that the patient has

can be very useful guiding us towards the patient‟s miasmas and

idiosyncrasy. It is important to trace the nature of the patient‟s symptoms,

that is, if they are psoric, sycotic, syphilitic, nervous, neuro-vegetative,

hysterical, etc. I have already noted down possible idiosyncrasies like the

psoric Natrum Muriaticum or the neuro-vegetative Phosphor and

Argentum Nitricum. Can you now see what I mean when I say that you

shouldn‟t be passive listeners but aggressive detectives? Let‟s go on.


-Well, it‟s time to tell you what is the matter with you and what can

Homeopathy do about your problems. Every human being is born with

certain predispositions, certain weak points. We could say that this is his

medical “dowry”. As long as the “car” is new and hasn‟t faced any

rough dirt roads these predispositions do not manifest themselves. As

years go by and several things stress us then symptoms and diseases

appear.

I believe that what have upset you the last few years are not irrelevant

with what you have developed now. These incidents irritated your

predispositions and caused these recent symptoms.

There are two ways to treat diseases. The one is the common treatment

with chemical drugs. If you go into any pharmacy you will see packed at

the shelves: antitussive drugs for cough, antipyretic drugs for fever, pain

killers for pain, anxiolytic pills for anxiety, antidepressant for depression,

and so on. But all these drugs don‟t do causative treatment; they merely

suppress symptoms.

110

And that‟s why we end up giving the same drugs for years and years

without any permanent cure, not to mention their side effects. I am a

medical doctor and I apply Homeopathy many years. Relief of symptoms

isn‟t something bad but yet it‟s not enough. We have to go on and try to

cure the diseases and the patient as a whole.

And that‟s what we are doing with Homeopathy. Our aim is to have a

causative and permanent cure. This is done by mobilizing the defensive

mechanisms of the patient, both physical and psychological. The patient‟s

organism is wiser than any doctor and can do miracles if properly aided.

Homeopathic medicines are natural because they originate from minerals

and plants although they are not just herbs or vitamins. They are

considered as medicines that must be prescribed by medical doctors and

bought from pharmacies that have homeopathic stock. Yet they have no

side effects at all. They are so harmless that can be given without any

second thought even to babies and pregnant women. Nor do we have any

problem if they are combined with any chemical medicine during our

treatment. Homeopathic drugs act on the energy level while allopathic

drugs act on the material level.

Your relapsing vaginitis will never be cured by external ointments or

antibiotics. These drugs may temporarily suppress the growth of fungi but

they won‟t cure the real cause, i.e. the predisposition you have at this

system. That‟s why things keep relapsing and you keep taking chemical

drugs again and again. Our goal in Homeopathy is to lessen the

predisposition, strengthen your immune system and your organism as a

whole and thus cure your problem permanently.

The same thing is true for your joints. By painkillers or by anti-

inflammatory drugs we can relieve temporarily but we cannot achieve

111

complete cure, not to mention their side effects. Again, the main goal

should be to cure permanently the existing arthritic predisposition.

I will now ask you some questions about your idiosyncrasy, your

character, your organism in general. I will do that because in

Homeopathy we always give to our patient that medicine that is similar

not to your diseases but to your idiosyncrasy.

It‟s about time to stop our hearing for discussion. I‟ve explained to my

patient what the matter is with her according to my opinion as a

homeopathic doctor. Next I compare his past allopathic treatment with

the homeopathic one to follow. This is done for two reasons. Firstly

because I have to explain to her what Homeopathy can do with each and

every of her diseases. Secondly because there are many illusions in the

minds of both doctors and patients about what Man is, why he gets ill and

how diagnosis and treatment should be. You see, it‟s my duty to “heal”

also these illusions because illusions are causes of illness and truth is a

healing power.

I have to stress to her the importance of the psychic level and its influence

on her body and that she got ill because she had a certain physical

predisposition on which acted the imbalance of her mind. This may help

her think in a different way. She may even try to avoid being upset and

being so sensitive and thus become more balanced. But enough with

philosophical matters; let‟s go back to our hearing.



-Cold.

-Very cold?

-Yes.

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-Cold, freezing hands and feet?

-Yes.

-Must you wear socks in bed at night to keep your feet warm?

-Yes, yes.

-Your feet apart from being cold, are they also often at the same time

wet? I mean at the same time cold and wet?

-Only at times.

-Rarely?

-Yes, rarely.

-If you have washed your hair and haven‟t dried it well and go out do you

get a headache or catch a cold easily?

-No, no.

-Are your nails brittle?

-I wouldn‟t say that.

-Do your lips crack easily?

-No.

It‟s time for evaluation of her symptoms. Is she cold and how cold?

-I would say cold 3.

-How about her extremities? How cold are they?

-Grade 3.

-I agree, because she must put on socks to keep them warm. Did you

notice that I said “at the same time cold and wet” twice using a stressed

tone of voice? Why did I do such a thing? Because many patients say

“yes” but they mean that usually their feet are cold and when warmed up

they perspire and their feet become wet. But this doesn‟t mean that they

are at the same time cold and wet. We must always try to be specific and

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clear when asking the patient anything or else he will give us a wrong

answer. Is this clear? Now, what idiosyncrasy was I asking about with the

former questions after she told me that she was very cold?

-Silica.

-Right! Silica and Calcarea Carbonica. So, I note down Silica and

Calcarea Carbonica not only due to the patients relation with cold but also

because I‟ve already traced a possible psoric personality due to her

physical symptoms and due to her whole image. Let‟s move on.


-Do you sweat a lot, normally or less than normal?

-Rarely.

-Does your sweat smell badly even if you slightly neglect to wash yourself

or neglect using deodorant?

-Not, particularly.

-Do you like salt?

-Normally.

-How about lemon, vinegar and sour taste?

-I like sour things.

-Do you prefer fruit, for example oranges, to be unripe and sour or ripe

and sweet?

-Sweet, not sour.

-How about fat and fatty food? Do you like it?

-No.

-Not if you avoid it for reasons of healthy nutrition or obesity.

-No, I don‟t like it.

-How about cold water?

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-Not much.


-I‟ve never been drinking milk!

-You didn‟t like its taste or did it bother your stomach or couldn‟t digest

it?

-When I was a child they forced me to drink it and then I didn‟t like it at

all. Now… neutrally.

-If you drink it does it bother you?

-Yes, yes.

Let‟s discuss her answers. The most important symptom is her “aversion

to the taste of fresh milk”. Even from childhood she was forced by her

parents to drink it although she hated its taste. But now she says

“neutrally”. Why so? I think that she keeps hating it and has symptoms

drinking it but since doctors tell her “women must drink milk so as not to

develop osteoporosis” she forces herself to drink it.

See how secondary factors can alter the manifestation of a primary

idiosyncratic tendency? So you must always bear in mind that we are

mainly interested in the patient‟s primary tendencies, in his primary

behavior and not in his secondary ones. This aversion to milk grade 3 is a

strong characteristic of Silica and Natrum Carbonicum, so I also note

down Natrum Carbonicum as a possible idiosyncrasy. Let‟s go on.

-What‟s your favorite position of sleep? On your abdomen, on your belly

or on the sides?

-On the sides.

-Right, left or both?

-Right.

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-When on your left side, does it sometimes happen to hear your heart‟s bit

or feel that you press your heart?

-No.

-Do you have saliva coming out of your mouth at night?

-At times, yes.

I stop the hearing again for evaluation of her answers. As you must have

noticed whenever her answer is not characteristic I don‟t insist asking

anything else on the matter and move on to another subject. But

whenever I need clarifications or whenever I suspect a strong

characteristic either due to her words or due to the tone of her voice and

grimaces then I keep on asking.

For example when she tells me that she sleeps on her right side I suspect

Phosphor who avoids sleeping on his left side so as not to burden his

heart and so I insist asking for clarification. You see how things are done?

We let ourselves be driven by the patient, by his strong likes and dislikes,

by his answers. The flow of life is what guides us!

We are not passive questioners simply noting down her answers only to

be evaluated later on by the study of any Repertory or by the “genius

mind” of the author of a Computer Expert System. No machine can

replace a motivated clear human mind! And nobody else‟s mind can

replace your mind or relieve you from your responsibility as doctor to

diagnose and treat successfully to the best of your ability. You must

always carry your cross, yourselves, to the top of Golgotha hill! You just

can‟t avoid it! (laughing) Let‟s move on! Let‟s carry our crosses! (more

laughing)


-Did you have any warts in the past?

116

-Yes I did have and I treated them by laser.

-When did this happen?

-About 7 years ago.

-Did you have in the past any problems like herpes of genitals, urethritis,

gonorrhea or such kind of diseases?

-When I visited you 15 years ago and after I got well and stopped the

treatment I had herpes zoster.

-Do you often develop common herpes on your lips?

-At times if I get upset.

-How about aphthae?

-At times if I am on antibiotics.


-The sea.

-Do you like it a lot? Are you very fond of it? Are you crazy about it?

-I like it a lot but it‟s not that I am crazy about it.

I stop for comments. Now pay attention in order to see how her individual

history can be of any diagnostic value to us regarding her idiosyncrasy.

She came to me 15 years ago, did her treatment, got well and then after

the treatment she developed herpes zoster. Is this accidental? No! I don‟t

think so!

For anyone who knows true Homeopathy this is not accidental! It‟s in

accordance with the Law of the Course of Illness! Homeopathic treatment

improved her general state of Health and thus her Illness subsided to a

more external and less important for the organism level. It passed from

the musculoskeletal system to the skin and from that level to balance.

And this balance lasted 15 whole years!

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And why did the old predisposition return back? It‟s very likely that the

personal problems she had the last 5 years played a significant role but I

believe that this was not the only reason. In fact I believe that there were

two more reasons: two suppressions of external skin and mucous

diseases. That is, the suppression of warts by laser therapy 7 years ago

and the suppression of HPV by cryosurgery 6 years ago.

These two external diseases served a certain purpose. They were of

course imbalances but being on an external level they served as safety

valves for the decompression of internal pressure thus preventing the

Illness from affecting a more internal level like the musculoskeletal one.

For us, homeopathic doctors, the individual history of any patient is not

accidental. It obeys to the homeopathic medical laws; those laws that

have to do with the hierarchy of the several levels of Man and with the

course of Illness. If it‟s not accidental then it can be of use to us regarding

idiosyncratic diagnosis.

In Homeopathy, we never say: “In the past you had eczema and now you

have asthma. These are two separated and irrelevant diseases. The one is

of interest to the dermatologist and the other is of interest to the

pulmonologist. You see how the lack of any laws in Allopathy and the

exaggeration of specialization, deprives us of valuable information and

understanding about the patient as a whole?

That‟s why I note down not only any past symptoms or past diseases of

the patient but also insist on when did these happen and in what

circumstances. Furthermore, it‟s of great importance to see what

happened first, what second and after how much time, etc. All these do

matter to us, homeopathic doctors. Nothing is accidental in Universe and

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so nothing is accidental in Medicine and Homeopathy. “Accidental” is a

word that only exists inside ignorant minds!

I also asked if she often develops cold sore. Why so? Because Natrum

Carbonicum and Mercury often suffer from herpes of all forms. Borax on

the other hand often suffers from aphthae. Let‟s move on.



-Yes.

-What, usually makes you angry? What kind of behaviors annoy you or

irritate you?

-When somebody is indiscreet or not polite.

-Any other behaviors?

-My companion… when he is grumbling about little things or when he is

jealous at trifles.

-Give me an example.

-Well, the day before yesterday he made a whole scene shouting because

I was out on the balcony… you see he suspects neighbors, people passing

by… everybody.

Now, let me say a few things. She says that her husband is extremely

jealous. Just because she said so that doesn‟t mean that we should take it

for granted. I always have to confirm whatever she says. So I ask her:

“Give me an example”. I always ask for examples in order to verify

things. Each patient interprets any event in his own individual

idiosyncratic way and according to his spiritual level. Furthermore, he

talks about it in his own individual idiosyncratic way. I am interested in

two things: what‟s the objective reality and what‟s his individual

interpretation.

119

So I must first verify that indeed her husband is jealous and furthermore

as jealous as she says because I may have to do with an exaggerating

woman. Or I may have to do with a psychotic, insane woman. I have to

know the truth in order to diagnose my patient‟s idiosyncrasy.

Her answers and her whole psoric personality have convinced me that she

is telling the truth; that indeed, her husband is insanely jealous. From my

experience I suspect that he may be Hyoscyamus. That could also explain

why my patient is so repressed by him, not to mention that she, herself,

mentioned her husband‟s jealousy as the main cause of her imbalance.

Jealousy is a terrible thing not only for the person that is addressed to but

also for the person that is governed by it! It‟s a green little Martian

creature! (laughing)

I can also reach to another conclusion: that she is psoric. Why so? Could

any sycotic person endure such a burden of jealousy and develop such an

imbalance without arguing intensely? A sycotic person would not stand

such a behavior for long, not to say for years. She would have divorced

him for sure or she would have forced him “to shut the fuck up” – I

deliberately use sycotic expressions. In general, she would have handled

this situation in a dynamic way. She would either “fight” or “flight”.

On the contrary, a psoric person isn‟t able to handle such situations. She

is hurt, does not express it, suffers quietly and develops nervous

symptoms. Isn‟t that our very patient? Yes, indeed! See how important is

miasmatic diagnosis?

Did she tell us: “Hey, doctor, I am a psoric person!” (laughing) No! We

have come to this conclusion out of knowledge, laws and observation.

Indirect information is very valuable for our homeopathic diagnosis and

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especially regarding Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis that I teach to

you. It‟s time to move on.

-Whenever you get angry do you express your anger or do you keep it

inside?

-Only when I can.

-Do you express your anger to strangers?

-No, mostly to my own people.

-To your husband?

-No, not really. I prefer not to speak so as not to have fights going on.

Only at times I express my anger.

-Do you want to throw something or break something when angry?

-Yes, I do it; now that I am full of anger I do it.

-Do you mean that you often throw things?

-Lately, yes.

-Even things that can be broken?

-Well, not things made of glass but the day before yesterday I broke the

telephone.

-Do you hit your hand on the table or slam the door behind you when

angry?

-No, no.

-Do you want to hit your head with your hands or pull your hair or tear

your clothes?

-No, no.

-Do you easily calm after you have expressed your anger?

-Yes.

-Do you mean… “Friends again”?

121

-Oh no, I don‟t forget it.

It‟s again time for discussion. She says that she is irritable. At what

grade? I don‟t think that she is irritable; perhaps 1 or 2 due to present

circumstances from her repressive and jealous husband. She bursts her

anger only a little and mostly to her own people but not to her angry

husband. She is definitely psoric but not as psoric as a typical Natrum

Muriaticum would be. Besides, she is quite cold while the latter is usually

hot.

If we also take in consideration the strong aversion to milk we come to

think of Natrum Carbonicum. When she bursts her anger she becomes

calm enough but she doesn‟t have the characteristic bitter hurt feeling or

the introversion of Natrum Muriaticum. Let‟s go on.


-Are you tidy or untidy?

-Tidy.

-Do you mean very tidy? To have everything in order, everything in its

place, everything perfect?

-Not as much as in the past.

-When visitors change the order of things at your house, ash-trays,

chairs, etc. does this annoy you? Not if you say something, but if it

annoys you.

-Yes, it does a little.

-When visitors leave and it‟s late at night and you are tired will you put

all things back in place no matter what or will you leave it as it is?

-Now I leave it as it is.

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Interruption for comments; what have you to say about her tidiness?

-She was very tidy in the past but not so now.

-What grade now?

-Two.

-Yes, definitely not tidy 3 now. As you must have noticed I asked some

questions about tidiness so as to verify things but I did not insist since she

seemed definitely not tidiness 3 like for example a Nux Vomica case.

This tidiness 2 suits both Natrum Muriaticum and Natrum Carbonicum

due to their psoric and very responsible nature. Let‟s move on.


-What about your personal problems, your deep felt matters? Do you

want to talk about it to others or do you keep it inside?

-I may talk to my mother or to the girlfriend of my son…

-Even your deep felt matters?

-Well, they already know most of what I am experiencing…

-If somebody, not so close to you, has learned that you are very upset due

to something personal and comes to console you, to tell you “don‟t

worry, it will pass…” how do you face consolation? Do you just listen to

him, feel better or are you annoyed or angry?

-I may get angry.

-Why so?

-I don‟t know… I may get angry. I get angry with my mother whenever

she starts saying several things.

-Oh, I get it! Mothers most of the times tend to be quite annoying but I

don‟t mean that. I mean when somebody else not so close comes to

console you…

-I become more upset.

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-Does it annoy you that he has learned about your personals?

-No.

-Do you cry easily?

-Yes.

-Does it happen in front of others?

-No, I don‟t want others to see me like that. I will go away.

-Do you cry in front of your husband?

-No.

Let us stop again for evaluation. Is she introvert or extrovert?

-Introvert.

-What grade? Two or three?

-Two.

-I say three.

-I say two and a half… (laughing)

-Well, you shouldn‟t laugh. There aren‟t any absolute things in life. I will

agree that she is introvert two and a half, i.e. 2 to 3. I ask her about

consolation and she says: “I get angry with my mother whenever she

starts saying several things”. I don‟t take that as “consolation aggravates”

because mothers tend not to console but to argue and grumble all the

time. She may have a domineering Lachesis mother that keeps interfering

to all her personal matters accusing her all the time that she doesn‟t

divorce her “scamp” husband and that she is “good for nothing”, etc.

How could she not get angry? But this isn‟t “consolation aggravates” of

course.

That‟s why I repeat the same question emphasizing on other people, other

than her mother. Her answer is “I become more upset”. This answer isn‟t

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the typical answer of a Natrum Muriaticum but nevertheless she wants to

cry alone like the latter one. So she seems to be very close to Natrum

Muriaticum but not just like it, something that leads me towards Natrum

Carbonicum. Let‟s move on.


-Have you got any fears about anything?

-No.

-Fear of heights? When looking down from a balcony?

-No.

-Whenever you hear about heart attacks, strokes, cancer, etc, do you start

worrying about your own health? That it may happen to you also?

-Yes.

-Not if it affects you for a little while and then you forget it but if you

worry a lot and start checking about it.

-Not much.

-Any other fears?

-No.

-Do you have kids?

-Two.

-How old are they?

-Twenty three and twenty two; two boys.

-If they are late do you worry a lot? Start thinking bad things?

-Yes.

-Even if they are 15-20 minutes late do you worry a lot?

-No, not so much.

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-Even now that your children are grownups do you run after them saying

“Eat your food!”, “Wear enough clothes!”, “Be careful!”, etc?

-Oh, not so much! I know that they are grownups now and I don‟t do that.

Let‟s stop for discussion. I ask about her children so as to see if she has

the overprotectiveness of Lachesis. She doesn‟t seem to be like that. At

first she says that she worries so I insist asking but this time exaggerating

a little my question deliberately and after my new question she says: “No,

not so much”.

If she was a “Mrs. Kate” Lachesis she would bite my bate and would

exaggerate about how much she cares about her children because she

“loves them so much” and “worries” about them, etc. It‟s very important

to have the flexibility to push the patient this or that way, to “play” with

him “the game of questions and answers” so as to verify things. It‟s like a

fisherman who moves his bate here and there in order to draw the

attention of the fish. Let‟s go on.


-Compared to the average people of your age are you cleverer, less

clever or on the average? I don‟t mean quantity of knowledge or

diplomas; I refer to cleverness.

-Normally, on the average.


-Yes, but I don‟t have time.

-What kind of movies do you like the most?

-Social movies.

-Around 11 o‟clock in the morning do you have the urge to eat

something?

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-No.

-Do you eat quickly, hastily, even if you have time?

-I try to eat slowly.

-Does that mean that you have the tendency to eat hastily but you restrain

yourself let‟s say for health reasons?

-No, I don‟t have the tendency to eat hastily.

-If you eat late at night do you have indigestion?

-No.

-How about your appetite? Low, high or normal?

-I may say high.

-How about your sexual desire? Low, high or normal?

-Nothing, nothing at all.

-Let me clear things; do you have zero desire?

-Yes, zero. I don‟t go for it but if it happens then ok, I feel good.

-But you don‟t make the first move…

-No I don‟t go for it.

-But if you have sex then will you enjoy it?

-Yes.

We must stop for analysis. I asked some questions to see if she is

Lycopodium but nothing came up. I asked about her appetite not because

I expected to have any characteristic answer. She is psoric and introvert

so I couldn‟t just suddenly ask about her sexual desire. So I asked first

about her desire for food so as to jump to sexual desire in a less abrupt

manner.

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At first she answered about sexual desire: “Nothing, nothing at all”. She

seemed spontaneous and emphasized her answer. But I insisted asking in

order to be sure about it. It finally turned out to be a lack of desire for sex

grade 1 case and definitely not an aversion sex since she enjoys it

whenever it happens. If we take in consideration how adverse things are

with her companion then we could even predict that this woman under

other circumstances would have normal or above normal desire for sex.

A superficial homeopathic doctor could say: “She said that she doesn‟t

have any desire for sex, “nothing at all” and that is something expected

since her husband is a menace”. So he could easily note down “aversion

sex 3” and prescribe Sepia. I have seen this happen many times and it‟s

wrong. You always have to verify things and take in consideration the

whole picture of the patient. In this case the defining thing is that

whenever she has sex she enjoys it. Even if she enjoys it only at times or

rarely this can‟t be considered an aversion sex case. “Low desire for sex”,

“lack of desire”, “lack of enjoyment”, and “aversion sex” are four

different things and shouldn‟t be confused.

This “low desire for sex” could easily be the case of a Natrum

Carbonicum or Natrum Muriaticum troubled woman. Such psoric

idiosyncrasies are very sensitive and giving and if are troubled from life

and especially from their husbands it‟s something quite expected to have

decreased desire for sex. Under normal conditions Natrum Muriaticum

can be considered a hot person regarding sexual desire and if things are

going well with her husband she does enjoy sex. Let‟s move on.


-Do you sometimes feel as if having a black cloud over your head?

-No.

-Those pains that you have in your muscles and bones do they make you

feel as if bruised or injured?

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-No.

-Lately, do you feel up to the neck from anger, as if you are ready to burst

although you never express it?

-No. I get angry only when something happens and then I get over it.

-When somebody offends you greatly do you keep it inside and want to

pay back?

-I want to but I don‟t do it.

-Does it stay inside you for very long?

-Yes, I feel bitter about it.

-Do you feel bitter for long?

-For a while.

-Ups and downs regarding your mood or irritability during the day but

without knowing the reason? I mean without being caused by something

or by some thought?

-No.

Let‟s stop the hearing for comments. As you must have noticed I asked to

see if she is Cimicifuga or Staphisagria. None of the two seemed possible.

Then I asked about Valeriana. At first she seemed as if being revengeful

but she wasn‟t. What she had as characteristic was that she keeps feeling

bitter after a great offence. This suits Natrum Muriaticum or Natrum

Carbonicum and not Valeriana. Let‟s go on.

-Whenever you try to read in a moving bus or vehicle do you get dizzy?

-No.

-If you go downtown to the traffic jam, to crowded streets and smoke do

you often have a headache?

-No.

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-Does the sun bother you a lot to the head in the Summer? Must you wear

a hat all the time or seek for shade?

-Yes, kind of.

-Do you sometimes feel estrangement from other people? As if you are on

the one side and others on the other?

-No.

-How about constipation?

-Not often.

-Does noise annoy you a lot?

-Only loud music.

-Do you easily have dark rings beneath your eyes?

-Yes, kind of.

-When you lose weight does this happen mostly to your face, hands and

feet but not to your hips? And when you gain weight does this happen

mostly to your hips?

-Yes, indeed!

-Do you often need a soda to help you digest?

-No. An apple is what I want.

Let‟s do some analysis again. As you can see I go on doing differential

diagnosis. I ask about her relation to the sun and if she has that feeling of

estrangement. She has the first in some minor degree but she doesn‟t have

the second. Both of them are traits of Natrum Carbonicum. She easily

develops dark rings beneath her eyes and has that pear-shaped body like

the Natrums do. Another Natrum trait of hers is that she easily gains

weight at the hips and moreover it‟s very difficult to lose weight from the

same area. Let‟s go on.

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-Does food warm you up whenever you are cold?

-Yes, right away.

-Do you often feel an annoying feeling or an empty feeling at the stomach

area and want to eat often and little food each time?

-No, but I am often hungry.

-When lying on your left side do you often feel palpitation?

-Sometimes, yes.

-Does it often happen to read a page of a book and forget the previous

one?

-No.

-Did you have any difficulty getting pregnant?

-No.


Let‟s now reach to our final diagnosis. As you must have noticed I went

on asking about several traits of Natrum Carbonicum. So, what are we

going to prescribe for her?

-…

-It seems that I am again the one to give the answer! I start thinking: She

isn‟t hysterical and she isn‟t Phosphor. She didn‟t have any traits of

Argentum Nitricum. She could be Silica but she hasn‟t enough

characteristics of the latter. She hasn‟t got any characteristic fears that

could make her a Calcarea Carbonica case. So I am left with only two

possible idiosyncrasies on hand: Natrum Carbonicum and Natrum

Muriaticum.

But she doesn‟t have the intense introvert and psoric picture of Natrum

Muriaticum. She is more like Natrum Carbonicum who is a more

extrovert version of the Natrums and furthermore she bursts her anger

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more often. Moreover she is cold like a Natrum Carbonicum and not hot

like a Natrum Muriaticum. She also has that characteristic aversion to

milk who is a strong trait of Natrum Carbonicum and only slightly if not,

a trait of Natrum Muriaticum. But what matters most is her psychological

picture that suits more a Natrum Carbonicum and that‟s what I‟ve

prescribed for her. Any questions or objections of any kind? None!

Well, to conclude, that‟s what homeopathic case taking is, in action. It‟s

not as easy as it seems to you at the moment because during these first

live clinical cases I talk too much and give you many clues. But I have to

do this in order to explain to you how things are done. As you must have

noticed I apply in practice all those theoretical stuff that we have been

through during many past lectures. I mean the technique of case taking,

the attitude of the doctor towards his patient, what‟s normal and what‟s

not, the Homeopathic and Universal Laws, etc. I don‟t say this in order to

take the credits; I say it because I want to show you that if you have a

theory and practice joint closely together, then your practice can be very

successful.

During our analysis I also tried to show you what an easy thing is to make

mistakes especially if you give much value to the physical symptoms

which, from nature, are of a more general character. Or how easy is to

reach to wrong conclusions if you focus only to some psychological

characteristics and not to the whole picture, to the miasmatic traits and to

the feeling that the person creates to you.

That‟s why I named this method of diagnosis that I teach to you as

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis. It‟s not that I have discovered

America! It‟s that I apply something that is but the application of

Homeopathic Laws in homeopathic case taking having in mind the

knowledge of Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Materia Medica. Art and Science

applied in clinical practice. Nothing more, nothing less!

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CHAPTER 5

A CASE OF NUX VOMICA


5.2 Hierarchy: first the whole picture, then psychological symptoms

and then physical symptoms

5.3 Present Disease











Before we go on with analysis of a new clinical case I feel that I have to

answer to a question addressed to me privately a few minutes ago. John

told me that on hearing a lecture about Nux Vomica from another

homeopathic doctor very much focus was given on the trait of

overstimulation and less focus on fastidiousness and asked me why so.

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It‟s of extreme importance to apply Universal and Homeopathic Laws in

every step of our medical practice. That is also true when we try to

understand the characteristics of any idiosyncrasy so as to build its

complete miasmatic idiosyncratic picture. So according to the Universal

Law of Hierarchy what comes first are the miasmas and will of the

individual and then come his thoughts, then his emotions and last his

behavior.

As we move from up to down or from the center to the circumference,

symptoms tend to become more diverse and thus less important to our

diagnosis. “Genotype” is the primary state and is one for all persons that

are affected from the same idiosyncrasy while “Phenotype” is the last link

of the chain and things tend to become numerous and diverse. Genotype

is one while there are many phenotypes. The final behavior of any person

affected by the same idiosyncrasy becomes diverse due to factors like

sex, culture, way of life, previous life-deciding events, moral values,

education and the specific phase that the person is going through.

For example, you may come up with a Phosphor person that has no

neuro-vegetative symptoms at all only because he is in phase A, i.e. in a

very balanced state. That doesn‟t mean that he isn‟t Phosphor. If you

examine his primary tendency, i.e. his psoric moral values - altruism,

good intentions and honesty - and his sycotic expression then you have a

strong foundation for your diagnosis of the whole picture. But if you

focus only on his secondary behavior, that is neuro-vegetative symptoms

and fear about health then you may reach to wrong conclusions.

So during our lectures on Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Materia Medica I

focused on the genotype of any idiosyncrasy, on the primary miasmatic

idiosyncratic features and not on secondary phenotypic behaviors. It‟s not

strange that many idiosyncrasies and especially the syphilitic ones have

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plenty of phenotypes, plenty of secondary behaviors and sometimes even

opposite ones.

For example you may find a Lachesis introvert grade 3 and a Lachesis

extrovert grade 3. You may see her adopting the image of the “poor

sensitive helpless victim” or see her adopting the image of the cruel,

strong perpetrator. Nevertheless, these two seemingly opposite

phenotypes/secondary behaviors have the same genotype/primary

behavior: the syphilitic domineering tendency. In the first phenotype the

person dominates indirectly and in the second the person dominates

directly.

5.2 Hierarchy: first the whole picture, then psychological symptoms

and then physical symptoms

As you must have also noticed during the description of the

characteristics of any idiosyncrasy I deliberately didn‟t focus on the

physical symptoms so as not to lose focus of the whole image and of the

psychological symptoms. Physical symptoms have of course their value

but mostly as confirmation of our conclusion that has been reached

through the whole picture and the psychological symptoms.

Moreover it‟s quite impossible for anyone to remember all these

thousands of physical symptoms while it‟s easier to bear in mind the

essence of the psychological picture of the few decades of basic

idiosyncrasies. Then and only then, after one has come to certain possible

idiosyncrasies and only if yet needed, he can refer to any Repertory in

order to verify that the physical symptoms of the patient are in

accordance with the whole.

Repertorising and Computer Expert Systems have failed to give

successful prescriptions because they leave out very important aspects of

case taking like non-verbal clues, “feeling” of the patient, miasmatic

135

aspect of the patient, primary and secondary behaviors, etc. These two

methods fail to focus on the hierarchy of symptoms. They fail to give

more credit to symptoms that hierarchically are of more importance like

miasmatic characteristics, psychological symptoms and primary

behaviors.

No Computer Expert System or Repertorising Method can judge and

apply hierarchy as an intelligent human being can do. Nor do they have

any heart and conscience to evaluate the heart and mind of the patient

standing in front of them. The only thing they do is to count symptoms

and compare it to Materia Medica.

I have many times told you that homeopathic diagnosis is like a thousand

pieces puzzle. If you are sensitive and smart enough to use your heart and

mind and grab from that ocean of pieces only the red hat and the rosy

cheeks of the Little Red Riding Hood and the teeth of the bad wolf then,

if the essence of the puzzle matches the tale of the Little Red Riding

Hood, you‟ve solved the case! You definitely know that this is a Little

Red Riding Hood idiosyncrasy! (laughing)

All other hundreds of pieces lying in front of you can only be useful in

confirming your diagnosis that has already been done with the help of

Miasmatic Idiosyncratic Diagnosis. No Computer Expert System and no

Repertorising can do that! Only a jet can take you across the Atlantic!

Little boats may do the same thing at times but after much time and

effort. It takes heart and skills to fly a modern jet while a boat seems

easier but would you prefer a jet or a small boat? (laughing)

Now, let‟s move on to our today‟s clinical case. I want you to write down

symptoms and characteristics and evaluate it as I‟ve taught you so as to

be able to discuss what you have written down. This is a case of a 40

years old public employee woman.

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5.3 Present Disease

-What brings you to me? What‟s your main problem?

-I have a certain sensitivity regarding my voice. I catch colds easily and

can‟t speak.

-Since when?

-The last 3 years.

-How did this start? Did anything happen? Did you have a severe cold?

-No.

-How does this thing start? What are the first symptoms?

-Hoarseness.

-So first you have hoarseness and then you can‟t speak?

-Can‟t speak at all. Then cough begins.

-Do you feel any phlegm running down from your nose to your mouth

causing the cough?

-I don‟t know, I can‟t say.

-Do you feel something inside your throat that causes this cough?

-As if I have a ball.

-Do you feel this going up from your stomach to your throat?

-I feel it over here.

-When coughing, do you have any expectoration?

-No.

-Nothing at all?

-No.

-When swallowing, do you feel any pain?

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-No.

-Do you also have fever?

-Only once last year.

-Any other symptoms?

-I have intense cough and pain below my ears or inside it.

-How often does this happen?

-Last year I had it 3-4 times.

-When this acute condition is over, is your nose completely free and your

voice fully ok?

-Yes.

-Do you smoke?

-A lot.

-Do you have any other health problems at the moment?

-No.

-Did you have any other diseases in the past or done any surgery?

-No.

-Are you taking any drugs at present for any reason?

-No, only some vitamins.

-Do you have children?

-Yes.

-How old are they?

-Four and two years old. Last year that I had the high fever I didn‟t have

time for me because my kids had relapsing colds and I kept taking care of

them.

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-I see. So it‟s time for me to tell you what is the matter with you and what

are we going to do with our treatment. Every person is born with certain

predispositions, certain weak points…

-I forgot to tell you that my mother has the same problem.

-I see, so you have this certain inherited predisposition. Well, as I told

you we are born with certain predispositions that as time passes and as

we face several stressful conditions then these predispositions cause

symptoms and diseases.

-Let me also add something that has to do with my organism‟s defense.

They found that I have HPV.

-You mean that you did some test?

-No, not some test. My gynecologist examined me and told me that I have

this thing externally and I was worried a lot.

-My personal opinion is that often there is too much worrying about

something that doesn‟t worth it.

-What can I say…? I don‟t know… only recently I‟ve first heart about this

thing.


-Let me tell you something. Bacteria, fungi and viruses are but the

“scavengers”, “recycling” agents and “decomposers” but never the

cause of any so called “infectious” disease. They tend to grow only

where there is fertile ground for their growth and multiplication.

Nor can they be the cause of cancer because the latter is the height of

physical disorganization and in order to reach such an extreme state it is

definitely needed to have psychological and physical weariness for many

years. The growth of microorganisms is only one of the local results

caused by the general imbalance of the organism and not the cause of

Illness.

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The dirty room is the cause of the presence of cockroaches and other

insects and not vice versa. In turn, of course, these microorganisms will

cause changes but they are not the cause of this vicious circle. Many

times such tests for HPV or any other microorganism could be falsely

positive, i.e. the test appears positive regarding abnormal growth of the

microorganism but no such thing happens.

But even if the presence of a microorganism is true that doesn‟t mean

anything. Every single minute there exist on and in us all kinds of

bacteria, fungi and viruses. What really matters is the balance between

them and our organism. If our organism and defense mechanisms

collapse, then and only then can a microorganism cause problems.

Nevertheless, we can treat any such imbalances and infectious diseases

with the application of Homeopathy. We do mobilize all physical and

psychological mechanisms of the patient and thus achieve cure.

Homeopathic medicines are natural; they originate from minerals and

plants but that doesn‟t mean that they are simply vitamins or herbs. They

are considered medicines that are prescribed only by doctors and bought

only from pharmacies but still they have no side effects at all. They are so

harmless that can be given even to babies and pregnant women without

any fear of side effects. Nor is there any problem if they are combined

with any chemical drug whatsoever. Homeopathic drugs act on the

energy level while chemical drugs on the material level. We do try of

course to avoid chemical drugs so as not to burden our organism but

there is no problem if a patient during our treatment has to make use of

antibiotics, painkillers on any other drug.

I will now ask you some things because in Homeopathy we prescribe for

every patient his own similar medicine. That is, the one that is similar to

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his idiosyncrasy, to his type and character both physically and

psychologically.



It‟s time for comments. I want your allopathic diagnosis. What‟s the

matter with this woman?

-We haven‟t got any typical diagnosis of a certain disease.

-Nevertheless, you have to reach to a conclusion. You are allopathic

doctors and you have to make up your mind about her disease.

-Pharyngitis.

-She said that it starts with hoarseness and then she has cough and pain

below or inside her ear and this happens 3-4 times a year. What‟s the

matter with this woman?

-Perhaps, a kind of pharyngitis?

-Well you see, all my arguing is about that “a kind of” you said. So,

what‟s the allopathic diagnosis for this woman?

-…

-We definitely have some symptoms from the upper respiratory system.

The first thing that could come to one‟s mind would be an allergy. That‟s

why I ask her if she is absolutely free of symptoms during intervals. If

she had an allergic rhinitis she would only have seasonal symptoms or

she would also have symptoms during intervals. But her symptomatology

is not seasonal and she is absolutely free of symptoms during intervals. I

also ask if this sensation of a “ball” in her throat is rising from her

stomach to her throat. Why do I ask this? I do it in order to see if she has

the typical hysterical symptoms of an Asafoetida. Does this person seem

to be hysterical to you?

-Not for me.

141

-I agree with you. She doesn‟t seem to be hysterical but that is something

we must check as case taking proceeds and we start asking about her

psychological characteristics. So she doesn‟t seem to have something

allergic or hysterical, instead she seems to have a physical disease. She

has a chronic sensitivity of the upper respiratory system with hoarseness

or loss of voice. We must take in consideration the hereditary

predisposition from her mother‟s side and the fact that she is a heavy

smoker.

I insisted on reaching a typical allopathic diagnosis because in an indirect

way this can lead us to possible idiosyncratic families. If we have

neurovegetative symptoms we search for neurovegetative idiosyncrasies.

If we have hysterical symptoms we head for hysterical idiosyncrasies,

and so on. If I have to do with insisting allergic symptoms I could think

of sycotic idiosyncrasies.

She also says that she has been diagnosed with HPV infection. As you

must have noticed I explained to her my homeopathic opinion about the

so called “infectious” diseases and the role of microorganisms. I did that

in order to lessen the stress and fear that my allopathic colleagues caused

to her especially when they say that HPV can lead to cervical cancer. It‟s

important to support our patient and to neutralize any allopathic illusions

that affected his mind and heart. But it‟s time to move on. What

idiosyncrasies crossed your mind up to now?

-You mean from the feeling he creates to us or from the way she talks?

-No, I mean from the diseases and symptoms that she suffers from. I may

have up to a point not a clearly hysterical personality in front of me but

that sensation of “ball” in her throat is worth examining Asafoetida in due

time. I also have to compare this sensation with the nervous sensation of a

lump in the throat of Natrum Muriaticum. No other idiosyncrasy comes

into my mind and heart for the present being so I note down these two

and move on.

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-Generally are you hot or cold?

-Cold.

-Do you want much clothing?

-Yes, quite enough. In the past I was even colder but recent winters aren‟t

so cold anymore.

-Are your feet and hands cold in winter?

-Not particularly but I do want to keep them warm.

-Do you sometimes have cold and wet feet at the same time?

-No.

-Does heat bother you a lot?

-No.

-How about perspiration. Do you sweat a lot, normally or less than

normal?

-Normally.

-Does your sweat smell bad if you slightly neglect to wash yourself or

neglect to use deodorant?

-I guess not; nothing special.

-Do you like sweet things?

-Not much.

-Do you like salt?

-I can do without it.

-If your food is salty can you eat it?

-I prefer my food with less salt than normal.

-How about sour things, lemon or vinegar?

143

-Mostly lemon.

-Do you prefer fruits to be sour/unripe or to be sweet/ripe?

-Ripe.

-How about fat? Do you like fatty meat?

-I don‟t eat it because I shouldn‟t eat it.

-I am interested mostly if you like it‟s taste no matter if you avoid it for

health reasons.

-I don‟t like it.

-Do you like cold water?

-Yes, I do.

-Even in winter do your prefer your water from the fridge?

-Not so much; half from the fridge and half from the tab. I used to drink it

from the fridge even in winter but then I had problems with my throat and

stopped it; now my habit has changed.


-Yes.

-What‟s your favorite position of sleep? On your abdomen, on your belly

or on the sides?

-Sides.

-Left, right or both?

-Right.

-Sometimes if you lie on your left side, on the side of your heart, do you

feel pressing it or hear it beating?

-No.

-Do you have saliva coming out of your mouth at night on the pillow?

-No.

144

-Did you have any warts in the past?

-No.

-Did you often have vaginitis or urine infections in the past?

-No.

-Anemia in the past?

-No.


-The mountain.


Again it‟s time for analysis. As you must have noticed, whenever I asked

a question and her answer wasn‟t characteristic I went on without any

delay to my next question. The pace of interrogation at this case was very

quick. From what I remember I happened to have an extra urgent

appointment and I was late and I had to be very quick.

I always examine on appointment and try not to squeeze a lot of

appointments so as to have the comfort to examine my patient

thoroughly. I also never answer telephone calls while examining patients.

Every day between 4.30 and 5.30 in the afternoon I answer to phone calls

of my patients that have to do with the progress of their treatment.

Nevertheless, at times emergency appointments do happen and you have

to do your job quickly and at the same time properly.

I must say from my experience that a quick pace of interrogation is better

than a normal or slow one because you are forced to have all your

antennas open and working hard in order to reach a quick and correct

diagnosis. So, what‟s worth noting down from our patient‟s answers?

-That she is cold.

145

-Right. She is cold 2. In the past she must have been cold 3. Apart from

that she used to like cold water 3 but now it‟s either desire for cold water

2 or even 3 but she avoids it because of her throat problems. We are not

sure if it‟s desire for cold 2 or 3 at the moment but we shouldn‟t stick to

such details because it‟s the totality of symptoms that matters.

Nevertheless, I note down Phosphor as possible idiosyncrasy on the event

of desire cold 3. You must have noticed that I stressed to her that I wasn‟t

interested so much on what she does but on what she desires. Let‟s move

on.



-No.

-Not if you burst your anger but if you get angry inside easily.

-Well, some things do make me angry.

-What makes you angry? What situations? What behaviors?

-Untidiness! Very much!

-Other behaviors?

-Slow people; and stupidity also.

-Whenever you get angry do you express your anger or do you keep it

inside?

-I do. I take it out.

-No matter what?

-Yes, but with tact.

-When somebody offends you will you take him down a peg?

-If he is a complete stranger I may let it go; I even go away. If he is

someone I know then I will answer.

146

-If somebody strongly offends you do you bear grudges? Not to forget it

no matter how much time will pass?

-No, not much.

-Are you temperamental? To have ups and downs regarding your mood

or anger during daytime even if nothing happened or nothing crossed

your mind?

-No.

-Do you have a constant nervousness without reason?

-My mind always operates at high speed because I have a lot in my mind

that must be done.

-Do you want to throw something or break something when angry?

-Yes.

-Often?

-Not often, rarely.

-Even things that can be broken?

-No. Not such things… I never damage things.

-So, I see you are very careful even when bursting your anger…

(laughing)

-Yes, that‟s it! Ok, I may hit my head on the table or slam the door… but

that‟s it.

-Do you like tidiness? All things to be in place, everything in order?

-All of it! All of it!

-You mean even on the point of becoming fastidious? To have this thing

here, the other there, everything in perfect order?

-Yes, yes!

-When visitors move ashtrays, chairs, bibelot, does this annoy you?

147

-I want them to have a good time and after that I will put it back into

place.

-When visitors leave the house and it‟s late at night and you are tired,

will you put all things back into order or you may do it next day?

-If I leave it just like that I will not feel well. Anyway, if I leave it as it is,

then I won‟t let anyone come to my house next day. (laughing) I will

arrange not to work the day after the gathering so as to stay home and

take care of it. All of it must be done! No way!

-Do you want to be punctual to your appointments, right on time?

-Yes.

-Do you manage to do so?

-Yes I do.

-If the person to meet delays to come to your appointment does this annoy

you or make you angry?

-Yes, very much!

-Will you make a comment, will you make a remark?

-Yes, I‟ll find a way.

-If he is very late will you go away?

-I‟ve also done that!

-You are in the line in a bank and someone tries to go ahead of you. Will

you say something?

-Yes! Yes! You see I never go ahead of anyone. I always wait patiently my

turn.

-While walking on the street someone throws garbage… will you make a

remark?

-Not much.

-Do you want to have a program in your life and not only at work? To

say: “I will do these things today, those things tomorrow, etc”?

148

-Yes, very much!

-If somebody changes your program does that annoy you or make you

angry?

-Yes. I don‟t want others to spoil my program.

-If bills are left unpaid or anything unsettled do you get very annoyed?

Do you want to settle everything the soonest possible?

-Right away! I put them in my program right away.

-Does it often happen to wake up at 4 to 6 a.m. and not be able to sleep

again because you keep thinking of all the things you have to do in the

day to come?

-Yes, that often happens to me. I have so much in my mind. I just can‟t

relax. At night if I don‟t do all housework and if I don‟t put my children

to bed I just can‟t sleep; it‟s impossible to sleep.

-Does noise annoy you a lot?

-Yes, it does.

-Even the tic-tac of a clock in your bedroom?

-No, not so much.


It‟s time for comments again. What have you to say about her irritability?

Is she an irritable person or not? At what grade?

-Grade two.

-I agree. What makes her angry? You must take in consideration that this

is a very important question.

-Untidiness makes her angry.

-When asking such important questions we always leave our patient to

talk and say as much as possible. If he gives a short answer we push him

to talk. Furthermore, we ask about things that we suspect that he has at

149

grade 2 or 3. She says that she gets angry from untidiness, from slow

people and from stupidity and I think that she definitely means it. Can

you think of any possible idiosyncrasies that match these answers?

-Nux Vomica for untidiness.

-Yes, right! But she is also annoyed from stupidity and she says so

although not asked specifically. Any spontaneous statement is stronger

than a guided answer. That‟s the reason why we should always try to ask

in a general way and leave our patient express himself unbiased. For

example such general questions are: “What annoys you?”, “What makes

you angry?” or “What bothers you in general?” Our questions become

more specific when we do differential diagnosis. Even then we try not to

put words in the mouth of our patient so as to have an unbiased answer.

Any other possible idiosyncrasy?

-Platina.

-Bravo, Platina it is!

-Is it true that Tarentula Hispanica is annoyed from slow people? When

they act slowly?

-Yes, she might be, especially if she is a nervous person but this is not a

very strong characteristic of hers. On the contrary it‟s a very strong trait

of Platina and Valeriana and sometimes of Coffea Cruda because she

functions at high “revolutions”. Lachesis also could say “yes” to such a

question because she is very active and quick and always wants to do

things. I examined a Platina today who told me among other things

although not asked: “Stupidity annoys me a lot, doctor!”

-You mean that all these idiosyncrasies that feel superior to others are

annoyed by stupidity? Can you elaborate on Platina?

-Platina can‟t stand people that she considers inferior of her standards but

only when she has to cooperate with them. She doesn‟t have any problem

with people she thinks as inferior if they have nothing to do with her. She

will tell you that she simply accepts them as they are or even feels sorry

for them.

150

But if the considered inferior person is her companion or her husband or

her child then she is so annoyed! A Platina mother once told me: “How

did I give birth to this child? I just can‟t believe it! He just can‟t be my

child!” Platina feels shame if her own people are even a mediocre

according of course to her standards. She will even not hesitate to

comment on it.

Valeriana also cannot be tuned with people that are slow regarding

mental function. She may also feel shame for her “slow-minded‟

companion although this is in favor of her when it comes to manipulate

him, a thing that often has the tendency to do. A “slow-minded”

companion or child spoils her image to others.

She also has another special trait. Being very quick when it comes to

mental function and being very self-centered she demands that her

companion always be tuned with her and understand all her thoughts and

intentions and whims the minute she thinks of them, even without

expressing them by words. The background is “since you love me and

know me you should have understood before my saying anything and

react accordingly!”

Our patient said that when irritated she goes away. This behavior could

be a Platina behavior. Platina tends either to express her anger intensely

saying “Who do you think you are?” looking down on you as if you were

a worthless worm or leave in a snobbish style giving you again the same

look. Medorhinum when someone “busts his balls” will shout: “Get off

my back, will you!”

This certain patient expresses her irritability and often intensely. She may

hit her hand on the table or slam the door, i.e. she is sycotic regarding

expression of her irritability. What idiosyncrasy can do this?

-Medorhinum.

151

-Right, Medorhinum, but also a Nux Vomica could do this. A

Stramonium would be much more intense and would burst his irritability

towards himself also. Now, as tidiness is concerned what is your

evaluation? Give me a grade for it.

-Two to three.

-I think it‟s three.

-I also think she is tidiness 3. She has many and intense characteristics

that show tidiness 3. For example she says that when visitors leave late at

night and even if she is tired she will put all things back in order. She also

says that if rarely she doesn‟t do this she won‟t let anyone come to the

house next day. Or she will plan not to work next day so as to take care of

everything.

She also has that waking up at 4-6 a.m. in the morning without managing

to sleep again because of the worries she has in her mind for the day to

come. And that she just can‟t sleep if everything in the house isn‟t in

order and kids to bed. Everything must be as it should be. This is not only

a Nux Vomica characteristic. It could also be a Natrum Muriaticum case

due to her tendency for consistency and her psoric tendency for

completing any task undertaken. But I think in this case it‟s more likely a

Nux Vomica case expressed by the motto: “Order for the sake of order!”.

Don‟t forget that Nux Vomica usually has two kinds of insomnia. The

one already mentioned and the other during which she can‟t sleep at night

because she hasn‟t had the time to finish everything “she should have

done”. So, we have many characteristics of Nux Vomica. We note this

down to bear it in mind and go on.


-Do you want to talk about your personal problems, your deep felt

matters or do you keep it inside?

152

-I want to.

-To how many people will you talk to?

-To one.

-Will you say it all or will you keep some things for you?

-Everything.

-Oppression chest or sighing or lump throat when upset?

-No.

-If somebody, not from your close ones, has learned that you were upset

from something personal and comes to console you how do you feel?

Better, just listen to him or worse, that is, feel annoyed or angry?

-It‟s not a problem but I don‟t say my personal problems to others.

-Do you cry easily?

-No, not easily.

-If you do, do you want to be alone or it doesn‟t matter if it happens in

front of others?

-Definitely alone!

-Any fears or phobias?

-Not something particular.

-If your husband is even a little late do you worry a lot, as if something

bad has happened to him?

-Not particularly but I will call him.

-Do you get very worried about the children telling them all the time

“Eat!”, “Wear enough clothes!” or “Be careful!”?

-Not much.

-In general, can you ignore anything that is not in its place or not

properly done?

-Nothing wrong escapes me!

153

Again it‟s time for comments. Is she introvert or extrovert?

-What did she say? Did she say that she confesses her personals only to

one person?

-Yes, only to her husband.

-Then she is mostly introvert.

-Let‟s say introvert 2. She also wants to cry alone grade 3 so we have to

think of Natrum Muriaticum and it‟s time to start differential diagnosis.

Let‟s move on.

-Whenever you hear about heart attacks, strokes, cancer, etc, are you

also worried about you? Afraid that it may also happen to you?

-No.

-Are you afraid of heights, for example to look down from a balcony?

-Yes.

-From what floor up, do you start being afraid?

-Up to the third floor I am alright.

-On leaving your house, your car or your job do you often have the doubt

if you have locked the door or if you have left the kitchen open or the

boiler on?

-I check it before leaving.

-After checking it when you are on the street do you still have doubts

about it?

-It may cross my mind.

-Will you go back again to check it?

-Yes.

154

-After going back and after checking it again on leaving do you still have

doubts?

-No, not again.

-When walking, do you have the tendency to count numbers, steps, cars

etc?

-No.

-Do you want to wash your hands often just because you are afraid of

germs?

-Not much.

-Are you superstitious? To say to yourself: “I‟ve seen this sign so

something bad may happen”?

-No.

Again, it‟s time for discussion. Which are the new important

characteristics?

-Fear of heights.

-Give me a degree.

-One.

-I would say one, two the most. She says that she is afraid from the third

floor up but the way she says it is not so convincing. Does she have any

fixed ideas?

-Yes, she has some obsessive behaviors.

-Yes, she does! I mean the thing she has when leaving her house… but

still it‟s not at a capital degree. As you must have noticed I asked many

relevant questions in order to evaluate the degree of this symptom, in

order to find out if she were an Argentum Nitricum. But she doesn‟t seem

to be so. Let‟s move on.

155



-Yes I do.

-Around 11 o‟clock in the morning do you often get hungry and want to

eat something?

-No.

-Do you eat hastily even if you have time?

-Yes, that‟s it.

-If you eat late at night do you often have indigestion?

-No.

-Are you indecisive? Not to be able to decide easily to do this or that?

-No.

-If you are to speak in front of people, to make a presentation about

something you know very well, do you feel comfortable or do you have

intense stress worrying that you won‟t do things right?

-Yes, I am stressed.

-But does it last only a few minutes?

-Yes.

It‟s time for analysis. What idiosyncrasy am I asking for at the moment?

-Lycopodium.

-Correct. I„ve asked about Phosphor, Argentum Nitricum and now I am

asking about Lycopodium. She doesn‟t have any special characteristics of

the above idiosyncrasies so I go on. You see I have Nux Vomica in my

mind as the most possible idiosyncrasy but still I have to differentiate

from other idiosyncrasies just in case. Let‟s move on.

156

-What are your favorite movies?

-Not something particular.

-How about documentaries about Nature, animals… such things?

-Sometimes, yes.

-Compared to the average of other people of your age, regarding

cleverness, do you feel above average, normal or below average?

-Normal.

-When walking, do you sometimes have the sensation that you are taller

than others or that others are shorter?

-No.

-When in between sleep and awakened state, do you sometimes feel that

your hands, head or feet become larger?

-No.

-Do you love dancing?

-No.


At this point differential diagnosis came to an end. I have asked again

about Lycopodium and then about Platina and Tarentula Hispanica. As

you must have noticed I didn‟t insist because nothing characteristic came

up. It‟s now time for decisions to be made.

Most of the characteristic symptoms point towards Nux Vomica. And in

fact this is in accordance with the general image of this woman and the

feeling she creates to me. She gave me quite a systematic and thorough

description of her physical symptoms. She was very specific and clear as

to her answers and often her answers were short and to the point. All the

above reveal a very well organized personality and this is in favor of Nux

Vomica.

157

Other things that suit the latter idiosyncrasy: cold 2, annoyed by

untidiness 3, has no problem to burst her anger but she does it with tact,

has a lot in her mind and is very active, controlled burst of anger, wakes

up at 4 to 6 a.m. and can‟t sleep again because she is worried about things

that must be done during the day and finally the most important

characteristic is fastidious 3.

After excluding Platina and Natrum Muriaticum I prescribed Nux

Vomica 1M. She followed my treatment and did well, thus confirming

that my diagnosis was correct.

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