Talks On Classical Homeopathy (1980) - Vithoulkas

Talks on Classical Homoeopathy-Case Reports
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VITHOULKAS G., Talks on Classical Homoeopathy - The Esalen Conferences 1980 - Case reports
Publishers foreword Within a year of the publication of GEORGE VITHOULKAS Addition to Kents Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica, we are pleased to bring out this long awaited work of the great Greek guru of Classical Homoeopathy. Talks on Classical Homoeopathy was compiled from the cyclostyled material of the transcript of the recording of the Esalen Homoeopathic Conference held in California, USA, in 1980. The work has been divided into three parts. The first part, Part I choice cases contains the presentations of select thirty three cases from his vast repertoire, specially chosen by the eminent author. In Part II, Materia Medica forms the major subject, are twenty seven of the well known remedies and their essential symptomatology mostly verified and identified as what he calls essence of a remedy. The rest of the material will be found to be mainly discussions on diverse topics and is put in the ten s of Part III, Discussions. The reader should be prepared to be exposed to a number of novel and brain racking jolts, from the opinions and observations of the great master of the Healing Art. Editors preface to part i In course of these TALKS, GEORGE VITHOULKAS has revealed that the thirty three clinical conditions (cases) for presentation and discussion were selected out of his collection of 60,000 cases. A each is devoted for this purpose, wherein heading mentions the remedy (or remedies) and the clinical condition, for which the prescription was filled, followed by the postmortem of the prescription by the learned delegates on invitation to do so by the speaker while he is recalling what reasons justified the choice. They were not just to listen passively but think, think and think as elsewhere he has pleaded. Page numbers that follow the symptomatology Quotes and for the rubrics are of Kents Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia and his Repertory of the Homoeopathic Remedies respectively - without which no serious study of Homoeopathy is possible, and which every professional possesses. For at that time (1980), H. Barthels Synthetic Repertory was not yet published. From the latter, the : Remedies and their abbreviations, being the latest internationally accessible list of remedies, has been used for the spellings of the homoeopathic remedies. For brevity, only, these abbreviations have been used wherever their names occur or are mentioned in the text, except in the headings where their full names are also given. Of the 123 remedies mentioned in the index, it will be noticed that detailed attention has been received by forty two only with most of which every professional is acquainted. A closer scrutiny will reveal the enormous amount of dissecting the great master subjects the symptomatology of each remedy while matching with the symptoms of the individual. Editing has been scrupulously limited to the mininum, intentionally. Had the author,
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time and inclination, to undertake its editing, the text would have no doubt been more polished and spruced, but would have lost the vivacity and native humour that glistens in the raw transcripts! It is expected that the scholars and the admirers will appreciate and enjoy this opportunity to VIEW the working of the great healing artist at work! -B.P. RAO. In memoriam. Dr. Henry C. Allen was born in the village of Nilestown, near London, Ontario, and was the son of Hugh and Martha Billings Allen. On his paternal side, he was a descendant of that distinguished family of Vermonters of the same name, Gen. Ira Allen and Ethan Allen, both famous in the revolution. On his maternal side, the Billings were well known among the Colonial families of Massachusetts Bay, and one of them, the greatgrandfather of Dr. Allen, owned the farm lands on which the present city of Salem is built. After selling this property, the family moved to Deerfield, in the Connecticut Valley and were there at the time the Indians pillaged and ravaged that part of the country. He received his early education in the common and grammar schools at London, where he later taught school for a time. His medical education was acquired at the Western Homeopathic College at Cleveland, Ohio (now the Cleveland Homeopathic College), where he graduated in 1861, and later from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Shortly after graduation, he entered the Union Army, serving as a surgeon under General Grant. After the war he was offered and accepted the professorship on Anatomy in his Alma Mater at Cleveland, and it was here that he first started practicing medicine. Later he resigned and accepted the same chair in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. In 1868 he was offered the Chair of Surgery to succeed Dr. Beebe, but was unable to accept. He then located in Brantford, Ontario, where on December 24th, 1867, he married Selina Louise Goold, who, with his two children, Franklin Lyman Allen and Helen Marian Allen Aird, survives him. In 1875 he moved to Detroit, Michigan, and in 1880, being appointed Professor of Materia Medica at the University of Michigan, he moved to Ann Arbor, where he remained until 1890, when he came to Chicago, where he has since resided. In 1892 he founded the Hering Medical College and Hospital, of which he was Dean and Professor of Materia Medica until his death, January 22nd, 1909. Dr. Allen was an honorable senior of the American Institute of Homeopathy; a member of the International Hahnemannian Association; of the Illinois Homeopathic Medical Associations of the Englewood Homeopathic Medical Society; of the Regular Homeopathic Medical Society of Chicago; Honorary Vice-President of the Cooper Club of London, England; and Honorary Member of the Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio State Medical Societies and Honorary Member of the Homeopathic Society of Calcutta, India. He was owner and editor of the Medical Advance for many years. Besides writing many articles in this and other magazines he wrote numerous books, among which are the following: Keynotes of Leading Remedies, lately placed on the Council List of
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Books for use in the Canadian Medical Colleges; The Homeopathic Therapeutics of Intermittent Fever; The Homeopathic Therapeutics of Fevers; Therapeutics of Tuberculous Affections; and recently completed the revision of Boenninghausens Slip Repertory, which he brought down to date and arranged for rapid and practical work. This his latest work, a treatise on the Nosodes, was completed only a short time before his death, and was the result of years of study, experience, and of proving and confirming the symptomatology of many of the nosodes. His observations are here published for the first time. FRANKLIN LYMAN ALLEN. Introduction to part I - choice cases This part consists of 33 s of various cases chosen from his vast repertoire (of 60,000), by GEORGE VITHOULKAS especially for presentation at the Esalen conference. Addressing and inviting the learned audience for active participation, he says What I want to transmit to you is not the case, it is the way of thinking. Every is an example of some aspect of that object. A few of these cases are presented in parts, some incomplete but the theme and object is one and the same: to stimulate thinking in a practitioner when confronting with a patient. Suggestions for remedies from the audience are called forth, who in turn analyse and/or repertorise and put forward their prescription, with arguments in favour of their choice, whenever the speaker asks for it. Wherever in course of these talks, GEORGE VITHOULKAS has pronounced a dictum or teaching from his experience relevant to the solution of a problem and worthy of attention, it has been highlighted either in italics or bold face. Great care has been taken to leave the expressions untouched, lest their sparkle be lost and the raw material which a scholar looks for be adulterated with the commonplace editing; for GEORGE VITHOULKAS is an original homoeopathic scientist full of convictions reinforced by vast experience of what he practices and teaches; though not all of what he says may be understood except by the very wise. Hence this precaution. There is no mechanical way in homoeopathy - none. There is just thinking, thinking, and thinking, all the time he is heard saying. Practitioners with lot of clinical experience would be delighted to read these similar to what happened in their own practice and similarities of handling. He says for instance, when faced with a patient fast progressing towards a collapse You are allowed to change 10 remedies within 3 hours in very severe cases, where the life is threatened, to save the patient. So what does it matter which acted. So practical he is. He has been accused of being fanatic or crazy. That it is unfair and unkind would be clear from his remarks/advice. You give him (a pneumonia patient) the remedy and within 24 hours, there has been no change at all, it is better that he be given antibiotics. A fanatic would never have said that! In the conversational style that these talks have been delivered, there are bound to be some digressions arising out of the questions from the audience not pertinent to the case. They have been allowed to stay in smaller print (8 pt. preferably), wherever they occur, instead of assigning them a separate place or , lest their contextual worth be reduced! On the whole, an attempt has been made to limit the editing to the minimum.
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It is hoped that a perusal of these cases would give a seasoned practitioner a consolation for what he might be regretting as mistakes in his practice and find condoned here in; the tyro, a boost to his confidence, and fuel to his enthusiasm. Introductory words: materia medica and its correct use We are going to talk about a level which presupposes certain knowledge. I would like you to speak out when I ask questions so (that) I will understand the level of your knowledge and can best communicate with you. Because I may say something that I take for granted that you know and it will be like Chinese. I shall give you Materia Medica in a certain way, which I feel is needed sometimes. It can be used sometimes, but not always. Our Materia Medicas are quite sufficient and I dont think we need more. I shall try to give you quite a lot of materia medica in the way I have understood it through the years so that you may apply it more easily. What I want you to do in studying some remedies, which I shall give you now, is to write in one page a resume of the essence of each of them. I want you to study why each of these remedies is valid, is usable, is reliable. They are Anacardium, Cuprum, Iodum and Natrum Carbonicum. From our Materia Medicas we take that part which is really reliable and usable. The materia medica is tremendous. Not all the material can be used, especially for study. How do the homoeopaths go about it when the material is so much? They have found a way to extract from the materia medica that which is valid and usable and reliable, and they apply it. And that is where you see a difference in a person who is a very good prescriber without even knowing so much materia medica versus another who knows very much materia medica but is not a good prescriber. I saw that in India, where I studied. I had teachers who would teach the materia medica, and the Indians are very good at learning by heart a lot of information. But when it came to prescribing, they could not take the information which they had in their minds [brains] into practice. So what I am going to teach you is the way to use the materia medica correctly, efficiently. When we talk about homoeopathy, we are talking about a science and an art. It needs the awareness of the doctor at any moment, especially in moments of crisis. You are doctors and you are going to face hard cases. If a person comes to you, they have full trust in you and they will say, I dont want anything else but homoeopathy. Then you will find yourself in a very difficult situation because you dont know what to do. You know that everything you may do, may spoil the health of the person and yet you are not in a position to prescribe correctly. There you need all of your awareness. 1 High fever without symptoms Phosphorus (phos.) Case I shall start with just such a case (which will need all your awareness). This is the child of a couple who were both MDs. They knew about homoeopathy and the child was treated homoeopathically since birth. This is a good teaching case for many reasons: One is that unless we have given a constitutional remedy to a person, they are not really
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healthy. I had been seeing the child all along. He was then four years old. He had developed a fever accompanied by certain pains which radiated in the abdominal region. That was all. The child developed pain and had high fever for a few days before they consulted me. They said, We cannot get any symptomatology. He complains about pains in the abdomen with the high fever. What did I prescribe? You are going to be faced by such cases and I want you to know what I am going to do. I tried, of course, to get some more symptoms. There was heat, perspiration, but nothing special. Dont be afraid to speak. I prescribed wrongly, so you neednt be afraid of your ideas. Response: sometimes cases that have nothing to offer in symptoms can be given Sulph. George: This is an idea. Are there any other ideas? Response: Constitutional remedy repeated. George: That is another idea. If we had found a constitutional remedy. I said that I had been prescribing all along, but I did not tell you that I had found a constitutional remedy. You will see here, as this develops, how important it really is, to have given the deeper remedy. I have been giving remedies and the child was okay. He had tonsillitis, diarrhoea, and that all along until he was four years old. I had not found a constitutional remedy. It appeared later. Question: Had you been treating the parents? George: Yes, I had been treating the parents and they did not have anything special in their history. There was high fever without symptoms. Question: What about the examination of the childs background? George: The parents were both MDs. They had auscultated. They had seen no rales, rhonchi, and they could not locate anything special in the abdomen. Question: Was there a sore throat? George: A little bit. The tonsils were not swollen and no glands were enlarged. Question: What was the character of the pain? Did he bend double or was the abdomen irritable? George: There were no modalities. What I ask you for, is a remedy. We suppose that you have examined the patient and have not found any more symptoms. So you have a high fever, without symptoms. Which is the remedy? It is the remedy which is mentioned in Kents Materia Medica. It starts with F. George: Ferr-p. is the remedy which is usually prescribed when there is a fever without any attendant symptoms. Sulph. is correct also. When you dont have any symptomatology, there is a paucity of symptoms as we call it, and we give Sulph. But why didnt we give Sulph. in this case? There is always a reason for giving a remedy-at least you have certain reasons. Sulph. is given when there is a paucity of symptoms. Which means that you have been treating someone constitutionally or for a chronic ailment for the second time. And you have taken away his symptoms, but the person does not feel at all well. Symptoms which are not prominent and do not give you the idea of a remedy, may make you think of Sulph. But this is not so in an acute case. You will not prescribe Sulph. in an acute case because there are no symptoms. Sulph. is a good remedy which you may need to use appropriately later. I prescribed Ferr-p. in this case and, as you can understand, nothing happened. On the third day the parents decided to give antibiotics. They did not wait long. I think it was one day he had the fever, the second day we gave the Ferr-p., and another two days when the parents gave the antibiotics, so this was the fourth day. We found a definite diagnosis. They gave antibiotics for four
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days and then discontinued it. The child remained better for a week.. Then the fever and the pains returned. With a relapse there was a swelling of the cervical and sub-maxillary regions. There was not much prominence to these glands, however. There was a shortness of the pulse, together with redness which was prominent, and inflammation. There was now thirst present. I did not find any other symptoms, and I could not elicit any from the parents. Doctors are very bad at giving symptoms for themselves or their family. Nothing! I then prescribed another remedy, which, of course, was wrong again. Could I give something? There was stiffening in the abdomen. The cervical and sub-maxillary glands were swollen, and there was thirst; the thirst was not marked, but it was definitely increased. I prescribed Bry. We have tonsillitis and thirst: Bry.! But this does not always work. (Laughter) This did not work. The childs fever was constantly high without remission. After Bry. I prescribed Sulph. and then Puls. because they told me that the child had developed some fear of the dark. The child was red with fright. The thirst had gone away by giving Bry. and Sulph. Now the child was warm and crying, and I prescribed Puls. A few more days passed and the child was worse. The fever continued and all of the symptoms became worse. The pediatrician was consulted and said that this was a mononucleosis. I do not know the logic. Penicillin was prescribed to protect. Usually in mononucleosis they dont give anything, but this was given to prevent a possible streptococcal pneumonia or something like that. Response: Was there a monospot test done? George: Yes, the test did not show very clearly that it was streptococcus. The child was given Penicillin for a week. See how we mess up cases? We need the help of allopathic medicine. This is a fact attributed to two factors: first because of my inability to prescribe correctly; secondly because of the anxiety of the parents to have the child treated and become well immediately. When you see a case like that where the fever is high and steady for many days, you have to have great psychological endurance and tell the parents, No, do not give anything. If that child had been left without antibiotics, eventually he would have developed a clear picture. Then the remedy could have been found, no matter what stage might have been reached. During the stage just before death there will be a come back (Laughter) So then there were seven days of Penicillin. The fever went down. The child remained without high fever for six days after the Penicillin was finished. Then again the whole picture of symptomatology came up. Fever, enlarged glands, pains in the abdomen as soon as any food or drink was taken. Antipyretics, anti-fever medications, did not affect the high fever at all. This was given after the Penicillin when the fever started again. I did not prescribe but waited. The symptomatology was consistent and the fever was high. The abdominal pain occurred immediately after eating or drinking. The child had no appetite and had lost weight. There was thinness and exhaustion in the appearance. I had tried to take symptomatology on the make-up of the child from the mother. She said that the child was quite brave and according to her understanding the child would express less than what she felt. Stoic. In a few days they gave antipyretics and the child developed measles. Now I dont think that this was measles from the beginning. It was perhaps a mononucleosis. I do not know.
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The tests showed some white blood cellsyou know, the mononucleosis cellsin greater number. Then the child developed the measles, which is a continuation of the whole story in another version. I do not think it was measles from the beginning. So the measles was allowed to run its course. I tried to prescribe during the measles because it was a very severe case. The child was covered with eruptions. There was exhaustion and suffering. We tried to relieve this by giving a remedy. At that moment, according to the symptomatology which I thought she had, I prescribed Sulph. again. Then the measles improved the next day, as regards the eruptions. She was more quiet then, but it took another three days, which is the natural course. This showed me that I had not done anything so far. Because the parents are MDs .. voom! ... what is going on? There were consultations with pediatricians. What is going to happen to the child? What are we going to do? Take Sulph. Take this. Take that. Nothing! Then we come to the last stage and now we know that it is measles. Whether we give a remedy or not, the measles will go away. You see the situation. Then the fever went down. The rash and eruptions slowly disappeared. This was on the fifth day. The abdominal pains came back as the child would eat this was around the umbilical region. The child was exhausted. They again called the pediatrician and I went again to see the child. So I went and now the story starts! (Laughter) The child was dehydrated to the extent that the lips were cracked with even small evidence of blood coming from the lips. The child was lying down and looking at the father in a fairly mellow way, as if to say, What is wrong with me? Save me! There was a melodramatic attitude to the child. She would not talk. She would not complain. When I pressed the head forward, the Budzinsky sign was positive. They called the pediatrician again. There was stiffness of the cervical region and the child had started to complain of headache. The fever was not high. It was 38.3C. The highest fever one can reach is 41 degrees Celsius. It was elevated but not high. The child no longer had the strength or vitality to produce a high fever. I did not like the situation and the pediatrician asked that the child be prepared to go to hospital. The father cried and there were all sorts of reactions. There can be an encephalitis or meningitis after measles, which is very precarious. I could see no remedies. However, the child needed intravenous saline - some fluids. This occurred at night. The next morning the child was taken to the Childrens Hospital. They did a cervical spinal puncture in the hospital and said that it was meningoencephalitis (virus) and there was nothing to give at the moment. They were advised to wait before giving Hydrocortisone. The damage is perhaps more in such cases The parents phoned me from the hospital in the morning and I told them I was coming. I went to the hospital. As you can understand, the mother and father knew the diagnosis and what it meant, being MDs. The fever is not very high but the child appeared a bit a stupefied and complained, when she could speak, about pain in the head. The assistant professor, who had examined the child, said that he had never seen a child with meningoencephalitis dehydrated to such a great degree. (The child had already been dehydrated since the previous day.) According to him, this was very serious. The child was to stay in the hospital ten days for observation. Examination at this time revealed the following symptoms: dryness and peeling of the lips, tremendous dryness of the tongue; tongue felt as if it was sandpaper. This is after the child has taken saline intravenously all night. This is very important. All night. I came
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there about 11 oclock in the morning. Still the dehydration was tremendous. Dehydration was especially noted in the center of the tongue. The base of the tongue was discolored deep brownish. The child was almost comatose, but was aware. The child was very quiet. The mother told me that the child was really brave because during the venous or spinal punctures, she had not complained. There was discoloration of the face. This was the symptomatology. See what you can find. The child did not complain of thirst either because she was not in a state to ask for water or because she was taking saline intravenously. This is information which comes only from observation. I left this until the end in order to show you that if you are not observant enough you will not be able to find the remedy., And that is where the art comes and blends with science. We have this symptomatology which is doubtful and it will not give us the remedy. Any suggestions? Response: Nat-m. George: Nat-m., very good. Chin.? Yes, there is logic in that. Op., yes. Stram.? The picture would have to be much more violent in such a case. The pain. The child would cry. Response: But is the painlessness of complaints usually painful? George: The child is not completely painless. She complained in the abdomen and head. I shall give you the key now. I noticed that the mother was sitting next to the child. The child was here in bed and the child was holding the mothers hand. Audience Member: Phos. George: Wait! Dont jump to conclusions. So I told the mother to take away the hand. She slowly did so and the child started crying. She again held the child and the child stopped. I said for her to pull it out again. She pulled it out and the child cried again. This was repeated. Then I was sure about the remedy, but why? What was the remedy? I went to the repertory. I looked and saw: Dryness of the tongue in the center. Responses: Acon., Ant-c., Amm-c., Mang., Arum-t. (in the two), Arg-m., Lap-a. Another Response (from several): Phos. George: Capital there? Response: Yes. Others? Responses: Sil., Stram., Sul-ac. George: So, this is the rubric. Definitely because the dryness is so much that we can rely on that rubric. And then again, on the tongue there is a discoloration, brownish and the center. The tongue is like that and the discoloration is here which is very very prominent. It is not exactly on the base, you see? Neither is it on the tip. Response: Arn. (2) Ars. (1) Bry. (2), Canth. (1), Colch. (2), Crot. (2), Eurp-pur. (2) Hyos. (1), Iod. (1), Lac-c. (2), Nat-p. (1), Phos. (2), Plb. (2), Pyr. (1) Vib-o (1). George: Now out of these two rubrics, what do we have? We have Colch., Crot-h, Phos. These are reliable symptoms, very strong and very reliable. Now, which of the ones are the remedies for the child? One. The child is very afraid to stay by himself. He wants someone to comfort him. But the mother says the child is very brave. The child did not speak. This child was punctured several times and did not speak. It was fear! It was tremendous fear that made the child speechless - literally. The mother was interpreting this and giving me all this time a symptom which was exactly the opposite of what was happening. There is one more point that makes it absolutely Phos. Who will be able to tell me from what I have said? The homoeopath must take into consideration anything,
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anything! When you enter the room, whatever they tell you, is important. So who can tell me? Response: Fear of the dark and the fact that she was so quickly dehydrated. George: Yes? Why? Response: Phos. is so thirsty George: Exactly! This was the first time in my life I had seen a child become so quickly dehydrated. When Phos. wants to take water all the time, what is that? It is a predisposition to dehydration. So this predisposition of the child with Phos. was confirmed by the fear of being alone. Now we are absolutely sure. But the parents had given me only two or three symptoms. What I observed, was that she was SO MUCH dehydrated. And the child did not want the hand to be taken away. There was a fear to stay alone. Of course, I did not speak. I didnt explain anything. I turned to the mother and said: When do you want your child to be well? The afternoon or tomorrow morning? Now we are so sure that this Phos. is absolutely right. She looked at me and at the father and said, Are you joking? I said that I was serious. When do you want it, tonight or tomorrow? If you want the child to be well this evening, give Phos. 50m. If you want this by tomorrow morning, give Phos. 10m. It was interesting that the parents knew homoeopathy. The mother saw the condition of the child and said: 50m? Isnt that too high? She affected me. You always have to take everything into consideration. May be, it is some intuition. For the mother? And I said, Okay, give the child Phos. 10m. What happened? Response: The fever came back? (Laughter) George: Wait until you hear the whole story. They immediately brought one dose at 2 oclock - around 1.30 to 2 oclock in the evening. This was one dose of Phos. 10m. By 8 oclock they phoned me in an exhilarated state that the child was propped up in bed, the dehydration was completely gone, the tongue was absolutely normal, the cracking of the lips was almost not visible after four to five hours. The child said: I would like to eat some ice cream. (laughter) And then the night went by and the next morning at 10 oclock they phoned me. The fever had started rising again. I said, Give another dose of 10m. Another dose was given at 10m. and this was by 10 oclock. By 11 oclock the fever was down and the child was better. By 12.30 or 1 oclock (noon time), the fever was again up. The fever started coming up and the child again complained of headache. By 1 oclock the next day I said, Give a dose of 50m. This child took a dose of 50m. From that day to this-one year- the child has not had a cold or anything. She has never felt so well. The whole thing was that we never gave Phos. in all these four years as a constitutional remedy. We prescribed the constitutional remedy during the acute attack, fortunately because it was so severe, and the constitutional remedy held the child up. It not only took away the symptoms immediately, but this child left the hospital the third day! There is another interesting question, which you will answer easily now. You see, what happened actually, was that on the third day the child developed large, oozing nodosities on her legs which were red. Erythema nodosum. Audience Member: That would make me nervous. George: They said, Oh, now we will have to give the child Penicillin. They said, Now there is a terrible streptococcus and we will have to give Penicillin. And they took the child and made an examination and the count was 2,500, which is quite high. They said
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that if the child did not take the Penicillin, she would have definitely complications. With erythema. nodosum, with the tests so high, the child has no fever. She is in good condition. Her spirits are back. The childs parents are doctors and what are you going to do? Of course, you know the answer now, but I said, I take the whole responsibility. I said, Leave that child with that Phos. 50m. Do not give anything at all. If the remedy had worked so well, it will definitely take care of the whole thing. Do not be misled and leave the child when you think a remedy has taken care of it. Like with the measles. You give Sulph. and something is working. But you know that it does not work. When I prescribed during the measles, I prescribed Sulph. The parents said, This is helping. But we expect much more drastic effects in Sulph. in such cases. And when they say that the patient is a little bit better, you know that it has done nothing. So, do not think that the remedy has acted where it has not and let the child go home. I take responsibility. You can take the responsibility only when you know that you are absolutely sure. Here the effects are so dramatic that nobody can deny the fact. This is teaching case 1: If I had found Phos. and had given it from the very beginning this child would never have gone through all this suffering. Response: How do you know that? George: We know that from similar cases. Of course, that is a very good question. We cannot test the child on both conditions at the same time. But from similar cases, when we have seen children developing, where acute diseases are slightly affected. Whereas another child in whom you have not found it, you have not really helped. Again, if the child had not taken so many antibiotics two or three times and another series of Penicillin so the whole system of the child went down. So eventually measles developed into meningoencephalitis. That is why we must have a weak organism to develop a serious condition. We make it weak. We helped the child go into the encephalitis by giving all the antibiotics during homoeopathic treatment. Of course, the homoeopathic treatment did not make the child weaker, but it did not help either. Response: How do you know that? Digression George: It did not help. You cannot help with the homoeopathic remedy once you prescribe in this way. You prescribe one remedy and you wait. There is no harm at all. Otherwise we would have no proving. A proving is done with the idea, as Hahnemann said, of helping the person. The provings are helping a person finally. What is a proving? A proving is a remedy given which is not the exact remedy which the person needs and therefore is not a cure, but it is a remedy which is close enough to produce symptomatologies. That is how a proving is done. You give a remedy which is close enough to the sensitivity of the patient, not the exact remedy, but close. Then produce an aggravation of the symptoms - a proving - and that is considered a good thing to do. If you want to prove a remedy every three months and your health is good and you can get some benefit from that, you can do it. Hahnemann suggested this to his students and he was doing this himself. There is no danger from that. The danger comes from the kind of homoeopathy which is given, say, in the morning. Mag-C. 200; at noon, Calc-c. 1m; and in the evening Graph. 1m. And in the morning we have another course where Ant-c. 200m. is given, then Gels. 10m; and then Phos. 200m. On the third day we have another scheme and then we repeat it again. We start from the first day. Who knows what is
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happening? If that person continues to take all these remedies for six months or a year, you have a person who is proving. God knows what! Question: What do you think would have happened if you had given a lower dose of Phos.? Would it just have taken longer? George: Again that is good question. You have to remember that the more clear the case is, the higher you can go, and the more immediate will be the effects. Even in organisms which are exhausted and which are weak. If you read all the literature, you will see that all the good homoeopaths who were living around the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th were very good and they gave very high potencies. If we had given in that case 200, before we reached 50m, where the child needed action, it would have taken us 3, 4 or 5 days. If we give that with little effect, then you have to wait for the return of the symptoms, repeat 200, then 1m, then 10m and then 20m. It appeared that the child NEEDED 50m. It was by chance - I would not say completely chance - that I said, Do you want your child to be cured tonight? There is a possibility that if I had ordered 50m the child would not need repetition of any other remedy. And that was proven (confirmed). When she took the 50m there was a beautiful recovery. Question: Why did you repeat the 10m, instead of going ahead with the 50m? George: That is a good question. When you have started with one remedy and it has an effect, do not discontinue it immediately and jump to another. When you have given a remedy and it has acted beautifully in one potency, try it again in the same potency before you jump to the higher potency. This is a general rule for acute and chronic cases. Question: Even when the case has not been antidoted, you would still repeat the same potency? If there was just a relapse? George: In that case ... I am absolutely clear about it ... but in order to gain time I do that. That means that in a case where there is a relapse, before the person has any time to do anything to spoil it, I jump one. But sometimes I have found, as I told you, that a 200 which had acted in a duodenal ulcer, in the relapse I went up to 10m and it did nothing. Then I repeated 10m and there was nothing. Then I had to go back to 200, and this worked. Audience Member: Kent says that you give the same potency twice all the way up, as long as there is action. George: Yes. This is a general rule. When a remedy has acted, do not give up the potency immediately. Try it once. If there is a relapse, go one step higher. Audience Member: That is interesting, because I have seen the opposite quite frequently in my practice. As I said before, I was trying to follow Kents dictum on that. If they were not on top of your things that would antidote, if I repeated it, it would not work. George: Anyhow, you cannot avoid losing sometimes, especially with chronic cases. Because there are no clear indications which will tell you to repeat the same remedy, the same potency, or go one step higher. There are no such indications which I can give you to work with where you will avoid repeating the first potency. A good strategy is to go up. You have given one remedy in a chronic case in a potency. Then he comes in after six months and says, I have relapsed. You may go to 50m. If that does not work, then go back to 10m. Usually that 50m will cover the case and will work. So you can avoid the one step. You have 10m here. Then there is a relapse and you give 10m. Then there is
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another relapse and you use 50m. If you go from 10m to 50m immediately, you have nothing to lose. Sometimes, but seldom, you will have to come back to 10m. But there are other old master homoeopaths who would say, Never change your potency as long as it is working even a little. They say, Even if it works for one month or twenty days, do not give it up. Then you can go higher. Audience Member: I just wanted to say about the Phos. I had read somewhere about higher fevers, other than Ferr-p., in a child with a normal disposition and no change in high fever, that phos. will often work. George: That is interesting, but in this case I had just simply lost the remedy. It is not that there were no symptoms. If you remember that at a certain stage the mother said, The child has fear of the dark which has developed. Then she had developed thirst. So that means that I had lost track of the remedy. The symptoms were there. I do not believe very much in blind kinds of prescriptions. In desperation you may have to do it sometimes. But it is blind. And never, never ask the mother if she wants the child to be better by tonight. There are so many suggestions concerning different remedies that you can give blindly, like Thuja, like Sol., like Sulph., like ... and now Phos. Which one? What you can do is to change the pattern a little bit. If you leave it alone it will come back. Always on the same level. You are working on the same level. You cannot make a person change his level of health with a homoeopathic prescription. With allopathic prescriptions you change the level. You see, he had skin eruptions. Now he has anxiety, fears, and all these mental changes and changes in levels of health. Real changes! Whereas with the homoeopathic remedy you cannot do that. You cannot make a person change their level. He is on the same level, but changing the symptoms. He more or less stays on the same level. You prescribe one remedy and there is no harm at all. Question: If you suppress with an inappropriate homoeopathic remedy, will that not change their level even if their energy goes down? George: That will not change the level. If you suppress, you will see the suppression in a while, and then it will come back by itself. But if you dont wait, you will give the wrong prescription. If he says, I feel worse, and you give another remedy, and in the evening another remedy. This means the wrong kind of prescription. It has to be done for a long time. In France or Germany, you can go into a pharmacy and take a bottle of Cimx and take it for a long time. This kind of prescription you can take with different remedies and you cannot do any harm. You take for three months, or one month, 3, 4, or 5 remedies every day in different potencies, probably some of them will be close and will do something. Kent was talking about that same thing about doctors who would prescribe high potencies haphazardly, and too many at the same time. There can be real trouble! There can be no trouble in giving one remedy and waiting for one month to see in a chronic case. If we have time I will relate a very dramatic case in which during the course of treatment I made a mistake. You will see that the suppression was dangerous. The life of the person was in danger. Still there was nothing fatal. I have never seen trouble arising from a homoeopathic prescription in my practice, and I have seen, more or less calculated from the number of files, about 60,000 cases so far. This is quite a lot.
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Question: By that you mean a permanent lasting ... George: Permanent and lasting. Because I follow this system of treatment. I shall relate a case to you, if I find it again, and you will see what happened by the wrong treatment. Question: If you give the wrong remedy by mistake, what would you do? Immediately give the right remedy? Wait for a week or so? George: How do you know when you have given the wrong remedy? Question: You picked up the wrong vial or something? George: Oh, the wrong vial? Just give the right remedy without hesitation. You can give the right remedy immediately. There is no problem there. In a remedy that has been given by chance, it is very seldom that it will have any relation to the case. It is like taking nothing. Audience Member: I did that once, and it turned out to be a very excellent remedy. George: That was definitely by the Higher Powers. It happens sometimes that things are organized by higher intelligences. He can walk inside and tell you the remedy sometimes. 2 Kidney infection (pyelo-nephritis) Pulsatilla pratensis (puls.) Case I want to give you another case. This case is to justify my giving you Materia Medica in the way I am going to give it to you. This is to prove the value of knowing the Materia Medica and knowing the essence of a person. A married woman, age 35, said that she had not been feeling well for the last few days. She was feeling tired and she was in a bad psychological state. The day before she was seen, she had developed a fever and felt very tired. She had chills and had fever during the night which went up to 40 degrees C. - this was a very high fever. She had great pain in both kidney areas and this was very sensitive to percussion. She had urinary urgency. There were pains in the extremities, worse in the calves. There were cutting pains in the abdomen with grumbling. What is your diagnosis? Response: Pyelonephritis. Kidney infection. George: She had no thirst, although she said she was usually thirsty. She had no aggravation by heat or cold. There were no more symptoms. Can you work with this symptomatology and find a remedy? Question: You said that she was in a bad state psychologically? George: She felt bad psychologically and for a few days she had a feeling of not being well. There was not a description of her psychological state at that moment - that came later on. Question: What kind of person was she? George: I shall give that to you later on. You will see how difficult it is to get a remedy without symptomatology unless you have the essence of the person. This essence was given to me by her husband. Audience Member: Puls. Another Member: I had a patient just like this. It worked with her. It was terrible. Reviewing: Thirstlessness, pain in the calves, pain in the kidneys, tiredness.
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George: Nobody has found the remedy so far. Do you have any other suggestions? Audience Member: Nobody would try to find a remedy with just this much information. George: You do not have much most of the time. This is where you need to understand the person in order to be able to prescribe with with this limited symptomatology. The failures which we have in homoeopathy are because of lack of symptomatology or because we do not know how to take it. I insisted on finding out the psychological state of the woman. I wanted to know how she felt. So the husband was brought into the picture and he said that on the previous night he had gone to the house and found the woman with a high fever. She was much more sentimental than usual. She sort of cried and was a bit mellow. She told him that she needed tenderness especiall y that night. She had a feeling inside that was a bit melodramatic that this disease was going to be fatal. So what is the remedy? George: The last phrase I said has confused you? Before the last phrase it was Puls., But the last phrase, I know, has confused you. What I prescribed was Puls. I was absolutely sure that this was right; therefore I prescribed 50m in one dose. This was a urinary tract infection and involvement higher up in the kidneys, which is going to last five to six days. I prescribed Puls. 50m in the evening and the next morning there was nothing. There was no fever. There was no pain. The urine was normal. The person got up and did some work. Of course, she was still tired the next day, but the following day this was gone. Now, why didnt I give Acon. in that case? Response: The suddenness. Response: It was not just an inflammatory state. George: The husband described the case. She was melodramatic and she needed tenderness. She was frightened. All of this suggests the Puls. type. Never mind the symptoms which we may find if we go to the repertory and we look up chronic urinary infection and see Agn. Response: In talking about it, how strong were her symptoms? George: You see, you will have to take it in the context. The husband said: She was so (very, very) melodramatic and needed tenderness and she was crying. Take the whole scene and you will see a person who is very soft and tearful. We have the type in Acon. where there is agony, anxiety, restlessness, heat, which is much more. Then out of all this high fever and heat, she imagines that she is going to die. This is a completely different set-up. The essence is completely different. This gives you the impression that something really bad is going on. She was soft. The symptoms may be strong, but the whole attitude was low. The Acon. demonstrates anxiety. When it reaches that state which says, I will die tomorrow at 12 oclock, it is a different thing. You cannot mix them if you know the essence of one from the other. This is where the kind of homoeopathy and the kind of materia medica that we are speaking about is of value. It is the little things. Here is a demonstration of how much sensitivity you need to receive the information and process it through your mind and give out the right answer. Of course, for the last state you need to know your materia medica. I know that all of you are very sensitive because you have come into the homoeopathy. This fact is a guarantee that you have sensitivity in dealing with another person, but you need to know this process and bring out the right information.
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Audience Member: Presentiment of death is Puls. George: But it is another thing. It is not predicting the time of death. Puls. gets into that mellow state. She has a fibroma, right? She has been to the gynaecologist and he said, You have a fibroid tumor the size of an orange. Now it is a peculiar state in Puls. where she will go outside and pity herself - in a nice way. How can I describe this? She will say O, poor me! but it is not hard. It is something soft. Ah, I am going to die, and that brings tears. The doctor is not right, this is cancer. It is not a fear. I am going to die and this is nice because there will be crying people and all that. This is the type of person. She may be quite educated. She may be quite intelligent. But we are talking about pathology now. It has nothing to do with that state where the education of the person or the understanding and the awareness of the person comes into play. It comes from a pathological state. She is not like that. You give her the remedy and forget about the dying and the philosophy and the processes and the flowers that will be brought, how much they will cry, and she remembers all the nice things that she has done with her husband. Now she is going to die. It is not in the context of fear or agony. In that context, I am not going to give a remedy which will help the psychological make-up. Audience Member: Wouldnt you even consider Acon. when there are no chest, heart, respiratory symptoms? Acon. to me has a kind of center of gravity in this region-chest. George: Ill tell you a case which will give you the perspective of what we are saying. It is not always so. In the next case I am going to give you the whole perspective. Because I may be misleading you by telling you that there is always underneath a kind of essence which you have to find out. This is not always so. You may need Acon. when you go into your car from Esalen and go a distance of four miles to your house. You have been perspiring and you open your windows. A draft comes in and before you have gone the four miles you have stiffness and there is pain in the cervical region. SO SUDDEN! But you do not have the psychology of Acon. You take Acon. and within 3/4 of an hour your head will return to normal. But there again we have once trace of Acon. - the intensity of what has happened in so little time. There is an element of the essence passing through, but not involving the mental state. You do not need the mental state and you cannot have the mental state always. You have to prescribe on the tendencies of the remedy. Acon. HAS SUDDEN AILMENTS. The suddenness becomes the essence of the physical level. This is used for routine prescribing when you get stiffness from exposure. But the essence is there in our case. If the suddenness is not there Acon. is not going to help. You need Caust. for stiffness; you will need Calc-p.; you will need Cimic. When the cervical region and the margins of the trapezius muscles are painful and consistent, there are different remedies indicated. You can analyse the case and give accordingly, but that case which I have described to you in going from here to your house, which is only four miles, and you come out suddenly stiff, this is Acon. You dont need to have the element of fear of death and you cannot develop this so suddenly.
3 Nonsuppurating enlarged glands Bromium
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(brom.) Case This is the case of a four-year old child who has dark hair and dark complexion. This is the child of another doctor. The child developed fever and had swelling of the submaxillary glands, worse on the left side. The gland on the left side was as big as a walnut. The child was warm. She would ask for water and that was the only thing which she could take. She would ask to step on the cold floor. The childs constitutional remedy was Sulph. What would you prescribe in that case? Question: Did she take only water because she was sick? George: She did not have an appetite and did not want any food. The temperature was 40 degrees C. for three days. This illness was unusual for her. She was quite well in fact. Sulph. would usually cover her symptomatology. She had taken Sulph. perhaps three times during her previous history. She liked to walk on the cold floor and she would go out of bed to do so. She would also sit on the cold floor. Question: How sick was she? George: Not very sick. She got up from the bed. The fever was high, however, and she was not feeling very strong. She did not want to eat, but she did get up from the bed and would walk and sit on the floor. She became sick after my prescription. Question: I dont think I would give her a remedy at this time. Responses: How about Sulph.? Lach.? George: I made the usual mistake, of course. Knowing that Sulph. has helped her, and she is warm, seeks the cold floor, she is thirsty, and I dont have any more symptoms - I gave Sulph. This is an interesting observation that we have to make. First, that while Sulph. was helping her constitutionally, now this was not so. I gave Sulph. and the next day they said that may be she was a little better because the fever was down. With this description you know that the remedy has not worked. The father wants to say that she is better. He phoned the next day to say that the fever was even higher. Question: How much Sulph. did you give? George: I believe I gave 10m high potency because so far I had given up to 10m. I had given the highest potency about six months previously. Question: So two days after the Sulph. the fever is higher? George: I gave Sulph. in the morning. That evening or late afternoon the father telephoned to say, Most probably the Sulph. is acting because the child is better because the fever is now 38 degrees C I said to wait. I had anxiety because I knew it was not right. The next morning the father telephoned to say that the fever was again high, but there was no symptomatology that I could obtain. I said to wait. By the evening of the next day the father said that the child was having a very high fever, was in bed, and she did not know what was wrong with her before she got into this state. The parents said that she had a kind of dissatisfaction in not knowing what was wrong with her. She did not want to communicate. She had an aversion to be spoken to. When she was asked something, she would shriek. When the parents would ask a normal question, she would shriek. The glands had grown bigger and were stone-hard. I asked about any tendency toward suppuration. Did he see any pus forming or redness? He said there was none. I asked did he auscultate and he said yes. This was a phone treatment. The father said that she was going into a coma. This is by telephone. If you talk to a doctor and he says the
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child is going into a coma, you tend to believe it. I told him to take the child to the hospital after giving the child the remedy. What was the remedy I prescribed with this symptomatology? We do not have very much essence here. This was July in Athens. Usually the temperature is very high. She didnt want anything to eat. The record does not say anything specifically about thirst. Do not think that I just gave the remedy before giving that prescription. I was thinking and looking through the repertory for about 3/4 of an hour. She did not want to be spoken to and she did not want to communicate, even with the parents. And when she did communicate, she would shriek at them. She no longer wanted to be on the cold floor. The child stayed in bed now and did not get up. Another thing: the skin very dry. There was no perspiring in spite of the high fever. Question: What about Con.? I dont know anything about the mentals, but there are these stone-hard glands. Question: Is her picture that she is just lying there moaning and when you would ask a question she should shriek and then she would moan again? George: The parents would ask her what was wrong and she would scream or say to leave her alone. Question: Does anyone have a copy of Kent? George: Suppose that we cannot make out anything from the mental state of this child. I shall read you from Kent: This remedy has running through it a tendency to infiltrate the glands. The glands become hard but seldom suppurate. They generally remain hard. The glands of the neck - the parotids, the sublingual and the submaxillary - are enormously enlarged and very very hard. The process of inflammation is not the violent kind seen with Bell. You have a few days before the child became sick. We gave Sulph. and waited. It is hot weather. The whole economy is over-heated. That runs through that remedy. It is hot weather and confinement to a hot room and it was after going from cool to heat that the symptomatology developed. It is a hot season in Athens-July We have a child with fever and enlarged glands. Does this prescription tally with the symptomatology of the case, pathologically speaking? Quite a lot? Where do you start looking? Response: I was looking at the hard cervical glands that were swollen. George That is what factor? Response: Page 474 - external throat. George: Where else are you going to look to see exactly the symptomatology of this child with the submaxillary glands, more prominent on the left side? Response: Swelling on the face. George: Yes, swollen face. Parotid, submaxillary glands, hard. This is the first place you must go and look in such a case. Page 394. [Arum-t., Brom., Cor-r., Vesp.] Response: Brom., Cham., Calc. are other remedies. George: So you take some hints from the repertory and then you have to go to your Materia Medica and see what it says about Cor-r., Vesp. If we eliminate we see only Brom. (bold). Swelling of the sub-maxillary glands, left side, higher on the right side and hard underneath. This eliminates the other two. Response: There is only one left that comes through now - Brom.
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George: Another interesting thing is that the gland is not painful. Response: You did not say that. George: The child would complain. This is a psychological state and there is no pain. PAGE 23 Response: Was this gland not like usual swollen glands? They are always hard. George: It was quite hard. It was characteristically hard. Response: That is the whole case - the stone-hardness? George: With no tendency to suppurate. And remember the heat in the middle of the summer. I took all this into consideration. Does it give you the right remedy? You see, we have shrieking - the pathological one in Bor. Is it Bor.? Response: I started out thinking that the shrieking and moaning were the main things. I found Sil. being the only remedy that indicated shrieking when spoken to. It had the multiglandular characteristics and intense heat. It virtually has everything. It has the dry skin without perspiration. George: Sil., has been suggested. This is a good remedy, but in Sil. you would usually have had a lot of perspiration. It is not usual for Sil. to have dryness of the skin without perspiration. The second thing is that the child was quite warm. It is very seldom you will find a Sil. who is warm-blooded. Suffering from warmth. Usually Sil. suffers from cold. This type of person usually does not want to be spoken to. Here is a reactive child who is almost malicious. The parents want to help and they ask, Do you want this? or that? She would act maliciously in a way. For all these reasons it will take you away from Sil. in spite of Sil. being a remedy that would come down if you repertorize. Therefore I withheld myself from giving Sil. and I gave Brom. I would look through the repertory and Kents lectures (on Materia Medica) and when I read that portion I thought that was the answer to the remedy. This is a case that if we can remember the state of that child as it was described, we can apply it to some other case and see if it works and then again confirm it, and confirm it until we have the mental picture of Brom. But here we are stuck as far as essence is concerned. We cannot do anything. We do not have the essence of that remedy, yet that essence does not fit the essence of Calc., of Puls. with Sil. We had hard glands but this did not fit altogether. Clam. is close. But if you describe Chams mental state if is so much more agressive with moaning and groaning. It is so much more prominent. It is a matter of intensity. Perhaps it is similar, but a degree or so less to what we describe here. Quite similar, but less. Again I dont take my mind away from the pathology. That is where I want to conclude. The pathology, which is on the physical level, has a great importance now, but I am lost with the mental state and I dont know where to go. The pathology takes great importance and I tried to find a remedy which had this pathology prominent. Response: That is why we did not think of Bry.? It doesnt have the induration - the hardness. George: It can have, but not as prominent as Brom. Here we are having the large, hard glands which were growing, but yet without a tendency to suppurate. You will not see redness. You will not see the associated pain. I prescribed a dose of Brom. A dose of 10m. Response: May I ask about Calc-p. Did you rule that out?
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George: Calc-p, yes. That is another good remedy to give to children of that type groaning, complaining, they dont know what they want. But again Calc-p. is very close to Cham. The intensity is quite severe. This did not give the intensity of Cham., Calc-p. It was not that mental picture. Again you will see shrieking in children and you will think Bor. They shriek terribly, especially when there are infections on the brain, in the meninges. That runs through Bor. very much. But in this case we had to take into consideration the pathology. That was the essence we had. This was what I read from Kent. He took the child to the hospital and as he got into the car, he gave the child the remedy. They tried to give the powder and the child refused. As they were battling, some of the powder went into the stomach and some was left in the paper. The hospital was about half an hour away. Within one minute the child said: Give me the rest of that. And she took the whole powder then. That meant that the remedy had acted from the moment it touched the lips and it changed the psychology of the child. The psychological state was changed within two minutes. By the time they arrived at the hospital she was another child altogether. The fever had dropped already within half an hour. Finally, they did not admit the child to the hospital but they returned home. The next day the child was perfect. Here again - where is the essence? The idea is related to the hot climate and a child suddenly develops hard, stony glands, with no tendency to suppurate and with no pain. In our mind the childs state is a Bromium-state. You can remember this as a Bromium-state and apply similar states to Calc-p., and Cham., but they are less in intensity. These are not every day cases. These are cases which you can miss. We all miss them. If I had not thought so much, I would have given easy prescriptions. The father was one of the doctors working at the center, and this was the child. Question: Did he get into trouble because of the Sulph. or was this unrelated? George: No. That was a case of glandular fever. PAGE 25 Question: In the cases you have been describing to me, I am pretty reluctant to give acute remedies in a person who I am constitutionally treating and this had reinforced that idea. Is that what you are going to do? George: No. I am trying to show you mistakes which I make and you can make. Question: You do prescribe acutely to people you treat constitutionally? George: Sure. We shall discuss this in length. Somebody has asked that question about acute prescribing while you are treating constitutionally. This is a big question and we shall go into it. Who is not allergic to poison oak? Response: That does not mean that we are not afraid of it. George: Who will touch it and rub it without any effects? Only three [types of] people. There are really an overwhelming majority affected by it. This is interesting. We have to explain that phenomena. Response: We have seen a lot of people who have been very sick. There are some who get it just where they touch it. And then there is another group of people who touch it and then get a secondary reaction and get it all over. It is not from the oil, but a reaction to that. And those are the people who are really sick. George: So in this case we must treat exactly what we say in the proving. IN ORDER TO PROVE A REMEDY YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PREDISPOSITION TOWARDS THAT REMEDY. You have to have a predisposition. Now here is a case that
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demonstrates how a predisposition is created. By taking small doses of poison oak, by the pollen in the air, through the years that you lived by these plants, you have taken small doses which have created a predisposition. Question: What percentage of people who dont live in a poison oak part of the country are not allergic for it? George: Many. If you had come from Greece, like me, it would be the other way around. Only three people will get a reaction, and the rest will not. Response: So chances are that I would not get a reaction to it. I have never been around poison oak before. George: Most probably. But from your skin, I judge that you would get it. PAGE 26 Response: I react to nettles. George: Everybody reacts to nettles. This man comes from Norway. I dont believe he would have an effect. If it gets too bad for me, I will take a remedy. Question: But every time a person reacts to poison ivy, it is not necessarily a proving of it. You get Anac. symptoms in one and Sulph. in another and Led. in another all from the same exposure. George: That is true. On the other hand, because it is a crude proving with mother tincture qualities, you will get the type of reaction in different degrees. If you could see the eruptions that poison oak creates, it is exactly the type of eruptions you see and recognize. These three different types of people develop different kinds of skin eruptions. There are definitely different types of skin eruptions. Question: Why do such a wide variety of remedies cure in a proving like that? George: Because poison oak just stimulates an organism. The organism produces a reaction. (Reaction depends on the predisposition) YOU CANNOT ALWAYS FORESEE THE TYPE OF REACTION THAT THE ORGANISM WILL TAKE BECAUSE THAT IS PREDETERMINED BY THE PREDISPOSITION AND THE SENSITIVITIES THAT THE ORGANISM HAS. A stimulation of a person who has a weak stomach, may create a picture of gastritis. The same stimulation on a person who has a weak liver, may disturb his liver. Another one may have his skin disturbed. Another one may go to an inflammation. This depends on the predisposition. Question: George, I can understand that part of it, but what about the fact that the person can express a different remedy feeling - a different essence altogether. Why is it that a different remedy would cure? I can see why it might affect a different part of a person in a predisposition. George: You see you have an organism and you stimulate him with a stimulus, whatever it is. There is a reaction. This is the symptomatology which is not determined by the stimulus, but it is a combination of the stimulant with the organism. So what you are asking is that since we have the same stimulus, why dont we always have the same reaction. The reaction is not determined by the stimulant per se. It is a combination of the two. Question: It does not matter whether that stimulus is potentized or a crude substance?. PAGE 27 George: No, no, no, no. You will get a different set of symptoms with mother tinctures
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than with potencies. It is the difference between a poison and a potency. A poison, if it is big enough, will definitely create the same effect. We have unlimited possibilities with the organism if we increase the dose. If we give Ars. in a high dose in a mother tincture, we have created a particular set of symptoms, in which we are not interested as homoeopaths. Because the symptomatology will always be the same. We take a few symptoms of the poison, but most of the symptoms that we use, are taken from higher potencies. Why? Because WHAT WE TRY TO FIND OUT IS THE SENSITIVITY OF THE PERSON. What is the predisposition? And these sensitivities and predispositions can only be discerned if we stimulate very mildly. If you stimulate mildly and you have no reaction, you have no sensitivity. I can increase the dose - make it cruder - and I can have definite effects from any human organism. I am not interested in that. I am trying to find the final sensitivity - the individuality - of each organism. To find that, I use fine energies because I am stimulating a fine part of the organism. I am not stimulating the body with chemical reactions. So what is valid for me is that which is produced if I stimulate with fine energies and that organism gives out a reaction. Then I really have a particular disease which I can relate to the remedy. Question: Does that mean that some place between those extremes that you mentioned the crude poisoning and the potency - you can get a variability of reactions, depending on the predisposition of the individual? George: Oh yes. You give a certain amount of any drug and you will poison. You reduce more and more. You will get less and less reaction eventually and then there will be no reaction. You get another group of people who will keep on with the reaction. You will get yet another group of people who have severe reaction. It is that group of people who will give the essence of the remedy. Question: Is that middle group of people then the people who are sensitive to the poison oak? They can respond to the Anac. George: No. The most sensitive people to the poison oak are the third group. We have to take into consideration the symptomatology. The crude drugs do not give reliable information. I may be able finally to get a reaction. My reaction, is not reliable, assuming the particular sensitivity on the particular drug with that particular person. PAGE 28 If I take a high potency and I am not allergic, it is not going to affect me at all. If I get a reaction and it is a BIG reaction, this third group, will most probably be cured by a great degree by Astac. high. Question: As a constitutional remedy or the treatment for their reaction? George: In acute prescribing, I dont know what is happening constitutionally. It might be Astac. as a constitutional remedy as well, but I presuppose that these people have a kind of miasm. These people have already a predisposition to be able to be affected by this remedy so much. So by exposing themselves constantly in the atmosphere, they superimpose kind of miasm which going to be taken away by a Rhus-t. or Crot-t.
4 Abuse of salt, chancre sore on lips Natrium muriaticum
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(nat-m.) Case Question: I have a patient who took salt tablets every day for a long time and he developed a great proving of Nat-m. Then he took some Nat-m. successively and then got much worse. He has been that way now for several years. Would you then give Nat-m. high? George: High, Yes! You see these people who are very sensitive to poison oak, if they are exposed to a quantity which is sufficient enough, they may have a reaction that may kill them, but if you give them a 200 potency of Rhus-t. it may cure them. That is why Kent said in one of his lectures that people who use low potencies, get away from killing the people, because they are bad prescribers. If they had really found what was indicated and they gave it in a low potency, they would kill the person. The same thing with Rhust. A little bit of Rhus-t. will create that, because they are very sensitive. The same thing happens if you gave Lycps. low. You dont give it low, or you kill somebody. You cannot imagine it. I should have some prescriptions of the French doctors to show you. Question: Could I ask you again, if someone is tested through potencies - they were given potencies frequently over a long period of time... George: And has created a picture of Nat-m. That person took 6x and created great aggravation. If he had taken 200, he might have been cured. Question: But suppose he had taken 30 or 200 frequently over six months - every day for six months - and had Nat-m., then would a higher potency cure? George: If he had taken what potency? Response: 200, say for six months. George: That is another thing. He took pure salt mother tincture in great quantities and created a picture of Nat-m. I say in this case that he may take 10m and be cured. Now you take a hypothetical case where somebody takes 200 for one month. What happens? In this case we have to explore the possibilities. The first possibility is that nothing would happen because the person is not at all sensitive to Nat-m. That is why we cannot prove the value of high potencies to the medical profession. PAGE 30 Response: There is no statistical stability. George: Yes. But out of that group you will get two who will develop a symptomatology. These people will develop quite a floral symptomatology. Whether you will give a 50m potency to counteract the one-month-taken of 200 depends on whether the picture which they have created looks like Nat-m. now. If the picture looks like Natm., then 50m. or a cm. will antidote the 200. Response: This is confusing me now because I had a case very much like that. He was a German automobile mechanic and he had a chancre sore on the lips. He went to a homoeopath in New York who gave him Nat-m. as a constitutional remedy. The chancre sore became aggravated and then got better. Then it came back after a month or two. Instead of wasting the money to go back to the doctor I will just go to the health food store and start taking 6x. So, as it says on the bottle of tablets, he took it every day. It first got worse and then better for a short period of time. Then it became worse again and the 6x no longer worked. So he went back and he started taking 12x every day. Then he got access to the remedy and the same thing happened. He kept getting worse and worse.
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He went higher and higher in potency until he was taking 1 or 2 potencies or something like that daily, or at least frequenty, for a very long time. He was going higher and higher in potency and grafting the proving on to his system. So when I saw him, what I did was to go back to the patterns of what he was like two years ago, before all this started. There were some symptoms which were not Nat-m. and were Sep. I gave him Sep., which, from what I can interpret, disrupted the graftings of the proving. I should mention that during the proving it reached drastically into his mental plane. He became so fastidious, he could hardly do his work. He had to be cleaning his fingernails and his hands every five minutes. He isolated himself completely from people. He had all the symptoms, but it was a drastic destruction. The Sep. cleared him dramatically on the mental plane 1 and the emotional plane. 2 The eruption on the lip came out very strongly. After one month or so of Sep., I gave him a high potency single dose of Nat-m. which cleared the case. I do not know if I was interpreting that right, but I think what happened was that because there was an impotency on the energy plane 3, it grafted Nat-m. off and I thought that a higher potency would add more of that. George: That is interesting. PAGE 31 You see here first we have to examine the initial Nat-m. which was given. Was it curative? I mean: did he really need Nat-m. from the very beginning? This is the first thing you have to examine. If he needed Nat-m., that means Nat-m., curatively in the beginning. Then, in spite of that, the man kept taking it and reached a state where he did not need any more Nat-m. So the Nat-m. had done a certain work and could not do anything more. Most probably he needed the complementary which is Sep. Instead, this man kept taking Nat-m. In that case it is not necessary that we suppose that he will create a picture of Nat-m. He may create a picture of Sep. or Ars. Response: This patient was completely Nat-m. Everything and every single symptom that he had; it was just unbelievable. George: I dont know or understand how a person with a picture of Nat-m. can react to Sep. So that means that something was wrong in that whole thing. Question: Can you explain the concept of grafting on symptoms with remedies? George: Yes. Let us understand that. I think that if Nat-m. had acted curatively in the beginning, it means that it has changed the picture from Nat-m. to something else. It cannot remain. If you would tell me that this person was not Nat-m. from the beginning, he needed Sep., but instead the doctor gave him Nat-m., then I may understand how that person can graft a Nat-m. constitutionally, but if he is not a Nat-m. from the very beginning and you give Nat-m., you take away the Nat-m. tendency. At some time during this taking of varied potencies of remedy the Nat-m. picture must have withdrawn and left a new picture which is Sep., Apis of whatever it is. So when you gave Sep. most probably the person was more Sep. than Nat-m. Question: Would you just see Sep. symptoms? George: You may have symptoms like a desire for sweets in both remedies, or a desire for salt but the salt is less than what it was in the beginning. Sep. may have some desire for salt. You may have aggravation from both remedies - an aversion to company from both remedies - but you may have had certain symptoms... Was it a man or a woman? Answer: It was a man. George: He may have had a lowering of the sexual desire, which is going towards Sep.,
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which shows you the turn of the person towards another remedy. PAGE 32 Question: Why did you go back then to Nat-m.? That would be hard to figure out for me. George: That may happen. You use one remedy, go to the complementary, and then again come back to the previous one. This patient, if he is cured now, must be feeling that he has changed a level. On this level where he was, he was taking 3 remedies and now he is going up to another level. If he continues treatment, he will definitely feel like another person. It is generally much better. Question: If he originally needed Sep. and the doctor prescribed Nat-m. and then he proved Nat-m. Would you still then give Nat-m. high? George: If he really has a Nat-m. picture, I would definitely give Nat-m. in a higher potency than what we have given. Then wait. But I see the original picture was Sep., then I see that after taking Nat-m. there are a few symptoms of Nat-m. which have been intervening with the Sep. picture, then since I still have a valid Sep. picture I would give Sep. The whole Nat-m. picture is there and so you would definitely give Nat-m. high. PAGE 33 5 Neuresthenia and fever after childbirth Argentum nitricum (arg-n.) Case George: Let us do the case which I gave you. But before I give you the case I would like to ask you why you prescribe that remedy, so it is better if I have your name. Did you discuss the case among yourselves? Some of the recommendations were Lyc., Puls. and Phos. I would like Harvey to analyze the case and tell me why he prescribed, what symptoms you found, how you evaluated it. Response: [from Harvey, presumably]: I repertorised it using your underlining 1. A frequent remedy for me was Phos. I did not think that she sounded like Phos. because she did not sound confused. She sounded angry, irritable and focussed. Also I did not understand about the fear of heat. I gather that that means she is afraid of being in a warm room or a hot place. George: She is afraid because she is suffering from the heat. Response: So that also did not sound like Phos. Her fears fit Phos., but they also fit Puls. I went back and forth between Phos. and Puls. I finally decided that she sounded ... her openness, her expressiveness, her irritability, her...the essence sounded more like Puls. than Phos. and this was compatible with the rest of her story and with her fears and with her relationship to sweets. George: The fear is not an established fear, it is just, Oh, I am afraid of the heat. This is an expression to show how much she is bothered by the heat. Harvey says that according to repertorisation and the mental symptoms and fears, worse with heat, the person sounded like Puls. rather than Phos. Phos. was coming up often in repertorisation. This is also true with the others, eh? So some of you decided to give Phos. in spite of that. Who prescribed Phos.? Response: Phos. can be aggravated by heat also. George: Yes. Of course you must find this great aggravation by heat so prominent in Phos. I think we can put this aggravation by heat in italics.
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Response: Kent separates Phos. out. He says that head and stomach symptoms are better with cold and worse with heat. The rest of the physical symptoms are the opposite. PAGE 34 George: But apart from that he says it is correct in stomach symptoms. Phos. is worse from heat - warm temperatures - but in general Kent gives it as a chill aversion. This is aggravated by cold in general. His repertory will list it as worse with heat in general. Response: There is also a sensation of heat. George: But not so strong. When you have a case your mind must work very fast. You take into consideration the whole case and you put it together. It is like a computer. You have to take a symptom in conjunction with all others. If you have a strong symptom, you always want to start your case with that symptom. And you find that ten remedies are associated with that symptom. Then you take another one. Question: (The symptoms) desiring chocolate and ice-cream and sweets. I acknowledge a lot of glaring things against it such as lack of craving for salt and the claustrophobia seemed to be a slap in the face regarding Phos. Palpitations lying on the left side. George: What do you mean, a slap in the face? Answer: It seemed to me to be a vote against Phos. Response: A slap in the face is against and a slap on the back is for. (Laughter) George: Okay. Continued Response: I over-read your essences and I was bothered about giving Phos. to her by the way she took her irritability out on other people. From your essence, I perceive that Phos. would be loath to do that. But may be I over-read your essences. George: That is true. I gave you that case because I wanted you to start reading between the lines of a case. The person is not going to give you the essence as we give it here, so you have to draw the essence from the description and the observations that you have made with your patient. Also you will have to rely on strong symptomatology which is against a remedy. IF THERE IS STRONG SYMPTOMATOLOGY WHICH GOES AGAINST THE REMEDY WHICH YOU WANT TO PRESCRIBE, HOLD BACK AND LOOK AGAIN. Dont over-come it. I would like to hear a representative of the Lyc. essence. Response: I felt as though Lyc. fit the main symptoms which were underlined three times especially. This was reinforced by the fact that this woman took out her irritability on the family. I thought that was quite significant. Lyc. can be sensitive to heat - intolerant to heat. And of course Lyc. fits the cravings, is afraid to be alone, and can also be afraid of the dark, and is definitely claustrophobic and irritable. Even though I felt that perhaps her underlying personality was more open, I felt that her present state of affairs called for Lyc. PAGE 35 George: So we have these three possibilities, we have Phos., Puls. and Lyc. Response: For my second choice I had Arg-n. George: Now, first I want to discuss the Phos. possibility. This case has been prescribed for, half by me and half by the attending doctor. I gave the first prescription. I took the case and I read exactly what you read and I thought exactly what you thought. Puls. You see in this case which is so much worse with heat, we will not think from the very beginning of a remedy which can sometimes be worse with heat. The heat is exaggerated.
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We cannot ignore this fact. Therefore I would go for remedies which are worse with heat. I made a translation of the Greek expressions, but what is her trouble really? It is that after labor she became mentally unbalanced. She had to take psychotropic medicines. On top of that, in 1976, she became much worse. She stated that she became irritable at the least cause and she would break out shrieking and shouting when there was a cause. Can you imagine the type of extraordinary pressure? Irritable and with the least cold she coughs and spits up. This is not restrained, therefore what do we call such a person. How do you find this in the repertory? If you can imagine a person who reacts instinctively like that - impulsive. So this person is really impulsive and reacts to what is in front of her at the moment. Now how many of you want to change the remedy? I may be misleading you. Response: I would. I would change mine to Lil-t. Not because of the impulsiveness. I dont agree that what you are describing is impulsiveness as with Arg-n. impulsiveness where the mind is overcome with an impulse from inside. This sounds like a reactivity and irritability more than some impulse to do something. George: Okay. You say it is Lil-t. Anyone also wants to change? Response: Not yet. George: This impulsiveness which this person is showing, is it characteristic of Phos. or Puls.? These remedies usually dont act like that. We have seen mild Phos. and Puls. act sympathetic, non-aggressive. This person is good for the encounter groups. This person cannot restrain herself. She is open and expressive. Does this go with Lil-t.? She is open and expressive and you can see it. The word is nasty. Who was Socrates wife? When a woman is a shrew - almost a bitch, she will make a tremendous noise and will leave the house like a storm because you approached her and said, Would you like some milk? In her mind she thinks you offered her some milk because you want to go out in the night and you dont want to take her with you. She goes out and slams the door and goes into a fit. And I say, What happened? Here we have a confrontation. We have to take into consideration these things in order to be able to track down the remedy. So impulsiveness is there and it is something at which we should look. She seems to be quite expressive and vital in her emotions. She seeks company, desires company. That is another rubric which you might have consulted. Fear of being alone and desire for company. Fear of being alone is another rubric. It does not necessarily follow that because she desires company, she is afraid of being alone. Here we have two symptoms: fear of being alone and desire for company. Does anybody want to change remedy? PAGE 36 Response: Arg-n. Mur-ac. George: Now, this person...by eliminating one by one and by going thoroughly into an analysis of the case, we can find a remedy. Then she says she has anxiety about her people (underlined twice), anxiety about others (once), claustrophobia and fear of closed place (three times). This person who is expressive and vital and impulsive has claustrophobia. When she is in a closed place, she starts struggling. So where do you find claustrophobia? Do you remember the rubric? Fear of closed places. This is a person who is bothered by heat, who is impulsive. Question: George, did you add a rubric claustrophobia? George: Yes. Response: Arg-n. is in claustrophobia but not in fear of closed places.
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George: So this person who is warm, who has fear of being alone, who desires company, who is expressive and wants to tell everything, and who is impulsive. This description is the best that I could relate from the Greek. Greek is more expressive, but I tried my best in the translation to keep the idea. Never mind who is in front of me, the moment I am excited I will take it out on them. So what is impulsive? A person who cannot restrain himself, who will react before the mind is controlling what is going to be said or what is going to be expressed. More or less we come to the idea of impulsiveness in this case, but it is not that which we should rely upon entirely. We shall see whether the totality of the case best fits Arg-n., Lyc., Puls., or Phos. This is what we are interested in, making the differential diagnosis. Here is keynote prescribing. In this case we have enough information to go by. Sometimes we have nothing else to do and we resort to keynote prescribing. You see which of these remedies is most bothered by heat? PAGE 37 Response: Arg-n. and Puls. George: Which of these two remedies can create a desire for sweets? It is underlined four times and I gave you three times here. I was not careful with the writing in the addition, but it is difficult to put in an addition and put it immediately on the second level or on the third level. Do not get the idea that an addition is easy to go into the third stage before we have investigated and been certain about that symptom. We insert with care on the first stage and if we repeatedly see it happen, we may raise it to the second. But this is after much research on that symptom. Then it can be moved to the third. Puls. has a desire for sweets, but we keep it in the first grade. Question: Isnt it so that Arg-n. is highly characteristic of a desire for sweets? George: This is one of the main remedies for the person who cannot go without sweets. It overwhelms in Lyc. and Sulph. and Chin., which are all given in black letters. If in this case we would not have this desire for sweets, but that she could not tolerate them, everybody would have written down Arg-n. We have to sort them out every time and hope for the best prescription. Here it is really Arg-n. which covers most of the case from all points of view. Do you see how many capitals it has? You got it through repertorisation? Response: I did both. I analyzed the case like you are talking about. The thing that clinched it for me was (1) that claustrophobia ruled out Phos., and (2) in the sphere of her fear of robbers, where it says, If she is alone she will search all over the house to see if anybody is inside and if she has locked the doors etc. That clinched it for Arg-n. for me. It is an almost insane way of making sure of things, just in case. She is in a hurry and is anxious. Everything she does is in a hurry. George: We have a fear of the dark (underlined three times). This fear of the dark is quite strong and Arg-n. is not given in the repertory. Answer: I do not know why it did not bother me, but it did not bother me. George: Because all of the symptomatology goes towards this direction, you can ignore that symptom and you may say that perhaps she has a fear of the dark, but it is not yet inserted in our repertory or our materia medicas. You see the ice-cream here. The doctor who took the case proposed Phos. for the reason that we said before. She desires sweets (three times) and ice-cream (twice). Now for Phos. it would be the other way around. She desires sweets and ice-cream is sweet - she likes it because it is sweet and not because it is cold. Do you see the difference? Phos. desires cold very much! But she desired sweets,
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chocolate, anything you could give her, and ice-cream because it is sweet. You have to be careful with Phos. here. Just for this little thing there. Not every time that we have a person desires sweets or ice-cream do we give Phos. Here, from the way the doctor underlines the symptoms, it is definitely a certain desire for sweets. She desires oysters (once). Phos. is the only remedy which is given with an aversion to oysters. Of course I have edited it and you have it as a desire for oysters as well. Desires oysters. PAGE 38 Response: It might also be that by this time the doctor in the case was convinced that it was Phos. and was looking for these things. Doesnt it happen that way? George: No, it does not happen that way. Let me see. The desire for oysters is one. We cannot rely on that desire at all. If we want to discriminate one remedy from another, we do not take a symptom underlined once to discriminate. It will have equal marks. We have desire oysters underlined once. You cannot take this so seriously, because it could be a desire for oysters or not a real desire. The doctor had just overcome this point and did not notice anything. He said it was a real desire where it is not - it is a normal appetite for oysters. It is not a pathology which we are looking for. Here is the pathology in the sweets. Fruits (once). Aversion to milk. Moderate thirst. The thirst that we needed for Phos. is not here. Neither the temperature of the water - it must be very cold. We had confirmation for Phos. again. So this case, though it now appears definitely Phos., it is hidden because of the way that it is expressed. So we have to look between the lines. But when we try to put things together, then finally we understand that it is Arg-n. and, yes, this is impulsiveness. What is described hereafter? We understand that there must be impulsiveness. Even from the very beginning we did not understand. When did we see claustrophobia? The desire for company and the fear of being alone and the fear of the robbers? The aggravation from heat? All these make a perfect case finally of Arg-n. Question: What about the sympathetic characteristics? George: We would expect Arg-n. to be sympathetic to some degree. Why? This is an extrovert, and extroverts are usually people who are concerned with others. So she would say that she was sympathetic, but this is a natural sympathy and not a pathology here because if we see the case really it says that she takes it out on her friends. She is aggressive. Now, how does that tally with sympathetic? It is very difficult to believe that sympathy is a pathology, but it means that she is suffering so much with the other person that ... When we say sympathetic and it is pathological, they are suffering so much. PAGE 39 Question: Isnt it more of an anxiety about other people than sympathy? She ma y worry about other people but not necessarily feel their suffering. She may call that sympathetic because that sounds better. George: Even so, this is a symptom which can be a natural thing for a woman. We can over-rule this. Question: Doesnt Arg-n. have anxiety about others? George: It is not listed in the book. Response: It has been added in the additions. They can usually lack salt. * George: In this one the salt is not right. If we had desire for sweets and desire for salt underlined three times, again we would immediately have said that this was an Arg-n. case. By these desires your mind would have investigated other directions and then you
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would find out that this was all in place now. But we do not have a key-note here really of Arg-n. If we had desire for salt underlined three times then this too would become a keynote. But we do not have in this case, which may happen. Question: Would you discuss sleep on the right side and the tachycardia on the left? That really threw me off. It is the opposite of Arg-n., but it is not pathological, it is common. It is not underlined. George: The idea is that somewhere we must stop. We do not want EVERY symptom. We cannot have every symptom be recorded down in our materia medica and cover the whole symptomatology. It is not possible. And that is why homoeopathy is different. So what we try to do is to find the best solution with the given facts which might finally be the central remedy. And the best solution here is definitely Arg-n. So we find the best solution. Question: I would like to ask about the relation of the symptoms to childbirth. This apparently all began with childbirth. It seems to me that that would be related to Puls. George: Why? Childbirth of course means a hormonal change in the life of the woman. It is a sudden hormonal change. It seems that the organism cannot adjust itself quickly enough to bring about balance and then we have this kind of pathology. It might be another pathology in another person, but this does not indicate only Puls. There are too many remedies which may be indicated because of a hormonal change in the life. Like in an abortion you have changes and then you have a strong symptomatology after an abortion, either voluntary or involuntary. PAGE 40 Question: I wanted to make a general comment. I think this case is probably one of the best cases I have studied or seen that illustrates how the tendency that we all have to study the case by matching data - trying to line up data points and see which one covers say 30 symptoms and this one has 28 and so that is the remedy - versus having to see something stand out against it in the essence realm and realize that it cant be the Phos. no matter how well it scored in repertorisation. It is a beautiful illustrations of having to look again. George: You see we have been teaching exactly that. When we say totality of symptoms, it is a resonance. We are trying to match the resonance of the person - how he resonates. It is much more subtle than dry symptomatology. It is so much more subtle. And the more we go into the heart of a person, the more we are drawing closer. Here we had enough information to go into the heart. What happens when we dont have enough knowledge of materia medica and you are comparing... do not get disappointed from the cases I am going to give you. You will find no remedy at all, but dont get disappointed. When Bill was in Athens and I would give him a study case every day, he hardly ever found the remedy. But I was giving him all cases like that, where he had to think. He had to learn to think. When we came here, he never had a failure because he had learned to think. And do not get disappointed when you do not get the remedy. What I want to transmit to you is not the case, it is the way of thinking. Sometimes in another case we shall rely completely on the keynote - one keynote-that is all we have. One keynote and perhaps worse cold and worse heat. Now with this keynote, which is the remedy? We have no more symptomatology. Here it was interesting in this case because the essence was hidden behind information which was sometimes misleading. The desire for icecream, the sleeping on the right side, palpitations, but again where is the first and where
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is the essence of Phos.? So this woman got Arg-n. 1m. You could give 10m. There is not much difference that you can justify. Response: He really thought it was Phos. George: The woman had come in June 1977. She phoned on April 10, 1978. She came once and she was perfectly well. On April 10 of the next year, ten months later exactly, she telephoned to say that she had a relapse. A repetition of the remedy was given at that time, 1m by phone. The case was not taken again. Then in May she came for a consultation. She first came on the 14th of June and now she came for a second consultation on the 30th of June. She stated that she had been having dental work for one month and she now complained about her nails which were very brittle. The symptoms now became very prominent - brittleness. This was underlined twice. She said that she was better with everything else. Claustrophobia was better. She did not check for robbers any more. She woke up in the night sometimes. The heaviness in the chest was less. The irritability and anxiety were much less. She said the hair was better, but I dont remember her mentioning anything about the hair before. Most probably the hair was falling out. PAGE 41 She noticed that her hair got better during treatment. Only before menses did she have tachycardia and sleeplessness. She is not sighing any more. She doesnt say anything about the darkness but she has lost her fear of robbers. So she has this picture. What is your prescription? Essentially she has nothing. She just asked me if she could pay some visits, but the only complaint she really had was that the nails were brittle. Question: Did she know that dental work would interrupt her remedy? George: No. Question: What about her energy level? George: Everything was much better. The very fact that she did not even come for a second consultation indicated this, until she had had a relapse. Question: What about the dental work? What is your position on that? George: Dental work can antidote the homoeopathic treatment. Most of the time this is when they give an injection to anaesthetize the tooth, as well as the disinfectant which they use which comes from clove oil. Question: The drilling is not the factor then? George: Not the drilling. The drilling does not. If they drill and they fill it, that is okay. There is no problem. But the injections and the putting on of that oil of cloves is a problem. They use it a lot of the time in Greece. And I have seen relapses. One has to be very careful. Also with the treatment of the gums - gingivitis - you may have a relapse. Question: Peggy asked Whitmont about whether he had seen antidoting by dental work and he said that he always gave Arn. to his patients and then he did not antidote. This was given to counteract the shock to the system. PAGE 42 George: I dont believe in that and I dont see any logic behind it. There are many ideas. Give Arn. before going to the dentist; give Gels. before going; give this, do that; give Chin. They have devised different ideas and they give these, but I do not believe these ideas. I believe that you should leave the patient alone. If he can withstand the treatment, that is okay. If he cannot and there is a relapse, you will have to treat him. If there is a relapse, but there is many times no relapse.
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Now there is a continuation. We have not finished the case. This lady now comes again on February 22nd of the following year, and she says that, For 20 days after grief she is not feeling well, especially in the afternoon after 5 p.m. She wakes up from an afternoon sleep. She is worse after 5 p.m. , after waking. She has a tachycardia and she feels great tiredness. She has to put a lot of effort out to accomplish even the least amount of work. When she says that she has much anxiety or she is irritable, she has a kind of itching on the right leg. Again she is impatient and she has anxiety. She is excitable continuously. Again her sleep is not good and it does not refresh her. She has headaches in the occiput and temples, especially after 11 a.m. and it is better with pressure (underlined once). She again has leucorrhoea which is offensive, worse before and after menses. The last menses came 5 days earlier, with pain in the uterus described as stitching pain. The whole menses came with great tiredness (underlined thrice) Generally over the last 15 days she has been feeling weak and dull as if she was losing herself. This is worse in the morning in her office. There was bloating of the abdomen and rumbling (underlined once) and nausea, especially between 6 and 7 p.m. There is a pain in the abdomen with pressure and this is worse with sweets. She had a sedimentation rate which was 50 the first hour. The hair again had become oily and the nails were brittle, but she feels the cold now, (underlined once). She desires sweets (underlined twice), fruits (once), aversion to fat (twice), and aversion to milk (once). Lately she had had a dry mouth and considerable thirst. There was constipation without urgency. The claustrophobia was again present, but was much less. She had a tired back. The feet smelled offensive from sweat with a putrid quality (underlined once). There was pain in the right shoulder joint. The doctor had suggested Sel. Question: Was she extroverted? George: It does not indicate one way or the other. The underlining with tiredness is three times, with rumbling (once), vertigo (once), dullness. Headache is underlined once, worse with cold (once). The underlining is much less, because generally the suffering is much less than before. Does anyone have the complementary substance? PAGE 43 Answer: Merc., Puls., Sep., Spig., Spong., Sil. Response: I would wait a month. George: The pain seems to be quite bad in the right shoulder. The sedimentation rate is quite high and I do not know why? 50 in the first hour. That is strange. The tiredness is very great (underlined 3 times). There is no psychological state of Arg-n. anymore. We do not have anymore the psychological state of the Arg-n. essence. She is feeling the cold. Remember this is a hot person, bothered by the heat. You see the changes are quite strong. the symptomatology went away from the mental/emotional state. Where is this now? She is complaining about the back, the shoulder joint and physical weakness as well as the headache. She said that 20 days ago she had had a great grief. Since then she had not felt well. There was a kind of lowering of the health generally and then the appearance of different symptomatology, the most prominent of which is the great physical weakness, headaches, shoulder joint and low back pain, feeling the cold, and she says that she feels an excitement inside, which is constant. In this case it is interesting to note that if you get a case so far apart, after 8 months, you will not usually get the time
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of aggravation because she has forgotten it. She may not remember that she had the aggravation and on which date. It is not mentioned here for that reason I believe. Question: Her general condition is worse at 5 oclock? George: The rumbling? She wakes up early in the afternoon at 5 and feels better, but the rumbling is between 6 and 7. The information states that she is still open and this is underlined. It seems to be with her husband because later on she will say that he almost divorced him. So by grief we do not necessarily mean that she suffered a loss, it could be vexation. Response: I would still wait. George: Why? Here her case is actually much more difficult than the first time, because the suffering is not intense and you have very little to go by. If you let her wait, she will deteriorate more and more, and then, perhaps after five months of suffering you could give the right remedy with more certainty. She needs a remedy. The constitution has changed. Arg-n. is finished and now she needs another remedy which will have to be found sometime. If you dont give her that remedy now, she will come next time and ask for a remedy. Response: Unless she happens to be better without a remedy. PAGE 44 George: That is doubtful. It you cannot find the remedy, the best thing is to give a placebo. Response: I think it is better to give a placebo than to take a stab at a case and cause a relapse. George: The remedy is difficult to find, and it is acceptable to give a placebo and wait for another month. But what we see here is complaints about her nails on the second visit, which had become worse. When she came after a year, she complained about the brittle nails. We did not give a remedy at the time. Now she complains about tiredness and some arthritic symptoms, with pain in the back and in the shoulder and headaches, as well as weakness. Then we have to find a remedy which is for cold, aversion to fat (twice), desires sweets (twice). This would be a remedy which has cold feet and a weak back which is an arthritic remedy. Remember that the feet have an offensive sweat in spite of the fact that the feet are cold. Who said Calc.? Why? Response: Because of the weakness before menses, the coldness, the sweet craving, weak back, feet cold with offensive sweating. Question: It states that the symptoms are worse at 5 oclock in the evening when she wakes. Is that a time aggravation or worse after afternoon sleep? George: There is constipation and thirst is more. Question: She said that she had pain with menses. Was this heavier? George: No, she said it came five days earlier with stitching pains in the uterus. The remedy is Calc.? Question: If she had not had the aversion to fat and the craving for sweets, would you have gone to Sil.? George: In order to give Sil. in that case, I would want the aggravation from cold to be much more severe. Sil. is very cold, especially with drafts. I see the weakness in the back, the arthritic condition. I see the cold feet and the perspiring feet in spite of being cold. The desire for sweets has remained underlined twice. It has gone down, but it has remained strong. Then there is the irritability and the
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excitement. This syndrome would indicate Calc. It is fairly clear to me, but I understand that it is not clear to you. Question: What is against Calc.? George: Not much. Why do we prescribe Calc.? Because we take all the things and we put them together. Nothing is against Calc. and the whole picture, as you put it together, is Calc., especially the weakness. This is very important - the weak back. She is not strong enough to stand; that is a weak back. That is Calc. They feel the weakness when they stand. PAGE 45 Question: Is that similar to the weak back of Sil.? George: No. Sil. does not have that weakness. Sulph. is worse on standing, but there is no weakness, especially in the back. We are taking the arthritic tendency which the patient has which most probably is connected with the calcium picture, cold feet, perspiring feet, all these, and this put together creates the picture of Calc. The best remedy that covers the symptomatology is Calc. Question: This is another good example of the difference between the essence and the data. You can make a case on data from the others, but the tiredness is so prominent, and that is the essence of Calc. George: She stayed well. She was given 200. After eight months she again had a great grief which almost ended in divorce. During this fighting with her husband, she took Valium and drank coffee. Now again she had a heavy feeling in the chest, tachycardia, inner anxiety, irritability, water as before, tiredness (underlined once), but not as much as before. There was some falling out of the hair and the desire for sweets was now underlined once. She developed a desire for yoghurt (not underlined). The thirst had become prominent (underlined once). She had anxiety (underlined twice). She again had constipation. Sleep does not relieve her symptoms. It does not say whether she is warm or cold. The grief has been since one month. Question: Was it over now? Was this resolved? Or was she still in the middle of it? George: She says, I reached a point where I almost divorced my husband. What is your remedy? Response: Ign. George: Here we made a mistake. Here Ign. should have been prescribed because you dont have an underlying constitutional condition now. You have a grief, heaviness of the chest and tiredness. If you give a remedy it must be Ign. But since she had done so well on the Calc., the doctor repeated this. And what happens? She comes back after a month and says, There is no change. The tachycardia is there, along with anxiety, heaviness in the chest. Of course the problems are not resolved yet. I am still under stress. She was sighing (underlined twice). She had been through and still was in grief. She had rumbling and nausea. She had tiredness in the evening with continuous constipation. Thirst is normal. She had constipation and distension. Sleep does not refresh her (not underlined). What are we going to do now? Now we give Ign. You see the Calc. did nothing and by now had made the case a little worse. There are now more symptoms underlined. Ign. 1m was given. She came back later to say that she had been very well psychologically after the Ign. She had no tachycardia or anxiety, but for 15 days she had had bloating of the stomach associated with pain. This was worse on pressing or touching. There was burning of the stomach.
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The liquids are burning. Irritation was worse in the mornings between 9 and 10 and in the evenings between 5 and 7. She feels the cold (underlined twice, perhaps three times). Desires sweets (underlined twice). Again she has a drawing pain in the stomach, constipation with urging and no effect, and her stools were like sheep-dung. That was on the 23rd of January. PAGE 46 Question: How long after the Ign. was that? George: The date of the Ign. was November 22nd. This was one remedy in a small potency. You see now that the trouble has gone into the stomach. The grief that she went through - after going through the mental plane - localized in the stomach primarily. Palpitations are prominent (underlined twice). Question: Did you say her feet are cold now? George: Yes, the feet are cold. You have to differentiate between Lyc. and Nux-v. here. We have some symptoms each and we want to differentiate between the two. Which one and for what reason? Answer: It is too chilly for Lyc. I vote Nux-v. Response: I would say Nux-v. because the new symptom is the type of constipation. Lyc. follows Calc., however. George: The fact that the disease somatizes and goes into the stomach indicates both remedies. Both can be indicated in digestive disorders, predominantly a disorder of drugs. There is a reason in this case why you should not give Nux-v.- a definite reason where you should avoid this remedy. Question: The strong desire for sleep? George: NUX-V. IS INIMICAL TO IGN. WHEN WE GIVE IGN. AND IT DOES NOT WORK, WE DO NOT GIVE NUX-V. If one gives Nux-v. and it works, we should NOT follow it with Ign. Again, the time and the duration goes with Lyc. The worst cold is Lyc. This is one of the remedies that you should be careful of. If one has acted, do not give the other. Question: I did not think you believed in that set of relationships. PAGE 47 George: I said that I did some experiments. I said that after Calc. in a case I had given Sulph., because Kent 2 says: Sulph., Calc., Lyc. So I had given Calc. and then I went back and I gave Sulph. I had a relapse of the case. This is what you remember. Question: You also said that you would not hesitate to begin a case with Lyc. Clarke 3 says very strongly that he would never do that. George: I have started many cases with Lyc. - many cases. I would give 200. Some say do not give 200 because it produces a great aggravation. If you have a great aggravation that is the best. Question: You have said that if a remedy image is really clear and it seems to violate the law, you would rather give the remedy than follow the law. George: Yes, that is true. Question: Does it make any difference if there is a longer time-span between those twolike a year instead of two months? George: Yes. I would think that that made a difference. I would hesitate very much unless it is absolutely clear in the case. If it is very clearly indicated I will try it. I tried it
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with Sulph. That was clear and I gave it. I spoiled the case in that instance. I had a terrible job bringing it about again. This was a cholera case where we had battled for six to nine months and the case was going nicely. You become eager to progress more and clear the case. You think now that it is Sulph. You see, I went to Calc. and it acted, now there is a remedy which you can take and be well. You take it and back you go again. Response: I gave Lyc. after Sulph. with no problem. George: You must be careful of that. They are very similar and you might spoil the case. Response: In Iriss case it went Calc.-Sulph. and it worked. Question: How much importance is placed on the fact that those remedies are complementary and Nux-v. isnt in there? George: Which remedies? Nux-v., Lyc.? Answer: Well, Nux-v. isnt in the complementary remedies. What then? George: Oh, I see. This is complementary to Arg-n. Question: And that is all past? George: This is Arg-n.s complementary. We are not talking about this phase now. This is gone. We have gone to Ign. After Calc. Ign. reacted. Then from some grief she had she developed gastritis and we gave one dose of Lyc. 30. PAGE 48 Question: Why the 30th potency in this case? George: Because the trouble is not so serious. The remedy is not absolutely clear. It is better that we go low. If this is the right remedy, it will touch it. Most of the work had been done by Arg-n. and then Calc., so this woman has really changed. She is another person altogether. She comes now with the gastritis and it is nothing in comparison to how she was before. I might even have given 12 potency because the picture is not so frightening now and she is not so sick. It is not very clear, and so we had better be careful and not spoil the case. Question: Since it was only 15 days, waiting would seem to be the proper thing. Question: Did you see it more or less as acute? George: I saw it as a continuation of the grief. The grief was quite a lot and it finally went into the stomach. I do not think she would have recovered without the remedy. If you do not give a remedy here, and she is disappointed at that stage, she may go and take drugs such as antacids with some aggravation of the constipation. Then we do not know where it is going to end. So it is better to take the Lyc. 30. Question: Why does this remind you of Nux-v.? I see Lyc. more clearly. George: I just said... Question: No, I said why would it also be Nux-v.? George: Why COULD it also be Nux-v.? That is what I was explaining. Response: I think what is being asked is that you said that it was a dilemma between Nux-v. and Lyc. Nux-v. is not so clear. George: Everybody saw Lyc., so that is okay. I could see Nux-v. in that case, because someone mentioned it and I said lets differentiate between the two. I have seen them work and that is why I took Nux-v., to differentiate. Question: I find that invariably there is an extreme milk-intolerance which causes diarrhoea and a certain type of feeling in the nose. There is extreme irritability from sudden noises. There is invariably the sensitivity to the direct sun and at the same time
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they are chilly people. Mentally and emotionally I find them to be very walled off and very much like Nat-m. except maybe more so. They are more walled off and more frightened and timid, more sensitive, tending to be all easily depressed. The description on page 42 in the Materia Medica of Kent 4 was something that I found so clear that I was able to use it. (Nat-c.) 6 Mental illness (schizophrenia) Platinum metallicum (plat.) Case George: This is a 25-year-old woman who was first seen in September 1978. She was mentally ill. There is a tremendous fear of death (underlined 3 times), fear of cancer (underlined 3 times). She says, Whatever disease I hear that somebody has, I transfer it to myself. She has a total indifference about the housework. She has a fear of the dark (underlined once), fear of being alone in the house (underlined twice), indifference to her appearance personally as well as that of the house (underlined twice), she is going into depressions frequently (underlined once). She says that she sits in a chair for long periods of time, just smoking and thinking of nothing. She says she cries with difficulty which happened after the electro-shock treatment. She stated that she had been hospitalized twice in a mental hospital. In Greece they do not give electro-shock easily. They are very reluctant to do that and they try everything else first. The patient must be in a very bad state before they will give electro-shock. She has anxiety about the health of her own people and always thinks the worst will happen (underlined twice). She has no reaction to cold or heat. She has very little perspiration. She is bothered a little by the sun. She sleeps quietly, but she takes Largotil. It is a strong tranquillizer which is used in schizophrenia in large doses. She wakes up between 3 and 5 a.m. and cannot sleep again. She sleeps on her abdomen and on her sides. She does not sleep on her back. She has cold feet in the mornings. She wakes up unrefreshed (underlined twice). She cannot go to sleep at noontime. She has no vertigo with high places. She just wants to smoke and she has no appetite for food. She desires sweets and ice cream (underlined once), meat (no underline), fruits (underlined once), [has aversion] to salt (once), and milk (twice). She had no particular thirst. She wants to go outside and that makes her feel better. Menses had been late, especially the previous month. She says that she has a lot of sexual desire. Question: Normal thirst or no thirst? George: She says no thirst. A little but less than normal. It has no value in this case. I am sorry that I took away a remedy by that remark. (Laughter) Fear of death is a big rubric. Fear of cancer is a small rubric. PAGE 51 Question: Didnt you say that she was also afraid of anything that came along? George: But especially of any cancer (underlined three times). If I hear that somebody has something, I transfer it to myself. If somebody has a colitis, she will have a colitis. If somebody has a pain in the spine, she will develop a spine-pain. You know this type of people. They are very usual today with these fears. I ask you to be warned in this case in particular, that you have to take fear of death, which is underlined very strongly, and then
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instead of taking fear of cancer, you can think of anxiety about health to give you the most possibilities. Question: Hypochondriacal? George: No, it is anxiety about health. We will explain what hypochondriacal means. That is not what it means here. We will take Bill and Dean. Bill has fear of death and Dean takes fear of cancer (anxiety about health). See what comes out. Response: I get some of Acon., Phos., Grat., Ign., Alum., Ars., Bry., Calad., Calc-s Calcar., Cal-c., Calc-p., Lyc., Lycop., Mag-m., Nat-c., Nat-p., Nit-ac., Nux-v., Puls., Sep., Sil., Sulph. Question: Why did you do that? I dont understand. George: We eliminated, by taking fear of death, which is underlined three times, and anxiety about health, which is also very strong. We have taken two rubrics and we see that these remedies are important. Response: We drew the inference that the anxiety about health is there because of everything else? George: No, it is fear of cancer. She also feels that everything she hears that somebody has, she has too. There is GREAT anxiety! With fear of death, there are definitely those two symptoms that you have to start with. From here we have to continue working to decide. Fear of being alone. If we take fear of being alone. Is Acon. there? Response: No Ars., Bry., Calc. (plain type). George: Clac-s.? Ign.? Response: Calc. ar., Calc-c. (in capitals). Calc-p. (italics). Lycop.? No. Lyc. (capitals). George: Mag-m.? No. Mag-c.? No. Nat-c.? No. Nux-v.? Ordinary. Phos.? Three. Puls.? Two. Staph.? No. Sulph.? No. What rubric do you want next? Question: Anxiety about others. PAGE 52 George: It is Ars. and Phos. Response: Puls.? George: Anxiety about others? No, not Puls. Response: Nux-v.? Anxiety about others. George: Ars. and Nux-v., if you take anxiety for others. You must start thinking now. Give me ideas. Question: This is just something that I remembered from last year. She sits in a chair for a long time and does nothing. I remember that in the end-stage of Puls. They do that. George: That is all your remember? Question: That is something that would belong to the end-stage of any remedy? George: Oh no, not in the way that they get if you leave them to grow to be 105 years old - they will be like that. We are not talking about that. She is 25 years old and we are talking about pathological states. Six months ago she was all right. Now she sits and she looks all day long. What I told you about Puls. is much stronger than in this case. If you remember my description of Pulsatillas end state, there is MUCH MORE. She does not speak at all. This woman communicates. She has fears and anxieties inside and outside the house. This is a person who is functioning. I did not underline that symptom.
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Question: You mentioned it twice in the case. I want to sit in the chair and smoke and think of nothing. George: The second time I mentioned was that she had no appetite and only smoked. Response: She seems to have a lot of indifference about things - indifference to housework and appearance. There is a lot of Sepia in that. Also, I get the impression that when she says she just wants to sit in a chair and smoke and think of nothing, with suggestability, etc. George: Stamina is very low. That is what it means here. Her morale is very low. She has tremendous anxiety. Death is coming. Oh, I am going to get cancer. It is a state that you have to imagine a little bit. It is not laziness. She says, I am not interested in putting make up on or putting lipstick on, or going out. I am not interested in making work in the house. I cannot work in the house. Question: What was she hospitalised for? George: Mental disorder. We do not know the symptomatology, most probably something similar to what is happening here. PAGE 53 Question: Did you see the rubric aversion to thinking, or is that not proper in this case? George: Use it, and from now on you may give me your suggestions of what you would prescribe. Response: One strong point stands out, and that is that she cannot do anything, and she sits and does not want to think, but her sex-drive is still very high. It is unusual. It seems like a different placement of energy. George: It was very high. It was underlined three times. Whether we do it by expression or by underlining, it is the same thing. Question: Is she taking this Largotil only to sleep? George: Only to sleep at bedtime. Response: I think it is important that she wakes at either 3 or 5 a.m. George: And if she wakes she cannot go back to sleep again. There is a trick in the case. You are not going to come up with the right remedy. I am putting in this case in order to show you that unless you go a little deeper you will not get the remedy. If I let you...Okay, give your remedy. Response: Sulph., Puls., Phos. I told you that I eliminated Phos. from the beginning. George: Ars.? You see, you are bound to give and I would be bound to give all of these remedies. I would give this because of the high sexual desire. In spite of the fact that she does not have thirst I would give Phos. This anxiety about others and that she thinks she has everything she hears others have physically, is Ferr-p. She says, Oh, I have high sexual desire, and here the husband jumps into the picture and says, Oh my God, she was like an earthquake, indicating how vibrant she was. Further information is that with the psychiatric treatment she had gone into a state of indifference, but now she is feeling well and she is very easily aroused sexually (underlined many times). Then when we came to the sexual discussion, the lady told the whole story. The whole story is that after her marriage she had been involved in a lesbian relationship with a young woman. There had been a lot of involvement, and it was after that involvement was finished that she had been hospitalised. This is Plat., in spite of the fact that Plat. does not appear in anxiety about health, which is so strong here. Don went straight into the heart of the matter and said,
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How does that woman who has so much anxiety, have so much sexual desire? This is a kind of thinking that we should follow. We keep asking why! WHY? We start investigating everything. She sits and smokes. She does not want to do anything. But sex is another matter. Here is the trigger, and Dons mind was working correctly this afternoon. When she gives the extent of the sexual involvement with the husband, and he explains how easily the woman is aroused, we see the perversion in the sex in which she was indulging, so much so that it took her into the mental hospital, then that is the essence of Plat. PAGE 54 Question: From reading your article about Plat. in the journal, it talks about this romantic person who has all these ideals. George: There are two types: One is romantic. The other - it is not written in the paper is the earthy type. The earthy type goes into nymphomania. The romantic type goes into grandiose thoughts and the ego blows up in the same proportion that the sex urge is controlled. If the sex urge is controlled, the ego blows up. When the sex is left in free expression, then we do not have the grandiose ideas of Plat. Forty days after the first interview she says that she has no fear at all anymore, and there is amelioration. The indifference towards the house has gone. The energy is good. She only has a heavy feeling in the head which bothers her fairly constantly. Now she looks after the house and the child. She wakes up only at 5 oclock in the morning, but then she sleeps again until 8 oclock. She wakes up feeling refreshed and with a feeling of joy. She looks after herself now. She smokes the same. Her appetite is the same, which is no good. Her thirst is normal where previously perhaps it had been less than normal. The menses came at the appropriate time and lasted for four days. Sex, she said, at first was normal, and then she admitted that it was a bit more than normal. This was down from what it was before. There was no leucorrhoea, blood pressure was normal, and there was no reaction to weather - hot or cold. What is your prescription? Response: Wait. George: Good. Response: Placebo. George: Now she was given placebo for 30 days, and she returned after 40 days. She said, Generally I feel worse. I do my job in my house. I have joy and no fears at all. I have a kind of slowness in reaction in cases where I have to give an immediate resolution-decision. She likes to be alone in the kitchen, to turn on the radio and listen, and smoke. She does not like company. She has a kind of dullness in the head, especially in the afternoon. She sleeps well. She wakes up at 6 a.m. now and gets up at that time. She has nervous motions of the lips. She is now having almost an indifference as regards sex. She says, Oh, now I am mature. And I asked, What do you mean? I am not so much interested. This is the expression she uses to describe her sexual desire. IN HYPERSEXUALITY, AFTER TREATMENT, THEY ALWAYS DIMINISH FOR A PERIOD OF SIX MONTHS. DO NOT TRY TO GIVE A REMEDY HERE TO MAKE THEIR SEXUAL DESIRE HIGH! The whole case is going so well, and it is going to come to normal. So from up high, it goes down to here. This is almost invariable. This energy that was used on the sexual level is now used to bring about the cure, to bring the reaction. We have seen that during that time of recuperation, we have a low sexual desire. PAGE 55
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Question: Is this true for low sexual people like Nat-m.? Do they come up to another level? George: They do not come up, no. I have not seen it. I have seen it become normal, but not increased. Now she says that she is feeling the heat and the cold a little more. (There is no underlining of any of this so far). She says now that she does not have the flushes that she used to have. She had not mentioned the flushes before, but now that they are gone she remembers that she does not have them since the remedy. The appetite has become good. She still desires sweets (underlined twice) and wine. So the changes are that she is becoming a little bit warm, has no more flushes, there is still the desire for sweets and for wine (underlined once). She has an aversion to salt (underlined once), aversion to fat and milk (underlined twice). Thirst is again normal. She has no depressions at all. The only thing she has a dry cough, most probably from the cigarettes. Again she says, I have not been able to react immediately to a situation which is challenging me. This is the last time we saw her, in November 1978. She has remained well to date. But I would like you to tell me whether she will need another remedy and what this remedy might be in the future. You have had a few hints here for the next remedy. I would like someone to tell me. She is doing fine. This is 1978 - that is more than two years now. Will she need another remedy? Why? What is it? Response: Possibly Puls. She is becoming more interested in the family and she is becoming more warm blooded. She has a fat, milk and salt aversion, which are all Puls. Response: Sep. George: You are getting warm. This is the direction now that the symptomatology takes. She is becoming more warm and she desires wine. These are two additions. Response: And she likes to be alone in her kitchen, smoking and listening to the radio. She likes to relax and go in her mind. I would be giving the remedy because of the slowness of the mind - the slowness to react. According to my understanding, for that woman to stay well, she has to have deeper treatment. PAGE 56 Response: Sulph. George: Sulph.! Sulph. I think would be the next remedy because of the heat and the wine. These little things give you an idea that she is going towards stimulants. Also Sulph. is very slow. And she wakes up early in the morning. Do not forget that this is a symptom that continues. 5 oclock and then for the past month 6 oclock, but early in the morning. In the summer time 6 oclock is 5 oclock sun time. So if you do not get this last information, you are bound to make a mistake. If that case was given me to prescribe for in ten minutes. I would prescribe Phos. If the husband had not voluntarily given the information.... Question: Who told about the lesbianism, the patient or the husband? George: She gave the information. In the beginning she said, I dont know why I have these symptoms. Then she said that she did not want to tell. But at the end of the interview, she gave this information that she was involved in a lesbian situation. She went to the hospital because of that. Question: What is the point? There was not enough to support a person going to the hospital twice and getting this very unusual treatment.
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George: I dont know. She was involved not only in sex. Question: No, I mean before you gave us that information there was not enough here in the symptomatology to support her having been hospitalized twice. It is logical that you would ask why. George: Yes, but also the information she has given is not the real situation she is in. She must have been in a terrible condition. The condition of Plat. psychologically is that once they go it is like hell. When they go out of that condition they can say a few things like fear of death and anxiety, but it is a real hell. It is a terrible situation inside in which, once they come up, there is so much. Question: What would she have been like when she went to the hospital. She was depressed, wasnt she? George: Yes. She was dull and had depression. I believe that she went to the hospital with the same symptomatology as Plat. maybe a little stronger. She most probably went out of her mind at that moment and we can conjecture that she may have had grandiose ideas. She was completely out of touch with reality. Response: It may not have been that at all. It might have been just that the husband was so outraged that she had a lesbian relationship, that he took her to the hospital and the doctors were outraged too. I used to work in a Catholic hospital and we got all of the nuns and the priests that came in because of homosexual relationships with each other. PAGE 57 What they did there was to give electro-shock treatments to them, in the hope that that would get it out of their brains. George: I do not think this would happen in Greece. Question: I have trouble in understanding how a lesbian relationship would cause such mental disease. George: We do not have the facts of what actually happened here; therefore we may only conjecture. What we are interested in is the sexual involvement in that case. How much? What part sex plays in that case in order to find out the remedy. This is one way to evaluate the information that is given. Now we can conjecture how this can happen by saying that the woman was having certain different relationships and in one of these relationships she was very much attached to the other person. And the other person told her that she did not want more involvement. Then the violence, which is tremendous in Plat., and the rejection from the other person brought out a complete schizophrenic condition. In Greece, in order to hospitalize a person we need two doctors to certify that the person needs hospitalization, plus the approval of the General Secretary of the judges - Attorney General. Question: They usually give the shock for depression. That is where the most response comes from and so you can surmise that. George: It says here that she entered the psychiatric facility two times. Question: So it means that her symptoms were acting through the Thorazine she was taking at night? George: No, she stopped that immediately and took the homoeopathic remedy. In such a case you can stop the medication at once. It would be best if she stopped a few days before. Question: Are you saying in this case that Phos. also has a strong sexual desire?
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George: Yes. Phos. is not that strong and the supporting symptoms are not that strong. She sleeps on both sides. There is no thirst. While she is having so many fears, with fear of thunderstorms which she had not related in the past, she had been constitutionally a Phos. case. All these faults must go through the mind in order to evaluate the case. I did a trick and did not give you all the information. If I had done that, half of you would have said Plat. PAGE 58 7 Weakness in the legs (and impotence) [ - Weakness in the legs (and impotence)] Gelsemium sempervirens (gels.) Case George: The response is overwhelming for Caust. Other responses: Nux-v., Alum., Con., Ph-ac. George: What is the main complaint of this case. Response: Weakness in the legs. His legs cannot carry him. He had vertigo for four years. George: Who wants to do the analysis? Caust. might be the remedy and be correct, but it is not the remedy I have given. I will tell you the results later. I see it in retrospect. When the doctor asked him about the address where he was staying, he could not remember it. He said, My mind is not working at the moment. He had sexual problems for eight years, which started with a feeling of weakness and waning of sexual excitement. Lately he had not had any good erections. Before that he had sexual intercourse two to three times a week. Now two months can pass without sexual intercourse and he will not have a complete erection. He had some desire for sex. When I have an erection and try to make love, things seem not to be working. It is very interesting that you thought of Caust. By reading that case, have I given Caust.? No. What impression do you get of this man? Is he a vital man or not? Response: No, he is very dull. George: VERY dull. His mind does not work. His legs give in. He is limp. Question: He does say that he can work continuously and stand for as long as 24 hours. It sounds to me like he is more physical and it is mostly in his mind. His body can work. George: He complains of weakness of the legs. The main complaints are numbness and weakness in the legs and the sexual deficiency. He has the reaction that something is going to happen. He has sympathy for others. He has no fears. He is persistent in whatever he wants to do. He loved the sea and lately he does not even want to see it. This would take you away from Med. Response: A lot of this could be aggravated by the sea. PAGE 59 George: But here it says, I like the sea. I used to like the sea and now I dont like it. He has no interest in the sea now. It doesnt say that it makes him feel worse. On the report when he came back it said that the vertigo was worse. Now there is no vertigo at all. The feet are quite strong. I feel my strength is sound. Question: How is his mind? George: He had an aggravation of the vertigo. Then that disappeared completely. He has a kind of amelioration with sex. He was psychologically perfect (he underlined that). He
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said that even his snoring had gone and he would wake up more refreshed. The remedy is right. Question: How did you get it? George: As I told you, I had to prescribe within ten minutes. I read the case one more time and I said most probably... The second interview gives the answer, not the first. The second was December 12, 1977. The third interview was in February 1978. This is a picture of Gels. You are right when you write Caust. May be Caust. would have acted better on this case. Why I say that you will see in the case as we go along. This is a description of Gels. as I read it. Get the idea of the weakness, especially of the legs, and vertigo. I have not given you Gels. and we shall touch on it. We can say a few things now. [Turn to Part 2 5: Gelsemium.] So we continue with the case. I gave him 10m of Gels. For the first two days he had an aggravation of his vertigo, but after his second visit he told me that they did not exist at all. He stated that the legs were much better and that they felt stronger. The heaviness in the head had gone and he did not forget so much now. There was an amelioration with sex. He had had sex and it was more satisfactory. Here the doctor writes that this is confirmed by the wife. The appetite became increased and the thirst had increased. He slept normally and would wake up refreshed. His snoring had gone. What is the remedy? Response: Wait, of course. Question: May I ask a question at this point? It seems in this case that you have the major symptoms which are underlined, the strongest, most clearly indicated pathological states with sympathy, impatience, irritability, but you virtually indicate that you have ignored this in the case as far as why you gave Gels. Also you added that the guy was persistent in everything that he would do and that he could work standing up continuously for 24 hours. Now, with those two things.... PAGE 60 George: It is difficult, I know. Question: So it seems like in this case you are prescribing on the data that this guy has weak legs. George: Here I prescribe on the essence and now on the data because here the data is very sympathetic (underlined). The doctor had told me that this person was very sympathetic because that is what the person had told him. I see the case and I see that this symptom is very prominent and I go to the repertory and I look. I dont like any of these symptoms. I will ignore that very prominent symptom because of many reasons. First of all, what does sympathetic mean? It is a symptom and when it is a symptom, is there real pathology here? You see it is something which is easily said by someone. It is not a symptom on which you can rely. You have to be shrewd about analyzing a case that somebody else has taken. You see I work with 20 doctors and I know the character of every doctor, what kind of a case he takes, how much he can be led to believe what he is told, how much another goes inside to confirm what he finds. This particular one is a man, who is rather young in homoeopathy - one year. He takes a case almost as it is given by the patient. So I do not suppose that he has examined to really find out if this is pathology. Sympathy is pathology? You may have a person who has expressed concern about others in a certain way and it was underlined by the doctor. Of course you say, Why do you give us this case? I could give you the case without analyzing it or
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underlining it. I could conjecture that if I do not give you the underlining I would be more correct than the doctor, but I want to give you the exact facts. You see the fact is that some doctor takes the case, gives it to me in this way and I give it to you in that way, and how I have to think. I present to you my way of thinking in these cases, which you do not have to go by in your own cases. You take a case and you will know whether it is a symptom or not. You will not be faced with such problems as I give you. But if I give you the worst, you will look and see that it is easy when you see it. Sympathetic can be pathology if I underline it, but in this case I did not treat it as a Caust. case. Caust. is really a secondbest choice, perhaps a first. Still I am not sure and you will see why I say that in the beginning. For me, I have to go a way that is a little bit different from yours. It comes very much with what is the whole impression that I get from a case. For me it is something that I understand in a particular way so that it cannot mislead me all the time. Response: That is very helpful. Question: Given that you read this whole thing first and got this impression of this person with the weak legs, diminished sexual ability, and so forth, how did you take into account this last sentence, I am restless. I work continuously 24 hours a day, How did you relate that? PAGE 61 George: It was a symptom that would not tally very much, but if the person could work before he was sick for 48 hours, and now he can work 24 hours, it is a different thing. So even if he said, I can work, it is the way he says it. What he actually does is to relate what he remembers of himself for me. He relates what he remembers what he was and not what he is. Question: So is he having trouble with being weak and sick instead of being a macho sort of person? George: I dont know. He says here that, My legs are better and I feel the strength which has come back. Now how do you explain the fact that he starts to complain of weakness from ... you see there is an expression here in the beginning that the legs will not go. You see when one is very tired, VERY TIRED, we have an expression of My legs do not go. And he uses exactly that expression. How can you relate that information which he gives in the beginning with what he says in the end. I am restless and I can work 24 hours. Most probably what he says is what he was doing before. I am a person who can work for 24 hours. This is not now, but in his usual state. Question: But he has been this way for seven years. George: Well, I give you the exact facts as they were given to me by the doctor. It does not change anything. Now if he comes to the doctor because his legs are weak and he says, I feel as if my legs are foreign. That means that they dont belong to him. After two to three minutes rest he is able to get up again. But first they are so weak that he has to sit down. This is the information which he gives in the beginning and in the end he says that he can work all the time. Now this is a man who can work for 24 hours and he comes to be cured of weak legs? The weak legs are there. The weakness in general is there. The sexual weakness is there. What he is saying is that, I am a person who could have been working for 24 hours. And the doctor writes what he said word by word. This is actually the very beginning of this doctors career in the center. He must have taken the case for two months. Did I resolve your question?
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Question: In terms of the way he described his impotency, I feel like he is paralyzed with fright about not being able to perform and that his mind goes blank as a result of fear for that situation. George: That goes exactly with Gels. He comes after 50 days and says that, In general I am better. Psychologically I am better. This month I was feeling the pain and the burning of the legs and calves, and the ankles. The month I was feeling the pain and the burning of the hands also. I have had no vertigo. The more days that go by I find again my joy. My mind works better. In sex I am one stage better than what I was before. This month I have had nightly emissions twice with dreams. Two or three times I had good erections. Two or three times it was moderate. If I have sex, it is only so so. If I have sex in the night, in the morning I wake up refreshed and in good spirits. Before my brain did not help me. Now two or three times my brain was taking part in the sexual performance. It happens sometimes that I dont think of sex at all yet I have an erection. Before I did not feel the sexual organ; now I feel that they are not in place. He must be a very basic man according to some of his remarks. He says, Before I used to be hungry, but I did not know what I wanted to eat. Now I eat with appetite. His appetite has become normal now. He generally desires sweets (underlined twice), desires lemon (underlined twice), desires spinach (twice). There was an aversion to artichokes. He said that he ate an artichoke, but not with great joy. Thirst is normal. Sleep is normal. Lately I sleep on the right side, he says. What is your prescription? He comes again after another month. He is coming back because he is not feeling tops, sexually. When he fixes himself, he will not come back. (Laughter) So he comes again after a month and he says that he is much better psychologically. He says, 20 years ago I had haemorrhoids. Now with the second dose, two months after the first remedy, these became painful and I had so much pain with haemorrhoids that I was biting myself. The pain was as if there was pus and throbbing. That was a crisis that lasted for a week and then went away. He had very little actual haemorrhoids during that crisis. At the time of this examination, he had no problems. This is a confirmation that the remedy was right. There was a return of old symptoms. PAGE 62 Question: Isnt it unusual that these symptoms came so late? George: Two months later. Response: That is extraordinary, after twenty years and then two months after the remedy. George: After two months it is a return of the symptoms of 20 years ago. The range can be six months later, twenty years later. A reaction which was originally in babyhood could come up. Still you do not see the end. You will see why. After a few days, I felt some tiredness in my legs and I felt heaviness in them. This happened 3-4 times within a month. 2-3 times I had a slight vertigo. PAGE 63 Sex is the problem now and he says, Something is moving as if something is going to be alive. He feels as if sex is coming alive. This is definitely better, but he still has complaints about it. Erections are better. He says, Now my brain takes some part in the sexual act. The sperm is of a better quality. He said, I have no night emissions. And he says, I have erections during the night. I eat well. He has a desire for honey (underlined
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once), thirst is normal, and he sleeps well and on the right side. The prescription is again to wait. Question: Wait means that you give a prescription for a placebo? Not one of the low potency tissue salts? We give a low potency tissue salt for many reasons. The patient must think that he is taking something. It is five months now since he first came. Can I tell him that I gave him a good remedy five months ago and now he is going to get well? He is a basic man. He feels he has a big problem and he feels he must take something. He will not stay for treatment if I do not give him something. George: This is April 1978. At the end of May, 1978 he says, Generally I am better. When I have sex... This is six months after the original interview. Question: How much after the last interview? George: A month. He comes regularly after a month. He says, I have many erections during the night. He remembers when he was 10 years old that he had the same thing. He says, But when I start having sex and I have a normal erection, as soon as I start the sexual act the erection does not last. It is as if my brain does not help me. This is a motif which is repeating itself. He says, My brain does not help me. I do the sexual act with effort and this makes me a bit shaky psychologically. I have had two nightly emissions this month. I wanted to have sex with my wife, but I could not. During the night then I had emissions. One night I thought about the whole situation and I felt very badly. I felt pity for myself, so much so that I cried. He continues talking about sex. Psychologically I am well but I do not have a normal sex life. He has erections when he wants to make love, but, the moment that I start the sexual act, the erection does not last. He comes next in September 1978. Question: Would you call this stalled at this point? George: He says more or less the same things in September. He comes in October and...(in September he was given a placebo)...again he complains about sex. I decided to give him one dose of what? Response: Gels.? PAGE 64 George: No, Staph. 200, one dose. He came just once in December of 1978 and did not return. Question: Why did you use that? For the continued frustration with the sexual act? George: By looking at the case Remember I told you Caust. might have been a better prescription because Caust. and Staph. are complementary. So when I saw finally that Staph. has helped him, for a moment I thought maybe Caust. was indicated, but Gels. was definitely right as we saw that it helped him a lot generally. He said, My legs are well, I am psychologically better, and all that. It was this particular area which needed a complementary remedy, which should be the remedy? My brain does not take part in the act of sex. You see there is this impotency in this 49years-old man and this started at age 42. It has been going on for seven years. Finally he comes back and he told me that he was well. We never saw him again. You say why is he coming? My legs are better and psychologically I am better, but there is this particular area where he feels he is not right. Question: So you figured that there was a Staphisagria layer? George: Yes.
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Question: And that was a childhood layer? George: Yes. Question: On what ground did you prescribe Staph.? George: We will discuss this tomorrow. (See Part III. Discussions: 2. Impotency). PAGE 65 8 Fear of death during labour [ - Fear of death during labour] Aconitum napellus (acon.) Case George: How would you approach this case? Question: I could not determine if it was the labour or the father-in-laws condition. Did he die of cancer or develop it? Comments: The last two lines of the page were cut off on the xerox. But what I remember is that she heard news that her father-in-law had cancer. So all she heard was that he had a cancer, not that he had died of it. George: A year ago my father-in-law became ill with cancer and when I heard about it I became hysterical and started shouting hysterically. That was one year ago. Now how do you tackle a case like this? What do you look for? Comment: One thing that was really striking for me was her saying that she wanted to do one thing and she would do something else. Comment: We might look for causation or state of progression here. George: She has a lot of symptoms. Did anybody do a full repertorization? Did you see which remedies would cover most of the case? Response: It seems that there is a hysterical element in the over-all symptoms. As a result of that I began to think of the many remedies which have hysterical elements in them-like Nat-m., Ign. and things like that. I must say that when I found out that she was very warm-blooded. I pretty much restricted my search to remedies which were very hot. That included something like Mosch., which is a very cold remedy. I kept in Nat-m. and Ign. Ign. is not a hot remedy but it actually does qualify in the repertory. It is warm. George: You see the heat is quite strong. It says that she does not tolerate the heat psychologically. Response: There seemed to me to be a number of ... whether she is actually hysterical or not, it is hard to know without hearing her talk, but the language seemed somewhat contradictory. I am sympathetic and yet I want to be alone. I like people but I dont want my relatives around. These were the contradictory elements that came through. PAGE 66 Second Response: I got a sense of who is this person and what sort of image does she present. For her, I get a person who is overwhelmingly, incredibly sympathetic. Maybe it is not a true sympathy, maybe it is over-reactiveness to other peoples problems, and an inability to control her emotions. She seemed very bothered by that. She would like to shut herself off from other people. George: From the case I have given you, very sympathetic is underlined thrice. You will see in almost 90% of these cases that this is underlined quite soundly. You always have to take a symptom in conjunction with the whole person and what is said. She says she
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does not want to see the relatives or hear about their problems. What kind of sympathy is that? Response: That is pretty contradictory. But she says she gives a lot of attention to the problems of others. George: She calls herself sympathetic. Response: I think she over-reacts to their problems. Response: I feel that when she gets too involved in the relatives problems it is so painful for her that she finally didnt want them around. Response: She reacts more hysterically when she hears other peoples problems. She cant control it. She over-reacts. I dont think that she is sympathetic at all. George: She is in a state of mind which is not balanced. As you tackle a case there is always a rule by which you should go. FIND IN THE CASE THAT WHICH IS PECULIAR TO THE CASE. Find that which is different - the idiosyncrasy of the person. Par. 153 of Hahnemann (Organon). We always have to look at the totality of the situation. In Par. 153 he says, In order to cure a case, you have to find that which is peculiar. It is the crux of the matter. What do we always try to do in a case? We try to find the most peculiarities and use those as a diagnostic tool. This is keynote prescribing. One could say that Hahnemann was suggesting keynote prescribing in par. 153. He is not. You have to tally this information with the remainder of the case to see whether it fits. Hahnemann says, In this search for a homoeopathic specific remedy - that is to say in this comparison of the collective symptoms of the natural disease with the list of symptoms of known medicines, in order to find the morbific agent corresponding to the similarities of the disease, you must determine the MOST STRIKING SYMPTOM - the most uncommon and peculiar characteristic signs and symptoms of the case of disease. These are most chiefly and solidly to be kept in view. The Materia Medica gives that which is peculiar to the cases. That is why we do not describe the same symptomatology for every remedy. You will see another picture and another picture and yet another. But if you read a Materia Medica, especially those Materia Medicas which are arranged Mind, body, etc., if you read those you will not find stressed that which is peculiar for the remedy. That is why you are confused. We are always looking for that which is peculiar. If we could define that in one word, we would say personality. If you could define an entire personality with one word, that would be okay. But if you give a description for this and you say blonde, stalky... You do not describe what everybody has. So in the tackling of the case, we search and search for exactly that word which characterizes the person and which is most peculiar. Now in order to find that which is characteristic, we have to know it from the Materia Medica. Otherwise we will take as characteristic something which may perhaps be common. PAGE 67 So in order to tackle this case which has a lot of symptoms, you start to read the case and you see that there is sighing, and consolation aggravates. You took it as an element of hysteria because she calls herself hysterical. She says, I act hysterically. Hysterical person will not call themselves hysterical. If they really know that they are hysterical, they are afraid to say so. So with that in mind and with the fact that...you see, the first thing we do in a case is we search for the totality of symptoms. We repertorize all the symptoms.
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Does a remedy cover the whole symptomatology? Is there any remedy which will cover all of the symptomatology? No! So the next move is to choose certain symptoms. Thus we come to a remedy which covers that which is peculiar and that which is a totality. Again there is a question... Why do you prescribe Ign.? Because of the sighs (underlined)... (this is a new doctor with about 9 months experience... I dont care). A child will give me a case and I will see everything for myself and decide whether this information which is written there is so. If you bring me a case, many times I shall be ready to point out certain discrepancies - certain symptomatologies which you have written down and if we go back and ask the patient, he will hesitate what he has said. In the course of talking, it is the way that you put the question that determines how much the patient will understand what you are asking. We have to be as sure as possible when we determine a prescription. We do not do it blindly. Response: Sighing is something that you can usually see. George: If he sees it, he will write it (the doctor), He is sighing now a lot or a little bit. Usually they will write it. In Ign., you have to see. The person will most probably be unaware that they are doing it. It is a nervous thing. When there is a little bit of stress, when a person has to talk about themselves, they will sigh and you will see it. You will see in a hurry, sensitive to noise, or anxiety about health, fear of death, fear of being alone, but what is the peculiarity now? If we have used the different methods - we took the totality, we took the symptoms and it does not come out in a satisfactory answer. We took another three or four symptoms and it does not come out. What do we look for then? We look for the most peculiar. In this case, what strikes you as the most peculiar? PAGE 68 Response: The physical symptoms of nausea which is better lying down seems to be peculiar. It is underlined three times. George: Okay, lets look at that. There are many remedies. The main symptoms for her are she says, I have a flushing on the face, and, My mind becomes dull. Response: Whenever I feel a little grief or when I want to cry, I have a constriction of the throat. Also she drinks cold water. Response: What I think is peculiar is that she is supposedly sympathetic and yet she wants to be alone. Consolation aggravates her. There seems to be quite a split there. George: Again you are taking at face value the symptomatology. You will see it in 80 percent of the cases. Question: What about, I want to do one thing, but I do something else? I think that is peculiar. George: That shows the weakness of the mind. She is split. Whenever you see sympathetic, you just assume that the patient considers himself sympathetic. That is all. If that tallies with the whole picture and it is one more complementary symptom, you can use it. That is Phos. because of fear, of thirst for cold water, because she is sympathetic. But do not take a symptom like, I like sweets... you in America you dont eat so many sweets, but in our country everybody eats sweets and I like sweets means nothing. It is a common thing. But if you see an aversion to sweets in my country, it is important and interesting. There are very few people who will say, I am hard and I dont care. Can you find someone who will say, I am unsympathetic unless it is Ph-ac. or Mur-ac. or a Pic-ac. state where they say, I want to be sympathetic but I cannot be.
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Question: Dreaming of falling from a high place is an unusual symptom? PAGE 69 George: Yes. This is something you can use. Falling from a high place is Bell. and Thuj. Question: It seems to be peculiar to me that there is a woman who is going to have a baby and yet she is really worried about dying. She is afraid of dying and yet she is worried about her child because she is going to die. She has gone through the pregnancy and should be in good shape and yet she is terrified. George: Read now what the woman says. I was continuously thinking what should be done since I was convinced that I was going to die. Never mind what you are doing doctor, I am going to die. Which is the remedy? Response: Acon. George: No, it is not Acon. Kent gives what? Acon. and Agn. Which of the two will you prepare and for what reason? That is peculiarity. Now we have another symptom upon which we can rely. It is definite. Aggravation by heat. And then the flushing of the face. Response: She believes that she is going to die and she cant be helped. Response: Where is that? What rubric? P. 17 - presentiment of death. Fear of pregnancy and fear of death during labour. That is under fear of death. George: Fear of death during pregnancy. Fear, predicts the time of dying. The idea of Acon. is there. What would contradict Acon.? Does Acon. have hysteria? The fears of death, fear of being alone, Acon. is there. Response: It doesnt say WHEN she was going to die. If that was years ago, are you going to give Acon. now? George: Yes. You are having a condition which is a continuation. In 1973 she had a labour and then she had another labour. She had the same symptomatology again. Response: That is probably when she heard the news of the cancer, it was a shock which went into a fear. Response: Acon. is not under fear of being alone. Question: Acon. is a warm remedy? George: Yes. Question: Oh, you mean fever, but this isnt fever now. PAGE 70 George: It is not fever, but she gets flushes and she gets warm. The idea is there. I am really sorry that I have given you this case. The way that you have to think is important. Do not try to find it in a mechanical way. There is no mechanical way in homoeopathynone. There is just thinking, thinking and thinking all the time. What is going on? What is the most peculiar? What is this case? This case has a character. What is the feeling of that character. What is most prominent? You will see that you will have to judge on fear of death three to five remedies - which one of them is it? There is something which gives you the final touch which makes it Plat. and not Calc. There is a final touch. Here it is very strong. You didnt think of that remedy at all? Response: In and out. George: That is why in a case like that where repeatedly the woman presents an Acon. picture, because of the hormonal disturbance we do not hesitate to give Acon. 50m just because Acon. is a very good acute remedy. We prescribe for colds, the beginnings of colds and fevers. This is the idea we have about Acon. and we forget what is behind it. This is valid whether it is chronic or whatever. This is valid when the idea is there. When
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you have a Con. child, you should give Con. - never mind that I have seen Con. mostly in grown ups or for this or that reason. I shall give Con. if that is the picture even it is peculiar. Response: What you are saying reminds me of one of my earliest cases of a woman who had asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and allergies all her life who was able through therapy to remember her birth. She remembered being born drowning with fluid in the lungs. Her first memory was one of terror. I prescribed Acon. on that symptom alone and she improved. George: Yes, when there is a fright, a big emotional fright which has started a whole chronic history. FRIGHT, GREAT FRIGHT! But this is not enough. If the person tells you, I have GREAT fear of death since that time, you have to think about it twice. But if he says, I am convinced that I am going to die, you have to give it. Just on that alone. This is the character of Acon. underneath everything. There is heat and flushing. In the repertory you dont see heat. Okay, but in the Materia Medica they describe hot heat, flushed heat. Even psychologically she is suffering from heat. Question: The presentiment of death was over a year ago. She is presumably not having that now. Couldnt she have been Acon. at the same time of the delivery and now she is something totally different? PAGE 71 George: Yes, but what? Find me what. If you can find me a remedy which will satisfy me, I would say yes. Give the first and then that. But you cannot. Question: Can you tell me why you wouldnt give Apis.? George: Apis. is warm. There is no other symptomatology. Question: I thought there was obviously. May I defend myself even though I am wrong? The reason that I thought of Apis. was because of the presentiment of death. George: You see your way of thinking is too theoretical. Here we have something that is characteristic of the case. Instead of taking this theoretical attitude in the case we have the facts which we can utilize. Of course it is presented in such a way that it was a split case. The doctor was one of my first pupils. It was given to her to prescribe for and she gave up. She had some notes and she had seen Acon. Question: The thing that I had noted is no physical and only functional pathology in this case. There is not a pain or an ache or anything of physical pathology and I read that that is a characteristic of Acon. George: That is a good point. Response: There were 2 Acon. responses. George: Oh, very good! I managed to see only one. What are the results? Response: 7 for Ign. 3 Phos., 3 Arg-n., 2 Nat-m., 2 Acon., 1 Apis., 1 Med., 1 Caust. George: Med. was a god prescription. Response: Did you just completely throw out the idea of time spans for remedies? We have been trained to get a feeling for the remedy in terms of its time and depth. George: I dont believe that this case needs only Acon. Suppose she took the Acon. and she attended herself for only another three months and then said, I am okay. I believe that she may need a different remedy. I dont know what remedy. She did not come for follow up. Once the symptomatology was over she did not come back. She is 29. During a nine month period, she came in only twice. She came in one month after she had taken
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50m of Acon. She said she felt much better (underlined thrice). The flushes of heat and dullness were gone and psychologically she stated that she was very much better. PAGE 72 We can learn something about Acon. because she says, Now I am not bothered by my relatives coming to the house. You remember how much she had been bothered by this? Question: I just looked up Acon. and it says, The woman is a natural Acon. patient with her sympathetic nature and sensitiveness. George: That is not important even though we had sympathetic in the repertory. She said she no longer cried and had the constriction in her throat. She was not as irritable with her children and she said, I am not so sympathetic now. I am not bothered by events which are hurting others. She is no longer in a hurry. She sleeps well in all positions and has no nightmares or jerkings. So this is a perfect Acon. case from which we can learn and remember. She still feels the heat and it is December. She loves the rain. The nausea is better. She desires sweets (underlined once), desires fat (underlined once). Which is the chronic of Acon.? Response: Sulph. George: Yes. There are some hints here. Thirsty (underlined twice), desires peanuts (underlined twice). The menses came seven days earlier and before the menses she was somewhat irritable. Lately my husband complains that my mouth smells badly. This was the report immediately after the remedy. What was the remedy? This was after 33 days to be exact. Response: Acon. only lasts a day, so we would have to repeat it. Response: The chronic of Acon. is Acon. George: In this case, yes. So of course we prescribed a placebo at the one month visit. Then she came after 8 months from the time of the placebo...no, it was 11 months...and she says that for the previous two months she had had some flushes. Now she is not afraid of being alone and instead says, I want to be alone. When I have grief, I have constriction in the throat. I still do not cry. She said she was more irritable. Sighing (underlined once). She still does not want consolation. Anxiety about health (underlined once), anxiety about others (underlined twice). For 5-6 years, I have had mucus coming from my throat. This is the first time she mentioned this. Now I dont bother so much about the problems of others. I am not in a hurry and I sleep well. She had a slight anxiety when the other people came home. She says, I do not feel the heat anymore. After 11 months from the time she took Acon., it is the month of October which is still warm in Greece, and she said she did not feel the heat. How deep Acon. has acted on the whole person. I do not like the rain now. You see these are symptoms which are cured by a remedy. Likes to walk in the rain is Ign. or Nat-m. - generally people with a melancholy make up. And of course Caust. people like to walk in the rain. They thrive in wet weather. Which are the remedies that like wet weather? PAGE 73 Response: Nux-v., Hep., Ph-ac., Caust., Bry., Asar. George: Desires sweets (underlined twice), desires milk (underlined once), thirst (once). She had menses twice during the last 2-3 months. That is interesting. She was irritable before menses. The mouth was still offensive and she now had some acne on the face. She says that before this relapse she took antibiotics for a cold. What are you going to do? The relapse was 11 months from the remedy.
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Question: How soon after the antibiotics? George: Immediately. The antibiotics coincided with the relapse. Question: How long ago had her antibiotics been taken? George: Two months ago? Question: She does not say anything about the fears? Just some anxiety? George: No, some flushes. There has been constriction and a little bit more irritability. She had menses twice. Response: I would repeat the same dose. George: How many would repeat? How many would not? None. Question: She had acne before, but did not have it when the case started? George: No. How many would wait? Question: This is two months after the relapse? George: Yes, two months. This is two months after the antibiotics and she is in that state which she describes, but nothing in comparison with what she had originally. Now there is a pattern here which you can follow. Because we have given a placebo and then waited a month or 50 days, if there is a real relapse you specify a symptom. If that key symptom comes back then you take 50m of Acon. So you give another extra time to the organism to see if it will recover. Usually when they go to the dentist we do that. After the dentist, usually there is a relapse. And they come, but we have to wait longer to see if this is really a relapse. If the system by itself will not take over and replace itself. So we give a placebo for a month. She has the medicine and she can take it up until the placebo is taken or even after. We have found that they usually dont need the medicine. The organism will go up by itself if you give it time. PAGE 74 Question: How much time? You have already waited for two months. George: Yes Perhaps one more month. What I see here is that she has never heat again, so in this case we give a placebo. You can give a placebo and give five powders to be taken twice a week, which you will give 2-3 weeks to see whether the organism will recover. You give some extra and say that if there is a relapse to take that. Question: Normally hasnt it been your experience that if there is a relapse from an antidote it usually takes 2-3 weeks to get over it? Even after two months, you still want to wait? George: Yes, why dont I repeat the remedy? They may have fully relapsed, but what is the symptom that kept me from giving the remedy? There is a big radical constitutional change and I would hesitate now to repeat the remedy. I had to have the heat to repeat it. Also the rain. And the fear isnt there either. She is doing well. This is in 1978 - that is two years. She was doing well on one dose of Acon. 50m. Question: So antibiotics could antidote the case even though she didnt need them? For a cold the antibiotics would not do anything. George: For influenza-a virus-antibiotics will not help. But if you have a cold which centralizes in the bronchus, antibiotics will stop it, yes. I would hesitate to repeat. Question: So this is two years later and it is still possible to antidote a remedy or is it really that you are stressing the vital force to a predisposition or something like that? And then the vital force can recover as the stress recedes.
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George: What the antibiotics is doing is taking the organism back to the predisposition she had before. Question: How long does it take for a predisposition to be... that is what we call cure isnt it? When the predisposition has been wiped out? That track is no longer there and so we cannot expect a stress to create the particular predisposition? PAGE 75 9 Broken down discouraged lady [ - Broken down discouraged lady] Comment : phosphoricum acidum (ph-ac.), medorrhinum (med.) ignatia amara (ign.) Case Comments: When she answers a question, she is slow. She stops and thinks for a long time before she gives an answer. I basically think that that is the essence of the case. Out of this she is withdrawing. She wants to quit the university. She has given up on the whole thing. She is isolating herself from people. Even when she is sleeping she lies on her side and faces the wall, away from the world. She locks a lot of emotional and mental stamina and when she is excited she breaks down easily. She is a broken down person. She does not experience any emotions. There is nothing. There is a strong desire for fruits. George: You see here we have a certain set of symptoms like consolation aggravates this condition (underlined thrice). Response: No, it was not underlined. George: Impatience. Cannot wait. Lets have the answers. Most of the answers are Sulac. and Ph-ac. Then there are several Med., Ph-ac. is overwhelming. There is one Bry., one Sulph., one Staph., one Nat-m. I dont have to teach you anything. Here is all this Phac. Response: Hooray! We got one! George: This is a typical Ph-ac. case. Very good. You see there is symptomatology which you have to ignore. Question: You gave Ph-ac.? George: Yes, 10m was what I gave. He wrote this in a way that he had been taught, underlining etc. He has underlined desire for salt three times, aversion to fat two or three times. (It is underlined in such a way that you cannot tell if it is two or three times actually). From the general information you get that it is quite strong. Aggravated by consolation. She has a tendency to withdraw and be with herself that could give a Nat-m. case, but you disregard this information as it does not exist once the main symptomatology gives you the remedy. All of the essence of Phac. is there. We cannot disregard that and go and look at aggravated by consolation and desires fat or desires salt and wants to be alone. That could be a case of Nat-m. But this is taking little information to make it into a whole. So if you disregard that which might have come down with repertorization... So I am glad that you are prescribing on this basis now. PAGE 76 The essence of Ph-ac. is heard very clearly. We cannot disregard that. Question: Isnt it odd to have such strong symptoms like that in such a late, declined state?
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George: Yes, maybe. She had it. Response: It was recent. She had only been sick for five months. Although it was rapidly, it may not have been to the stage where you lose the usual mental state. George: Now shall I give you the continuation? There will be another prescription you will have to make. Question: So this was a case of Ph-ac. where it went straight to the mental instead of starting on the emotional? George: Yes. Also the mental is almost destroyed. She says the weakness was on an emotional level - psychological, which are emotional needs and not mental. The weakness is most psychological and this is underlined. Periodically she also gets bodily, physical tiredness. Then she has fever. (Picric fever?) Question: For our edification, would you say why Pic-ac. was not the remedy? George: This was second place. Question: There is one sentence in here which says, Worse in activities on a psychological level which would point more towards Pic-ac. More mental level. George: Pic-ac. is on a mental level, not psychological level. Question: Arent psychological and mental the same? George: Oh no! We have mental/spiritual level, then the emotional or psychological level. Emotions are are mostly affected. Here it affected the mental faculties. Then we get the physical level. * Question: So, it is just a matter of words? Okay. George: So in order that this would be a Pic-ac. case, what more would you like to have? Response: More mental fatigue. Worse from mental exertion rather than emotional or physical exertion. PAGE 77 George: And a history which will show you an over-exertion of the mind. They would give a different history altogether. But now, what she says here is that she takes a long time before she can answer. Emotionally she is flat. Of course the mind of Ph-ac. cannot work either. THESE THREE REMEDIES: WE HAVE SAID MENTAL -PIC-AC.; EMOTIONAL-PH-AC.; PHYSICAL- MUR-AC. But ... all three have an effect on three levels. But they mainly concentrate their actions and prefer mostly the mental or mostly the emotional or mostly the physical levels! This does not mean that in the Mur. we do not have a mental exhaustion. The why in which the Mur. is exhausted is something tremendous and something awful. They just want to sleep and they will say, Let me die. It is impossible for me to recover. With that attitude there is a feeling inside as if all of the forces have been concentrating on recovery in the physical body, therefore there is nothing left in the brain for it to work with vitality. Therefore given Mur-ac. the moment he has a fever, his mind will not work. Also emotionally he is not able to take any stress - even the least amount of stress. He cannot even take the stress which comes from a loving person who might say, Do you want or need something? He has not the courage to communicate emotionally to say that he wants this or that. The attitude is, Leave me alone. I dont want any. I am so exhausted. I am dying. This is Mur-ac. So at the emotional level it is effective as well. But what terrifies you in Mur-ac. is the physical exhaustion! It is a woman who is 25 years old and still she is looking like a very old person who is completely exhausted. With that exhaustion do not imagine that this psychological
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condition will be really ready to take jokes or have communication. WE COMMUNICATE WITH THE VITAL FORCE. We communicate not with sound of words. WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR VITAL ENERGIES. Why? Because I maybe saying things and you are hearing the sounds, but you dont hear anything in Mur-ac. Your mind is distracted. But unless you concentrate your energies and attention, and you tune in to what I say, the words arent meaningful. You may be hearing my words. They go in the tympanum and they vibrate your physical ear, but there is no communication. So in order to communicate I have to put out my energies and you have to come to let your energies concentrate on what I say. Now how can Mur-ac. do that? He cannot communicate. He has so little vitality. The vitality does not go more than a few inches. In order to communicate you need vitality, and this is not there. That is why the Muriaticum element, which is in Nat-m. and in Mag-m. - the muriaticum element is an element which is going towards withdrawal. It makes the person want to withdraw. It is interesting that the sea, which is the water element, which is the emotional element, aggravates the Muriaticum patient. That patient who is disturbed in his Muriaticum element, that is why Nat-m. is aggravated by the sea. Mag-m., is aggravated by the sea. Nat-m. and Mag-m. are listed in the repertory as aggravated by the sea. You can add that to the repertory notes. Those people say, No, I will never go and have a bath in the sea, because it upsets their entire organism. They will need either of the three remedies. PAGE 78 Response: When I was in Greece I went into the sea one day and I was sick for about two days with dullness and tremendous exhaustion, which was a relapse from where I had been. There were headaches. This was just from going in and swimming around for a few minutes. George: Yes, this was interesting. Bill took Mur-m. while he was in Greece. As he started recovering a bit, I forced him to take a bath. He answered, I dont want to take a bath. I said, Take a bath, I want to see. So I forced him to take a bath in the sea. It is nice to take a bath, I said. He was in a negative mood anyhow. For two days he was complaining. He had the catarrh, sinusitis, a cold, and he felt miserable. He said, I am going back. After the third day he picked up again. He had such a strong aversion to go, (by sea) I was curious. Response: Even going on a boat in the sea, just close to it, without actually being in it will make me feel worse. Question: Wasnt that true before though? Response: Yes, it was always true. Question: You are by the sea now. Response: I am better here. I am not as bad as I would expect to be, being by the sea. George: Now she comes back in January of 1978. Question: What was your point about the sea? You were saying something about how the person wants to withdraw and then you mentioned the water and the sea. Is there some connection there? George: Yes. The emotional level in conjunction with the sea. The water element has that symptom of withdrawal. George: (Back to the case presentation and follow up). She says, I am better, I can now get up from bed. If seems that she was lying down most of the time. I communicate a little better now. My mind has become clearer. This is at least one month after the
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original remedy on 12-12-1977. This second time it is the twelfth of January, 1978, It is approximately one month -30 or 31 days. She says that her mind is clearer, but for the past 15 days. I have been very irritable. She said that maybe it was due to the environment. It is interesting to observe here that after this depression she was in and the total exhaustion, that she had become irritable. After three days she said, I am not getting better at all, and she had had a clash with her family. She would find any cause to fight. It is interesting to see that from the depression and total annihilation of faculties they become ultrasensitive and cannot take any stress, and they become irritable. This is a very good sign because as we know from the dialogue it is better to be irritable than depressed. It is interesting for one who understands homoeopathy to understand what is going on. She says, Here is my medicine and it doesnt look like it has done anything. It is not that she says, I am better, or My head is clear. I am sure that she is doing better because of that remark. She says, Now I am more irritable. Perfect! That is great! PAGE 79 Now she says she can do complicated thinking at intervals. I again have dyspnoea. This was in the sun. We had dyspnoea. When she was little and she now complains of dyspnoea all the time. She has the impression that air is not enough. It is interesting here to see what here was happening with the lungs because of tuberculosis, and how the disease goes back towards this direction. You remember that tuberculosis is given there and how the weakness is exaggerated in the lungs again. She is not going into tuberculosis most probably. The dyspnoea is worse and is continuous, and she has a feeling that air is not enough. Puff, puff - that kind. Air is not enough. The memory is better (underlined once), psychological, emotional state is not now a continuous condition. That means that she comes out and then goes inside again. If I try to reconcile, I feel exhausted. She adds, My worst time is between 1 and 4 p.m. Now I have developed a great aversion to eggs. You remember she said that she did not like eggs. Now this aversion is stronger. She is feeling the heat more now. The cold does not bother her. In Greece this is usually the coldest month. Her hair has stopped falling out completely. I have a lot of irritation and flatulence now, which I have never had in my life. There is a symptom now which is underlined four times. She has great jealousy. It is fantastic how much I feel jealous, especially for a certain girl. She has developed a particular sense of jealousy towards one specific person. She started cursing. Curses come out of my mouth. I dont know how. Suddenly I have become vindictive. Acne has started coming out of the back in the last 4-5 days. The lungs are okay - there are no symptoms. What are you going to do here? Response: I think we should wait. PAGE 80 George: Very good. That is what we did - we waited. She then came at the end of March, which was about two months after the second interview. If we wanted to give a remedy on the second visit, what was appearing as a second remedy? Response: Either Lach. or Sulph. George: After two months she says, Generally I am better. My irritation is much less. I stopped cursing and swearing. I am not vindictive any more. I can think more clearly now. The dyspnoea has almost disappeared. I am no longer jealous. It is interesting how this syndrome was a reaction from the deadness in which she was living. She took out her
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emotions and then they balanced by themselves without us needing to stimulate this with another remedy. Question: Do Ph-ac. often get jealous? When they are getting better, is this common in their experience? George: I cannot say. Now I can tolerate both heat and cold, but there is a tremendous aversion to eggs. Even if I think of an egg, I have nausea. There is an aversion to sauces. She desires meat (underlined 3 times), and she takes a little bit of fat. There are no irritations. Since five days the fungus infection in the hands and feet have exploded, worse on the right side. She also has an itching of the calves when she goes to sleep. She is worse regarding this at night when she is in bed. She says that She sleeps well. I have now spoiled your idea of Sulph. (Laughter) She seldom has nightmares now. The feeling of getting tired is much less, but it still exists. The hearing of the right ear is much worse, diminished. There was an X-ray in the beginning which showed the tubercular location quite prominently. That is what has impressed the doctor. She now brings, after four months, a new X-ray which is absolutely clear. She has now broken out with a lot of condylomata around the perineum. You see how things come to the surface - there is now a fungus infection, the condylomata, and what do you think that bad hearing is from? Response: Streptomycin. George: Yes, she took a lot of Streptomycin for the tuberculosis. But why? Now we have to conjecture. The whole head was dull. Now it is the acoustic nerve which is dull. It seems as if the effect of Streptomycin has concentrated in one place in the brain instead of being diffused in its effects. What are you going to give her? Before I give you the last two symptoms. Can you give anything for the fungus infection, the itching, the condylomata? Responses: Placebo. PAGE 81 George: Yes. Now, let us see if we can still wait. I will now give you the last two symptoms. She says, Generally I feel much better after 7 p.m. (underlined twice), and I really feel good if we go to the sea. There is an amelioration by the sea, which is underlined three times. Now what are you going to do? Response: Add Med. for aversion for eggs. (Laughter) George: The last time she ate eggs. Response: Wait. George: Yes. Here is a great temptation to prescribe Med. with all this condylomata, and being better in the evening, and with so much amelioration by the sea. So I submitted to temptation and I prescribed Med. Responses: You were really seeing the next layer. George: I gave a dose of what potency? Responses: 1m. George: 30. Why? Because here is a case which is doing very well indeed in spite of all this suffering. So if we spoil that case, dont let us spoil it too much. This is the idea. But of course there are enough reasons to prescribe and to hope that something is going to happen. Perhaps we could have waited, but from the picture I saw, we might as well give it. Later on, even if you waited four or five months, you would have to give Med. at same point. Question: The best procedure is to let the picture stabilize for at least a month?
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George: Yes. You can wait for one more month, but she has come after two months from the previous treatment. Sure, you can wait another month. The possibility, of course, is that the patient does not understand what is going on very well. They may go to a dermatologist and take a medicine for this fungus that would cauterize the condylomata and then the case would be ruined. So after the Med. she came again in about 50 days. She said that the fungus had increased. The itching has become more and it is voluptuous. The hearing is still very bad. Again I have this kind of dyspnoea, worse in closed places with smoke. Now I have the urge to do work and I dont feel tired. The condylomata are gone-Gone! Just like that. Response: What did they do? Drop off? George: One day the patient wakes up and she sees that they are not there. This is very usual. Very usual! Dont act like a gynecologist in Athens who was trying to suppress the condylomata on a woman for about three years, and the woman had come to us for mental disorders. She never said that she had a condylomata. We started to treat her. She also had leucorrhea. She was doing beautifully. She never mentioned to us whether she had condylomata. We did not know because the mental state was bad. When she went to the gynecologist for re-examination, he said, What happened to the condylomata? I dont see them. She said, I took homoeopathic treatment. He said, What is that? PAGE 82 So he phoned immediately to find out what the medicine was so that he could give it to his other patients with condylomata. He was so shocked. She was also schizophrenic and now she was well, and I was talking to him about the condylomata. (Laughter) Separate ends of the body. This is very usual that the condylomata will go away with the homoeopathic remedies. Warts are the same thing. Question: I had a woman who had a wart on her foot and the skin sort of closed off around it. The doctor pulled it off. It came off like a little pea - it just fell off. George: Now this patient does not want sour foods. She did not mention this earlier. Later she noted that she did not want sour foods. But she had a desire for sweet foods. She eats eggs now. She had desire for meat (underlined twice), and she now dislikes fat (underlined twice). She again has the urge to go back to the university. She is not quarrelsome any more. Her mind is quite clear. There is no falling out of her hair. She has a bad odour in the mouth in the morning which is better when she eats something. She has a kind of numbness in the lips. What is the prescription now? Response: Wait. George: Yes, wait. Now this is 1978. This woman has gone to the university and has finished her studies. This doctor was new in the clinic and he is very proud of her. Question: Do you think the Med. did anything? Or did it maybe do nothing except keep her from going to a dermatologist? George: It did. It is interesting to see the aversion to eggs was so strong here. The fungus infection most probably went away. The hearing I cannot tell you about. What we hear is from other people. She has sent others and we had the information about her finishing the university and so forth. Most probably the fungus infection went away, otherwise she would definitely have come back. It is very nice that the whole class saw Ph-ac. And it does not matter if you had not immediately prescribed the Med. But everybody also saw Med.
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PAGE 83 Question: Where is it in the repertory? George: Under generalities evenings, right column, at the top. She is also suffering from hyperthyroidism. The examination of the thyroid was pathological. she has been given Thyromone, but could not take it because it produced a reaction. She stopped taking it. And she does not like having clothes which are tight. The desire for sweets has now increased (this is underlined three times), desires beer (underlined twice). Now the temperature is normal and she only occasionally has flushes of heat. The thyroid examination is normal (laboratory tests). She was well all this time until May 1980. Two months previously she had again had a thyroid examination which was normal that would have been in March 1980. She says, I am easily grieved (upset) and I have great turmoil inside. She says she is worse with standing and she feels that her legs will not hold her up. Again she has black-outs on stooping and there seems to have been a relapse. She says that she again has the vertigo on turning the head suddenly. There is no irritability or fear. There are again flushes of heat. The heat has started coming back since 15 days. She goes to sleep and wakes up in 2-3 hours and cannot sleep anymore. She feels dyspnoea again on the left side. She has a very heavy feeling in the heart region and she has some fear when she thinks about her heart. She wakes up refreshed but psychologically and emotionally she has sadness. She goes back to sleep and does not want to see anybody. What kind of symptomatology is that and why? Response: Did the husband get a girl-friend or something? George: She goes to bed because she feels as though she has a big disease and she wants to lie down. She finds relief in bed. She cannot cry. And of course there the doctor thought that something has gone wrong with the case and he insisted that she had done something to antidote the remedy. She did admit that she had been drinking coffee for the past two months. But the doctor also noted that she was sighing very much during the time of the interview. He asked if something was happening. Then she confessed that three months ago she found out that her husband had a mistress. One month later she started drinking coffee. Do you see how the organism goes down by the first shock. Then she drinks coffee and she brings the organism into further deterioration. Again she has the dyspnoea on ascending. Now she says that she dislikes fruit. She lost her appetite again. Thirst was normal. She wants to go out and try to forget. Question: I thought that she wanted to stay in bed. PAGE 84 George: When she is not in bed, she wants to go out. Here the differential diagnosis will be between repeating Phos. and giving Ign. Question: What does she do when she goes out by herself? George: We dont know. Which one would you prefer and why? Response: Phos. has an aversion to fruit. If she wants to leave the house, I would not think Ign. because they close off. Response: And not crying. Phos. cries easily. Response: The essence has changed. Response: Though she antidoted her remedy with coffee, this started before the coffee. George: Who said that the essence has changed? Yes, this is the idea. You see, the symptomatology may seem the same, but the essence has changed. You see now a
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woman who has closed up herself. She goes to bed, wakes up and goes back to sleep. She doesnt want to see anyone. She tries to cry and cannot. And then when she is in the house, she wants to go out. Always the going out is Ign. Ign. is always best when she is travelling. Changes in impressions are good for Ign. She wants to go out often from the place where all this is happening. Response: That is why it is under motion ameliorates them generally. George: Yes. This is travelling ameliorates. Travelling is a keynote. You might hear them say, I have a colitis. I have a stomach trouble. I have a duodenal ulcer. They have the worst ailments of pain. Then she goes travelling to Spain or something and then she does not have these ailments. She comes back home and there the colitis starts again and the duodenal ulcer starts bothering her again. It is like magic. You remember that symptom and you try to remember this thing is Ign. It is very important. And there you get an Ign. who wants to go out from the house, especially in the daylight which is cloudy, and then even likes rainy weather. This is best for them Ign. likes dark rooms, closed rooms, and they dont like the sun. They like to stay by themselves in the room. They cannot cry. Question: They like cloudy weather because it is dark or because it is damp? George: It is something which sweeps their mood. It is a melancholy mood. When one is suffering from Ign., they are continuously melancholic. This weather seems to resonate with their inner state. It is interesting that the symptomatology is always the same. Yet you have grief and a turning towards the Ign. side of the case. Phos. also has an aversion to fruits. I had mentioned that. Yet we must go towards Ign. Sure enough, she took a low dose of Ign. and she has been well until now. Of course it has not been very long but long enough to see whether the remedy is right. We gave her 200. PAGE 85 Now in this case, if you are not absolutely sure that this is the right prescription and if you want the patient not to have to return (she lives a very great distance - 600 miles or so) you may give another dose and tell them to take it after a month if they still have symptoms. If the fear of thunderstorms is back, if Ign. does not work, after 1-2 months repeat it so they do not have to come back again. But of course it is better if your have seen them and can see what is going on. Question: Why the 200? It seem like a significant shock she received. George: In spite of that, 200 was enough. In this case you were not justified in giving Phos. There had not been a full relapse. Either you have to give a placebo and tell them to wait and come in after another month, and there might be a relapse, or you give Ign. which is quite justifiable. Question: But why not give a higher potency of Ign.? George: If you have a good case with a sensitive patient, dont go too high. The first time you can go too high and it is okay, but then if things are not so drastic and dramatic, do not go and give 10m. This is not necessary. A little bit of stimulation will bring this around. Question: She will still grieve though as long as there has been this problem of the husband and a mistress, right? How do you handle that? George: She will handle that. PAGE 86 10
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Excessive hypersensitivity and over irritability [ - Excessive hypersensitivity and over irritability] Chamomilla (cham.) Case George: Let us see who has found this remedy. We will discuss the different possibilities and see what is proposed. Who will do the analysis? 1st Response: The way I actually did this was to take the mental symptoms with 3 underlinings and write them down first. So that meant that I wrote down, fear of the wind, fear of heart disease, fear of cancer, anxious about others, anxiety about health, fear of doctors. George: So this is a case where she has a lot of mental symptomatology which is quite strong. Among those there are several which are peculiar because they have very few remedies. Response: Those are fear of doctors, fear of cancer, fear of heart disease, and fear of the wind. Those were peculiar. We can set them to one side and proceed with the others. George: You are proceeding finally to find the exact remedy. Response: Then I proceeded. Perspiration is something that is very important to me because it is something that a person cannot invent very easily. So I personally think it should be a general, even though it is not considered as such. Perspiration was profuse and it used to be on her palms. So I put that down next. Then I went to the double underlinings. George: There are a lot of remedies in that. Perspiration on palms. A great many. Response: Then I went to the double underlinings which were fear of death, claustrophobia, desires consolation. Another Response: She was very hypochondriacal, but there were no underlinings. It probably should have been underlined three times. Response: Well, I left that out. Desires consolation. Then I went to a very important general which is worse after sleep. That is a particularly important rubric because there are only eight remedies there. This was, worse after afternoon sleep. Now the question is how to sort this rubric out. Response: Now comes the failure part. (Laughter) PAGE 87 George: For these underlinings you should have written down what you found in the repertory. This is the way that you can do repertorization from these stages. You cannot afford to say Ill take these three symptoms and Ill get the remedy through these three symptoms. You have to have it written. Response: At this point I began to think a little bit and I noticed that Phos. is very prominent with many many fears, so I read Kent and there was no mention of anger in Kent under Phos. So I decided that because there were several sentences here talking about her extreme irritability and how she would shout and hit herself that she simply could not be Phos. George: There is an expression that I am not sure how to translate into English which says, If somebody is extremely irritable, he cannot stand his clothes. This is an expression showing irritability. They do not know what to do with themselves. She will even quarrel with her dresses. She does not know what is wrong. This is the best that I could convey it in English.
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Question: Under the rubric easily angered, Phos. is listed. Response: I am talking about the materia medica. I looked up Phos. in the materia medica. George: This case has fear of death, anxiety about health, fear of diseases, fear of heart disease, anxiety about others and sympathetic. It is underlined twice here. These are Phosphoric tendencies and fears. Question: It looks like the strangest fear is the fear of wind. It is such an unusual thing to relate. George: Let me finish with the person presenting the case first. According to him, he said that this irritability, this kind of an irritable person does not appear to him in spite of having Phos. fears, it does not appear as a Phos. case to him. It didnt to me appear eiher. Why not? Because Phos. is not that kind of irritable. You see a person who first comes in and says, I am very irritable and I shout and hit myself. I cannot tolerate my clothes I am so irritable. This kind of irritability is not usual with Phos. and this is where essences are coming in. You see in spite of having a beautiful repertorization of Phos. coming down, something is not quite right. And we have not touched the essence of the case yet with Phos. Question: Would the claustrophobia be a strong indication against Phos.? George: No. We do not say that Phos. will never have claustrophobia. They may have. Then again, you see if you read the case there is sleeplessness from bad thoughts. She sleeps on her side, and more on her abdomen. There is fear of being alone in the night. Which are the remedies? PAGE 88 Responses: Phos., Caust., Med. George: Where is the thirst? It is normal and it is not for cold drinks. Alcohol is normal. There is an aversion to sweets (underlined twice). Lets take some other remedies Nux-v. The Nux-v. can have this type of aggression and irritability which this person has? Yes. So the first picture is like Nux-v. Response: Also one possibility might be began after severe grief regarding financial reasons. I dont know what she does. Maybe she is a business woman. George: No, she is not a business woman. She works in the house. Response: It is confusing in this case about how many of these symptoms came on after grief. This was her first malady I am quite sure. Her high blood pressure started after grief. George: It says that it came after grief. When she first came she related that for the past six years she had had high blood pressure and irritability. The irritability was a part of her personality since she was a child. So the grief must have been there before. But is this a case of Nux-v. or is it not? This is what we are trying to find out now. We have the first picture which says Nux-v. and then we have all of the other fears. Why cant it not be? Response: She wants open air. She is averse to fats. George: That is not strong enough to eliminate Nux-v. Response: Nux-v. is not taken for so many fears. George: Yes. She has too many fears and the personality of Nux-v. does not talk about having so many fears. The Nux-v. has one fear which is very great and that is to get married. They are terrified if they consider marriage. I dont know why. They get married
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finally, but they have great fear and aversion to marriage. This is bondage. They feel that for their ambitions and personality that this is going to hold them down: I am going to work my way to the top, and the woman is something who is really keeping the Nux-v. back. He thinks that it is going to restrain him in his ambitions and progress. It gives him a responsibility. Nux-v. is so anxious to get to the top that he must not have restraints; therefore, when Nux-v. has progressed a little further in his pathology, you may get anxiety about health. With this personality and with all her years as a nervous woman, she is now 55 years old, and she is very irritable, what would you expect to have as pathology? High blood pressure or stomach? The Nux-v. pathology will be turned towards indigestion and constipation and the general alimentary system. This is not so in this case. Therefore, we have too many fears for Nux-v. We have the character of Nux-v. - we can say the essence - though it is not exact. We have not actually seen the element of ambition. There is no confirming symptomatology to support this prescription of ours. You will see if this case would say that she had a duodenal ulcer for 8-10 years instead of the blood pressure problem, and a constipation which was urging without effect, and we have the aggravation from cold in general, we could ignore the part where she has all these fears. But with this nervous tension with the stomach, with this constipation, we have really the essence of a Nux-v. case. Then we can ignore the fears. Now we go to Merc. Who wants to argue for this prescription? PAGE 89 There is one point where extremes of temperatures are not underlined at all. Response: It seemed to me there was a lot of impulsive irritability. George: You cannot say impulsive irritability. It is a different thing to be impulsive. Impulsive would be irritable without reason - it just comes out. Impulsive is ... you have done something in the kitchen, and I help you spoil the coffee. And you answer, What have you done! ? What has happened! ? That is impulsive. I dont wait for you to tell me. Then I think that you are not nice to me. So I come out with a lot of anger or irritability. That is impulsiveness. It is without logic behind it. The instinct is put before logic. Now Merc. is not like that. Merc. has impulsive thoughts. The impulse comes, I will kill him, like Iod. but the outer appearance is controlled. This is not the outward going individual who will say just whatever comes into his mouth. He will be very controlled. There is a point about Merc. which I perhaps have not touched yet - Merc. is so difficult to express anger and feelings. It is as if he had not progressed beyond the age of 6 or 7 when he speaks with emotion. The child speaks with words that are not used consciously but with the emotions of the whole being. Now there is a time between 5 and 7 somewhere where words become conscious. I want this, and he knows what he wants. Now between this conscious talking and this instinctive talking there is a place where this turns. Merc. people seem to have stopped at that age of instinctive talking. Due to a certain make up which they have and certain influences from outside, they cannot use words unless these words are supported by the whole feeling of the person and what is behind it. They cannot say a word unless the whole being is behind that word. They talk instinctively - straight and the truth. From the age of 7 we start learning how to cover up ourselves and to talk in the manner where we can deceive ourselves and others. Merc. seems not to be able to do that very much. There is a shock between this lack of expression which he has, lack of ability to express himself, and what happens? What is the symptomatology as a result of this?
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PAGE 90 Response: Impulses? George: No. Go to the repertory and you will see in Speech. Response: Stammering? George: Yes. Stammering. I want to give you another point. In Merc. you will find a person who is coming to talk to you. We know that we are not psychiatrists and we are not interested in making the person talk a lot. We look at the person objectively. This is what a homoeopath does. He observes and is aware, but he does not get involved. This is what I was doing. I was not getting involved in the case because if I start crying when I am with the patient I will lose the remedy. So I have to observe and write down everything which happens. I have to be aware of that which is happening but not come into contact with sentiments and emotions. I should not be emotionally connected with the person at all. I had trained myself to do that, because I wanted information. I wanted deep information quickly because I wanted the right remedy. So there came a singer, a person of about 27 years old, very famous. She sat there at the table and I said, Yes, what is your trouble? I never asked the name of the person, I just said, What is bothering you? And she goes like that (shrugs). And I say to myself, What is this? She cannot talk? She looks at me and then tries again to talk. I contact more emotionally then and say, Yes, yes? I became more sympathetic. Still she could not talk. Then it struck me that she had been to India and she had made some contacts in the spiritual communities there. I said to her, Have you ever been to India? By that time something flashed and she started talking. That was not something that was happening with me, because by that time she started talking about India and spiritual practices and how she had come here to Esalen, and all that. She was a singer who was very famous in America and in Greece. By that time the telephone rang and it was our pharmacist. He said, I want to talk to you about a girl who is coming, and he told me the name. I did not want to speak from that telephone in front of her. I knew she was very sensitive. I said, Just wait a moment. I went into the next room and the pharmacist said, It is very difficult for her to talk. She is not going to talk to you, but speak to her about yogis, about India, and.... PAGE 91 This is the Merc. type. Of course at that time I did not know Merc. I understood Merc. only on a very superficial level, and I really did not know what was happening, She was stammering. I could not make head or tail in this case. She was very emotionally disturbed. I said to her, You will be okay. There is nothing more and you dont need a remedy. She did not want to take that, actually. If I knew what the remedy was, I would have given it to her. But since I could not understand, I did not give her anything. After some time, this girl was hospitalized and I never got a chance to give her a remedy. But later I knew when other cases came and they performed in exactly the same way. I said, Oh yes, this is Merc. And when I gave it, it was beautiful. It opened them up and they had much easier communication. Question: I hear what you did but I dont understand exactly what this means. Did you touch something in her? George: Something which was very interesting and close to her. She could talk about that. Question: She was having emotions stirred at that level?
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George: No. I spoke about something that was very dear to her. That is the type who is wound up emotionally. She started talking. She felt that there was really a connection between us. That which was lacking before. There had been no connection, and I was just observing her. She understood that I was observing her, and she could not talk. She tried several times, but she could not. Question: Was this because she felt badly about her impulses? George: She felt that unless she could talk with her whole being about real big things, that she could not talk at all. And this is what I call instinctive talking - where it is the child talking. The same idea has blocked the speech process in Merc. and there is stammering. Merc. is one of the capitals. We have Caust., Stram., Nux-v. and Bell. in capitals also. I cannot remember everything. I would like to give you a little bit of differential diagnoses on the stammering problem. You will see that stammering with Stram., there are children who have been tremendously frightened at a very young age. They have been frightened because a nurse who was attending them frightened them with a dog, telling the child that it was going to bite them or bringing it inside where it would bark at the child. Things like that which are very traumatic and cause great fright. The child might have been threatened that it would be thrown down. Or maybe the lights were turned off and the child was told that it had to stay in darkness. Anything that causes tremendous fright and immediately there is a defect in the speech. The stammering from Stram. will be completely different from the stammering of Merc. If you hear somebody stammering, you say this is Stram., this is Merc., this is Caust. Now what is the difference? In Stram. we have that great violence which happened long ago and we have the terrified look, and the stammering is so strong and violent that they will make choking sounds when they try to speak. They will gag. PAGE 92 The stammering with Merc. is that they are withheld from expressing the symptoms. They can express the words, but there is something holding them back. There is almost a sympathetic feeling that you have with him. And you think, My God, what is happening inside that person? And this is again differentiated in Caust. cases where you will usually see when he is with his friends and relatives that he speaks quite easily and everything is okay. But you say, John, get up and tell us an analysis of the case. Immediately then you will see that he is blocked up. Once the feelings are rising, there is emotional blocking behind the speech. And then the really bad stammering starts. So you have points to differentiate between the different types of stammering. We see that this case does not come near Merc. in that way at all. And Merc. does not express this kind of fear. Fear that he may Kill, Desire to kill. Impulse to kill, would go towards Merc., but not these kind of fears. Who will talk about Ars. Response: I interpret this anxiety about others as fitting into the picture. There is a fear of doctors. I dont think it is so much the fear that the doctor is going to hurt them, but the power that they have to help them get better or whatever. They are afraid of being alone at night and think that something will help them - I think that something will most likely be another person. I think that Ars. can be as anxious and irritable. George: We can see this kind of irritability in Ars. There is great anxiety about others, fear of death, anxiety about health, fear of cancer, of heart disease.
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Response: She felt that her parents loved the boy more than her and there was a sort of jealousy. I was also a bit attracted to this idea that her problem started with grief for financial reasons. That sort of steered me into that direction too. George: Have you given Ars.? Can you remember the intensity in the two symptoms of anxiety about health, and fear of death in Ars. What have we said? Which is most prominent? Response: Fear of death. George: Yes. Fear of death in Ars. is the prominent symptom. Fear that she will die if she is left alone. It is not the anxiety about health or whether or not she has cancer. It is not that she has cancer and that she will suffer through cancer, in Ars. it is the idea that I like life so much that I want to stay and live. The idea that they may die is prominent and there is the biggest pathology. That level of Ars. Here we have the opposite. We have anxiety about health underlined three times, and fear of death which is underlined twice. But again we have said that Ars. is one of the coldest remedies. It is worse with heat and worse with cold and these are not underlined. In order to have an Ars. case you have to have at least two underlines and usually three underlines with worse with cold. They enjoy the sun very much. Ars. mostly enjoys the sun. PAGE 93 Anxiety about others, as you say, is Ars. In repertorization it is close enough to give Ars. in that case, but what we do not see is the restlessness and the fastidiousness. When I was prescribing in that case I thought Ars. and it is a case which appears to be either Ars. or Phos. Those are the two closest prescriptions that you can make on that case. But I was not satisfied with that for the reasons which I will explain to you now. Could it be Kali-a? She has anxiety about heart disease. Kali-ar. has great anxiety about heart disease. Response: Under fear of heart disease, Kali-ar. is a two. Under fear of cancer it is a two. Anxiety about health is a four and acute perspiration is four. In Kent's Materia Medica, there is quite a good description of the irritability and anger. So there are major fears, plus the irritability, according to the materia medica. George: So Kali-ar. is again a very close remedy. It is cold - usually cold. Kali-ar. is a person who is quite composed in spite of the fears. They are quite closed up. I would not expect this kind of irritability to be expressed. She says, "I am too nervous and I have high blood pressure." I would expect Kali-ar. to have low blood pressure. Indeed I have found it in hypotensive individuals. These people are somewhat conservative. They are like Calc. people in that they are "proper". They are the kind that you will find in the CIA. (Laughter) Question: Why would they be low blood pressure people if they are so proper? George: I don't know, but this is what I found. I cannot explain it. You will see coldness in general and extreme coldness in the extremities. They have a kind of introverted attitude which we associate with low blood pressure. The extroverts are much more easily having brain strokes by high blood pressure. The Lach. is the biggest extrovert, right? They talk and talk and talk and they are excited. They get the high blood pressure, and they get the strokes. So Kali-ar. is a good prescription. Who gave Stram. and why? Response: I was in touch with the degree of irritability and the shouting and the almost uncontrolled kind of behaviour coupled with a lot of fears, particularly fear of being alone in the dark.
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PAGE 94 George: Fear of being alone in the night, but it is underlined only once. That is not so strong. Irritability is there and it is very prominent. I agree that it would not be a Stram. case. Fear of being alone in the night would be VERY strong (underlined three times), fear of the dark (underlined three times). With Stram. there is not so much anxiety. This is not the type of person who has so many anxieties. He is too violent to be anxious. Question: The other thing that impressed me was the kind of choking thing in the throat which was fairly recent. Stram. can have that characteristic of choking. I suppose that that is more when they are afraid or angry. George: Yes. But this is not a keynote symptom. What else was prescribed? Response: Nux first and Cham. George: Why Cham. Response: The irritability fits - the tantrums and not knowing what they want or being able to contain that vexation. I could imagine that they are sensitive to pain that they could in a sense be hypochondriacal. Everything bothers them so much that they make an issue out of it. The wind is bothering and the perspiration in the palms, which is a little bit unusual in the symptoms. The thing that stopped me was all the anxiety about health, fear of the doctor and that stuff. That did not fit for me, but everything else seemed pretty good, especially the violence. George: (Pointing to another person) You also prescribed Cham. Why? Response: I started off looking at the case and trying to figure out what the core was. I felt that the irritability and the hypersensitivity were the core. Then I tried to think of what the most sensitive remedies were. I went through and there was Cham. and Nux-v. and primarily Stram. There was then the fear of the wind, perspiring of the palms and aversion to fats. George: This was right thinking. Here it happens that in our repertories we do not have the information about Cham. so much. In our repertories the anxieties of Cham. are not coming up. We do not have a description of Cham's anxieties. This is a beautiful case. Here of course this is a kind of keynote prescribing. But it is not keynote prescribing really because if that was so, we would prescribe Phos. or Ars. That is what I would call keynote prescribing. But what we did here was to see the essence - this hypersensitivity and we have a keynote which supports that. We have a remedy which is not fully proved. We don't know the entire range of these remedies. We must give it. It is not only that we are justified in giving it, we MUST give it as the first prescription. Then this can be followed by Phos. or Ars. THE GENERAL CONSTITUTIONAL STATE OF CHAM. IS A GREAT SENSITIVITY. Sensitive to surroundings and to persons and situations, but it does not speak about any fears. So we keep these fears in mind in order to give them a second thought if they appear again. PAGE 95 Because of the fear of wind being so strong, this was the peculiarity in the case. IF THE FEAR OF WIND IS VERY VERY STRONG, DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT CHAM. This is a placid person and she is crying easily. She is sympathetic. Forget it! But then she says that, "My whole nervous system is in a state of anxiety". Response: I want to tell what I have thought about the case. In terms of the irritability, I thought that that had been something that had been present since she was a child and it was not something that was new. One of the rubrics that I looked for under that was
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"Irritability in children". The second thing was that the high blood pressure started after she had had a grief. I thought that another way to look for the high blood pressure was under the rubric "ailments from grief". This was when the high blood pressure started. And the other rubrics that I used were "aversion to sweets", "fear of heart disease", and "fear of cancer". There was also the anxiety about health. For me, all of these things came out Calc-p. George: Now it is interesting to see how many times that CHAM. AND CALC-P., PHOS. ARE CLOSE. IN CHILDREN THEY ARE ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE. They are groaning and moaning and you want to kill them. The children are really unmanageable. I remember a case of a young boy who had been given Cham. The father said that it was impossible the amount of moaning and crying and shouting that he did. I prescribed then Cham. and waited two days. The child had fallen and must have hit his head in the fall. That was a typical Cham., so we prescribed it and then we waited. The day after the second night, the father telephoned me again to say that he had to take the child out into the streets two or three o'clock in the morning to walk around in order to keep the child from crying and shouting. It was impossible for the child to sleep. There was a slight difference in that Calc-p. is moaning while in Cham. there is aggression and irritability and "I want this" or "Give me that". Then they scream if you don't give them that. They will shout for no reason. THEY ARE VERY CLOSE, BUT THE MOANING IS THE DIFFERENCE. This eventually drives the parents crazy this moaning is predominant in Calc-p. Most probably Calc-p. will be indicated in head injuries. This has been good reasoning in this case. Again I would support the irritability with the keynote. If "fear for wind" was Calc-p. I would definitely prescribe this. But we know that fear of wind is a characteristics of Cham. PAGE 96 Question: But she also had fear of cancer and heart disease. This is Calc-p. George: Not so prominent. Fear of heart disease and cancer is a Calc-p. element, but it is not very prominent. You will not see the way that they present themselves in Calc. or Phos. both have anxiety and fear of death, but when they come together they do not have that very strong thing that one would accentuate the other's qualities. This is of course according to my experience. Question: What about head injuries with Calc-p.? George: It may be indicated. In head injuries where we have a symptom which is emotional - sadness or depression - desire to commit suicide after depression, we have Nat-s. That is the main remedy. Response: When I was looking at this case I came across the fear of wind in Cham. and then I looked at "consolation aggravates" and I found that Cham. was not one. I guess it was incorrect to rule it out on that account. I see right next to it that Calc-p. is a two. Would it be reasonable to rule out Calc-p. George: On "consolation aggravates"? Response: She is better with consolation. At what point can you use that to throw out the phosphoric remedy? George: We say that in Cham. we don't have anxiety about others or fear of doctors or anxiety about health. All of these are strongly underlined in this case and we throw it out because we have the picture of Cham. supported by one strong keynote which is the only
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remedy. You may have a whole case and in this foggy weather the appetite is lost. That is a very strong keynote for Chin. Then you may give it. Now if the person is a placid, mild person, then we should have given Phos. Question: Isn't it true that with Cham. when you try to make them feel better, it worsens the situation? George: Yes. But not so much with grown-ups as with little children. That does not hold much with children. Kent has it as two with Cham. Response: He has Calc-p. as a two. Nat-m. has a three. Sep. is three. Question: But the children want to be carried. PAGE 97 George: Everybody wants to be carried. (Laughter) Question: Does the fear of wind have to be with being inside a house? George: Inside the house, and there is a tremendous fear of the blowing wind. The person does not have to be exposed to the wind on a high mountain in a strong storm. No, he is inside the house. Aggravation by wind again gives us Cham., Nux-v., Lyc., Puls., etc. The aggravation is when they are inside and the wind is blowing outside. Their nervous system is very much affected. It is not that the wind and dust are blowing in the face and they get aggravated. Response: I can see a mistake I made that probably other people made too and it reflects on the Acon. case. When I saw that fear of wind in Cham., I looked at it and said that it was a remedy that was not mild but aggressive. So we should have thought Cham. very seriously right from the start. I did it when I looked at the case. It was an acute symptom and was a whole other realm. For me it did not fit a chronic case. George: This can be given in very many chronic situations, any acute remedy, and if it fits really well, then it should be held for a long time. FORGET ABOUT THE IDEA OF THIS AS A CHRONIC CASE AND THAT WE CANNOT GIVE AN ACUTE REMEDY. We are talking about constitutionals and they are two different things. CONSTITUTIONAL MEANS ARE GOING DEEP INTO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. If it is really going into the heart of the matter, it is going to hold. Question: I was thrown off by the ailments from grief, I really thought that that had something to do with the case. George: Cham. can also have ailments from grief. I don't know if Kent has mentioned it. And there is a lot that we can connect to Cham. We are pioneering. We don't have everything in the picture. There is a lot of work which we have to do ourselves. This case is going to be published. Somebody else gets another case which says "fear of doctors". Okay, we accept it in our repertories. This is how we augment and complete our information. Information comes at any time. We cannot stop. With the drugs that are being used today, you will see new symptomatology. And these symptoms will be covered by some remedies which we are using. We have to insert that information. We have to have a central bank of information actually, in which we send all this information that we see in our cases. She says, "I am much better and everything has gone. My irritability is much better. The blood pressure is lower and I am not taking the hypertension drugs. I am optimistic (underlined thrice), and I have joy. There is no anxiety any more and there are no fears. I have some vertigo, but no sleeplessness. Sometimes I wake up, but there is no real sleeplessness. There is no perspiration." PAGE 98
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Question: What was the potency? George: 1m. So she comes in after two months. Maybe there has been an aggravation which she has forgotten. I do not believe that that could have been without aggravation. Listen further to what she says. "There is no constriction in the throat. I can stay alone during the night." The aggravation after afternoon sleep remains and she is not sure about claustrophobia. So what remains is that there is aggravation remaining after the afternoon sleep, occasional vertigo, and that is all. At the end of 1979, she has not returned and so that means that she is doing well for the time being. Question: Do you see that she will need another remedy or do you think that this will carry her all the way back? George: I think that she will need another remedy. She is well enough now, however, and she does not care to come for little things. Question: What about Lach. in this case? George: Lach. would really have been close, but we would have raised the blood pressure further. In this case there is no reason why Lach. would have been prescribed. Question: Lach. can be expressive? George: Expressive in the way that she is just irritable and she has a blood pressure which is high. That is all that fits. Question: Ailments from grief, fear of heart disease.... George: No, we are going around the case then. That is not the heart of the case. PAGE 99 11 Bronchial asthma [ - Bronchial asthma] Kalium carbonicum (kali-c.) Case George: May we have your assessments? Response: In determining the essence of the person, I took into account, as far as the big picture is concerned, that she is a closed person, sensitive, easily vexed and on top of that she has dyspnoea and bronchial asthma. Taking into account the general type of person she was, I started thinking about the closed remedies that had that kind of internal sensitivity. Taking that into consideration then, I started looking up some of the rubrics. I was reasonably sure that it had to fall into the hot remedy sphere. I knew that it was worse in the night and that the dyspnoea was better when sitting - I thought that that was a peculiar symptom. I was looking through those things. Comment: That was not too uncommon. George: It is of a peculiar kind because there are a few remedies in which this is peculiar. It is a peculiarity in conjunction with what is given in the repertory. A peculiar symptom which is given with a hundred remedies in the repertory is not any longer peculiar. It may sound peculiar. There are symptoms like that, but I don't have one in mind now. Many remedies have that quality and so for us they are not peculiar. Response: I took that for a peculiar symptom because the rubric has only about ten or so essences in it. I decided on Kali-c. and started reading it in Kent. I found that this has dyspnoea coming after influenza or bronchial asthma, worse at night, better sitting up.
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Most of the symptoms are in there and there is the closed remedy with internal sensitivity, wanting to be alone, etc. That was my choice. George: Kali-c. Response: One confusion in this case is that I could not tell if this patient's asthma was worse with heat or the patient was worse with heat. It was poorly worded. George: It says, "worse with cold - spring and autumn. It is worse with cold weather". All of these modalities concern the asthma. Response: I thought of Kali-c. too, but the problem I had with this was that it was worse with heat. PAGE 100 Response: In the materia medica, it talks about the asthma worse with heat. George: Kali-c. can be worse in the heat of summer - when there is a hot room. Response: It says that the patient is 16 and weighs only 30.5 kilos. George: It is 38, not 3 zero. Response: So it sounded like she weighed only 70 pounds so she had to be a dwarf. Response: I have a question in general about when the rubric says worse with heat. For some reason I thought that worse heat meant worse febrile heat. Worse during temperature and that worse warm meant warm air from the environment. George: When the repertory says, "worse heat", does it mean fever or does it mean warm environment? It means warm in general whatever provides warmth in general. It is not fever involved. Question: Something from the outside like a hot pack? George: Yes. A stove, or a central heater, which would make you hot. Response: Although, George, it does say that any kind of warm room, and Kali-c. is not listed. It does have that separate rubric "difficult respiration in a warm room". It is not listed. But Kali-c. and Kali-s. are a three. Response: It is listed under "difficult breathing in heat." Response: So when it says worse heat or worse during heat it means temperature heat? George: Yes. That is specializing very much. It is the warmth of the room specifically. Kali-s. is one of the main remedies here. Response: Along with Apis., Puls. and Sulph. George: Do you agree that this person is a closed person and that he can be a Kali person? Response: Yes. George: It could be Nat-s? Responses: Yes, it could be that also. George: What we needed to have, was more Nat-s. Do you remember what is the keynote in Nat-s. asthma? PAGE 101 Response: 5 to 6 in the morning. Around 5 o'clock in the morning. There is an aggravation around this time. Response: I looked that up in Hering *. It says that Nat-s. has asthma coming on 4-5 hours after going to bed, which would put it earlier than that - it would put it around 2 or 3 o' clock. That is in Hering.
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George: That is interesting, but the usual time of Nat-s. aggravation by the sun hours, during the summer will be between 4 and 5 a.m. This is very typical in Nat-s. and another remedy which is listed in the repertory. Response: Stan., Nat-s. is in Italics, Stan. is a one. George: Kali-s., Kali-i. and Kali-n. tend to be on the warm side. The patient in general tends to be on the warm side. Question: I was able to go through the materia medica and find phrases which fit together almost completely in this case. George: In Nat-s. you mean? Response: Yes. Do you want me to read it? George: Yes. Response: Complaints worse in the spring and warm weather. Dyspnoea in damp weather. Humid asthma with copious, viscid mucus during every spell of hot weather. Chronic catarrh involving bronchial tubes. Compression of the chest with damp air. Bronchitis and pneumonia. Skin eruptions. Vesicular eczema on the fingers. George: Nat-s. is famous for its action on the lungs and especially for producing asthma. It was the main remedy with Kent for asthma. But you have to have certain characteristics. I wanted to play a trick with you. I wanted to take a case of Kent's and give it to you as mine. And you would see the way he prescribes. You can take a case and repertorize it and see that from repertorization you will find nothing. You will never get the remedy from the repertorization (alone). Unless you do this kind of thinking, this and this and this and that, then it goes to that remedy, you will not find how to prescribe. It is exactly this kind of prescription, and he was getting the same cases of course, today we get much worse cases they are much worse than he used to get. When you read a Tarent. case and the doctor brings the case and says, "What shall I give? I have been giving all these remedies and they have not helped." You give Tarent. How? By taking the essence of the case and seeing one keynote symptom and deciding the essence. Very seldom will you have one remedy coming from repertorization - very seldom! It is unfortunate that in our school we teach that we must repertorize and this is the totality, and the students go away and they find that this does not tally with reality. What it actually means is that the totality is the essence. We say the essence is Kali-c. Now it can be Nat-s. We now want one or two symptoms to support either the one or the other. PAGE 102 Response: The 2 a.m. aggravation goes with Kali-c. George: So this is the 2 a.m. aggravation. And "sitting ameliorates" is one of the characteristics of Kali-c. Of course these are not easy cases. I brought you difficult cases on purpose. Response: With this one I saw Kali-c. and then Stan. George: You said, "I saw Kali-c.", and most of you saw Kali-c. Oh, four only. Okay. That is a small number. Well, four is a good number for this case. You say, "I saw Kali-c. but I did not give it." Why? You had to have more weighing factors than another remedy to prescribe that. Now she takes the remedy. Let's see if we can prescribe further. She takes the remedy. This is an interesting case and I will tell you why. This is 1m. We gave 1m of Kali-c. We might as well proceed further. There is no point in exploring all of these possibilities. Question: Is this absolutely clear?
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George: No, it is not clear. Actually, I had written as a second possibility, in case this did not work, Kali-n. Question: Why that rather than Sulph.? Rather than Kali-s.? George: Kali-s. in asthma has a peculiarity which is very seldom, and that is wheezing. With the others there is more a deep but rather light hawking sound. In children it is a very good remedy to remember with asthmatic or bronchial trouble. They will have a lot of wheezing. If you open the repertory, it will show you Kali-c. with wheezing and Kali-bi. I think, and Kali-ar. Kali-s. maybe in italics. Question: Would you go over closed remedies briefly? The Natrums and Kali's and others? George: Staph., Arum, Lil-t. I would have to have the list of remedies to remember. From the Natrums, the Nat-s is the most basic. Question: Down to earth, do you mean? George: Down to earth. Less sensitive in the way that we are talking about sensitivity. PAGE 103 Question: Closed? George: Closed. But not MOST closed. More down on the scale I gave you. It would be Nat-s., Nat-p., Nat-m. Question: What does this have to do with closed? George: All of the Nat. patients are sensitive and closed, more or less. Closed into themselves. But in Nat-s. you do not have the sensitivity which you find in Nat-m. It is more a down to earth sensitivity. So what would you expect in that case ... Response: Is improvement. (Laughter) George: The eczema has to shoot out. Question: Does Kali-c. have eczema? George: It has, and peculiarly enough it has fungoid reactions and eruptions around the fingernails and toenails and the tips of the fingers. This is characteristic of Kali-c. actually. It is one of the characteristics. You will not find it in the ... you see, fungoid eruptions are the fruit of our generation. The antibiotics have taken over. I had one of the worst cases of fungoid infection in the fingers, with a fever. There was inflammation which was so much that the person got fever. This is always around the fingers and under the nails of the fingers. Now the most interesting thing in this case is that the eczema becomes much worse with itching and pain, worse between 2 and 3 in the morning. The asthma improved. The eczema replaced the time aggravation of the asthma. That is very interesting. Question: What is the date of the follow up? George: Fifth month. The date of the first interview was April. She came in in less than a month because she was annoyed with the fingers which had broken out tremendously. Question: Was it three weeks later? George: About three weeks it was the 5th of May. No, it was the 20th. She says that she has another ten days to go which means that this was the 20th day after the visit, complaining now about the eruptions. This is the time when we know that the remedy has acted. Once you have produced a reaction, you know that you have done something. The pain in the hands was better if she put them in water. Generally she felt much better. There is a
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bad odour coming from the fingers. She had not had pain in the back during the 20 days since she had taken the remedy. There was no more pain. What are you going to do now? Response: Wait. PAGE 104 Response: Stick the fingers in water. (Laughter) George: We gave a placebo. She then came in after four months, cured from her eczema. Question: Did you tell her to stop taking the ointment? George: Yes. From the beginning she was not taking any other medicine. We stop all medicines in these cases. Question: Did you stop it before the remedy or at the time you gave the remedy? George: At the time we gave the remedy. Question: So you don't consider that some of the aggravation was due to the withdrawal of the ointments? George: Maybe. Response: It does not matter now, obviously. George: Yes, it does not matter. The thing is that this is a case where you have asthma going on since 1971 until 1976. That is five years. Okay. It is only for the two to three months prior to the time we saw her that she was having eruptions. This was a person who had suffered with asthma for five years. She received a lot of antibiotics during those years. She then had this fungoid trouble. This was made much worse with the remedy. She says that she had had eczema for two to three months and then she could not stand it any more and so she used Cortisone. The condition was not there because of Cortisone. She said after four months that she had been using Cortisone for one month. She used Cortisone from time to time. As soon as the eczema would withdraw, she would stop the Cortisone. Then the eczema would come out again. She still had some eczema on the hands and wrists at the time. She had developed some eczema on the calves. Most probably the doctor had said that she should withdraw from the Cortisone. What is the prescription? What do you do in a case like that? She came and said, "I have been taking Cortisone for the last month. When I stop it, the eczema comes out and when I take it, it goes in. "Now she has some eczema on the hands and on the wrists and on the calves. Question: She has not antidoted? George: What is your assessment? What is going on? Response: The Cortisone is driving it deeper, but yet the vital force seems to be trying to heal, perhaps because it has moved lower, to the calves. George: Exactly. You see a case where the organism has been strengthened by the initial Kali-c. and the suppression is something she tries to do through the Cortisone, but it does not stay. As soon as she withdraws the Cortisone, the eczema comes out again. PAGE 105 What is more the eczema starts to come up and move up into the hands and wrists. It is not confined to the fingers anymore. That means that the vital force is more strong now and as she tries to suppress it, it does not go into the lungs but goes higher in the body, towards the centre. Now you have that state. What are you going to do? Response: Wait. George: Give Cortisone? (Laughter) Response: Placebo. George: We gave a placebo and told her to stop Cortisone. What would you expect now?
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Response: She came back. George: She came back, but it seemed that now the force of the eczema is not so much anymore. By waiting all of these months, after all, there was a process of cure taking place. Question: What is the date now? George: The date is October 18, 1979. She said that immediately after the medicines she had an aggravation. This was after the placebo, but it was due to the withdrawal of the Cortisone. For two weeks she left it out. She had made wounds which eventually healed up. Now she only has a kind of itching during the night, after she has gone to sleep. She has not been aware of the time. Why? Because it is not as impressive. It does not wake her up. So it shows you the intensity of the eruptions. She used to wake up from symptoms of the eruptions. Question: But she is aware enough to know that it itches after she goes to bed? George: Wait a minute, there is some wrong information here. Now the eczema is still remaining. The eczema came out in the fingers and became much worse in two weeks, then it healed, but there was still some eczema remaining on the hands and wrists. She is still a very sensitive woman. Question: Did you say that the eczema is still there? George: Yes. Now this closed up after an aggravation which she had once a year on the fingers. This has gone and a little remained here and there. It does not say anything about the legs at all. That eczema is better with cold water and it is worse if she wears plastic gloves. She still cries easily, which makes her feel better. She wants to be alone. She has no fears. She sleeps well. She has an aversion to fats, sweets, and milk (which are not underlined), and she feels the cold (underlined twice). The feet are cold. What is your prescription? PAGE 106 Wait! She comes in again on December 16th, two months later. What do you think might have happened? Response: Either she is better or there is a new remedy. George: She says, the eczema has completely gone. This is the eczema that was left over. It was completely gone. But for the previous ten days, the eczema has started coming out again in the lower arm as well as in the hands. The hands had become much worse again. The itching is worse in the night and it wakes her up. She saw the clock and noted that several times it was 2 o'clock. So far, there is no trace of the asthma. She does not use any more drugs. She still has relief of the eruptions with cold water. She remains the same psychologically and is sensitive, cries (better with crying), has no fears, wants to be alone. She feels the cold. She has desire for salt (underlined once). She sleeps well. I gave a prescription here. Response: It has been only ten days, wouldn't you wait longer? George: She is quite strong. If you wait, you will just continue to have eczema. You have to do something. The way she described it, it was quite strong, and she pointed to places on her body. I will not talk about experiences and all that. I am very interested in that particular somebody, and there was nothing wrong, but I understand and I am going to tell the person what I do and do not know as far as health is concerned. Do you see what I mean. There is no prejudice against drugs but what I have experienced with drugs is something
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tremendously destructive. I have seen people completely destroyed. I remember once I saw a case in Switzerland, a young man of 27. He was a film director. He had come there and he was completely disoriented. He was an Italian. He had been using marijuana or hashish or something, in a session where they took 2-3 times more than the usual amount and they had sex several times in a continuing way. The result was complete destruction of that organism. He was not able to focus his eyes and see through the camera. He was going crazy. He was crying often. He could not see through the machine with which he had to work. He could not hold his urine. His sexual power was completely destroyed. I saw him one and a half or two years after that incident. His power of mind was nil. I said to myself, "What can I do?" I gave him Ph-ac. and advised him to go to the mountains to become a kind of peasant, to drink milk, breathe the fresh air, never touch drugs again, be with nature, and perhaps in 2-3 years time he might start regaining his health. I have seen lives ruined completely like that. PAGE 107 And coffee, which produces a little bit of a trip, but if you take 50 cups of coffee you can see what happens. How long can your organism deal with that? Question: What do you mean five times? George: Five times the drug. You see usually the usual doses if you are anxious and they prescribe Valium 5 for you. That is 0.5 mgm. This is 25 mgm. for the organism in order to produce that effect. Question: 500 normal drug? George: Normal drug dose. It is like a trip. Question: As a result of ... George: In order to have a trip ... What do you call it? Response: Get off on it. George: Get off the ground. Flying all the time and spaced out. Question: You are saying that in order to have a hallucinatory effect you need 5 times the therapeutic dose. George: Yes. And the effect is such a big shock. In a sensitive organism if that is repeated maybe once a week or so, there is no possibility of getting away without effects. If the health department of the United States heard me talking like that, they would give me an official prescription to wipe out. I have nothing against drugs. It is okay if somebody likes to take them, but one must know the consequences. How often will hallucinatory drugs antidote homoeopathic remedies? George: Every time. Even one time I will say will antidote it in a sensitive organism. For your organism it will take three or four times. Question: Do you mean like Marijuana? George: Yes. Four times Marijuana will antidote. In his case it was one. For Bill's case two. For Deane four. For Morrison seven. (Laughter) Question: Say if a person smoked Marijuana once every two weeks for seven weeks, they would antidote the remedy? George: Yes. Question: Once a year for six years and then in the seventh year? (Laughter). George: I am just giving you the indications. PAGE 108
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Question: Is there a lot of Marijuana used in Greece? Have you experienced quite a few patients who have used it? George: Lately. There is a very small percentage. Question: Don't they mostly use hashish there? It is pretty strong. George: I don't know. I really don't know. We have treated some addicts. We are famous for that - for curing drug addicts. One will send the other because they know each other. One will be completely spaced out and he will come to homoeopathy for treatment. We have treated cases where they have recovered and then relapsed. They never came back. We have had other cases where they stayed off the drug and remained well. Question: Do you have any idea what the cure rate is? George: In these cases it would depend on the severity of the case. A real drug addict uses heroin and cocaine. They are very very bad. I had a case of cocaine which had produced a degeneration of the veins. I think it is famous for doing that. It causes an arteritis. There was degeneration and indolent ulcers. I had a case of a very healthy woman. She had been in Morocco or some place like that. She came to me and said "I have this and it is undiagnosed". She was American. I took her case and saw that it was Calc. Without talking, I gave it to her. I said, "This is your medicine. Come after a month and we will see what has happened." Being an American, she said, "What is that?" I said, "This is a homoeopathic drug." She said, "What is a homoeopathic drug?" I told her that it was a drug that would help her. "It is going to help me? With what? What do I have?" She was very cheeky. Instead of answering what she had I said, "Where were you before you came to Athens?" She said, "Morocco". So I asked, "You were together with a friend or by yourself?" I wanted to find out the circumstances under which she took cocaine. She told me then that she had been with a friend. Very good. "Did you enjoy yourself there?" "Why not?" She said. So I answered, "Two weeks means you are enjoying yourself." I asked, "Did you take drugs?" "Yes, sometimes I did." "What kind of drugs?" She said, "Hashish, Marijuana." I said, "You are not taking Cocaine?" "Oh yes, I took it," she said. "How many times?" "I don't know," she said, and she aggravated with all this questioning. She did not like the degree of investigation. I said to her, "How many times"? "Three or four." "That is why you have cocaine side-effects," I told her. "Nobody told me that." So I said to her, "I am telling you that. Take the medicine and go home." Sure enough, it was Calc. She was having drugs of course. She had taken a lot of drugs. But the influence of the drug was not there. She was present, in spite of the arteries being so much effected. This means that she has taken a lot of cocaine you have to in order to produce that. She was a girl of under 30 years old. And she was Calc. Within a month the ulcers closed up and disappeared. When she came back, she had none. She said, "I am okay, bye bye." She did not want to pay for the second visit, of course, because she was okay. PAGE 109 Question: Would you mind talking about predispositions to drug use versus the will? That is a real big question for me. Question: I work in a population in which 90% of the people are drug users. George: I feel sorry for you in having to dispense homoeopathic remedies in drug users. They will relapse with a mathematical exactness. They will relapse. You may give a remedy and you may not even produce the effects of that remedy. You give it and after 10 days they will not feel the effects.
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Question: A puff of Marijuana is worse than a shot of whiskey? George: Whiskey is sugar and the body can tolerate it and process it and throw away the effects. If you tell me, "I smoke Marijuana every day, but it has no effect on me at all," I would say that for you it is harmless. But if you tell me, "I smoke Marijuana and it has an effect," the more effect it has the more the damage. That is the law. You will see a weak constitution and how the person will need a series of remedies before she can come into balance and how easily a weak constitution can regress and go into a kind of relapse. PAGE 110 12 Cystitis after abortion [ - Cystitis after abortion] Pulsatilla pratensis (puls.) Case This woman is 45 years old. She came in 1975 and said that she was suffering from repeated episodes of cystitis after an abortion. This had been present for the last 20 years. During the exacerbation of the crisis, she had burning before urination. At the end of urination there was a kind of "sweet pain", as she called it. There was frequent urination which was late to start. She had two more abortions and she had a fibroma removed from the uterus. Question: The uterus itself was not removed? George: No. The menses had stopped after the fibroma was removed. No, menses came twice after the fibroma operation and then stopped. Now she has no menses. She has had flushes (underlined twice) for many years. She did not specify how many. Irritability (underlined twice), which is worse before menses. She was exciteable and cannot stay inside the house. She wants to go outside. She cannot stay alone in a room. She wants company. She sleeps well. She sleeps mostly on the right side, but can sleep on the left. Feet were cold in the beginning. She is worse when warm (underlined three times), cannot tolerate tight clothes around the throat, weeps easily, sympathetic (underlined twice), has anxiety about her own people, anxiety about health (underlined twice), anxiety about heart (underlined once), cannot tolerate seeing blood and cannot go to a hospital. She has fear about staying alone (underlined three times), fear of the dark (underlined three times), fear of thunderstorms (underlined three times), fear of robbers and ghosts (underlined once). She has an aversion to cats and dogs - she was disgusted with them, (underlined twice), has a good appetite, desires sweets (twice), eggs (twice), fruits (twice), lemons (twice), sour things (twice), she is disgusted with fat from lamb; she cannot take fat from veal. How would you expect thirst to be? High, normal or low? Response: High. George: Normal. Claustrophobia (underlined twice). She likes the sea and cloudy weather brings out irritability (underlined once). When she takes a cold, she becomes very red in her face. She has allergies to different creams and cosmetics. Who knows the remedy? PAGE 111 Response: Puls. and Phos. George: Okay, who wants to give Puls.? Who wants to give Phos.? Some are neutral, yes?
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Response: I'll give Puls. George: What is it that makes you give Puls. in a case where fear of the dark is severe and fear of being alone is underlined twice. Anxiety of others is underlined twice. You have a Phos. symptomatology. She has hot flushes. Response: These flushes began with hormonal changes. George: And the person is weepy. This is Puls. mostly. That is how you get the remedy. This is an easy case. No? We prescribe Puls. 10m. For the first week she had a lot of burning from the urethra. She came in to us at the end of the month - 13th of November 1975. And we saw her again on the 19th of December 1975, for follow up. She said that the burning was intense for one week, but after that week, all of the cystitis symptomatology had subsided. She said that she felt much better generally and psychologically she was much better. She had less flushes. She had a tolerance of clothes. The anxiety about health was minimal. The claustrophobia was still present but less. She said that she desired fruits and milk. This was underlined once. What is your prescription? Response: Wait. George: Okay. She then comes after exactly four months...no, it was five months. She came on the 15th of April. You must be careful to give a good prescription now. She said, "One week ago for three days I had a kind of feeling of fullness in the urethra." This lasted for three days and then was gone. "For the last ten days I have had some pain in the right shoulder joint on lifting weight. Sometimes I wake up in the night with a flush. Sometimes I have some stitches on the thighs." She desired fruits (underlined twice). What is your prescription? Responses: Wait. George: Who would give a prescription? Nobody? Okay, let's wait. She comes on 7th October of 1976, six months later. It has been almost a year since the starting of the treatment and she said that she was generally much better. The only thing is that the blood pressure was 145, which I consider normal. PAGE 112 Question: Was this systolic or diastolic? George: 145 is the maximum. Response: Systolic. George: Now it is 100/80. I was considering this as normal. The pressure has come down, which indicates that she had a slight high blood pressure. She was generally well. She only came because of some moles ... no not moles or warts... freckles. Not even a placebo was given and we said, "You can go." Question: Wouldn't you say that she was a little anxious about health? (Laughter). Response: Or appearance. George: Yes, that is possible. Now she comes in January of 1977 and she has tachycardia again as she did in the beginning. Did she mention tachycardia in the beginning? Response: No. George: So she mentioned that she had tachycardia "like in the beginning". She went to a cardiologist two days before she came to us and he had given her medicines for that. She was taking that. She said, "I wake up around 4 o'clock and then I sleep again at 6. Sometimes I have some anxiety and there is some anxiety about health." She had less fears, but the disgust for cats and dogs is still there. The X-rays revealed an old
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tuberculosis. There was more irritability (underlined once), some flushes, but not to the extent that she had had before. She had less trouble with claustrophobia in closed places. She desires lemonades (not underlined), and lately she became thirsty (underlined three times). The blood pressure was again 155/80 and the pulse was 68. What is your prescription? Response: That is a very warm month? George: No, October is a cold month. January is the coldest month. The thirst is underlined three times. Irritability is underlined once. Question: How high is the tachycardia? George: 68. Because she is taking the drug. What she is essentially complaining of is waking up in the night and flushes of heat and some anxiety and a little irritability with thirst, which is increasing. What are you going to do now? What is your prescription? Response: Stop the drugs. Wait until the picture becomes clear. Wait. Response: Phos. PAGE 113 George: Thirst, but what other symptomatology is present that you would give Phos. Desires lemonades? No, that is very little. Sleeplessness between 4 and 6 a.m. ? Question: How do we know it is not during the drugs? George: Sulph. is a possibility. Question: She also had that pain in her left ... George: But are you sure? This is why we say give a drug when you are sure. This is what we mean. Here we are not really sure. The patient seems to suffer a lot. So withdraw from the remedy and drugs and take a placebo. See what happens. Question: Come back in a week? George: In a month. Response: In a month! George: This is a tachycardia. What is there? Response: It depends on the number - 200? George: 68. Question: Why did these symptoms go to her heart? George: I don't know. We may see later. Response: It may not relate technically to her heart. It might be a collection of anxiety. Question: Did the cardiologist just give a sedative? George: I don't know the drug. Most probably. She took the placebo which we gave and stopped the medicine. The day of the next visit that we are talking about is January 13th. She came again around the middle to the end of May, after four months. She took the remedy and was better, but when she stopped the remedy, she returned again to the allopathic drugs. We needed patient education, yes. We cannot educate everybody. You will see what she is doing later on. Question: By stopping the remedy, you mean the placebo? George: Yes, the placebo. After she took the placebo, she most probably had some tachycardia and she was afraid, so she took the medicine that the cardiologist gave her. She took this cardiologist's medication for three months. She said that as soon as she would lie down and until sleep would come, there was a palpitation. At the same time she would feel a palpitation involving the entire body.
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She would have palpitations from the time she would lie down until sleep would come. She felt palpitations all over the body. She was dyspnoeic on walking and would need to take deep breaths. When she was nervous, she would have a stitching pain in the chest (no underline). She was easily excited, especially after some news, whether good or not. She was feeling irritable when she would come from a social gathering. She was generally quite irritable. She would remember something that someone had done to her and sleep would not come. She would think, "Why did they do that to me?", etc. She was very easily vexed. Irritability was underlined twice. With irritability this person would start to be nervous. She herself said, "I was not like that before." She would wake up in the night with pain in the right shoulder blade area - scapula. She wanted still to go out all the time and she uncovered her feet during sleep. She had an aversion to fat (underlined twice), wanted less salt, desires orange juice, lemon juice, and milk. She had no specific desire for sweets. She had fear of robbers. She still had disgust for cats and dogs. Her brother had had tuberculosis. Cloudy weather made her irritable and she had brittle nails. The aversion to fat was underlined twice. PAGE 114 Question: And what was the symptom right after that? George: Desires salt less. Question: I gather that she is still warm-blooded. Does she still stick her feet out? George: I suppose so. It doesn't say here. Question: She likes to go outside still? George: She feels bored in the house and she likes to go out just to walk about. She says she did not have this irritability before. She is easily vexed. The description which she gives here is that she can remember something that someone has done to her even two months ago and she may not be able to sleep because of that. What remedy is this? Response: That is Nat-m. George: Yes. She now goes towards a kind of sensitivity. Question: Did you prescribe that remedy? It goes towards a kind of humiliation. George: Yes, I prescribed that. Question: What potency? George: What remedy? Response: The Nat-m. George: Oh no, I did not prescribe that. I thought you asked me whether I had prescribed or the doctor. PAGE 115 Question: The policy you have of keeping them on the medications does that also apply to hypertensive medications? George: No, unless it is a serious arteriosclerotic person with high blood pressure, and then they would keep the medication. Question: She was taking the medication during the first remedy? George: Yes, and she keeps on taking the remedy. She took the remedy for three months and then she came in and gave this changed kind of case. We prescribed ... Question: Sulph? George: It is not clear but I will tell you what I prescribed. Do we have another remedy coming up and what is it?
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Several responses: Tub. George: There is a Tub. underneath that remedy. The X-ray specialists saw an old tuberculosis and the brother had tuberculosis. There is an aversion to cats and dogs, which you remember is a tubercular trait. She has an aversion to fat and she is still warm and sticks her feet out. She wants to go out. Our choice would be between repeating Puls. which seems to be changing, and have as a possibility the Tub. What I did here was to give 1m of Puls. In case there was no effect after 20 days, she could take 200 of Tub. We do that sometimes, we let the patient decide. Question: In that kind of situation, what are the chances that you are going to suppress or disrupt her case if Puls. is not right, for example, Isn't it correct. Then would Tub. still be indicated? George: Yes. You can suppress the case and the indicated remedy will unravel it. Question: Even if a new feature comes out? George: Yes, yes. Say underneath that Tub. is indicated. If we give a remedy and we suppress it a little bit, or you change the symptomatology a little bit. you give Tub. and it is going to act. Question: Why did you go down in potency, from 10m or 1m? George: I don't know. Oh no, it is 1m. It looked like 10m. but it is 1m. You can confirm that. So what has happened so far? Puls. acted. In spite of this fact, she took the Tub. on top of that. The Tub. had no side-effects. Response: When! Question: How could that be if the whole picture had changed? PAGE 116 Question: Can we finish the case the next time we get together? George: Yes. George: We first prescribed Puls. and then Tub. The Puls. acted and then she took the Tub. although she was well. After this the cardiologist said that she could stop her medication. Now the report is that they had bought a car but she did not trust her husband she was not at ease when she would go with him in the car. She had fear that they might have an accident. The tachycardia and the irritability were better and psychologically she was better. She did not have as much dyspnoea on exertion and there was no pain in the right scapula. During the last few days ... few weeks rather ... she had a red reaction over the body, like nettles. The only areas that did not have it were the face and the back. She had a "stitching" sensation and she was worse on entering the sea. She had felons (paronychiae). She had a slight pain in the left hip joint, worse on standing and worse on pressure, better on lying down. There was a mole which had become large; this was on her face. She still likes to be outside. She had thirst (underlined twice), she is feeling the heat (underlined two or three times), perspiration on the face, she does not like the sun, she used to like fat but lately she has developed an aversion. She had fear of thunderstorms and fear of being alone but these were not underlined. In the beginning she said something about an aversion to fat, only lumpy and from lamb. But now she had a complete aversion. Response: She originally had this underlined twice on lamb. But she could take some veal fat. Response: It became underlined twice in May I believe. George: Yes, that is right. So this continues.
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What is your remedy now, with that reaction? Responses: Wait! George: If you practise it in your offices as you appear to know it now, it is really very good and you must be careful not to give too many remedies too frequently. She comes in - you see we don't see the patient's eruptions. It is not on her face. We would tend to give a remedy. Of course here things are much lower toned. You don't have the pressure of the patient. You have to see a case objectively. What is best for your patient. That is to wait. Never mind that he may go to Cortisone. Question: I have a question about Tub. George: She took it without effect. Question: How do you know that there was no effect? PAGE 117 George: She was much better from the beginning. On the 20th day there was no change. She took the Tub., but she continued to be better. There was no effect at all, at least that she could notice and tell us in taking the Tub. And the fact that from the beginning the doctor specializes here. From the beginning (Puls). It makes it clear. Question: It seems like from what we have been hearing is that when the remedy is close but not accurate, it is easy to suppress or disrupt a case. Looking at the case before, it seems like the Tub. probably was fairly close. I am surprised that it did not disrupt her case. George: It did not. Question: Luck? (Laughter) George: This is our experience. This is what we see. You do not have to be afraid at all. If you just give one remedy and wait maybe 20 days and then give another remedy and wait another month or two months. You do not need to be afraid in that practice because you know what you are doing. You have to be afraid when you get interactions. She took Tub. and telephoned two days later. She said, "Nothing. What am I going to do?" She takes Sulph. and after three days nothing and, "What can I do?" Give Graph. and nothing. Take Nat-s. and nothing. Take Sulph. and nothing. And then you start messing up the case. This is the type of homoeopathy - which is still good. This homoeopathy that I am relating to you is still good in comparsion. When I relate this to you and you say, "Oh my God, how can we do this?" So don't be afraid even if you have disrupted the case, you can fix it up as long as you have the courage to wait and see the new remedy and see what happens. But not in chronic cases do you change if there is nothing within 2-3 days, and then in 20 days you have five remedies. Then there is an aggravation but which has acted? You think that it is the last one, but it is not necessarily. It might be the first one that is acting now on the 20th day. Then you are misled. You are also allowed to give a remedy and change even after 2 hours in very severe cases where the life is threatened. You are allowed to change 10 remedies within 3 hours if you are to save the patient. So what does it matter which acted? You can give all 20 again if there is a relapse. But what do we do? We give a remedy and then we wait 5 days and then they are in a collapsed state. How long can you wait if the person is in a collapsed state? Response: It has just been so impressed upon us about suppressions and disruptions that it is nice to hear it celarly outlined. George: This has been stressed a little bit more than it should be. The type of homoeopathy we are doing, at least I have not seen .. I have seen disruptions, yes, but if
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we have a disruption - even a big one - I have related a case to you of thyroidism where there was swelling of the thyroid with symptomatology. She was given one dose of a remedy and she came after a year with the results. We had lost the case. I could not find an envelope. We took the case and gave another remedy. She came back and said, "I am a little better in regard to pain, but I am worse with this and worse with that." This was after a month. Every month is what I am relating to you now. She comes in after another month and we give another remedy. She could not eat and she had to drink whatever she ate. She had different fears developing. We gave a third remedy. She came back after yet another month with this and that fear. Psychologically she was having different symptomatologies. The person was really going from bad to worse. So it was the third or the fourth time that I said, "We have to find the envelope." I could not trace the original remedy any more and I said I gave up. We HAD to find the envelope. Sure enough we searched again and we found the remedy which was Sil. The way that we had made up the case, we would never have found Sil. We then gave her 10m and the case went beautifully. You could not make Sil. about the symptoms she was giving on the later visits. Once you know the remedy, or if you can find the remedy, it can still work because there is no change in level. There is something that has been added to that level or that layer and they now need the previous one again. PAGE 118 Our experiences are the things from which we have to draw conclusions. They are very useful experiences. DON'T FORGET THE REMEDY THAT HAS ACTED. KEEP IT IN MIND AND GIVE IT FIRST. Don't throw away the remedy that has acted very easily. You have to have a real change in the picture. In this case you see how very important it is to take into consideration all of the details of what we are saying here. In the last case where she says, "I have taken this and this and that and have changed", you know psychologically that she has changed, but this I believe is the course of the remedy that she was taking. It was a hot remedy. And yet, though the case was going towards Nat-m. psychologically, Puls. ... if we had the original case as it was presented, we would have said Nat-m. Puls. was still hot. She still wanted to go out in the open air. We had characteristics of Puls. Some portions had changed, yet Puls. acted well. Now we will go further. Question: So if you are wrong and it has actually gone past Puls. and has become Natm.? George: Puls. will do nothing. So you would come back to the same symptomatology. Question: So in a disrupted case, it is still close to the Puls.? PAGE 119 George: It is a bit doubtful. This friend of ours who was here yesterday with the medication? Response: Daniel, the Nat-m. George: I said this is the type of Nat-m. I don't mean that you must go and give him Natm. or that he must take it. But the face had some things of the Nat-m. What is that? There is a streak. What would you say that his characteristics is as far as pathology related to emotional levels? Response: Righteousness? George: You see it from another point of view. I see it as a homoeopath, of course. There is a tinge of hysteria behind it.
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Response: He is a Muktananda follower. (Laughter) George: A tinge of hysteria. That person, if he lets his emotions out, the inner and deeper emotions will become a kind of hysterical fit. Now in his eyes, if you noticed, there is this second line underneath the lower lid with dryness. In him it is hardly noticeable. It is just an impression. There are children that you will notice this in very much. Question: It is usually a pretty deep line? George: Pretty deep, yes. In hysterical Nat-m. children, they have this skinny look. He is an introverted person. He is not Phos. and an extrovert. He has made himself an extrovert. Response: He surely seems outgoing. His emotions seem very subdued. George: The impression they give is because they have put on a facade because of the spiritual practices. He has to be soft. But behind you will see. Never look at the facade of a person. You have to see what is behind it. That is what you are interested in. There is the pathology and there you will find the real learning - the lesson. A person who looks hard and as though no one can come near him can be very soft inside. And you know that deep kindness, but there is a kind of protection that one can put up. In Nat-m.... the spiritual people who are Nat-m. - maybe it is not Nat-m, but that is the impression he has given me - it is that behind that there is a sensitive, withdrawn person who has suffered a lot emotionally. All of this emotional suffering is going higher now. He is trying to turn and to mutate emotions. He is trying to precipitate the emotions into a new state of mind. He is trying. But still the elements of his character are there. Question: You started out by saying that there was a doctor that you knew who went to social gatherings ... PAGE 120 George: Oh, yes. So he would go to social gatherings and say, "Oh, take Puls. 50m ", or, "Take 30m of Lach.", and he was just throwing away 50m's like that. Response: B. was telling us a story about Swami Rama and Syphilinum. George: Oh, yes. (Laughs) Swami Rama, you know. This is another one of those remedies given by just looking and saying, "Take that." You have to consider that before you take it. You have to consider it very very well. WE HAVE A POWERFUL TOOL IN OUR HANDS AND WE HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL HOW WE USE IT. Otherwise we shall lose the knowledge. It is peculiar. You take a person who is very successful and then he goes off in his mind and becomes a superman and a god who goes around saying, "Take this, or take that and you will be well". He loses completely his mind and his power - everything! It is gone. I have seen this in people overtaken by selfishness because they sold effects, and the patients adored him. WHEN I HAVE A NEW CASE I FEEL THAT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! I am trembling inside of myself. You know, you can always be absolutely sure and then ... poof! it is off. Response: That is very reassuring. (Laughter) George: Now what is this mistake that I made in prescribing in that case. The date is September, 1977 - that is two months later with one month on placebo and one month without any medicines. She says that she kept on breaking out with eruptions, sometimes out and sometimes in - that is, sometimes yes and sometimes no. The mole on the face had become much bigger lately and sometimes it would leak. Now she comes because there is a fungus on the nails. You see how beautifully that case is going? It is going
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towards the skin. There were skin eruptions and the other eruptions and the mole is getting bigger. This is a good sign. Then there are now the areas of fungus. Periodically she has some itching in the fingers. She says, "Generally if I go outside I am much better, but if I go to the sea, everything goes away. If I go to the sea." The eruptions are subdued and the itching is less when she goes to the sea. "Sometimes I have cramping sensations in the heart, periodic tachycardias." She has irritability (underlined twice). She is very vital and gets angry easily. She swears very much. She says, "I swear and I don't feel any remorse." She curses. She feels the heat (underlined 3 times). Lately she said that she was worse with sex. She had not referred to sex at any time in the past. Question: Worse after sex? PAGE 121 George: No, during sex. What she means is explained later on. She feels a frigidity towards her husband, mainly in sex, but generally she started disliking him very much. She was easily angered with him. She wanted to go out of the house. Her husband is a closed person and she wants to communicate and does not get it. The fear about the car has gone. Aversion to fat comes with no underlining this time. She likes to eat bread with vinegar. She prefers sour foods. She likes vinegar and foods which are sour - green foods. Lately she had been falling asleep because of thinking. She wakes up unrefreshed. There is pain in the lumbar region if she stands for some time. She has fear of thunderstorms (underlined once), there is a little bit of claustrophobia, and there is an aversion to cats she does not talk about dogs this time. She wants cold water but has normal thirst. When she smokes she feels a kind of mucus in the throat and she wants to swallow or cough to get it out. Here is where I made the mistake. Response: It could be Puls. again because she is still very much worse with heat and she wants contact with her husband. George: In that case what we see is that everything points to Med. There is the desire for sour things, for green fruits, and even the fears are Med. (fear of thunderstorms), the irritability and the cursing and the mucus in the throat. This is a perfect case, I thought, of Med. Question: But she is so hot. George: She is hot of course. Response: But it is September, also. George: Sure, but still she is too hot for Med. The desire for vinegar and sour fruits is not underlined. So I prescribed 1m of Med. That was a mistake. Most probably from the report which we shall see here. And this is interesting to see the psychology of the person. She is angry and she brings it up. She curses as well. But it is interesting from the point of view that what is happening here is that we have a maximization of the anger or something else is going on. You see the person gets ... you will see now, the person ... Question: What is the date, George? George: December 23, 1977. The person says, "I did not see sufficient amelioration." This was the way she said this. She had been well all this time and she did not want to displease the doctor by saying that she was the same right away. So that was the way she put it - not sufficient amelioration. I did not know what that meant. The nails continued with the fungus and they were now brittle and breaking away. There was now some pus and some pain which
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was a problem. She had irritability (underlined 3 times), swearing (twice), easily angered and fighting (three times), again there was irritability (three times). There was redness of the nose and she quarreled with her husband. This was done very often. There was a kind of dyspnoea if she would walk much. Sex was the same or even worse. There was an aversion to fats (underlined twice). The sleeping and the waking was better. For the last few days she had been waking up at 5 a.m. She would lie mostly on her right side. The feet were cold, but she prefers cold weather. She desired company and consolation. She desired salty meat (underlined once), and there was an aversion to fats (underlined once). PAGE 122 Question: What do you mean, "salty meat"? Is that something in Greece? George: Salt AND meat. She desires salt (underlined once) and meat (underlined once). She had an aversion to fat (two times). Immediately you can see that she has written twice with different underlining. I am just translating what I read. What do we notice here? Response: Irritability. She is worse emotionally. George: The irritability is tremendous. She still brings it out and swears and quarrels. Something is disturbing that patient. What do you think has done this? Has our remedy made this disturbance? Response: Maybe. What is going on with the husband? George: We have a tip that she is not doing well with her husband. Question: Don't you think the remedy stirred it up? George: It is happening during the time of the treatment because it is already how long since we have begun - about one and a half years or something like that. During all this time she has come in about six times. Many things can happen emotionally. And it is interesting how great this aggravation is. What would you do here? Response: You could repeat the Puls. It worked so well in the past and if there isn't a problem in her relationship, it would help. Response: A year ago it was so incredible. George: What could we have done here? You see the irritability is so much and the cursing and all of that and the person is really aggravated. I could not yet see the remedy. So what I did was to give Puls. 10m. Question: Why? Was it because it worked previously? PAGE 123 George: Because I did not have a better idea and she still said that she preferred cold (underlined). She liked to go out and then she had some old symptoms on top of that. It was a miserable prescription. Miserable! Question: What would you recommend? George: What I would recommend now, afterwards ... you see, I had made a mistake. I should have waited. Question: Waited for what? To see another picture come up? George: Yes. She waited for four months and on April 15, 1978 she came in with almost the whole story. She had spoken about irritability, about cursing, but she did not give any reason for that. Now she gives the reason. She said that since quite a long time she has noticed that her sister and brother-in-law kept their distance. She was being ignored. She did not know why. She asked them why, but they would not say. This situation had given her much grief. As a result of that, "my nervous system is a wreck." She said, "As soon as
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I go to their house I have tachycardia and a kind of constriction in the throat." She wakes up at 3 a.m. suddenly. As soon as the wakes up, all kind of thoughts and questions come into her mind and she cannot go to sleep again until 5 o'clock. There were questions, "What happened? What happened?" She would wake up finally at 6 o'clock (underlined once), very tired. As long as she is in bed, she feels very tired. This is an intersting phrase and you have to see the essence to get the remedy. Question: But she says that she feels tired if she stays in bed too long? George: Yes. Too long. She says, "I am complaining because I have given of myself to my sister and my brother-in-law a lot and they did not appreciate it." Now she says that with the last medicine she had experienced a kind of amelioration. The picture seems the same. Later on you will see when she talks about irritability etc. Tachycardia (underlined twice), again the heart problem. Worse when she first lies in bed (underlined twice), better on the right side. She has stage fright when there are a lot of people or if she goes to the doctor. Irritability (underlined three times). She says, "I am cursing worse than a man" (Underlined three times). "The irritability and cursing was a bit better with the last medicine you gave me." She has a tightness of the toes (?) and has to urinate immediately, otherwise she will lose the urine. She has anxiety about health (underlined twice), fear of cancer (underlined twice). She had sighing for three months (underlined three times). She desired fruits and spinach (underlined twice), feels the heat (underlined twice), but the feet are cold. During the night she uncovers them. PAGE 124 Question: The feet are cold, but she uncovers them during the night? George: Yes. They get warm eventually and then she uncovers them. Indifference to sex. She says, "The orgasm is delayed because I think about my husband while we are having sex and I swear at him." Question: So she is angry at him for something. George: She is not actually saying it, but thinks it. She still likes to go outside. She cannot concentrate. Worse with the sun. Very sensitive to noise. For the past two or three days she had been waking up with flushes of heat. Blood pressure was 130/80. She started the heart remedy a month previously because of the palpitations etc. She says, "I have become a very hard person. I cannot cry." But she can tell her problems and that makes her feel better. Now, think about that. I will analyze the case and you will see the remedy. However, search for yourself and keep the remedy to yourself. Now the first thing we have to think about is, do we have to change the remedy? If you would give the same remedy, why? Response: It helped, but it didn't hold. What does that indicate? Response: There might be an obstacle to cure in her relationship. George: There is of course this problem which she relates. But what is it that makes you go away from Puls. at this stage? Response: "Can't concentrate." It is going the wrong way. George: She cannot cry. That is one which takes away Puls. What is the other one? Response: The cursing is too much for Puls. George: She is aggressive. She shouts and curses very much (underlined three times), and then she is irritable (underlined three times). And she says, "I have become hard." She is a hard person. It seems that the problem really has created another image which is
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not as deep as before. Puls. was deep enough. Now the problem that poses anew does not go to bring about a relapse of the case. It does not go as deep, but creates the image of another drug, which is a better situation to have. A very important point that you have to take into consideration here is, she says, "They don't talk to me. I have given a lot and they do not appreciate how much I have done for them." "I have become hard and I cannot concentrate and I am cursing." Just take that into consideration. She is not appreciated. PAGE 125 Response: Anac.? George: The cursing is tremendous and she has become a hard person and she cannot concentrate. "I am not appreciated." What is the image? She has given so much that they do not appreciate. It is a kind of feeling of inferiority. The grief is suppressed. The expression that her anger takes, and the hardness is the type that we find in Anac. No one thought of Anac. before? No response. So, all of this grief, you see how Anac. is produced now. There is that feeling of failure and of not being recognized. This is the main theme for her that they do not recognize her. "They do not appreciate me." Response: When Dulc. feels not appreciated, do they just grieve and suppress? George: Yes, this is, another type, this Dulc. What we see here is the hardness. She understands it and she talks about it. Do we speak of hardness with Dulc.? No. Do we speak about giving out anger in such a foul language? No. She feels unappreciated. That is one point that sticks above all the others. It seems that this person had the possibilities of bringing out an Anac. situation, but if the grief continues and becomes worse, what would you expect? A kind of relapse. Question: What potency of Anac. was given? George: 200. She then comes back at the end of the year of 1978 and said... Question: What date? George: November 27, 1978. She said she was doing beautifully with the medicine, but for almost two months she had had a kind of anxiety which was initiated by an accident of her husband. Three months ago she started drinking coffee because she felt so well. She awakes suddenly betweed 3 and 4 a.m. with tachycardia which lasts for about an hour. She also feels that her body is heavy during sleep. She says that her body feels so heavy that she cannot even tolerate her pyjamas. The irritability started again during the last two months. Lately she started swearing again. You see, the swearing had gone completely because there was no need to swear any more. This is interesting. The irritability and swearing started again (underlined three times), she cannot stand the least contradiction. She cannot concentrate when she is reading. Again she has mucus in the throat, especially in the evenings, and she had to cough it up. She had sighing again (underlined twice). The aversion to sex returned. It had gone away after Anac. She said that in the past she used to get headaches before menses. For the last few months she had had these headaches before her menses again. She had anxiety about her own health and the health of others (underlined once), numbness in the head sometimes, cold feet, worse with heat (underlined only once), during sleep the feet would again become warm and she would uncover them. She had an empty feeling in the mornings at 5 a.m. which
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would go away if she drinks a little bit of water. She is worse with noise (underlined three times), worse with sun (underlined once), and another mole has come out on the face. She had an aversion to fat (underlined once), and desired meat, spinach (underlined twice), fruit (underlined once). She craves sour things in general, but rather likes them since it is not underlined. Now, what is your remedy? PAGE 126 Response: The main symptoms are still the same and so I would say Anac. George: Why? The remedy has been antidoted. She has been drinking coffee for the last three months. So the symptomatology is more or less basically the same. The irritability and the cursing are the same, although we do not see the intensity involved the first time. So the intensity is lower, but the picture in general is the same. So what would you do? Response: Anac., same potency. George: Good. Anac. 200 was repeated. She came on the 12th of September 1979. Question: She sounds a little bit worse, with tachycardia between 2 and 3 a.m. George: She was definitely in a relapsed state. Question: Then would you not up the potency? George: It is not worse from the first time. It is definitely a relapse, but of a less severe type. The way that she expresses herself, you can see it through the symptomatology. This is a bit less, but it is a relapse, definitely. She came in then about 10 months later. She said that she had been doing quite well during this time, but again she drank coffee. Response: It surely proves the point about coffee. George: You will see other cases where they have been doing very well for years and then they will come in and you say, "Have you been drinking coffee?" and they will say, "No, we kept away from coffee." And that is how we know that coffee definitely antidotes. Those who stay away stay well. PAGE 127 Question: By "drinks coffee" do you mean that she drank a cup of coffee or she was back to three or four a day? George: Yes, she was drinking it every day for the last two months. Usually it takes two or three months before they can antidote it, but sometimes it takes only five cups of coffee in sensitive individuals. And on top of that she was bitten in the sea by a fish which is very poisonous. We call it. "The Dracula of the Sea". So she took some medicine for that. Question: At this point would you tell someone, "I am sorry, but I cannot treat you"? George: It is a possibility. We have a manuscript which we give the patient which warns against drinking coffee and taking medicines. Response: You should just not show up for their appointment a couple of times. Response: When they don't show up for their apointments a couple of times, that is when I throw them out. George: Yes, you can say, "Oh, I see you have had four appointments. So pay me four times to pay for everything." The doctor is kept for one hour and cannot replace for another patient. That is not right. We are quite strict in that regard. The doctor is exhausted just sitting there and waiting for the patient to come. I want to finish this case. Do you mind if we do that before a break? Response: Yes, let's do that.
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George: You see different aspects of a case in such kinds of cases. You have a follow-up and you see what is really happening in a case and how a case is managed - not very successfully always. There were two more wrong prescriptions here. She has brought about a kind of relapse now and she says, "I am worse generally now when there is much heat. I have so much irritability that I am a crazy person with it." She fears that she may go insane. Question: Did you say that the irritability is worse with heat? George: Irritability with heat, yes. When she is with company in another house, she is okay. In these nervous irritability crises she kicks and curses, but this is lower now (under lined twice). She wants company. She is quarrelsome. She wakes up with tachycardia (not under lined). She has a heaviness in the chest and wants to sigh. She has a fear of death (underlined once), she again has a few fears for accidents, she is bothered by untidy places. She desires fruits, meats, sweets, and yoghurt (all underlined once). What are you going to do? PAGE 128 Question: How long has she been worse since she started drinking the coffee? George: She has been drinking coffee for two months and was worse lately. This was may be for one or two weeks. What are the possibilities? Response: Anac. 200. George: Another possibility? Response: Stop the coffee and wait. George: I think that to stop the coffee and wait is the best. And this is what we did. We gave Anac. 1m. And that was a complete mistake. You see, the picture had changed. It was not Anac. again. Do you see? She was going toward some other remedy perhaps. There was fear of death. There is some information here which I did not give you. It is not underlined, but she said, "I feel badly if I hear that someone has a disease." The aggravation with heat is not prominent. The fear of insanity is prominent. We may say that it is going towards Puls. or another remedy. The hardness is not there and the swearing is less and present only during the time of heat. Of course it was a mistake and she came in and told us that, "This time I had no amelioration at all." This was on November 22. Question: You did not feel that it was all right to give Puls. again even though the picture had changed drastically? Is that because it was such a deep remedy for her? George: Now? Response: No. Before the Puls. was a very deep remedy for her. But the Anac. was not. It was more superficial. When we see a change, we don't repeat it. George: Yes. Response: The essence of Puls. was still there though. Response: No, she was thirsty and other things. George: On the last report she said she was worse with heat and there was fear of insanity, which are both Puls. Question: I am hesitant to ask this but I seem to have this trouble of not knowing when you can say that it is really changing and when you can say that it is not. George: I don't want to take too much time and take symptoms one by one. You will see how it changes. Here in the last report which she gave ... I mean, we had a case of Anac. before, but here it is clear that a soft person has become hard.
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PAGE 129 A person who could cry cannot cry now anymore. She is shouting and swearing. She has become hard, okay? Now we saw that change. Now she comes and says that, "After drinking coffee I am very irritated during heat. It is like I am going crazy during heat." Question: Wasn't she worse with heat when you gave Anac.? George: No. Response: I thought it was three times. Response: But he was not saying that it was just heat. He is saying now that the cursing is not like it was under all circumstances. Now the heat bothers her and it manifests in cursing, but that is not such a whole life experience as it was before. George: By the time that we gave Anac., she was not stressing. I said that worse with heat was underlined twice and with the second Anac. it was underlined once. Now that becomes a prominent aggravation for her this heat. Do you see now? And then a new symptom comes. "I feel as if I am going crazy." So she is worse with heat and she is feeling to go crazy. The remedy is changing. It is going back towards Puls. perhaps. We would have been more justified to give Puls. again in this case. But not Anac. Perhaps this kind of thinking is too much. Response: No, we have to deal with this every day. George: She stresses that she is now irritable with heat and there is a fear of death present which was not there before. She has started feeling bad when someone is suffering. She is better when she is outside. Where is the Anac. anymore? The Anac. has gone. Never mind that we repeated Anac. 1m routinely. She was doing fine on Anac. for one year. Beautiful. Let's give 1m now that is wrong because we did not see the changes in the picture now. Do you see that yet? Response: Well, I guess I thought that because the cursing was still there. George: Yes, but it is minimized. It is not a prominent symptom. Did I stress it the way I stressed it before? She had irritation during heat and that is an altogether different thing. After the last dose of Anac. 1m, she was no better - she was worse. She said, "I am worse as far as my nervous condition - I am worse than at any time." "I break things (underlined once), I swear (underlined twice), and I become malicious when I am nervous. I hate my nephews." She is still cursing at her husband. She says that she can bring down the house if the husband did not close the door. She had become suspicious (underlined three times). She cannot tolerate the heat (underlined two times), she is worse with noise (underlined two times), she wakes up suddenly with tachycardia at 1 a.m. She is fastidious (underlined three times). She wants to go out of the house (underlined two times), and she cannot stand standing (underlined once). PAGE 130 And here again is a wrong prescription. I gave .... Question: What about the heat? George: Worse with heat (underlined twice). She is fastidious, cursing, malicious and irritable. So I gave Nux-v. in spite of the heat. That was my mistake. I could not ignore that symptom in Nux-v. Fastidious is okay. Neither would I give Ars. because Ars. is even more cold than Nux-v. But because she was fastidious and she had so much irritability, the whole picture seemed to go towards that. But I misinterpreted some of the symptoms, which you will see. She came in the next time on December 23, 1979. And then the 25th of February, 1980.
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Question: How much do you trust those symptoms now? Since the Anac. was a mistake. Do you use all of the symptoms which she has now or do you feel that that is a disruption and that you should go back to the first prescription? George: No, it is not a disruption. It is a fouling up of the whole case. Now finally she says what is the problem exactly. Question: And this is not on December 23? George: No. In February 1980 she was given a dose of Sulph. 200. A follow up by telephone revealed, "I am the same". There was no effect until April of 1980 when she said, "I have had no effect" from either the Nux-v. or Sulph. Question: What was the potency of the Nux-v.? George: 200. Question: And what is the date in April? George: In April of 1980, she said that she had not seen any amelioration from this remedy but "I am very much in grief because my sister and my brother-in-law, whom I loved very much, feel bad against me", because most probably she took a lot of money by leaving the bank in which she was working. She took a lump sum money by leaving the bank. This is the policy. If you come to a certain age you can take a lump sum of money which is quite a lot. Question: She retired? George: Yes, it was a kind of retirement. This was her own money - an insurance pension. They knew that she took the money and they wanted it. They expected that she would give it to them. Greek families work like that. This is kind of expected in families, but not so much between sisters. That was the thing that bothered her from the very beginning. You remember that they would not talk to her and all that and she was very attached. That irritated and irritated all the time. And then Anac. brought about a relief. Now again she has the grief in her life and it continues. She is fastidious and still bothered by the heat. She wants to go outside. And she has this grief in her life with her family. This caused a kind of depression and irritability. "I feel very bitter about my own people, but I am better again if I change my environment." Sighing is underlined three times. "I go to bed and I am thinking the same kinds of things all the time. There are the same problems and I cannot sleep. I have no joy for anything." PAGE 131 She is better by going outside and changing the environment. Sighing is underlined three times. She has grief. Why Nat-m. and not Ign.? Response: Worse with heat. George: Worse with heat can be underlined twice in Ign. There is the grief and the improvement by changing environment and the sighing. She is fastidious. Response: She also had a history of mistrust. Sometimes that gets into the picture. Response: Fastidiousness may really be a disgust. Response: The bad thing is that she stays awake at night thinking about all this. George: Yes, Ign. also has that. Response: The sighing is so strong. George: But what is the deciding factor here? We don't have a desire for any salt, and we don't have that she is worse with the sun. In recapitulating the case I took certain things from the previous interview and I said, "during these times she was not very fastidious." Now, what happens in our societies and in our lives? When grief comes is what I am
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taking about. When this person comes and says after you have given her Puls. that, "I am the same", or, "I have a relapse", you have to know what is going on and whether you will repeat Puls. and how many times and when the Puls. has changed. You were able to see the changes after Puls., Anac. and Ign. These were the three remedies that helped her. There was a mistake when we repeated Anac. 1m. There was another mistake when we repeated Puls., although perhaps that was not so very much. There was a mistake with Nux-v. where we were misled and Med. was also a mistake. There was a mistake again in Sulph. So this case showed that I made two mistakes and the doctor who was attending her made two mistakes. So I made quite a few mistakes in this case myself. PAGE 132 Response: It seems like a lot of the mistakes come from not taking the case - not seeing what is really going on initially. George: Exactly! How important it is to take a case in detail and to meditate upon it! Don't take it for granted that there is a relapse. Again we see in this case how easily a sensitive person can relapse with coffee. Response: I think this case is a good one for us to see, for it is like all of the things that happen in our own practices. George: Also something else I wanted to tell you. You seem to have all of these essences. When B. and I were in Greece, we had a tape recorder and we would sit there and I would talk without any notes. We would talk for hours and B. would record it and make another remedy altogether. I did not have time to look and see what he was writing. For instance, he was writing for Bry. - loneliness and insecurity. What I meant was that the person did not want to be alone. Bry. does not want to be alone. So here B. wrote loneliness. It is not loneliness, it is a feeling of lonesomeness. You have Bry. you will see the lonesomeness. So you will see things complicated sometimes. "Wants to be alone", is Bry., but he doesn't feel loneliness as a feeling. Response: A lot of the others are even worse. George: It was not really confirmed and formalized. Even this information is not for general use but for your own use. By the time I would publish this, it would be completely different. I shall go back into my files to check everything to see if that is so, and I would see what other writers would say about that, confirm it or not confirm it, and I will take away things and put in other things. It is something that we learn everyday that is new. It is not a process of "the last word" at all. It is a sort of map for our understanding. PAGE 133 13 Allergic chemical sensitivity and neurosis (schizophrenia) [ - Allergic chemical sensitivity and neurosis (schizophrenia)] Arsenicum album (ars.) Case A Group Member: When I was speaking in Millersville in 1979 I was asked to consult in a case. A. will remember since he sat in on this. It was three and a half hours worth of consultation trying to sort out the chaos of the case. Basically she was a 30 years old woman who had had a very difficult childhood. She was neglected and oppressed by the parents and there was a lot of violence in her family that had terrified her as a child, and so on. She was quite timid through high school and then I think she was around 18 years
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old when she first started having sexual relationships. That involved a lot of almost masochistic type of violence. She was with this guy who used to beat her a lot and she took that as normal. That was all she knew. She was very naive. When he left her, after a year she became involved with another man who married her. He was not so violent with her, but he was oppressive with her. Shortly after she married him she developed a lot of what was diagnosed at the time as "chemical hypersensitivity" so that whenever she was exposed to perfume, gasolene fumes, smoke, cigarette smoke, and that sort of thing she would have tremendous anxiety reactions which were crippling to her. This was so difficult and her mind was going blank so that she could not function. It became intolerable to her husband and he basically kicked her out and told her never to come back until she was well. So she went around to a variety of different therapies, including nutritional therapies, and she came to California and had some allergy treatments. During therapy ... all of this is documented, but we do not have to go into all of those details. Most of the therapies were suppressive. They just kept making her worse. Physically she would get better, but her mental state would get worse. Then she saw Swami Ram. He was walking down the path one day and, "Oh, give her Syph. 10m every day for ten days, off ten days, back on for ten days, off ten days, for ten cycles." After that she was an absolute and total wreck mentally and emotionally. Then she had a bunch of other remedies from Henry Williams. Not much happened and it was at that stage in the case that I took it to Millersville. She was an extremely anxious and neurotic person who was terrified of everything. She was very jealous of her boyfriend with whom she had very little sex. She was jealous of him if he would just look at another woman. She would fly into a rage and was extremely irritable in that sense. Meanwhile she had relationships all over the place. She would meet people in bars and have one-night stands with them and get involved in those kinds of relationships. There was a total split in her whole personality. At that time I gave her Ars. She had a fantastic anxiety about health and she was very chilly. There were many many symptoms. Ars. seemed to help for about three months. Then she started to get worse about October. She came out to California to be treated further by me. I gave a series of remedies - first Lyc., which caused an even worse relapse than she had had before. It was clearly suppressive. Then we went on and I tried Merc. PAGE 134 After that Med., the Ars. was repeated, and the case became steadily disrupted and I won't go into all the details. Finally I discussed the case with George and the main symptoms at that time and all the way through she seemed to me to be a very timid and immature person who seemed to be totally lost. She did not know what was happening to her and she could not describe her symptoms very clearly. At the same time, she was very seductive in her mannerisms. She would lean over and twit her eyes a little and let her blouse fall open and her skirt come up and all of these different things that she seemed to be unconscious of, but you would get the impression that somewhere she knew what she was doing and that was how she would behave in the bars. I am sure that this was how she would pick men up. In the sexual relationships themselves, she liked it and was most turned on if they would be at her - not to the point of being bruised and stuff, but if there was physical violence involved. So on the basis of that, we gave her Plat. That was given on August 11, 1980 and she came back on the September 15. 10m was the dose we gave her. She came back then in
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September. Within a week of taking the Plat. she felt very much worse. She was much more depressed and she had been very depressed, feeling hopeless and was in despair that she was never going to recover. This became extreme. She said she wanted to give up and she said, "If you can't give me the right remedy this time, I will commit suicide." She was talking about having seen on TV that somebody had jumped in front of a BART train and got killed and said that was a good way to go. She was fantasizing about doing that or jumping off a bridge. She felt that she was literally restraining herself from doing this although she never came physically close to doing it. She says, "Inside I feel nothing. There is no feeling whatsoever." She had tremendous anger in her relationship to the point where the two steady men that she saw could not stand to be around her. She was constantly after them over any slight or any jealousy or any kind of implication that they might like somebody else. She said, "I am more promiscuous than I was before the remedy." The reason that she believes this is so is because her landlady whose house she lives in - she has a room in the house - got very upset with her when she brought one of her boyfriends home. But when I asked her how she got into it, she had not been going out at all. She would go out once a week or something like that. That is not exactly promiscuous. It turned out that it was only with two people. It was not like she was picking up people in bars like she used to. But she got very angry at her landlady and then she would feel bad about herself, because she thought may be the landlady was right and I am promiscuous. PAGE 135 She wanted to throw herself in front of a train and said that it was hopeless. She had EXTREME fatigue - much more than she had had before. This was to the point where she literally could hardly do anything. She was doing some work for our office involving some simple typing. She could not type even one line on the typewriter without losing her concentration and her energy. She would have to lie down. I asked her what she did. She says that she just sits and stares without anything going on inside. There were no feelings or thoughts. That was what she said. The only thing that would get her was anger and the desire to kill herself and get out of this terrible situation. This began within a week after the remedy and persisted for a month. A month after the remedy she was still in that condition. She had no desire to stab or hurt herself or others. At one time she had the desire to stab which fits the Plat. pretty well. Response: It says she wanted to stab her eye out. Continuing: Yes, and that disappeared after the Plat. She was hallucinating prior to the Plat. She heard voices calling. She had had auditory hallucinations since Merc. and Med. She started hearing voices calling her name. Her concentration was very poor (underlined three times), can't remember well, can't concentrate to do any typing, she cannot comprehend a word while reading. She would go back at the end of the sentence and still could not read a single sentence to get the idea. She was sleeping a great deal of the time, her food cravings included sweets (underlined four times), salt (underlined twice), and nothing else. She did not have a desire for alcohol. There was little appetite. I asked her about her mental functions and she said she felt like there was a void in her head and that she could not think of anything to say in a conversation. Chilly (underlined twice). PAGE 136
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She said she had never had any orgasms in her life and that that "was worse lately" (Laughter). I asked her about exercise and she said that if she did anything that involved exertion at all - even the slightest - that she would feel completely exhausted. She had always had the symptom of feeling like there was "a veil over her vision which separated her from the outside world - from people, objects, anything." She called it a blackness. She could not describe any more than that - like a veil over her vision separating her from the world. That was definitely worse after the Plat. (underlined three times). Question: Did she originate that symptom? Response: That has been part of her case all along. At first she just called it a blackness, but then as I got her to describe it in more detail, she actually described it as a veil. No, I did not suggest that word to her. She used to call it like a cloud separating her and then finally she came to the word veil - like a film. One week after the remedy, she had a cold that ended up in a laryngitis and sore throat. She still had that at the end of the month and she had a cough that had lasted for five days and then disappeared. She also had psoriasis which was worse off and on. It was not a big deal. Fastidious. She must be cleaning all the time. Even though she has no energy. And that has always been so, without change. She said, "I shouldn't be here because I am just taking up space." She meant in the office and also in the world. She said that she should not be on the planet because she was not doing anything valuable. She felt very tired in the sun especially. She had photophobia. "Everything is much worse on waking, especially the depression and the anger." She is worse after 5-6 p.m. She goes to bed by 8 or 9 and gets up by 7 or 8 in the morning. She said that certain melancholy music makes her sad. At that point I gave her.... I don't want to take too much time on this. Do you have any ideas just on the basis of what I have said? Responses: No. Continuing: I gave her Nat-s. 200. The depression where she was restraining hereself. The degree of irritability, and I forgot to say that I did examine her liver and it was down two finger-breadths and tender. I was trying to sort out among the depressed remedies which one it might be and Nat-s. came up. Also the worse on waking and depression on waking I felt was applicable. PAGE 137 Question: You gave her the remedy two weeks ago? Continuing: That was the 17th of September. The video will show you the first part of her interview when she came back. I think part of it is cut off, but what she said was that for one and a half days after the Nat-s. she was more energetic and had better concentration, but that only lasted for one and a half days. Then the lack of concentration came back, the veil over the eyes came back, the difficulty during concentration so that she could not make conversation came back. The thing that did not come back at all was the severe depression. It had lifted and the impulse to kill herself was now much less. In my opinion, the Nat-s. did help that layer off. Now the question, what is the remedy now? You will see her manner. It is an interesting case. She describes her sore throat which went into the head and became a cold with lots of drainage. She had had a chronic sore throat literally for 8-9 months. There was never any drainage. Now, after the Nat-s., it was pouring out of her nose. She said that she was less
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angry with her landlady over that whole issue of promiscuiy. She fels that she is more changeable since the Nat-s. Occasionally she feels that people might be "after her" and she has dreams that she is being pursued to be killed. She also had feelings that people were talking about her behind her back. Sex was difficult. "There was not enough lubrication so the vagina was dry and the intercourse was painful." She emphasized that there was no sexual desire (underlined three times). She claimed that she had never had an orgasm. The only time that she would feel any desire at all was when she was stimulated through a strong beating - somebody beating on her body Energy was very low, but slightly better than before. Before I had underlined it four times and now it was underlined twice. She was not sleeping as much. She said that once she played some volleyball. She was stimulated while she played but was tired at the end and she could not lay for very long. She still has this black veil between her and anything else. She describes it as a visual thing. It is not just something in her mind, but it is visual as well. It is something she actually perceives as a veil between her and others that makes everything look black. She is chilly (underlined twice), and there was no change in that. The photophobia is still the same (underlined twice), she has little appetite but it is a little better than it was before. It is still quite low. No she says that she has a desire for sweets off and on. There is a desire for salt (underlined only once now), and that has decreased. She has an increased thirst and desire for cold, iced drinks (underlined twice). She feels better after alcohol because she is more conversational. The alcohol can make her feel depressed as well and so she does not drink much, but it seems to open up her inhibitions, so that she can talk better. PAGE 138 Question: Wouldn't it be dangerous for her to drink at this point? George: No. Continuing: She does not drink much. She has headaches in the forehead (underlined twice), and those are worse during the last week. But it does not have so much a sensation of inner pressure as before. She had an inner pressure in the forehead and now it is just a pain. Her eyes swell, especially in the morning, and this is all around the eyelids. Sleep does not refresh, but now when she wakes in the mornings there is definitely not so much despair or anger. That is A LOT better. Still she is worse in the evenings, tired and despairing. Her sleep is restless. She changes positions a lot (underlined twice), and she jerks in her sleep. This is something she mentions now for the first time and it is underlined twice. I had the impression that she had it before, but she is so vague. She will come up with things that she had had for a long time, and you never know whether it has changed or not because she really cannot remember how things were and how they have changed. She has lots of nightmares. Mostly she cannot recall what the nightmares involve. The only one that she can recall is that she is being pursued by people trying to kill her. She is still weeping over being sick - so sick - and then she cries. She says now, and this is a new symptom, that she is constipated with no urgency. The last time she had had runny, loose stools and now she has constipation and can go days without bowel movement. The main thing, the way she describes it in the case, and you can trust it or not, depending on what you are thinking is going on with her, is that she feels like her mind is blocked or it does not work. She cannot concentrate and so in a conversation she cannot keep track of what is happening. Sandy may be right about repeating the question before she can answer it.
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Question: But her concentration is better now than it was a month ago? Response: Briefly it was better, but I think it is as bad as it was. Question: It was a week after? Response: Right. This is only a week after the remedy. This interview was one week after the Nat-s. Right now it is three weeks. I talked to her on the phone late last week and ran over it and basically the symptoms are the same. The main thing that she said was that she could not concentrate to make conversations, and that upsets her tremendously. She can't handle it. She used to be extroverted and now she is unable to talk. She feels very insecure of course, and she is emotionally changeable. She is chilly, has a desire for salt and sweets, and has thirst for cold, iced drinks, the headaches, restlessness, weeping over being sick, nightmares of being chased, constipation with no urge. PAGE 139 George: We should have written a few things on the board. It is better to have a few visual things to point out certain symptoms. Response: I will do it while you talk. George: So the first thing we have to assess is what the Plat. did. Response: I thought it suppressed because it threw things deep into the mental plane. Comment: I can't remember all of the things that were happening before the Plat. was given, but ... George: You get a case where you have a very promiscuous woman with one-night stands. Response: That wasn't true. When I saw her she had one boyfriend and she had not slept with anyone else at all. George: Over-all from what she says, she has been going in and out with men, but also there is a diversion in sex. Now she wants to be bitten. There is a perversion there. As this woman goes on, we see that she develops ... you can imagine in her mind now what is going on ... all of the things that happened in her two marriages and she was told, "You just go and be well", by the husband. She was very sick. And so you give her remedies, etc. and she goes to the point where now she has delusions. The energy that this psychotic person has is tremendous. The energy goes out of balance to the point that the person becomes psychotic. So this person started hearing voices. The person does not know what is going on in her mind or why she is doing all these things. Response: She was scared to death because she was so badly off. George: The right information is important. You see, I believe that she has taken drugs, may be only two or three times, but probably she had a bad experience. Who took the case? Do you remember? Response: I took the original case. Another response: I am pretty sure that she did not take any drugs. I asked her about it and she said that she was always afraid of them. Response: She is so sensitive to chemicals that she was afraid that something like that would really make her sick. PAGE 140 George: But her energy was pretty haggard before taking Plat. Response: It was low, but it was disastrously low after taking it.
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George: So what we have here is a case where she is going psychotic quickly. The fact is that she is in delusional states, hearing voices. She was hearing this before the Plat. Then these disappeared. Response: So what you are saying is that she actualy got better? George: Wait a moment and let us find out what has happened. In a case of hearing delusions, it is a very serious affair. You don't ... you will expect that she will be completely psychotic in a few months time. Response: This might explain something. I forgot to mention that in her early 20's when she got married, she had an affair and felt guilty. Then all of these symptoms started. And she said that she was weepy, numb to emotions, she was hospitalized for a month and given a lot of allopathic drugs - Meallaril, Traivil, and she was diagnosed as a maniac depressive and put on Lithium. Then she had 13 episodes of shock-therapy which helped for a month. So that is what happened. George: We had in our heads a psychotic patient going towards a complete break-down. We gave a remedy. The remedy then takes away all of the energy physically. She cannot think because there is no energy. She now wants to commit suicide. It is very very usual to see that once people come out of the delusionary state, they may become suicidal or to a state where they want to commit suicide. Now we have to be careful with that case so that we can give the right remedy or the right attention. This woman is psychotic - very psychotic. I believe that she may eventually complain of one of the symptoms that they may attribute everything that they have to the remedy that they take. They will try to find a scapegoat. Response: Every time she has been given a remedy - every time - when she came back she always would say, "Oh, I am much worse." Response: Except on the original one and you didn't see her then. The Ars. she definitely said helped. She was very very clear about that. She did very well on the Ars. for four to five months. It was given again and she felt it was helping her mentally. George: So the assessment of Plat. and what it has done, according to my understanding, is that we have a serious case on our hands. In which she goes into an aggravation but it is towards health. When you see so much depletion of energy, never be afraid of this. Of course what she says about wanting to commit suicide and all that is a serious thing and we have to take it into serious consideration. This prescription was right according to my understanding. When she was telling me these symptoms I said, "Okay, you should have given Nat.s. " Nat-s. in that case is acting intermittently - just to help one or two symptoms superficially. I think that the Plat. is still acting - still going on. The very distinct thing is that she has no desire to go out with a man. She was going out so much and now she has swung the other way and does not want to go out at all. PAGE 141 Response: Sometimes she does and sometimes she does not. George: We are not interested about the past at this point. We are interested in what the Plat. (prescription) has done and what she says and what she is really doing. She is not going out at this stage. Then she comes into that state in which there is now poor concentration and exhaustion. Low energy. Response: It is better than before the Nat-s. George: But these are the main things now, that she cannot concentrate too much. There are no emotions there at all now - no sexual desire. So now we have to think about
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whether we shall prescribe at this point or not. These are cases where, unless we do correct reasoning, we do not understand whether the remedy has acted or not. And here, of course, you know hearing delusions is a serious conditon. And when they have visual hallucinations. What B says, "When I saw that woman, she could not give me any symptoms. She was going towards a break-down - fast! She still did not have delusions, but the mind was absolutely scattered and incapable. One would expect that with a little bit of stress, it would go off. She went off. In order to prevent that state she would start hearing voices - the Mother Mary calling and saying for her to do this or that or not to do this or that. And that is when she freaks out. So we now have this case on our hands and there is still a bad point to it. The paranoia and hearing of voices still shows the seriousness of the case, I don't know how much she is haunted by that. You may have that symptom in many people but there is not the impression that somebody is behind them. But if they are haunted by that idea then for sure they are really psychotic. I don't think she is at that state so much. Response: It doesn't prevent her from going out and going places. George: There is now this impression. Let us say that we must prescribe. What is the remedy most appropriate? Response: Sep. comes to mind. George: Another possibility? Response: Ph-ac. PAGE 142 George: Good. Ph-ac. is quite a good idea there. The mind is not working. The feelings have become mummified. This fits the whole situation quite well. Sepia also fits quite well in this case, especially with the low sexual desire. Response: And that is worse now than it was. Response: She has always had a low sexual desire but now she says she has so little desire that there is no lubrication and she feels pain. Another thought I would have although I don't really believe it, but on the data it could fit Alum. to some extent. George: I would have given Alum. the first time I saw her, because she could not concentrate or give symptomatology. That was the picture the first time she came. I believe that there has been a deep perversion in the sexual sphere. She needed Puls. in one phase or another. But of course she is not happy with this state of mind. Thirst is underlined twice. Ice cold drinks are desired. She said something else. Can you read it please? Response: I said that alcohol opens her up. George: You used another expression. You said "cold things". Response: I might have said "icy cold". George: You said "cold things" and "ice cold water" or something like that. Response: This is not a sort of depleted Phos. state? George: There are some Phos. symptoms like increased thirst and the cold. Question: It that Phos.? George: Phos. can reach that stage where they are completely gone, but that kind of timidity which prevents her from looking straight into the eyes of the examiner is present. It is a kind of timidity which we have to take into consideration. Still I think there is an element of anger. That was in the letter. Response: That was in the spring, before the Plat.
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George: No, she sent another letter more recently. Response: She is desparate. She has called me frequently to try to get you to see her. She is really desperate. Question: What about Ars.? George: (Not given time to answer.) Response: She is fastidious. PAGE 143 Response: Well, she probably still is. I dont know how anxious she is, but she feels she is being pursued, as well as having the desire for cold things and chilliness, insecurity, despair of recovery. Response: We did give it again in the summer, prior to the Plat., and it did not work. Response: Well, she did get better after that. Response: Well, if Ars. may be that is a consideration. Response: After we gave her Ars., she said that her mind cleared up quite a little bit. That was after a month. That is when she got the Plat. - at that stage. Response: I talked to her on the phone and she had had a relapse. It seems that she went out socially. She felt so good after the Ars. that she went out and stayed out all the night and just wore herself out. Then the relapse seemed to come after that. That was my impression. It brought her out of her depressed state enough for her to be sociable. Response: This may be far off the wall, but this repeating of questions and then dreaming that she is being pursued fits Zinc. And the jerks in sleep. Those three. George: Very good. Response: She does not really repeat the questions very much now. Response: We heard that on the video tape. Response: I did not tune into it. Another response: I found quite a bit of it. May be not during the whole interview. It did not seem like it occurred at a time when it was a difficult question. That was part of the way she responded. She would first repeat the question. Response: Could be. And I just did not notice it. George: Zinc. is another possibility because of the points that K. gave. Question: Did you rule out Ars. George? George: I dont see Ars. at that stage. Response: I think that the anxiety is predominant now. George: She is definitely psychotic. We have to find a remedy now which really belongs to the psychotic remedies. Otherwise it will act superficially. The reaction from Plat. was actually very good. There was an aggravation, so that the remedy went deep. In such cases when you have a person feeling better after the remedy, forget it. Forget the remedy. It is going to act for two or three days and then it will stop. In severe cases, where we dont get the reactions, and we get an amelioration, then we will see it coming back. At a certain stage she may again reach the Ars. level. But at this moment because of the concentration depletion, the lack of energy, the state of mind which indicates poor concentration, and the psychotic elements, we could not give that. PAGE 144 Question: What about Kali-br. George: Very good (Laughs). That is the remedy.
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Response: I just thought, What would George think? (Laughter) George: Kali-br. is the remedy. You were in a meditation state, eh? (Laughing) Response: It is also the only one in italics after delusions too. George: Like all potash salts, this weakens the heart and lowers the temperature. Brominism is caused by it. General failure of mental powers. Loss of memory. Melancholia. Anaesthesia of the mucous membranes, especially of the throat. Leading remedy in psoriasis. Response: Yes, she does have it. George: So what we want in that case is a great aggravation of the psoriasis. That is what we are attempting now. She is going to be tremendously aggravated and you are going to have a lot of trouble afterwards. It will take three years before she will feel an amelioration. But the right remedy will spread psoriasis over the whole body. Profound melancholy, delusions, feeling of moral deficiency, delusions of conspiracy, night terrors, suicidal mania, numb feeling in head, brain fag, a cold which extends into the throat, exaggerated sexual desire, fidgety hands, busy fingers, twitching muscles, proriasis, restless sleep. Response: This is fantastic. Response: If you look at the male side, there are sexual excesses. Question: What led you to Kali-br.? George: The depletion of energy, the poor concentration, and the feelings of persecution. I regard that symptom as very dangerous. From the remedies which we discussed and proposed, I feel that Kali-br. is the best remedy at the moment. I have told you again that we may strike a case of psychosis with one remedy and have different results. You are going to see with this remedy, where we do not have many layers. EVERY MIASM CAN PRODUCE PSYCHOSIS. If they are alone and there are not a lot of them mixed up together, and the person has not a lot of drugging or a bad hereditary predisposition, one remedy will bring them over. Not in this case. And I believe in this case that she has a brother or a sister who is seriously sick, either from a neurological disorder or cancer. Does she give any history? PAGE 145 Response: I dont think she has brothers or sisters. Question: Say that again please, what is it that you are inferring? The connection between the illness and the family. George: The illness is of such a deep nature that I suppose that there is a predisposition from the parents which must also have been given to any brothers or sisters, if she has them. Response: Her mother was apparently alcoholic and had mental illness problems. She may have a brother or sister, but all she has down here is an allergy. Question: You dont think that all of the drugging and all of the Syph. and all of the various... George: Sure. They pushed her to that state. Question: But underneath it all is a deep sitting miasm? George: Multi-miasms in this case. Question: What does the electric shock do? George: I dont know really-I cannot say. Question: Would it be like a head injury?
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George: I dont know what it does to the vital force. I am not in a position to say. Question: What potency would you give, 200? George: Yes, 200. Question: Would you do it now or wait to make sure that she is stable, because it is only three weeks after the last remedy. George: In this case, we have to prescribe when we are forced to do so. We give a remedy which works and brought about a tremendous reaction. It was dramatic the way she describes the aggravation. It is going to last for some time. The aggravation may go down and at a certain moment there is a remedy that we have to give. If we leave it without a remedy, it may go down, down. There is a point where a remedy picture is appearing, I think that Kali-br. can be given at that moment. If you can wait.... PAGE 146 Response: She will wait if we ask her to. George: If Kali-br. does not work, you have to try Ph-ac. as the second remedy. As a third prescription, try Sep. As a fourth prescription, try Zinc. All of the propositions you gave were quite correct. Very good. PAGE 147 14 Oppression in chest with mild apnea Hyoscyamus niger (hyos.), (followed by arsenicum album) Case Presentation: This is the case of a 90-year-old Indian yogi, whose physical body looks like 70. He was in very vigorous health until four months ago when he developed a pressure sensation in his chest with mild shortness of breath. This was, according to his students, after a night which he spent with many gas heaters around him. He was in the desert and it was, cold at night. He had 3-4 gas heaters close to his bed. He was doing a retreat in the desert where it got very cold at night and they put many gas heaters in his room with not enough ventilation. They felt that that might be part of the problem. The only other history at the time he started getting ill was that his most devoted student, a woman protege, was talking about going back to India because there had been a death in the family and the family wanted her to come back. His students felt that this was upsetting to him. He did not want her to go and they felt that he was upset, although they were not sure because he was not talkative about it. Gurus are not talkative sorts. He was seen by a doctor who found a minor change on his electrocardiogram and prescribed Isordil, which is a vasodilator. This did not help. The pressure increased. George: The pressure is on the whole chest? Response: Yes, he started to become more weak physically and also more withdrawn. He did not want to talk as much. He at that time complained of some problems with his stomach, with burning, acid sensation, and he was given Milanta, which is an antacid. After the Milanta he developed diarrhoea. He was seen by another doctor who felt that this was a parasite and gave him Flagyl. After the Flagyl, he began complaining of severe problems in swallowing. This was a big problem and was underlined three times. He developed a tremor of his face. George: Solids worse than liquids and he had to take water with the solids. Response: He could not take solids. He was basically on liquids. Mainly water. He could
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not even take a thick broth. He was worse with solids and they were a big problem. At this time he was also becoming very withdrawn and not then wanting to talk. At this time the doctor who was caring for him gave him some Valium, 10 mgm. to try to sedate him so that they could pass a tube to feed him with. With the Valium, his symptoms dramatically improved. The tremor improved and he opened up and talked to his closest students. He said, My mind has been affected. He started with bad dreams and in one dream he heard a voice telling him, Now you will know why people would commit suicide. In another dream he was being taken to the funeral pyre to be burned, although he was really still alive, he was very afraid. He then began hearing the voice while awake - while conscious, not in a dream. PAGE 148 George: This is after the Valium? Response: This was while he was withdrawn, before the Valium. He was experiencing this, but no one knew it. George: He would not talk. Response: So now with Valium, he started talking and he said that this is what was going on with him. George: And it is still going on? Response: At that time yes, it was still going on. The voice was still a problem. The trembling got better with the Valium. It almost disappeared. I dont know if the voice was still there during those hours. I dont think so. During those hours of his improvement I dont think so. He said that this was all in a matter of six or eight hours and then it got worse again. George: So he had 6-8 hours where he spoke and he said all this and then relapsed? Response: Right. While he was awake, the voice was saying, Your case is hopeless. You are incurable. You will not live. Also if he would feel pity for his students the voice would say, Dont worry about them. That is their karma. You have to worry about yourself and you are going to die. So this lucid phase stopped and despite giving him Valium again and again, he could not improve on it any longer. He became very withdrawn and very paranoid. They never got the tube down. He struggled very much. So he became very paranoid and started fearing that the doctor was poisoning him, which in fact might have been true (Laughter). He felt that his students were the dupes and that they were being deceived by the doctor in giving him these poisons. He became very suspicious. This was all while he was in Sacramento. He came back down to Santa Cruz and this was the first time that I actually saw him. Until that point. When I saw him he was having this coarse tremor and he would shake up and down, so much so that his nose was moving (demonstrates). But convulsive. PAGE 149 George: This is a symptom that I found in arteriosclerotic people. Response: This was a very coarse, almost convulsive shaking and it was very dramatic. His whole face would move with it. George: A kind of Parkinsonism of the lower jaw? Response: I thought about that. When he would try to talk or eat, it would slow down a little, like Parkinsons. He could not open his mouth and he would talk with clenching. He could barely open his mouth to talk. Question: How did he eat?
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Response: With a syringe. They squirted liquids down his mouth for him. Question: These convulsions came and went? Response: They would stay pretty consistently. When he would get excited or upset when I asked him a question, he would start it much more. If you left him alone, it would quiet down. There was no tremor anywhere else in his body. At that point I gave him Hyos. Question: What potency? Response: 200. It seemed like it may have worked. The tremor went away and he started taking fluids better by the next day. There was no described aggravation. As his tremor went away and he started taking fluids, he started complaining about shortness of breath, which was slowly increasing. This then became his main complaint after the tremor was gone. He felt like he could not get a full breath. He also started complaining about the sensation that something was pulling towards the stomach or the back, just about a week after the Hyos. George: Do you know which is the remedy? Response: (Could not understand). Response: Which I ended up giving. They were calling me every day and they were telling me that he could not breathe. I gave it to him, but I dont think it was good. His tremor came back after that. I gave 200. He became a bit dehydrated. I was out of town and an Indian doctor who was one of his students had come to visit him. He said that this man was dehydrated and they gave hun some more Valium - not so much, may be 30 mgm. The first day and over a three day period they gave him some Valium. The shaking things went away and actually he continued to do well after that. He was doing better. The tremor was gone again and he started taking more fluids again. He was no longer dehydrated. His stomach troubles went away also. The breathing stayed and, this is where he stands right now. This was three weeks ago. I went back to see him last weekend, because he was complaining about the breathing and this is the current case now. PAGE 150 George: Describe the breathing please. Response: It is both that he cannot get a full breath and also that he has trouble breathing out. He feels that his breath is impeded and... this man speaks very little English and this is through an interpreter. He had trouble breathing outward. George: This is a guru, yes? Response: Yes. There were a lot of followers around him. Question: What is his name? Response: That is not important. It is interesting but not important. His breathing is much worse at night, starting when he goes to sleep. He wakes up suddenly with shortness of breath and he says that this is much more distressing and is stronger than the usual state that he is into with his breathing. When that happens at night, it is very uncomfortable and he feels that he is suffocating. He is afraid to go to sleep because of these experiences. His student told me that one time he was afraid to go to sleep because he felt that he would not wake up at all. He also felt that it was a bit worse when the room became cold. When you look at him sitting there, he is not dyspnoeic. He does not take a deep breath when I ask him to in order to listen to his lungs. I ask him to try to breathe as deep as he can and he still cannot do it.
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George: There is nothing in the lungs? Response: Not at all. He had a very complete work-up in Sacramento. He has also had a brain scan. I did one when I first saw him. I thought he might have a tumor or something. Question: Does he have peace of mind? Response: No, he does not. Response: So he is not ready to die. Response: No, I can speak about his mental state later. The other symptom which he complains about very strongly is burning - internal burning. This is all over his body, mostly in the stomach area. He is a chilly person. This is on the outside. When I saw him he was lying in his room with a wool blanket and a towel over his head, and I was hot warm. I am kind of a warm person. He is also sensitive to drafts and inside he is burning. The third complaint is of a dry mouth which is worse at night. He wakes up at night thirsty every one or two hours. He says that his mouth feels dry soon after he drinks. When you look at his tongue - the first time I saw him it was dehydrated, but this time I would look at it and it was wet. There is white discolouration all over, but, it was wet. The burning was underlined three times, the dry mouth three times, worse at night twice. He also says that his mouth is so dry that that is one of the reasons that he had so much trouble swallowing. There was an acute sensation of dryness, but it does not look dry when you look in his mouth. He still had difficulty swallowing even though he could open his mouth. He could tolerate fluids with difficulty, but solids are very very hard. If you watch him take a little water, he takes it and works to get it down. No matter what he takes, he says it is heavy on his stomach. He used to like warm and hot drinks, but now he cannot tolerate them at all because it increases the heat in his body. He even has trouble with thick broth. Solids are a big problem. Liquids are hard, but not anywhere near as hard as solids. In terms of his mental state, he is not open and so it is hard for me to know for sure. He says that his mind is still active, but it is filled with bad thoughts. When I asked him what bad meant, he said that they were no positive thoughts. He thinks about himself. I asked him what he would think about, his students? He said, I think about myself. He said it like he knew that it was not a good thing and that he was preoccupied with himself. He cant understand what is happening to him and it upsets him very much. He has been very near death in the past, but always in the past he understood what was going on and it did not bother. Now he does not know why he is sick. He does not feel that his time is over or that he is ready to die, yet he is very sick and he does not understand. This is what a student told me. PAGE 151 Despite obvious improvement over the last month - he was terrible when I first saw him - he denies that he is any better. He still feels great despair about recovery. He does not say that, but from the way he acts and what his students say. He is definitely better, but he denies that. At night when he wakes up he calls his student and says, I have the breathing again. He wakes up every couple of hours with the breathing and they give him medicine at night. I dont feel confident about the mental states I got. He had an ANA (antinuclear antibody) which was negative. I cant find the sedimentation rate. There was a magnesium level done and heavy metal screening. George: What is your diagnosis?
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PAGE 152 B: At that age, it is probably a predisposition to arteriosclerotic problems. May be he did have some problems getting oxygen. May be it was a non-ventilated room. That might have started the process. Then the other things they gave him might have heated him even more. I would want to check out his heart also. Response: He had a chest X-ray and was seen by a cardiologist and given a clean bill of health from that standpoint. George: The only thing I would have checked is with a laryngologist. Response: He had a barium swallow and there was no problem. George: No, I do not mean the barium swallow. I am talking about a laryngoscopy. In this case, I suspect that he has a cancer of the oesophagus or between the oesophagus and the larynx. Response: The oesophagus showed up on a barium swallow. Response: He probably had an infarct to the base of the brain. Response: It sounds like a sort of bulbar palsy with an infarct to one of the branches. Response: He was seen by a neurologist also. He was going to do a spinal tap, thinking that he had some sort of encephalitis, but he didnt really believe that, and he didnt think that he had had a stroke either. Question: And there were spasms in the jaw, right? Response: There was, but that is no longer happening since the Valium. The difficult swallowing was also there with the jaw problem. The swallowing is probably better now than it was initially, but it is still a big problem for him. The neurologist did not feel that a stroke or Parkinsonism were a likelihood. He thought that it might be some sort of psychological problem. Response: There is one other anatomical thing. When they did the brain CAT scan, they probably would not look at the base of the brain, and so they might certainly miss something there. Continuing: The guy we let it do was really a hot shot. Response: It is almost impossible to see the base of the brain. They just wouldnt set it up that way to see it. George: That seems to be a very serious condition and I think that it is cancer somewhere. A tumor. Response: If it is a cancer, it should have shown up on the barium swallow... PAGE 153 George: What about the thyroid? Response: I felt for it and couldnt feel a thyroid. He may have an ectopic thyroid somewhere but again if it was truly impinging on the oesophagus you could see it on the barium swallow. Response: Not necessarily. Response: We do not have the sedimentation rate. This looks like a scleroderma picture. George: The onset could have been caused by emotions - most probably fear. Fear that he would lose his secretary who was looking after him. He felt alone. What are the symptoms that we may infer from this case? Response: The idea of fear of death definitely. There is great anxiety about health. Tremendous! There is a symptom here which is called arrested respiration, which is Lach.
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Response: I asked if it was in his throat and he said that is was not. I got the feeling that it was more like suffocation. George: This is what they get in Lach. They feel that the respirations are almost paralyzed. So, he may be going into Lach. That becomes a very prominent symptom. This is the moment they are falling asleep. Response: It wakes him up from sleep. He will sleep for a while and then ... George: Or he wakes up with the feeling that it is impossible to breathe. The lungs do not move and there is really tremendous fear by that time. Response: That is a prominent symptom because he is afraid to go to sleep because of it. George: Yes, but is it what I described or perhaps something else? This happens when there is a tumor between the oesophagus and the larynx, I believe. It may be closing the oesophagus. Response: How could that account for a tremor of the jaw? George: It does not necessarily have to be connected. The trembling of the jaw is definitely a severe sort of fear. It is a natural thing with great fear. I suspect that at his age he is arteriosclerotic and he started trembling. But the suddenness of the onset, together with the fact that Valium took it away, takes away this diagnosis immediately. So what has remained as a persistent symptom is the difficulty in swallowing - that did not disappear. And then when he goes to bed there is oppression in the chest anatomically. I still believe that it is a tumor. PAGE 154 Response: I could have him seen by an ENT physician. George: To see if there is possibly a tumor and he can touch it with his finger. In which case we are dealing with a problem which is incurable. Response: I will check that out. My inclination when I heard him talk about it - although it seems to wax and wane-is that may be it was a stroke with a bulbar palsy. I would think that the neurologist would pick that up. Response: He is not going to allow you to put a laryngoscope down. Question: Does he still have that burning inside? Response: Oh yes, that is a very big thing. George: So if we take now that he is very chilly, he is burning inside, there is thirst, there is fear of death, anxiety about health, that would be either Ars. or Phos. Response: The aversion to warm drinks would seem peculiar. It makes him feel hot all over, so that would be Phos. Question: I have a question about Kali-br. It has all the throat things, fear of being poisoned, melancholy, hearing voices, retraction in the abdomen, antacid problems, freezing cold, a closed person. George: In this case what is prominent is the fears. It is not the exhaustion, not the paranoid feelings. You dont get that so much in Kali-br. Kali-br. is the psychotic person who feels that there is somebody behind him and that he is going to be punished for all the hatreds and things that he did not do right during his life. That is the difference - the idea that he is going to be punished and especially the ideas of persecution. Kali-br. does not show a fear of death so much or anxiety about health, which is so prominent in this case. The depletion of energy in spite of not being well does not seem to be so much in this. Question: Isnt he awfully closed to be a Phos.?
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George: Yes. Because he is a yogi and he does not want to lose his reputation he has not expanded his inner state. Question: I dont know if that is worth looking at in this case or not, but the trembling of the jaw is a peculiar symptom. There aret many remedies there. George: It is Phos. I know this symptom to be Phos. THERE IS VERY SEVERE TREMBLING WHICH HAS BEEN REDUCED FOR MANY YEARS BY Phos. So I thought that this has going to be a Phos. case, but you said something which is very much in favor of Ars. Despair of recovery is very strong. You remember you said D. describing him said, Dont worry now, look after yourself. That is Ars. People will say they should not be so selfish and yet they cannot do otherwise. In order to relieve that man from the great despair which creates agony. Ars. very much clings to life, much more so than Phos. And the fear of death most probably is very strong. The burning inside is Ars. and Phos. So the best prescription for this man is Ars. Dont give a too high dose. I believe that he has cancer. I dont know if it is an extension of cancer through the thyroid, but it is going to explode now. PAGE 155 Response: Actually, there is one other positive laboratory finding. He had an elevated choreoembryonic antigen, screened for cancer. It was slightly elevated, but it was elevated. Response: They are pretty unreliable. George: I like these cases where I dont have the laboratory finding and go by the picture. I told you of the case of an old man with a cough who was in the hospital. He brought his case to test me. This is one of the doctors that I had in the clinic. After grief this man had a cough. The case was presented, and everybody was thinking different remedies. I said, Wait a moment. This is probably a cancer case and you must be careful. You are going to prescribe for a little cough and this is a cancer case. The man was 65. Everybody looked at me and asked why I thought he had a cancer. I said, Most probably, but I am not sure. The doctor had the X-rays and he brought them out and he said, This is a cancer case. I must tell you the story. You see, he was an old man, 65 years old, who had grandchildren. He was in a village and he had a love affair with a young woman and then everybody got to know about the love affair. He had to break with that woman and then the cough started. It was such a shock at his age that he developed coughing. This is how cancer develops. Staph. will do nothing in that case. I prescribed Sulph., but you have to know a little bit not to be fooled by the diagnosis. I had another similar case. Question: Are you saying that the shock brought on the cancer? George: Yes, the shock brought on the cancer, from one day to the other. Question: He was trying to die? George: The shock was so much that it was killing him actually. WHEN THE SHOCK IS SO MUCH THAT THE BODY CANNOT TAKE IT, EITHER IT WILL GO MAD OR GET CANCER. Already he is 65 and he has been undermined. He was a villager and strong. But it will produce psychotic symptoms or cancer. PAGE 156 I had a similar case like that. She was examined by all the specialists in Athens. She was brought to New York. They examined her and said it was a tumor. It was a tumor in a place that I had picked and said, In this place there is a tumor.
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Question: Which is worse? George: The insanity. It is a death on a deeper plane. Question: Were you successful in treating her? George: The Sulph.? I dont know. He was in the hospital and he was given the remedy. He was already in the hospital and the doctor had all the information. We discussed cases and he brought this to catch me. He thought that I would say, Give Staph. and then he would say very nicely, This is a cancer case. They expect me to understand all that. Question: You dont give Staph. in cancer? George: Yes, but if it a cancer, you will go deeper and want to examine the case a little bit more. I believe this case D. presented is a cancer and that you are not going to cure him. You are going to relieve him, especially psychologically, but you definitely will not cure him. Question: And if it is confirmed to be a cancer does that lean you a little more towards Ars. than Phos.? George: There is the same possibility. Question: What dose would you give? George: 200. So is that case clear? Was that a good learning case? Although you have learned another thing and this is how to diagnose without having clinical and laboratory information. PAGE 157 15 Distemper in dogs Pulsatilla pratensis (puls.) Case Presentation: That is my own DOG that I treated and it turned out pretty good. I was kind of left out in the field for a while. George: You gave the medicine already? Response: Yes. George: Good. I treated my own dog too. Response: The dog is a light brown male dog. He is obnoxiously friendly. You couldnt do anything around him for he would be right where you were. He is terrible to have around all the time. George: That is a very good observation because it brings us to certain friendly remedies like Puls. and Phos. Continuing: He was very very sensitive. If you would get after him he would really feel hurt and would crawl around and cower. He is a gentle and sensitive dog. He would play with a tomato and would not even break the skin. He likes the open air. George: Yes, give him Puls. Continuing: He likes the open air and likes the shade. He doesnt want to sit out in the sun, but goes under a tree or bush. Question: What about sleeping positions? George: Now, these are nice observations. Continuing: The thing I noticed was that when I gave him bread and butter he would eat the bread off. (Laughter) Response: Aversion to fat.
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Continuing: So I gave him Puls., one dose of 200. Question: What was the problem? Continuing: He was just being obnoxiously friendly (Laughter). He is fairly well trained. I have had him for a long time and he would stay in the back of my pick-up truck all day long without any problems. The next day he was out of the pick-up. I did have trouble making him stay in there and he wouldnt stay in for five minutes. I threw him back and was mean to him, but it didnt help. Finally I looked at him and he wasnt right. I knew that something was bothering him. I still didnt expect an aggravation. I had never seen it an animal before. He was really starting to get nervous and over the next day or so he kept howling. He would howl going down the road and just howl and howl. He howled at home and he howled when he was asleep. He was flat on his side, howling. I was starting to feel sorry for him (Laughter). That went for 3-4 days and then started subsiding. Then he got a severe conjunctivitis. There was yellow pus from both of his eyes. One of them cleared up on its own, but the other one I chickened out on because the cornea was starting to become oedematous I gave him an antibiotic with steroid drops three times in one day and that cleared up. The eyes cleared up. I didnt get the exact dates on this because I did not really think about what was going on until I looked at it in retrospect. PAGE 158 About 4-5 days later I noted that he was limping and I thought he had hurt himself. In three days it got so bad that he would not stand up. He would just lay there. The feet were so sore that he would not stand up. The big pads - not the toe pads - were so swollen and sore that he could not stand. I thought that he had stepped in something, but then I thought that if he had done that it would be the toe pads involved. At that stage I started thinking about what was going on. I did not do anything. In 2-3 days, the pads sluffed off. The skin just came off. It healed right over. It was not raw underneath or anything. But that was about two months. His disposition is unbelievably different. He will lie there and ... he just is not like he was before. It looked to me like a pretty good long cure kind of thing. He really did change mentally. George: To night I will give you my story. I have two wolf-dogs, shepherds. Then I had another puppy given to me and when he was 6 months old he got distemper. Distemper is fatal most of the time, right? So I called the veterinarian and I told him the symptoms. I said I thought that it was distemper because I had read a little bit in the dogs books. He said, No, I have to see him. But I said, It is distemper and can it be cured? And he said, Yes, everything we can cure. He charges more than a medical person at a university. He came. That is why he did not want to accept what I said. He felt that he knew better than I did. He said to give the injection now. I did not want to waste the time in order to go to the clinic for the next injection. I was late for the clinic and so I gave the second injection. I came back at 12 oclock in the night and the dog was dead. So I buried the dog. Four days later one of the elder dogs, which I did not have vaccinated, got the same symptomatology. I did not know what treatment the veterinarian had given. Anyhow, I waited 2-3 days and the thing developed. It was very clear that the saliva was running and then the stool was watery and black. There was diarrhoea and the dog was completely exhausted with pus around the eyes. He would not eat and the only thing he would do was to drink water. He drank a lot of water. He was unable to eat. I telephoned and said that my dog was having the same symptoms as the first. He told me that it must have been distemper. I said what is the treatment? The vet said, I have to come and see
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him. I said, No, I am not going to pay you again. I am going to give him a homoeopathic treatment. He had the saliva which was very like Kali-bi. It was viscid. He was drinking a lot of water. There are two remedies who drink a lot of water - Bry. and Phos. I took all of the remedies in 50m strength and put it in the water. I let him drink from that water. In 4-5 days the dog had come back and he started eating again. On the fourth day he was well. PAGE 159 Response: (Loud reaction). Response: Well, it was warranted to give three remedies in a terminal case. George: I know the criticisms, but it was very traumatic for me to see him and the remedies acted so dramatically. After that, I was thinking of doing an experiment with distemper. If our remedies can act so well, why not with this? PAGE 160 16 Retinal haemorrhage Crotalus horridus (crot-h.) Case George: Now we come to the cases which are really difficult (Laugher). Response: Walk us through this one. Tell us what you were doing when you read the case. Response: Yes, I want to see where I was wrong. George: Just a moment until I find the case. Response: It seemed to me, in reading over the past history, that in 1948 there was a very significant event which was that there were condylomata on the penis which were cauterized and thereby suppressed. I noticed that from then on, some rather major illnesses began. In 1949 he had fever for a year. On and on and on, including heart attacks and everything else. So with that, I used the following three rubrics: condylomata on the penis, suppressed eruptions and sycosis. I came up only using the bold and the italics and came up with the following remedies: Calc., Lyc., Merc., Nitac., Sep., Staph., Sulph., and I then proceeded, using all of the other data that was there, to repertorize and analyze. From the start I thought that it HAD to be a sycotic remedy because of the suppressed condylomata. That was the way I thought. George: That is correct. But which is the remedy? Response: I came up with Nit-ac. first. George: Why Nit-ac.? Response: It was one of the two leaders in terms of sycosis, a number of things went along with Nit-ac. George: He desires chocolate. Your thinking is correct. It is a sycotic effect - a sycotic miasm, most probably. Question: Can you assume that it still is and that there are no other things - other layers on top of that? George: This is what we have to understand in a case. He used to be afraid of dogs. He is suffering from headaches too. Response: I would like to go through what I was thinking. I was thinking along Ks
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lines, that it was a sycotic case, but I didnt feel that going back to the beginning now is going to take care of the whole case. I assumed that at this point the remedy had to fit his present symptomatologies. So what I was impressed with in his present symptomatology was the suddenness of the pain that he keeps getting in his eye. It will just last for a short while and then it is gone. And then that he has these occipital headaches which are worse from any kind of motion. He will stay completely immobile and then the pain is better. There was the dread of bathing and the headaches were better with cold applications. It is a right sided problem that seems to be going on. PAGE 161 George: Your thinking also is correct. We have an old sycotic trend going on. We have these episodes. During these episodes we have to have a remedy that goes right through to the deep levels and takes hold of everything and fixes it. Either this or we have to have a remedy which covers the present situation which is the most urgent. Question: It can go either way? George: Either way, depending on the symptomatology of the person given at the moment. We may go, but we are guided. As I have told you many times before, we have a chronic condition here. This is a life-gram of the patient. This life-gram has been going on for years and the person had a heart attack. The life-gram then goes like that (demonstrates), it changes. Now this is intense. If we take into consideration all of the symptoms together with that and we find a remedy that covers the whole picture - that means, the previous chronic condition plus the acute condition, then that is the best. Anything covering the acute AND the chronic is the best. But how can we find the remedy by the symptomatology? We are guided by the symptoms which are given by the patient. But if that acute episode here presents a clear picture of Bell., and this underlined is a picture which is not clear, but may be it is Calc. I see some symptomatology of Calc. behind Bell. in acute episodes. What should I prefer to do? I shall give Bell. first and then I shall go to Calc. I shall cover this acute episode first and then I shall go to the deeper remedy. So what is the problem with this man at this moment? Response: Eye pain and haemorrhages which occur. It is a very very serious condition. Then the man had been advised to undergo an operation. I think they want to do this because he is a high official in the Greek government and he had been travelling to Europe to have done on his eyes whatever was possible. I dont remember whether laser was applied, or just what. But still he was having no amelioration of his condition. He said, One year ago I had a haemorrhage and my eyesight was damaged. His present condition becomes very important. We cannot find a remedy which covers right through. If we could find a remedy that covers right through we would go to the idea of Ks. We would try to find something which was deep and would cover everything. If we cannot find that remedy, we would go to the idea of Ds, which is to cover the acute stage. Does anybody else want to support this prescribing? I should not have told you that the right answer was not on the blackboard, because then you would be more willing to prescribe. You must be confident in what you do. PAGE 162 Response: Going with the idea of suddenness and haemorrhage, being somewhat chilly, some anxiety about the children (though not underlined), weariness at twilight, thirst for cold water, desire for chocolate, I thought of Phos. And he was tired on waking up in the
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morning. Response: I have another way to go. To give Sulph. That may very well be what I would have done in actual practice, because I am not at all clear about what is going on. I realize that that is a sort of routine thing, but I do think that there are a number of things here that do support Sulph. George: What is that? Response: Not liking bathing, desiring chocolate, anxiety about children, feet warm in the summer. Response: He has rectal haemorrhage and Sulph. has that. Response: I was thinking sort of like D. I went through all of the acute stuff and Bell. was prominent. But then I saw that he had psoriasis and fear of dogs, and all of the other things, and so I was thinking that Sulph. would encompass the acute state and take care of some of the deeper things which were long term and of a chronic nature. George: Did it not occur to you that we had a sycotic case here? Sulph. would be syphilitic and sycotic. It is mostly psoric and syphilitic. But we also see a lot of eruptions in this man. The psoriasis. He had herpes. Vertigo underlined. Response: Worse on sitting, I think he said. Response: Even today his balance is not steady when he is sitting in a chair. George: Yes, a kind of vertigo. This is continuous and exists even today. Response: Would you really call that vertigo? While sitting? George: Yes. You see that something bad is coming up. The natural remedies have this element of being dangerous. Out of the materia medica you have remedies which present their picture much more benignly than others, which present their picture of malignancy. Acon., though it is a strong remedy, is benign. Bell. is benign. Is Lach. benign, like Bry.? Certainly not! If you have a Lach. fever, you have a more serious condition. Generally the snake poisons are much more violent in their appearances. So if you have that information, can you look at the case again? PAGE 163 Response: Crot-h.? George: This little bit of information .. . I didnt finish ... you have this information and at the same time you dont see something clearly. And so there you go and look at the main symptom. If you have some information from the repertory. Retinal haemorrhages. You take the pathology and look at the symptoms and the drugs which produce this kind of pathology. Response: Bell. Response: Crot-h. Response: Lach. Merc-c., Phos., Prun., Arn. George: In a case where you have this information, the best course is to take them one by one and eliminate the least likely ones. You go to the materia medica and from the aggravations that you have, you can say, I am not happy with Phos., and so you take it out for the time being. Response: It is hard to look at Phos. and dismiss it here. Especially with a lot of bleeding and the other symptoms. Response: So you are looking for the acute remedy and Phos. and Sulph. are out? Is that it? George: I am looking at the seriousness of the case with the seriousness of the drug. I
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know what that drug can do. It can do horrible things. I do not have confirmation for any of these remedies - either Sulph. or Phos. or Bell. - I do not have complementary symptoms. But these remedies are so well known to us that it is difficult to miss the complementary symptoms. We cannot miss a Phos. case very easily. We will have some confirmation which will make it clear for us. If we are not happy with these remedies which we know well, then something is going on here - something which is ... Response: You say you dont see complementary symptoms in the remedy, but we are just blind. George: I see that in this case, it is wrong. This is the wrong case. PAGE 164 Response: But we learned a lot about the way you look at a case in order to see. George: You can learn something. Response: By reading the case, do you get a sense? George: There is a suddenness, which has misled J. into prescribing Bell. Bell. should have some complementary symptoms. Response: There is fear of dogs. George: Yes, there used to be fear of dogs. Response: Are you looking for an acute confirmation or a chronic confirmation? George: What I wanted to give in that case from the beginning would be rather peculiar. It would cover the sycotic condition of the person. I would not find something to help me prescribe. The idea that K. expressed is right. We see a lot of sycosis underneath. When we see suppressed warts, somewhere Thuj. is going to come up. Question: So a remedy like Crot-h. you would not use unless there was a pretty severe symptomatology? George: Yes, and you must not forget Crot-h. especially in retinal haemorrhage. It is having a specific action on that. Question: If you come down to what you just said ... George: When you are not happy with a remedy, it means that somewhere something is going on and most probably there is a certain indicated remedy which you have to search for and find. It has to have clear indications. You will have a few indications - you will not have many most times. Intra-ocular haemorrhages. Question: There is haemorrhage from the eye, yellow appearance in the eyes, blood exudes from the eye, and burning of the eyes. Response: It says somewhere that it is right-sided too. Question: I would like to ask about the difference between Lach. and Crot-h. You want more than just right or left? George: Lach. is a remedy which we know well and it has had a confirmation in Lach. cases. Lach. is notthere. The vertigo was while sitting - worse while sitting. Crot-h. yes, it is there. It is a one. Response: Lach. is also a one. Response: It is there for the headaches. PAGE 165 George: Has anyone worked out the characteristics of the headaches? Response: That is one of the things that held me again. I was thinking of Lach. and not Crot-h. They are better asleep and I thought that that killed that. Then I t hought that Crot-h. was the same sort of thing.
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Response: In worse from motion, Crot-h. is a 2. George: Headache is better lying down? Response: It says he sleeps into his troubles, the head troubles come on after sleep. He sleeps into headaches. The longer he sleeps, the worse are the headaches. George: This is not always. Question: Was that your first prescription? I have down here a small repertorization which is vertigo worse sitting and better lying. The headaches are better lying down. Response: Crot-h. is better on lying down in regard to vertigo. But we did not have that information. Response: We probably would not have used it anyway. (Laughter) George: Excuse me, I see this information in the repertory, but I do not see where I have given it to you. I repertorized Sulph., which I dont know by heart. I wanted to have more or less an idea. I repertorized vertigo while sitting and better while lying, and came up with the following remedies: Alum., Carb-an., Cic-v., Chin. Crot-h., Cupr., Grat., Lach., Nit-ac., Petr., Phos., Rhus-t., Sil., Stram., Sul-ac., Tell. and Thuj. I repertorized retinal haemorrhage and came down to Crot-h., Lach., Phos. and Sulph. So actually I had to do a differential diagnosis myself. So it was between these four. Response: That would not have been difficult at that point. George: I say that for me this is not a Phos. case. Question: Why did you repertorize vertigo and not retinal haemorrhage and not anxiety about children? George: That was in 1976 - quite a long time ago so I do not know exactly how I thought at the moment. That is why I say it is interesting to put up a case for you here so that we may see it. I understand that it is a very difficult case. What I saw in this case was an urgency since July of 1976. And then he developed the headaches. So if we want actual information about Crot-h. we can have it. It is interesting now that he went to one doctor and then later he saw another doctor at the Centre. The one doctor did not like the case and so he referred the case to another. There was not much interest on his part. The information he gives on the second evaluation is that during that time he only had one episode of pain in the right eye. PAGE 166 The headaches had improved in frequency and intensity (underlined once), and the constipation was better. The first day that he took the medicine, he had a constant nausea. Question: Did you give 200 or 30m dosage? George: 200. Also in such cases you must be careful not to go too high. It is better to be on the safe side. The eye is a very sensitive organ and so you must be very careful in treating it. Response: We have the case up to where he is beginning to relapse. The end of October is when he starts to relapse. George: Okay. The end of October he starts to relapse. Response: The constipation and headaches are back. The eruption was gone, but then it came back. Psychologically he is the same, but generally he is better. He has itching which becomes red and bleeds when he scratches it. George: And then you dont have the remedy again? Response: No, it is blanked out. George: So what do you do now? Okay. Wait?
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Response: Give the remedy in a higher potency. Repeat in the same potency. Wait. George: But the headaches have come back. Response: But not the eye pains. George: The constipation has come back. Response: His psoriasis went away and then returned. I dont see enough symptoms to change remedies. Response: Of course it is not as severe as it was before. Response: He feels generally well, and I think we should wait. George: No, he doesnt say that. He says that there has been no psychological change from the beginning. Response: But he admits that he is a little better generally. Question: The eruption that he had ... was it there when his symptoms started or did he get it during the summer? Did he have it when he started? It went away and came back? PAGE 167 George: No, it doesnt say that he had it. Question: So now it is new? It has just come back? George: When did he complain this time about the eruptions? Response: July. He probably had the psoriasis then because he had it every summer. Then after the remedy, it was gone. George: Anyhow. What are you going to do? Response: Repeat the remedy. George: Any other ideas? Higher potency? Nobody will change the remedy? Response: I would consider it, yes. The reason you chose the Crot-h. in the first place is because of the severity of the symptoms and that it was a dangerous case and the eyes were bleeding. That all seems to be gone. George: Yes, but here Crot-h. has acted on a different level. We see that the constipation that he has had for years is ameliorated, which means that it has acted quite deeply finally. And now we have a relapse of about 60 or 70%. Not 100% relapse, but with the same symptomatology. The best thing here, when there is not a full relapse - sometimes it is even worse than the first time - is to give the same potency. Why? Because here we are dealing with a very sensitive organ. We cannot afford to make a mistake. Give Crot-h. in high potency and you may be creating a haemorrhage of the retina. If he needs it, then you have to give it. If he doesnt need it, then you are going to make a proving with him. The proving will be very much aggravating him, so dont go higher. This is my experience and my understanding. Question: And if you needed to go higher, nothing would happen? If he came back and told you that there had been no change, would you give him the next potency? George: I would consider that, yes. If he had no amelioration and the symptoms are the same exactly, I would consider it. So do you have the follow-up there? Response: Yes. George: The constipation became better and he had diarrhoea 2-3 times. Question: He does not say anything about an aggravation this time. Would you have expected an aggravation? George: He might have had or he might not have had. PAGE 168 Question: Is it necessary?
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Geoerge: No. Question: Do you see an aggravation less often when you are repeating a remedy, even if you change potency? George: Yes, definitely. And the disability is much less. Now perhaps it is 6%. Lets see, this is November, eh. He said that the constipation had almost gone and 2-3 times he had diarrhoea. The amelioration of the headaches was magnificent. The eruptions were less and there was no pain in the eyes. Vision remains the same. He said that he had a light discharge from the urethra. He says that he is rather jealous and vindictive now. He does not forgive easily. He feels anxious about his son and he says he is sensitive more than is average. What is the prescription? Response: Wait. George: Even when he is more jealous? Response: There is a return of old symptoms. He sounds better. George: Of course if you give Lach., then you will make a beautiful proving besides. Question: Are they inimical remedies? George: They are close. You could say inimical, yes. This was a beautiful proving on his eye. He still had no healing in regard to his eye. It is still discoloured. He had a cold. He came after 5 months, in July of 1978. May be not quite 5 months - he came in April of 1978. See what happens here. It is the same old thing. The cardiologist insisted on his taking antibiotics. Why? He was afraid that may be the cold would have an effect on his heart. Question: In this situation, which happens all the time in our practice, people sometimes come to me and say they have a cold and if I dont treat them they will take antibiotics. It is like blackmail. What do you do? Do you treat the cold? George: That is right. If you feel like it. You will treat the cold symtomatology. Question: With real medicine? George: Yes, with the remedy you give. Question: Even though they are under this constitutional remedy? George: Yes. PAGE 169 Question: Do you treat with low potency? George: No, not necessarily. Question: I thought that in Greece you did not mess around with acute conditions unless it was life-threatening. George: Yes. Response: It is threatening his case if the person is going to take antibiotics. George: This is the question that I want to discuss. You are treating somebody constitutionally and then an acute disorder appears. What are you going to do? The best thing that you can do is to avoid giving medicine. If you cannot avoid giving medicine, it will depend on the severity of the acute condition. If somebody comes and says, My nose is running. My eyes are running, and he wants medicine, you give him Cycl. You do not give All-c. or whatever, because his nose is running or he is sneezing. You give him Cycl. if you feel that you should give something. Then that cold will either develop or subside. If it subsides, then okay. If it develops then he will come back in 3-4 days and will tell you that he is coughing a lot and he has a slight fever. There is a symptomatology which is clear now. If it is not clear, and still the fever is not high, you
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can tell him to take this medicine and come again in two days. And then again give a placebo. The 5th or 6th day, either he will be cured or he will have a clear picture to present. Once he has a clear picture, you can give a remedy and help him. Really, you can help a person. The process is the same. You are treating a person constitutionally still. There is no difference. Question: Was Nat-s. a good choice yesterday? Because the womans symptoms became clear enough to treat? George: No, this is not a good practice. You do it because it is life threatening and you have to do something, if you suppose that this woman was going to commit suicide. This is not a good practice. But if the remedy is wrong, it is not going to take away the effect of the previous remedy which has gone deep and created a real disturbance to the whole organism. It has created a real reaction. It is not going to be nullified by the intervention of the wrong remedy. It is going to keep on. In this case you are treating a patient for this kind of life gram with Calc. And he has been doing a bit better and is more normal now. During that phase, a cold comes. It is of a clear Bell. type now. If you give it, you are going to have the whole organism go towards a better state of health. So do not be afraid of acute prescribing during chronic conditions, as long as the picture is quite clear. You will have a cold which seems to be Crot-h. case but you dont give it, because you cannot be sure that this is a Crot-h. cough. You can be sure of an Acon. cold. You can be sure of a Bell. or Bry. cold. You can be sure of an Ars. cold. It is going to help and sometimes the relief comes after a remedy which you have given during an acute state. They will say, I feel much better generally. So it is not to be avoided always, but it is to be avoided when there is no clear pattern. A little bit of running in the nose and a little bit of coughing makes no pattern. If you now are told, I have had a cold and cough for 2-3 days. Please give me a remedy because I want to stop my cough. And you start giving a remedy, they go another two days and say, No, my coughing is still very bad, give me another remedy. And you give another remedy, without a pattern and without knowing what you are doing. Then three, four, five remedies... you can keep on giving and trying to stop the cough, and the cough is getting worse and worse. Now where are you going to end up? Giving antibiotics. You will end up giving antibiotics. Especially if the fever comes up eventually, then you are fearful and you let them take antibiotics. PAGE 170 But if you had waited until you saw a clear picture... I understand that it is bothersome, but if you have a clear picture from the first day, you are justified to give the remedy actually, you must give it. And what are you going to suppose? Say that you have given a constitutional Sulph. in 1977. You are going to suppose that until his death he will never have an acute episode? Someday he is going to develop some acute illness and you have to treat that illness. It is not that we dont treat. We dont treat mild things. They can go away by themselves, for the organism will take care of it. Question: So it would not do harm to wait until you see that it really is not that way? George: No. Question: But it would do harm if you let that go by without treating it - it might relapse back to the original remedy? Is that what you are saying? George: Yes. Question: If left untreated?
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George: Yes, if left untreated. After a cold you may see a relapse. Question: What about untreated colds? George: The same thing. The organism goes down and there are some stresses. You may see a relapse going back to the Calc-c. Question: From a practical standpoint, I think that would be difficult to put into practice, because people wait a long time before they can go into the office. If someone is sick I cant say that I have an opening in two months and to come then. PAGE 171 George: Yes, that is why a homoeopath treats acute disorders by phone. This is a very poor practice if you start it, because it may eventually take a lot of time, because if you have a large clientele many people will be phoning for acute ailments. They know that you can relieve them and they dont like to suffer. I dont advise you to start that. Response: What I tend to do is make people wait unless they get really sick. Then when you have to, you have to. I dont have the time to do it by phone anyway. George: This is the best thing to do, otherwise you will find yourself in a big mess with little things that will intermingle with very serious case. One person comes for his chronic condition and he is treated for EVERYTHING. You take his case and you sit there for one or one and a half hours, and everything that happens to him you keep in mind, unless it is something serious that cannot go away by itself. Okay, we are in April where he got the antibiotics. The Bilirubin is high at 2.7. You read the follow-up yes? What are you going to do? Response: It would depend on how recently he had taken the antibiotics. George: If you wait, you dont know what is going to happen. Response: He does not talk about his mental state though. George: He is very closed. He is very composed, closed up. Almost like I described in Nat-s. He is very high in the bank business - The Central Bank of Greece. Response: May be he will need Nat-s. instead of Thuj. He has liver problems. Response: What about Med. George: The doctor here proposes Med. He has proposed it before also (Laughter). It is almost a full relapse. What potency shall we give? Response: Of what? Response: 1m. Response: 200. After antibiotics, 200. George: We say that we can repeat one remedy twice. Then we step it up. Never mind what it is. If we have repeated it already twice, we are entitled in a way to step up the dosage. I prescribed 1m. It is peculiar how the constipation goes together with the whole situation. There are no headaches. PAGE 172 Question: So Crot-h. took care of the sycosis too? Do you expect more or what? Response: It brought the discharge back. George: It went quite deep. This man was very satisfied. I was telling some directors of the big hospital - they went and got some money to take out of Greece as a favor because they had in their hospital one of my doctors. This man said, What is your speciality? This was a cardiologist. He said, I know only one speciality. When asked what it was, he said, Homoeopathy. So he said, I will
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give you the money. He gave the money and then went back to the hospital and told the whole story to the doctor I had. He was excited because he got the money out of Greece. It is practically impossible. Response: We could keep this in mind and maybe Crot-h. could be added to the list of sycotic remedies. George: This is a good case for Cart-h. because it has a certain symptomatology which has gone. Question: We dont know about his desire for chocolate. George: No, maybe it will come up when we are reading somewhere. You see now we are in May of 1978 and this man took a placebo. This was the last time. Then he came in February of 1979, which was 7 months later. He says that he had a crisis of haemorrhage and he used some tablets for strengthening the arteries. I dont know who gave it to him. Question: Was this before or after? George: Because he had the crisis of haemorrhoids his doctor gave him tablets which he said were harmless and which would strengthen the arteries. I dont know what it was. Question: What kind of a haemorrhage? George: Haemorrhoids. This was a crisis of haemorrhoids. It is interesting to find out how the system works. Instead of having the haemorrhage in the eyes, he now has it in the rectum where it is absolutely harmless. Now this is the last part, and then we are finished. Now he has a little bit of burning after the stool. There are no headaches and he has a normal stool every day. He stated that his psoriasis was better. His testes have broken out with warts. The sun does not bother him. Cold or heat makes no difference. Basically he is well. The only thing that bothers are the warts, which are a bit painful. He says that he sometimes has dreams of flying. Now this was the last time we saw him - in 1979 July. In February he had the attack, but now what really bothers him are the warts which are sensitive. PAGE 173 Question: You did not give anything in February? George: I gave one dose of Thuj. according to the idea which K. explained from the beginning. Now there are warts and flying dreams. Thats all. I gave one dose of Thuj. It is more than a year now that he has not come back and so I can only suppose that he is well. Question: What would have happened had you not treated him? Do you think he would have needed the Thuj.? George: He would need it, yes. Question: Is Thuj. an addition to dreams of flying? George: Thuj. actually has dreams of falling, which is a similar idea (Laughter). It is going downwards, anyway. Question: Regarding selection of potency, if you had a real healthy man, very robust, with only a problem of say recurrent festering toe, and that is the only problem that he has had for years, and you decide on a remedy, what sort of a potency would you select? George: 30. Question: What would happen if you would give something like 10m? Can you go too high for a situation like that? George: If the man is quite healthy and he has a little thing, but if you have to do something you give a dose of 12 or 30 at the most.
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Question: So going too high would result in no effect? George: You may have a proving in the case. You are losing your ammunition like that. So this was a sycotic person, but Crot-h. acted really beautifully. Now Somebody asked me to discuss What is a cure? That is Ds question. If a person comes to you who has symptoms and you give a remedy. The symptoms go away and the person feels well. For all practical purposes, we say that this person is cured as far as homoeopathy is concerned. For how long is he well? We dont know. If the symptomatology comes back, can we say it is a cure then? We can still say that he is cured for the space of time that he remained well. Why has the symptomatology come back? There is nobody who is going to take a remedy at the age of 15 years old and remain healthy for the rest of his life without having any colds or anything. But if his chronic symptomatology has gone, this person is cured for 20 years, because the symptomatology for which he came in the beginning had not come back. He will have acute disease, and you are going to treat him for his acute condition, but for his chronic condition, he is cured. Whether he is a person, who in order to exist takes medicine... he has pains, etc. and he takes medicine. You take away the medicines and you give the remedy and he stays well for one month. Then for one month he is cured. If you treat him again and again he may eventually remain well for 3 years without taking any medicine. For this space of time he is cured. Taking the matter and looking at it pholosophically, who is cured? And what do we mean by cure? That is another question. PAGE 174 Question: A week ago when you were talking about this, you said that the constitutional predisposition remains. So at any time if there is a significant stress, the person will return to the chronic symptomatology that he had all along? George: He may return, and if you have given one remedy, he will return to that state on one remedy. In this man, we prescribed Thuj., for instance, I believe (I am not sure) that if he stresses himself with antibiotics and things like that, he may not go back to Crot-h., he may go back to Thuj., which is better. This is a better condition than Crot-h. Question: If Thuj. was a curative remedy? George: Yes, if Thuj. was a curative remedy. It appears to be, from the time lapse that we have as feed-back. Question: It is still true that if you had not treated him, it would have taken less stress to produce a relapse? So in some sense, he is still strengthened? George: Yes. Question: What about symptoms which are not in the classification of disease, in the usual way we think of it - things like a person being very shy or a person who is very selfish. They are more like personality traits, but they are still limitations of freedom. Can we expect those things to disappear? George: No, but the Pathology will be greatly reduced. The traits will stay there in the personality. You will see a shy person - a Nat-m. - she will look much more relaxed after the remedy. She will not be so stressed. She will feel much more relaxed. She will not take offence so much. There will be subtle changes, but yet there are traits in the person. It is not going to change my personality or the personality of others. It will be the same, but the person will be more relaxed and there will be more freedom.
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PAGE 175 Any real change of character is very limited. What is possible, though, is that they go to sleep at night and they will think, Why did they say that to me? etc. etc. etc. You give Nat-m. and they dont think that any more. They go to sleep and they enjoy their sleep. PHILOSOPHICALLY SPEAKING, NOBODY IS REALLY CURED, EVER. I dont know anybody who has total freedom. But we are giving the possibility for the person to go towards that with a little bit of homoeopathy. He works to free himself and he evolves as an individual. And then he gets more diseases - these are the diseases of the spiritual kind. Basically what I found out is that there are three sources from which we get symptoms. THERE IS THE SPIRITUAL SOURCE, THE SELF-PRESERVATION INSTINCT FORCE, AND THE SEXUAL FORCE. When these three are frustrated ... I lost my house, or I lost my property ... this is self preservation. I dont have space, or I have space. The more evolved the individual is, the more he is bound to get symptomatology from frustrations on the higher levels - on the spiritual levels. Frustrations on the spiritual levels are going to cause his main symptomatology. Question: What is an example? What are those kinds of symptoms? I dont understand what you mean by frustrated on the spiritual level. George: Maybe frustrated is not the right word. I think that all of you have had a kind of experience with spiritual practices, etc. When you first discovered something of a spiritual nature which appealed to you, either in a kind of religious group or a spiritual or yogic group, you discover something which gives you a great uplift for the moment. Then you do the practices which they say, according to your understanding, and then as you go along after the initial uplifting, frustrations will start. Why? Because the uplifting episodes do not come so easily. You put into practice whatever you are taught by the leader of the group, but you dont see any results. Because you have seen different things happening in the group which do not fit with the feelings that you have about the leaders, frustration comes. There you will see a person getting tuberculosis. It is as severe as the eruption of a love affair, as severe as a loss of material things. For the people for whom that spiritual life counts a lot, these frustrations take a lot of power from them. It can really make them sick. I have seen that. I have found how easily disease can appear after these frustrations. Question: Do you feel that homoeopathy still has difficulty in dealing with that kind of situation? George: No, we shall be using the same remedies for those people because usually what you see in symptomatology such as indifference, they start to lose vitality. Question: Do you think that that is a large part of what disease is? The lack of strength in growth? Is it the harder process of growing? George: What do I really think? We start on philosophy when the sun goes down. In ancient Greece, they solved every problem on the earth. We should think about it. I have some experience, but I cannot absolutely be certain, and know what is going on. You see, I have seen strange things happening. For instance, I saw a case of tuberculosis while I was in India. This young man had tuberculosis and he was telling me the case. His guru told him to do exercises and he gave him a special diet. His tuberculosis
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disappeared, whereas the allopathic medicine did not work. That is what he was telling me. What I saw was a man who was schizophrenic. He did not know. He came to me and he was totally out of his mind. I could see that he did not know what was going on. There was no contact. He would mix up all kinds of spiritual things. PAGE 176 I have seen other cases. There was a woman in Athens who claims to have had cancer of the breast and she prayed to the gods, who cured her. She became very religious and created a whole religion. I dont know how healthy that is. Why? This happened years ago. The woman has now been accused by certain persons and they are in the process of going to court. But this person was a spiritual person, a spiritual leader. I dont know how much health there is in that spiritual leader. They went to court. I know another case of cancer of the breast. The shock was so terrible that the woman said, No, I am not going to have cancer. She told herself that she did not have cancer and she became a spiritually oriented person. The cancer left. For me she is sick - very sick in her mind. Now there are a lot of other experiences and if you put them together it is very difficult to make final assessments. The general trend is that we are seeking something which is beyond our logical capacity to understand. That is definite. That is the seeking of truth. We want to know the truth. Personally I believe that we, as limited human beings, cannot understand the Absolute. So one will calmly claim, I am the Absolute. All of these people will claim that there is no other man or woman in the world that they know, but they are the absolutes. I dont know how healthy that is. I dont know how much freedom there is within and the results that this brings about. But we are in the midst of confusion. We are living in a completely confused society. Values are upside down completely. Nobody knows what is valuable or not any more. I see we are easily led by anybody. It was a very interesting experience to know that a person in New York put up an advertisement in the newspaper that he was a guru. He said, I am a guru from India and I shall receive my disciples on such and such a date. He did it as an experiment to see what would happen. He said that several people showed up. Among those that showed up, a great percentage believed him completely. We are living in a very complicated world. Who has the Truth? Where is the Truth? And therefore, what is our solution? According to my understanding, the solution is to know whether somebody is in accordance with the Truth. What is he doing around himself? What happens around that person? That is what I want to observe. Is there more creativity, more happiness, more positive thinking and things, etc. etc. For me, that is very important. That is what I think. And a spiritual person ... I mean I have met a spiritual person, but he never claimed to be spiritual. But yet he would help a lot of people. I am sure that you are intrigued by this dedication which I have in my book *: Dedicated to my teacher. You see, it is not a teacher of homoeopathy. Neither does he claim to be a spiritual kind of teacher. But for me, he was clarifying many of the issues. This was by the way he lived his life, by the way he thought, by the way he put questions to make you think for yourself. I saw that things were happening around him I still have my doubts. I am sceptical. I must stay sceptical or I will create disorder in my body. This is my personal opinion. Question: I have a question about somebody who has, from your perspective, a true
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spiritual practice, versus any of the million kind of mythologies that we have seen. I think that we are still doing the same thing. What is the difference in terms of mind and energy? PAGE 177 George: If one does certain practices, where is he going to end up as far as health is concerned? You see, a real spiritual teacher, according to my understanding, will not do anything to harm this person. A real spiritual teacher knows what somebody needs, even if that somebody says, No, no, I need this. He will say, No, no, you need that. So a real spiritual teacher, by knowing the person, knows the stage in which he is in evolution and will not harm him. He will just give him what he needs at the moment in order to progress a little further. Because a spiritual teacher is one who has walked the path before you. He has gone through the same difficulties and he understands what is going on with you. He will guide you, so that your spiritual practices will be conducive to your health and not against it. If they are doing it for gain, I will doubt the teacher. It is very difficult to find a real teacher, but with the kind of spirituality which is going on at the moment, I have certain reservations. Question: I have some real questions about ... lets side-step the spiritual issue for a moment ... but say becoming a great homoeopath. It seems like one has to go through certain pathological states in order to gain insight into people. You must have been in some pushing, driving, obsessed kinds of states at some points in your career, I would suspect. George: What inside information can I give? Response: People who have a spiritual path also go through a lot of different states. George: I believe that if I was not very sick in the very beginning when I was 15 years old and I was suffering a lot with pain in the spine and things like that, I would never have been here now. That is a part that led me to study. I never hated medicine. I went into civil engineering and I would never give a thought about medicine. It is strange that I had to go through all of this that I experienced. And eventually ... I believe that if I was really healthy at this moment I still would not come here. See? It is a kind of ambition and satisfaction which come together. Perhaps there is something deeper. Also the fact that I was studying so much. Have I told you how much I have studied? 12 hours a day for six years, including weekends. (See Ch. 8 of Part III Discussions). Response: Your landlady used to say. George, why dont you go out for a date? Have some fun, she said. And he answered, To me this is fun. Question: Regarding health. Ramakrishna died of cancer of the throat. Ramanamaharishi died of cancer. Sri Aurobindo also had some remarkable disease. I cant buy that these people were not healthy. They were at the height of health. George: Yes, but this is explainable. If you know the three levels in which they must be clear, and all of the force of the disease in them went into the physical body. Once they become very clear. If we were to become very clear spiritually, mentally and emotionally, our body would not be able to take it. You see, you do not have spiritual teachers saying, This spiritual practice is not for you because your body will not take it. It will burn your body, or things like that. This is absolutely true. Once you are really enlightened, that means that you are clear. You became selfless, you became full of love, you became full of wisdom, and cleared all of these levels and then
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all of the force of disease goes into the physical body and you will have cancer and the body burns out. Question: And this is most probably some sort of miasmatic thing, like a hereditary predisposition? PAGE 178 George: So I believe in spirituality ... to come back to this subject again. Question: So you are saying that if you get really healthy on the mental and emotional level that you will get cancer? George: You will get cancer, yes. Question: Well, spiritual people to me are usually very refined and you were saying that people who are very refined are also usually very sick. So if they come into the world and they are very refined and clear, then sickness will come on. George: Yes, this is the answer. We must get society and then we may have enlightenment. This is my attitude. We are the problems of enlightenment. We have to help society to become healthy in order to withstand enlightenment. We dont know what it is as an experience. If somebody knows it, you will see you are not able to stand it for a long time. You will understand that your physical body will just go to pieces. You will not always have cancer. Question: But by purifying your body, it can withstand it better. George: Of course. That is what I said. We need homoeopathy because it is a powerful tool to purify the system and then the children of those people will be more healthy than we are. They will be able then to take up enlightenment. I believe that the real spiritual teachers will appear. If they now appear and have an effect on us, we will be ruined. This is my opinion. Response: It is a good way to go out though. Response: That is strange, to say that the only reason we are able in terms of treating patients to achieve a cure in our definition - mental, emotional, and physical amelioration - is by virtue of that pathology that continues to exist on their mind and emotional level. I dont see how else to fit that in. That is hard to grasp. Response: We would not cure people completely or else we would kill them. George: You see, there is a computer inside. The stimulation that you get in the body decides what is best. That is why at least certain traits .. it does not take away everything from the mental. It does not clear you really. It leaves a portion of the mental and the emotional and the physical. It does not take away everything. But you see, going from the centre to the circumference, from mind to body, this is a lot until it reaches the outside. That is why when we have skin eruptions, discharges, and warts we are giving a new lease of life. Unless we reach the circumference with our treatment, the danger is there for the physical body. Question: It seems to me that once you fulfill this process in the life of an individual, you have reached the limit of where his health can go. It is the next generation that you have to work on. George: Yes. Question: So the harder you work on spiritual practices, I would think the faster you would need new remedies. That you would go through stages where new remedies would be needed very quickly.
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George: Yes. PAGE 179 17 Swollen prostate Argentum nitricum (arg-n.) Case George: It is characteristic of this type of case not to have many symptoms. Also this is a case where you have a deeper condition such as diabetes which is controlled by diet, associated with swelling of the prostate. This is not a malignant case. Who wants to do the analysis? He is a person with nothing to show in the case regarding his character. Where shall we base our prescription then? The pathology is there and we can go and prescribe for the pathology only. Med. is justified the most. Who prescribed Med.? Why? Since we do not have any symptomatology to go on, we have to go on the desires and aversions. The desires are for milk products (underlined once), desire for fish (underlined once), desire for sweets (three), desire for wine (three), and desire for salt (once). The thirst is normal. Response: If we had gone by that picture, we would have chosen Sulph. George: Sulph. has an aversion to salt. He has three underlines for sweets and only one underline for salt. A Sulph. case will show an aversion to fish, a desire for wine, desire for sweets (three times), and a desire for salt (twice). That would make a Sulph. case. Question: So it seems to rest on the relationship to salt. George: And the amount. We will discuss this. Here is perhaps the key to the whole case. Sweets cannot be taken of course because this patient is diabetic. Now what is the information that we have about this person? This point is important for you to remember before you can prescribe. He controls his diet because of the diabetes, which means that he is strict and cannot give in to his aversions and desires in regard to food. So used to desire salt means a strong desire of the organism which is now suppressed because it is not good. The same with sweets. The desires are not given in to. There is a desire, but if he gives in to this, it will affect his diabetes. Question: I dont see what you are getting at. George: He says now that he desires sweets. But he is diabetic and the desire for sweets is strong, but of course he does not take it. Otherwise his diet will not be holding his diabetes in check. PAGE 180 Question: Can you trust that symptom since it is something that he avoids? George: He has the desire and sometimes the desire is not so strong. Here it is very strong. He said that the desire for salt WAS strong also. This is the information he gave and so I had the same information that you now have. So I have to reason out whether this is a Phos. case. Desire sweets is Phos. Desires salt is Phos. Response: This is the reason why I would never play poker with George. (Laughter) George: So you are going through the desires and the aversions in that case. Correct? And you have to couple the aversions and desires with the diabetic diet. He also dislikes warmth. Question: But you trust the being warm more because he does control his diet, and so he
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could have cravings just because he avoids a lot of foods. George: Fish he can take. So does anyone want to change their prescription? Response: If you go by the cravings, then Nat-m. is a possibility, although in Nat-m. sweets are not so strong. But if you were a diabetic and never ate sweets, you would probably start to crave them after a while. George: Yes, the fact remains that there are two symptoms in the cravings which are underlined three times. He stressed this to the doctor very strongly - desires salts and desires sweets. Neither of the two he can take at the moment. Response: Well that is Med. or Nit-ac. George: If you look in the repertory. Response: Arg-n., Calc., Carb-v., Chin. (has been added). Question: Wouldnt you feel like this was a closed person because of the lack of information. (Laughter) George: I dont think so. He is helping at the levels that he can. I feel that he has controlled his cravings. He says that he desires sweets and salt (three times), desires fish (twice). I feel that I can trust these desires; otherwise I have nothing to go on at all in the case. As I said, Med. is a very good prescription in this. If all of you had written Med., I would not argue with it. I would say yes. The only thing that I would like to have in that case would be that the desire for sweets and salt be underlined twice instead of three times. But he has strongly stressed the desire for both. PAGE 181 Since we are going to just analyze his desires and aversions in order to find out about the urinary symptoms, can we definitely come down to a single remedy and say that it is it by analyzing his urinary symptoms? No, there is not a chance. Question: But isnt Med. ordinarily chilly. Wouldnt you want to have the worse with heat rubric? George: Exactly. But I would have said okay because his feet seem to be quite warm. Question: What is that for? Med.? George: Yes, Med. will have warm feet. Question: And it would not bother you that Arg-n. does not have the craving for fish or wine or milk? Question: Do you ever send a case back to the doctor and tell him to get more information? George: (Laughs) Everything is programmed. He has come there and said that he will come back on a certain date to get his remedy. If not, he is upset. That can happen sometimes, but it changes the whole programme and if I do this in 5-6 cases, then it is difficult. Here you are desperate. So you go by the key symptoms. I bring it to you to show you how you can think in such cases. The symptom which is accentuated is a symptom on which you can rely. You can disregard it only if the rest of the picture is clear and the remedy has not been shown so far. I shall repeat that. A symptom which is underlined three times you can rely upon, but you can disregard it only if the rest of the case is a strong picture of a remedy. Then you have a symptom like desires onions (underlined three times) or aversion to onions (underlined three times), but the whole picture goes for say Mag-m. Forget it. But if you DONT have any symptoms and you have two cravings, you are going to go by that picture.
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Question: When you say that the whole picture fits, you dont necessarily mean that all of the data fit and line up perfectly with a remedy, but you mean that the essence picture is there with these other confirmatory symptoms? George: Yes. Question: So you are doing keynote prescribing? George: No, because I took the two main symptoms, the two strong desires, and the general heat of the patient and I also know that Arg-n. can have an enlargement of the prostate. This is not outside its pathology. PAGE 182 Question: But isnt that keynote prescribing? I mean, you are doing it because you have no other choice. George: No. Keynote data prescribing is where you have desire for sweets and you give Sulph. Or you have desire for onions and you give Sabad. Question: Arg-n. is not listed here for enlargement of the prostate. Should we add it? Question: It is a sycotic remedy, isnt it? You might suspect gonorrhoea in this mans history somewhere? George: This is a good question, because most probably I thought about Med. The desire for sweets is Med. That is a possibility. But what took me away from Med. was the fact that the underlines were not those of Med. The second thing that took me away from it was that this kind of disturbance starts very late. He is 68 years old. I would not think that he had had gonorrhoea, because if he had had it at a young age, we would have had much more stressful symptoms than he has presented us with, as far as his prostate is concerned. There is a sensitivity of the prostate, and if there was a real gonorrhoea which has not gone away and he needs Med., this symptomatology would have been MUCH stronger - MUCH MORE SEVERE. In this case it does not look severe. That is why he responds so well. Question: So basically you are saying that if somebody has a sycotic miasm, it would be unlikely for them to take on a significant sycosis miasm from an earlier gonorrhoea if they had a strong vital force, which this man has. George: I did not follow that. Repeats: He has a strong vital force because he had been well until a late age. The he has a normal problem for that age. So it is unlikely that he had an earlier gonorrhoeal miasm? George: Exactly. That is why I did not prescribe Med. If I had prescribed it, you would not be able to counteract that. But here the response was so good. The urination became absolutely normal immediately. Question: On what remedy? George: On Arg-n. 200. Question: That is based on the cravings? George: Yes, and the heat. His sleep is very good. He wakes up refreshed. He is now in the second year that Arg-n. He is 70 years old now and he has no problems. Of course this is a strong man. He has a strong constitution. PAGE 183 Question: So you expect that the symptoms that somebody gives you, should match the intensity in the repertory all the way across? George: Yes. When you have to differentiate between so little symptomatology you come down to the best possible that you can. Your mind should go automatically and
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quickly. Response: So you have to assume that he REALLY wants sweets ... and salt? George: Yes. Response: Because I did not make that assumption. (Laughter) George: That old symptom is still valid for me. I take it and put it into the picture. If I have a present picture now, for example, and I have an old symptom. It will make the picture whole. So I take it and I use it. Question: I usually avoid doing that because I see a new layer. George: A new layer, in case that does not fit with this. If I had a remedy here which fits the picture and that old picture symptom does not fit, then I will give that remedy and ignore that old symptom. If I cannot make a picture here and taking this symptom completes the picture for me, then I will use that symptom. Response: We would have the advantage of going back to the guy and asking, Do you still really like salt?, and he would say yes or no. If he said no, then you would not use that symptom. Response: No, not if he controlled it. George: It is a matter of suppression. For instance, you get ... especially with salt ... a person who is Nat-m. and he needs salt a lot. Then you say, No, you cannot have it. What is going to happen is that in two or three months time there will be no desire for salt any more, but depending on the possibility of his organism, from a physical element like gastritis to vertigo to depression. That symptom simply ... and this is VERY important because Americans are very conscious of diet and you have to be careful. Dont tell them to take as much salt as they want, but the lack of salt in the bloodstream will produce other symptomatology if he needs it and cannot have it. You will lose the desire for salt, but if it is a Nat-m. patient, I take this and complete the picture. Response: But there isnt a picture in this case. PAGE 184 George: Yes. (Laughs) Question: Are you saying that a suppression of salt could be like a suppression of foot sweat? It could make you sick? George: Yes, that is what I maintain. But dont turn them loose with their desires. If they desire sweets, then they could control it a bit, but do not scare him to death that if he eats any kind of sweets that is a poison. Take a better kind of sweet, like fruits and honey. Then you will have something to replace. But with salt, there is nothing to replace it. And so there would be a suppression and this symptom will definitely go deeper and it may produce new symptoms at a deeper level. I have seen it many times. Response: If I may make a comment, I think I can see some confusion here that I could help with. When we have so few symptoms what we do is to fall back on what we think we know. But actually this is very consistent with everything that you have taught us all along. Because if you ask yourself the Question, As a total being, what is this persons problem? And you say, Where is the centre of gravity * of the symptoms? which we have always talked about. It is not on mental or emotional planes. It is on the metabolic plane - the worse with heat and the cravings are represented as an imbalance on a purely metabolic plane, and the hormonal plane with the prostate and so on. So actually it fits the picture even though we say that he does not have the craving for salt anymore. All he
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did was to manipulate an imbalance that was already there. So you can take it in this case where you might not in another case where there is a fuller symptomatology on other levels and the centre of the gravity is not the metabolic plane. George: Say that we were debating what to give in this case - Med. or Arg-n. I would not have been so sure, that I could give that remedy and that it was going to act. But it is also sure that I would have suggested Arg-n. In NO case you will be cent percent sure. Unless I have done a case in the morning and I give you a typical case in the evening of a remedy which I gave in the morning and then immediately you will recognize it. But this is having the remedy in your mind very very fresh and then having a typical case. If you go to repertorize it, it may not come specifically to that remedy. But knowing that remedy will allow you to say, This is the remedy. Question: If there was a sycosis strain in this man, wouldnt you give Arg-n.? It is a major sycotic remedy. I am referring to what you said about not thinking that gonorrhoea was involved in this. PAGE 185 George: I dont think that he had gonorrhoea because I thought that if he had had it since his young age, he would not be expected at age 68 only to have this degree of problem. His problem would be much more severe. Because of the infection that would have gone into his prostate, his prostate would be ... only for the past 8 years had he had prostate troubles and that would look much more severe. With this kind of prostate gland disturbance at age 68, that is an almost normal disease for that age. I would consider him quite healthy. Also his diabetes has been controlled through diet since 1958, he has a good constitution. I believe that his diabetes must have been helped a lot by the remedy. The remedy fits the entire case and I am sure... you see, he did not come since the end of 1979. He did not come anymore to tell us if he had done any research in his diabetes to see the level in the blood and urine, but I am really sure that this would have an effect on his diabetes as well. But if that person had gonorrhoea, we would be justified in giving Med. If he had told us in the history that he had had gonorrhoea, just because of that information, the Arg-n. would be out and the Med. would be in. If it had been thirst for cold drinks, that same case would have become Phos. Question: You said that if he had had gonorrhoea at the age of 17, it would not make any difference? George: No. At any age if you have had gonorrhoea, I would give Med. Response: Arg-n. has a 2 for gonorrhoeal discharge. Question: What if his father had had gonorrhoea? George: That is okay. He will still get Arg-n. If he had the gonorrhoea himself, I would go to Med. This is my way of thinking. I am just giving you how I would think. Question: But on the basis of what you said yesterday, if he had had gonorrhoea at 17 and we had reason to believe that he was not exposed after that, then the chances are that that was an acute case and he did not graft a miasm on because he did not have any trouble until the age of 68. Correct? So then the worse by heat would offset that. George: (Laughs) I would have given Med. You have a good question, but it is very subtle. You would be discussing a hypothetical case while here we have the facts. PAGE 186 18 Low blood pressure
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Laurocerasus (laur.) followed by causticum (caust.) Case George: It is interesting here that the doctor proposes the next three predispositions: One of them is right but he made three proposals. This is just to show you that the doctors in my clinic have the same problems as you have. Response: I am sure that if we had had three choices, we would have all gotten them. (Laughter) George: Who is sure about the remedy? The remedy is listed there from the ballots. Who will analyze and say that they are almost sure? Response: The way that I looked at it was that the symptoms changed a lot. There was nothing that seemed to go straight to it as far as clear-cut picture. The only thing that I could see with the symptoms was that they were periodical and there was a type of constriction. There seemed to be a constriction around her neck and in her colon. There was a constriction around her extremities which cut off the circulation. That was a sort of common denominator and that is why I chose Cact. She also had low blood pressure. The blood pressure was 105/65. Let us first discuss the possibility of Cact., which is given. Response: She complains of stitching pains in several places. George: Do you know Cact.? Have you read a little bit about it? Response: It sounded pretty good when I read it in the book. I chose Cact. too. George: I think Tub. is a good remedy to discuss. And by the way, I wanted to make a general comment. You see, in our materia medica, written one century ago, it seems that the diseases for which thiswas made were of quite a different type from those with which we are dealing today. And today we will not see these classical cases as far as pathology is concerned because before one comes to us he has taken a lot of antibiotics. We will not see the inflammations as primary infections which are described in our books. So we have Tub. Tuberculosis was a major issue 50-60 years ago - when real tuberculosis was going on as a primary infection. Today what we actually see is the repercussion of these tuberculosis cases which is going through from generation to generation in a completely different way. But here there appear some constrictions. She says, I have constriction, but there is a thyroid here which is naturally constricted when it is swollen. There is a kind of nodule of the thyroid - called goitre? PAGE 187 Response: A goitre is just a diffuse growth of the thyroid. If it is just in one spot, then we call it a nodule - a thyroid nodule. George: A cold nodule, yes. Who else wants to discuss their findings on this case? Response: I thought it was Phos. because I felt that she was fairly hysterical. She would have these tremendous episodes of fear and then they would go away. I thought about Ars. too, but I thought she would be more stable if that was so. There was a stitching in the heart such as Phos. gets. She had numbness and stitching in the hands. She was better when warm and better lying down, which was like Phos. She was irritable and I thought that was okay. She could not cry and that is sometimes true of Phos. George: These are all the little symptoms that you have, either which you can take into consideration or disregard, depending on the balance of the case. Sometimes she breaks
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things. Response: Her irritability sounds pretty intense to me, even though is is not underlined. Shouting and breaking things seem pretty strong. Response: She says that she is very irritable and lately she was breaking things. (Continuing): She could not tolerate the sun before, but does not mind it now, means that she has started liking it. Worse in cloudy weather I felt was good for Phos. The fact that she could not put on weight I thought was in favour of Phos. All of the clues I got were pointing to Phos. - first the cold and then warm water I thought was good in regard to thirst. Response: And warm water causes vomiting is another symptom. Response: Phos. is a good choice. George: Yes, it is a good choice. Response: The fact that it takes her a week to recover from these episodes seems to me to be a little bit more than Phos. Response: I chose Phos. and I would like to add a point. I had the sense that there was a quality of etherically leaving the body during these crises. She feels paralyzed and then does not recover. There were those other things too about being asleep and waking up and being unable to determine where she is. PAGE 188 George: Phos. is a good choice. I would not expect ... you see, if you were taking examinations as a beginner (although never mind that we are all beginners), there is a thing here that ... and if I was giving marks, I would not give you the highest marks on this, but if 10 was the highest, I would give you 9 points for Phos. Response: But not a certificate? (Laughter) George: Not on that basis alone. It is good prescription and it could be argued very nicely in this case because of the anxiety about her own people, desires sweets (underlined once), desires ice cream is quite strong (twice), desires salt (twice). Response: This patient is worse standing, whereas Phos. is better. Response: She does not cry. George: She is nasty. She is kind of hard and she breaks things. There is extreme irritability. If we want to make another case of Phos., we have certain points which we need to be careful of. If we are careful, then we are going to find the remedy. We will go and look again if we make note of that. Response: Something else that struck me is that she would say something and the doctor did not underline it. George: Yes, what she relates is not a kind of openness. She has stitches in her heart. Oh! You are right when you say something about the blood pressure. Sometimes the blood pressure comes down to 70 maxima. The maximum can reach 70, 700 m.m. of mercury. Response: This was actually the hardest case for me so far. I read it through and repertorized it and nothing came out well. Calc-p. came up and Phos., but it didnt feel like Calc. either. I couldnt make anything work. So then I decided that I would take the constriction in the throat. I took all of those remedies and I tried to look up anything else that might have been pertinent that I thought was unusual. I looked at everything there and I could not find anything that would fit.
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So then I went back. I looked at all of them again and I thought, Well, if I cant make anything fit, it is probably a small remedy that I dont know very well. So I went over it again and looked and tried to think of what was going on. It sounded like she had a weak heart and nervous problems. So I thought that since there was a heart problem, I took the stitching in her heart and the condition in her throat and that is how I came up with Laur. George: Understood what you were doing. If you go and read Laur.... Response: My question would be whether it is a heart or a thyroid problem. PAGE 189 George: This is mostly a circulatory remedy, yes? Response: But this person is reacting quite wildly. George: Laur. is prescribed when we have a kind of exhaustion of body and mind. Circulation is not in order and the person is quite feeble. When it says here that she does not react, it is the vital force that cannot give out symptoms. That is why we sometimes use Laur. when we have a paucity of symptoms. Exhaustion and a paucity of symptoms and nothing seems to come to the surface. Response: Also it stresses this terrible coldness. George: Yes, the coldness is very strong according to Kent. And so what we have to remember is this great exhaustion. From Cact. we have to remember the constriction. This is a severe kind, very VERY strong! It becomes the main symptom these constrictions and contractions which are everywhere - in the heart. It is constricted and like wire. It is not like a hand that is holding it, but like a wire and it is very painful. Cact. could be prescribed in cardiac troubles where the pain is very very strong and they almost shout from it - it is a wire-like constricting pain. In Laur. you will be prescribing for lack of vital heat, exhaustion physically, and exhaustion psychologically. Kent says the patient does not react. They will go through a disease and stay in the diseased state without being able to react and bring about a balance. Now who wants to talk? Phos. is out. Response: Actually my first choice was Phos. Then I chose Lach. Then I went back over it again and thought that maybe Ars. covered it, but I liked B.s point about the fact that their fear of death probably would not .... let me give the story for Ars. Lach. was ruled out because she was so chilly, but the flushes of heat supported Lach. and also that paralysis with constriction made me think of Lach. For Ars., the essence is the fear of death. When she gets sickest that is what comes out- her fear of death. When she has her symptoms, this comes out. George: Now, when she has the symptoms, she has fear of death. That means there is quite a constriction and suffocation here. That is quite a shock. Response: That would not be a peculiar symptom. George: That is almost natural to expect that. You are not going to find here a remedy that has fear of death excessively. You dont have to find a remedy where fear of death is with the little things. She has reason to be afraid. So fear of death must be in the remedy but not in capitals. PAGE 190 Response: She is chilly and she has anxiety about others. Her irritability is probably a bit much for Ars., but if her security was really threatened maybe they would show a lot of irritability. They can have the aversions to sweets and fats - that fits about the best in
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regard to foods. The rest does not fit so well. George: I would look for a desire for fats in Ars. rather than an aversion. But they are listed. Frequently the Ars. cases have a desire for fat, and so it is not a prominent symptom with Ars. in this aversion to fats. It means nothing. It is not something like Puls., Petr., Nat-m - these remedies which have a GREAT aversion to fat. Continuing: The last thing was likes consolation. Without Phos., it would be the one I would expect. She was cold (underlined three times), except for the warm feet and that bothered me. Response: I picked Calc. George: Calc., because she is worse cold. The aversion to sweets in Calc. is very seldom. Calc. has quite strong fear of death - VERY STRONG! So what are the reasons for your choice? Continuing: Constrictions, vertigo when eyes closed, desire for ice-cream, cloudy weather, heat alternating. Calc. is a big remedy for the thyroid. George: Yes. Response: She is confused after sleeping. This patient has the symptom of waking up and not knowing where she is. She is confused after sleeping. Response: Those are Ambra., Anac., Ars., Bry., Calc., Carb-v., Graph., Hep., Lach., Op., Squil. Then there is another rubric Confused on waking, which is used in Phosphorus. Response: I found a discussion in Kent and he listed Lyc., Lach., Carb-v., and Phos. I could not find it in the repertory. I didnt know where to look. What is the difference between Confusion after sleeping and Confusion on waking? George: You see, the repertory cannot give the exact color of the symptoms. Under one rubric we may put 30 remedies which have differentiations. So you would wonder about the difference between confusion after waking and after sleeping. PAGE 191 Comment: I suppose that if you have not woken up yet, that you were taking a long time to wake up - no, that doesnt make much sense. (Laughter) I mean, you can still be sort of half asleep. Response: On waking, there is a short period of time of confusion. George: After sleep means that there is a confusion which lasts for a longer time. These are only indications. You cannot take the repertory 100%. Comment: Calc. is also a 2 for desires salt. George: Which one from the remedies we discussed would treat this condition best? Response: Phos. George: Undoubtedly. It fits the picture more correctly. When we do the other discussions, we must accept Phos. because it is strong in this case. We had some points against Phos. Now the argument would be what is that remedy which would be not Phos.? Response: Caust.? (Laughter) George: Which are the remedies which have thyroid trouble? On examination of all these remedies, Caust. has nodules of the thyroid. Responses: How could we know whether it was a goitre or a nodule or a spasm? George: I told you it was a cold nodule. Comment: There is a contracture of the muscles after a fracture. That is Caust. Question: Isnt Caust. slow in that tightening and paralysis?
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George: She says here, Suddenly I have this constriction and for a few seconds I cannot take a breath. Response: It feels paralyzed. George: She feels that it is something like temporary paralysis. Question: When they dont urinate for a while and their bladder becomes paralyzed, isnt that Caust. George: Yes, Caust. has paralysis of the single organ. We have a Phos. here which we dont like. We have the possibility of Caust. instead of Phos. because the doctor proposed Caust. first and then Phos. Question: What rubric are we looking under? Answer: External swelling of the thyroid or throat. PAGE 192 George: Med. Question: What? George: Med. Question: So the idea was to solve the aversion to sweets? George: What is actually ... did you find Caust. under thyroid? Answer: Yes and it is a 1 George: Did you think that this was a paralysis of the organ? Answer: Just at the end I began to think that it was a sort of muscle spasm followed by paralysis. George: Here the idea is that if I know it is affected, then Caust. is one of the remedies which has swelling of the thyroid. Then there is this temporary paralysis of a particular organ. Then read the Caust. Question: That rubric Spasms of throat, or spasmodic constriction, on page 467 does not even have Caust. Is that not a good rubric to use? Question: George, the thing that puzzles me in this case is that there is so much information in favour of Phos. and the irritability is pretty strong. George: This is the kind of person who is like Phos. Do not give up this impression. Yet the anxiety about her own people is underlined how many times? Response: Three times. Response: So that could be either Caust. or Phos. George: Caust. affects the thyroid much more than Phos. The second thing is that I take it as a temporary paralysis - the suffocations which she has. The third thing is that the type of person goes towards Caust. more than towards Phos. She has an aversion to sweets, which is Caust. - this is steady as a complementary symptom. Then she desires salt and this is usual with Caust. Question: So the type of person is the main thing? George: For two years, she has not been able to cry. Of course, she does not give the whole history. Did I translate until the end, where I say, She has been suffering with her health for two years? Response: No, but we have the idea that it has been a long time. She has been through difficult years since her childhood with a lot of griefs. Her father died and a whole lot of things. PAGE 193
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George: A lot of grief which has now resulted in a person who is kind of irritable, hard, and the thyroid is affected. At the same time there is an anxiety about their own health. What has happened? You can imagine that person. It is a tense person. It is not a relaxed Phos. person. So you read in the books when you get a case where Phos. is indicated they may give Caust. They are very close. Now this is a case which exemplified exactly that, and you have to go by little things to tip it over to the right remedy. Question: What do you think Phos. would have done? George: Very little. Question: What would the tone of voice of Caust. be? George: They are very excited when something is wrong. Excited. But it is more inside themselves that any expression of the anxiety. They are withdrawing inside. PAGE 194 19 Cataract (in 73 year old ks mother) Sulphur (sulph.) Case Presentation: One year ago she had cataract surgery on the left eye. In January she had a retinal detachment. Subsequent surgeries were unsuccessful and she is now blind in her left eye. There was never any haemorrhage. Now she is complaining of pain in the left eye when she uses the good right eye, especially when reading. Also the blind left eye feels swollen and bulging. Since one of these operations, which was a long time ago, she has had pain in the head, but only when she bends over such as to sweep or when gardening. George: Is that in the whole head or only the eye? K.: The whole head and that is underlined three times. The whole next day she will feel bad. She bends over and gets her head low. If she bends her knees it is okay, but if she leans or stoops, the next day she will have to rest because she feels so bad. She works in the garden. She gets pains in the occiput which come and go during the day. These are different pains. These are worse from worry or thinking or when trying to understand something. That is underlined once. She wakes at 2 a.m. (or 1 a.m. standard time), and again at 4-5 a.m. From 2 a.m. on she dreams and her sleep is not restful. When she finally wakes up, she is not refreshed. She says, I often ache all over until I move around for a few minutes. Then she is better. Because of her eye problems she cannot drive and she is becoming depressed. She cannot do what she once did and wants to do. George: She is active yet? She is a strong woman? K.: Her vital force is about 6 or 7. She said to me today, Sometimes I think that things are not worthwhile. I think about what it is all worth. She denied that she was feeling suicidal. She is worried about her memory and she mentions this every time I talk with her (underlined three times). George: Can anybody tell us what the remedy is so far? Response: Rhus-t. has that head thing with bending and stooping. George: There are a lot of head stooping remedies in the repertory - Bell., Bry., Mang., Merc., Puls., Sep., Sulph., and Valer. But there is a remedy and only one remedy. Which is it? So far, what is the peculiar thing in the history?
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PAGE 195 You see, the cataract is only on the left side. K.: There is cataract in both eyes. George: You said that there was a cataract on a 73-year-old woman, and it is so severe in the left eye that it has interfered with her vision. Which is the remedy that has a cataract of the left eye? Response: Sulph. George: Stooping is capital. The frequent awakenings during the night: one to three times. K.: She lost her vision from a detached retina following a later operation. George: The cataract is right for surgery. It is ripe for surgery. One eye goes whoooosh like that and the other eye stays worse and she can see. That is one peculiarity. Dont you see it as peculiar? The cataract is ready for extraction. So let us see now. These are the thoughts that we have made so far. K.: She says she is irritable (underlined once or twice). My fathers memory is getting bad and that annoys her. She feels better if she goes out and does something social - goes to a luncheon or a concert (underlined twice). She said that she often prefers to be alone and consolation aggravates (not underlined). My father observes that she can be depressed and then suddenly happy (underlined once). She said that she is not a social person and yet she is known for being a very charming hostess. The facts are quite different. George: You see now how you cannot trust the information absolutely. You always have to cross it. You see information here and information there which do not tally together and so you have to cross examine it to find out what is real. K.: Sometimes when she is out socially she feels very uptight and tense. She says, With certain people I am not relaxed. She is not relaxed in certain situations with certain people. With other people, she likes to be with them and she is more relaxed. I said, Do you mean that you DISLIKE other people? but she would not admit that she disliked anybody. She just said that she preferred some people to others. One thing is very characteristic about her and that is that she likes to be very active. She does housework and gardening and if she cannot work, she becomes very unhappy. She cannot work now. As soon as she has a good day, her energy is always fluctuating. She will work very hard on a good day and become very tired so that she has to lie down and rest. Sometimes she will work hard for half a day and then she has to lie down for three days. PAGE 196 George: You see now the information that she gives from here downward, it is useless. It is natural and fairly normal. There is nothing of very much value. You would expect a woman of 73 sometimes having energy and sometimes not having energy. Sometimes they are a little peculiar in regard to energy as age progresses. And so nothing of that sort is important. But then this information gives another symptom down here which will be taken into consideration and we can say that it tends towards such and such a direction. Maybe towards the direction of Nat-m. From here on we see the direction of Nat-m., but so far and with this much information, the prescription of Sulph. remains true. Question: They would be better going out socially? Nat-m.?
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George: I said that just as an example. K.: Chilly is underlined twice, especially in the feet, hands, legs and knees. Anything that is uncovered (underlined twice). She is always complaining about her knees being cold. And that is everything that is unclothed. But she often complains at night even in bed that the knees are cold. She cries once or twice a week, especially when she sees suffering children on television. George: With cold knees it would be Phos. And is that sufficient to change our prescription? Response: Phos. has cataracts and they also have retinal detachments. This is a left sided remedy. George: I dont ask you what it has. I know what it has. (Laughter) Will you change the Sulph.? Up to here we have no more information. What is your prescription? Phos. or Sulph.? Responses: (Some votes for each). George: How can you change to Phos. already with that? We have seen that.... sympathetic - can we change the remedy with that? Or chilly? How many times have I told you that because people are worse with cold I have treated them with Sulph.? It is the main remedy for being chilly. That will not change. That chilly can still fit with the Sulph. Question: Just because the cataract in the one eye is so strong? George: It is not the cataract. It is the sleeplessness. We have one characteristic, which is pathology of course. It is not very strong, but it is peculiar in its pathology and we have the second one, which is the sleeplessness. And there is pain in the head on stooping in capitals here. PAGE 197 So this is not going to change our prescription yet. Now you have given me 2-3 remedies already. K.: I gave her Nux-v. one month ago because she was very irritable. In the past, years ago, she got Puls. and she has had Phos. I think. I have not kept very good records on her. She did well on Nat-m. a year ago. George: But have you given her Sulph.? K.: Never. George: I know. K.: With a chilly person, you are right. I dont mind admitting that one. She is very much better after a good nights sleep. That is one of her fixed ideas, If only I could get a good nights sleep. So she is much better (underlined three times) after sleep. Question: George. Have you ever given Nux-v. to a warm-blooded person? George: I think I heard of a case who was warm blooded. Response: I told you about one, but I dont think that was right from information I got later. It turned out that my information was wrong. Comment: You gave it to me once when I was warm blooded. George: Can you imagine the psychological state? (Laughter) K.: She says, I shiver when I am not cold, infrequently. She means that when the environment is not cold she shivers. That occurs infrequently. She is worse during cold weather (underlined three times), worse with dampness (underlined once). She has a history of urticaria. She likes having her children and
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grandchildren, but she dislikes the confusion and she is startled from noise (underlined three times). These are old symptoms. It is my observation that she does not do well in the hot sun, when she is working in it. That is my own observation. Even though she is very chilly, she does not seem to do well in the sun (Maybe underlined once). Question: Does she get tired? K.: Tired and flushed. She has a desire for sweets (underlined once). That is it. Question: No food cravings or aversions? K.: No. Perspiration is not much. She is very sensitive and very nervous. She is very sensitive to other people. I was thinking of Nat-c. for her. She was actually saying over the phone that she likes certain people and certain situations, just like out of your lecture, George. Oh, and the other thing that was prominent for me after this mornings lecture is that she is a great peace maker. She hates quarrels. She cannot stand quarrels between me and my father, and my brother and me. It makes her very nervous and irritable. Any unpleasantness is unbearable. That should be underlined three times. PAGE 198 Response: We could look at Calc. too. K.: The beginning symptoms are all recent ones that have come on during the past few months. George: Pain in the occiput which is worse with worrying - did you find that in the repertory at all? Response: There is also pain with nervousness on page 144. I dont know what that means. Question: The detached retina is from surgery or did it happen by itself? K.: Spontaneously. This is in the eye that was operated on. Question: Does she worry a lot? K.: She worries A LOT, especially about her family. George: Did anybody find detached retina in the repertory? Response: Page 237. It is Phos., Gels., Apis., Aur., and Dig. Question: That could very well be a post-surgical thing, couldnt it. Because of the change in the mechanics of the eye structure. Response: I would think so, yes. K.: She had swelling of the eyes. The left eye feels swollen and bulging (Sensation of swelling). That is Caust., Cimic., Croc., Cycl., Guaj., Tarax. and Thuj. Response: Page 267 on the left-hand side, about half way down. Question: Does she have any other pathology, K.? K.: She has one leg which is longer than the other with a curved spine. Question: Otherwise she has been healthy up to now? K.: Fairly healthy, but she tires easily. Question: Does she work hard? K.: She likes to work hard. Question: Is it a pathological thing? Can it be? PAGE 199 K.: Occasionally her blood pressure has been elevated but it seems to be due to stress. George: These times that she wakes up in the night. Is that a steady pattern? K.: Yes, and it has been going on for many months. It used to be more at 4 or 5 a.m. and now it has gone back to 1. It has only been this early for about the last month. Why not
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Calc.? George: Because of the coldness. K.: She goes to bed and wears slippers on her feet and then they heat up and she will take the slippers off. Question: It sounds as if she is a bit work-oriented. K.: Very much so. She loves to work. George: Sulp. is quite strong. But I have ruled it out, although I would take it as a second possibility. Maybe if you study the case a little bit more ... K.: What about Nat-c.? George: The milk should be underlined at least three times to be a Nat-c. Question: What about Kali-c.? It has cataracts and is worse cold. George: There is information here which is the key. Question: Is the key headache on stooping? George: This can be the key to too many remedies. It is associated with 60-70 remedies. I more eventually rule out Sulph. because I am not sure that this remedy is correct. It would not rejuvenate her completely, but it is a good remedy. Question: What does she look like? Can you describe her physically? K.: She is about 5 feet and 2-3 inches, brown hair, about 124 pounds. Her thirst is unremarkable. George: Sweets are underlined once. You seem again to have Calc., but I would like the desire for sweets to be stronger. The information we need is from here to here (demonstrates). K.: You said that that was the least important. George: I now bring it up again. You are not going to find it, unless you look in the repertory. It has information which is peculiar and you will not accept that this is a two. Does anyone know the percentage of men versus women getting cataracts? PAGE 200 Answer: It has been more in women in my experience, but I do not know the statistics. Question: What about that sadness changing suddenly to happiness? Even in an older person that is a little strange. K.: She sounded very worried about her memory right now. That is the thing that bothers her as much as anything - her memory. Did I tell you - she seems to miss the first word of a sentence and then she cannot understand the meaning. That is bothering her a great deal for she feels that her memory is degenerating (underlined twice). George: Everybody, lets look again at the cataract and take ideas from that. K.: This Mag-c. which you described this morning is a dead ringer for her personality. This peace thing ... Response: But that was Mag-m. George: But they are similar - Mag-m. and Mag-c. You remember that I told you Magm. desired vegetables. Mag-c. has an aversion to vegetables - also it is chilly and the relationship to sweets is the same. Question: Would you say that she is restless or does she just like to do things? She is unrefreshed from sleep ... K.: She likes to work. She likes being productive and she is industrious. George: I want to go back. When somebody says something and gives information, the
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tone of the voice can be misleading. You can ask if the person is cold and they will say OH YES, VERY COLD! Then you go to cross-examine and this can be given in another way. So which one is the one you use? Question: For my sake, would you ask her about her nails, whether she has spots on her nails or whether they are brittle? PAGE 201 20 Pain in the ear Cocculus indicus (cocc.) Case George: You will see that COCCULUS has the very peculiar factor of not being able to adjust the vision as things are moving. Then they will have vertigo. Question: It is not included in the repertory for pain in the ear and that is what threw me off Cocc. George: I want you to study to see why this picture tallies with Cocc. by looking in the repertory. This symptom is also a great accommodation of the eye vision. Cocc. is exactly that bad accommodation for objects which are moving. If you read about Cocc. you do not get the idea so well, but if you go to Kent, he will give exactly those words. Would you read it? Response: Cannot accommodate the eyes to moving objects, Dizziness, whirling and headaches Sick headaches from riding in a carriage. George: Somewhere else. Response: Cannot look out of the car window is on page 451. Cannot look down from the boat and look at the moving water without having nausea immediately. George: The difficulty in accommodating moving objects is there. What happens actually is that they turn around to the front or to the side and they cannot accommodate. Question: So it could be better from the person turning or from sitting and seeing other things move? George: Yes. It is the same thing - moving objects is the theory of relativity. The theory of relativity rests exactly on that assumption. Response: Einstein must have been a Cocc. George: This is a case where if you give it today, you will see a difference in 24 hours. What is worse when she wakes up - the vertigo or the headache? Response: Pain. The pain will awaken her at 6 to 7 a.m. and then it is much worse after she is awake. She is at her best from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. George: Do you find anything? PAGE 202 Response: Sep. and Verb. She feels feverish but it has never been high by measuring. She saw an allopath who told her first that it was a muscle pull. Then she convinced me that she really had vertigo and I thought that it might have been a labyrinthitis. There was no acute otitis, according to the allopath who saw her earlier. George: This is true with Cocc. This is a sub-acute inflammation of the optic nerve, or something like that, more than the ear. You have vertigo from bad accommodation of the eye.
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Response: But she has such pain in the ear ... without otitis it makes me think that it is something like an acoustic neuralgia or something. George: It may be in this case, because of the pain. In order to make the differential diagnosis, it may take four weeks and a laboratory examination to find out what is going on with her. Question: If someone loses a husband or wife and for the last six weeks before they died the person did not get much sleep, would that begin to make you think of Cocc.? George: Yes. Response: They just have grief and fatigue due to the fact that they might have stayed up for two months with the sick person. George: Cocc. will show up somewhere as a dizziness or stuffiness in the head or a sate of mind which cannot describe well what is being experienced. They will get very great anxieties about health - Cocc. people. They have a kind of stiffness and are not very extroverted, but are very nice people. There are great anxieties and anxiety about health is very prominent, but if they have a reason - a symptom - once they get over the symptomatology, then they are over their anxiety. The mind is benumbed and there is slow or no comprehension. You will get people in different stages and here in this stage (indicating on the blackboard) you will not have a profound sadness. When you have profound sadness, then you will be completely in the mental sphere. So when we read this, do not expect to find all of the symptomatology. You will find it at a certain stage. The more you go to the mental, the less physical symptoms you will find. You may see great fear of thunder storms in Phos. and great fear of the dark. This fear is not as threatening as fear of cancer or fear of death. You may jump from one step of extreme fears to another. He will come to you with fear of death and he will say that in the past he was very much afraid of thunderstorms and of the dark. They will have overcome those fears and another fear which is much more racking and incapacitating will have taken its place. They will have so much anxiety that they will keep on with it all day and night. The fear of thunderstorms was related to the environment and it did not prevent functioning. Notice how we evaluate a symptom because it is worse now. It is worse because the great creativity of the person has been cut down. PAGE 203 Once a person with a disease, whatever it is, cuts down his own creativity, he has become worse. That is why in the schizophrenics we want to see that they go back to work. If they do not go back to work, even if they look okay, they are not. This is a point where you can say that you have made a breakthrough. This is very difficult to attain with the real schizophrenics. They are people who go through a stage and then they go and work. That is why this situation is much less than the real schizophrenic. Question: I have a question left over from a couple of days ago. This is about cat-nap sleeping. Sometimes you will get a patient who says, I wake up four hours after I go to sleep. There is no way that I have found to look that up. Could you talk about that? George: Yes. I was trying to find that for years. It is not (in) the repertory, but we know remedies that have that symptom. The main remedy is Kali-c., then Ph-ac. then Nux-v., then Sulph., then Aur. and Mag-m. Question: Are you talking about cat-nap sleeping? George: Oh no. This is not cat-nap sleeping. The cat-nap sleep is when they will go to
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sleep, sleep for an hour or two and then are wide awake. Then they will sleep again after a quarter of an hour or an hour, and then they wake up again. During the night they might do that four to five times. This is cat-nap sleeping. It is different from waking after four hours. So the remedies that I just gave you are for waking after four or five hours and then having difficulty falling back to sleep. Question: What about Lach.? George: No. Question: Are there other cat-nap remedies? George: Sulph. That is sleeping - waking, sleeping - waking, sleeping - waking. And they are wide awake. It has to have these peculiarities. The moment that the person wakes up they are completely awake. Then 3-4-5 times during the night they will wake up and then sleep again. They may have the impression that they did not sleep or that they slept lightly. PAGE 204 21 Amenorrhoea Pituitaria posterior (old abbr.) (pitu.) Case This is a young woman, 23 years old, 4 feet and 9 inches tall, weighing 90 pounds. When I first saw her in December 1978, she had had amenorrhoea for one and a half years. George: So by the age 21 menses had stopped. Response: It had started at age 18. George: That is what I wanted to say. You will see in the history of that person either that she had one or two periods of menses and then stopped or that the menses started very late. Immediately you can see the seat of the trouble. Yes? So I am just warning you that in such cases where you see such deep troubles, the pituitary gland is involved, and you cannot expect to have a cure within a month or two or even a year. In order to bring about menses, which may pick up in some way in spite of her being 23 years old now, you have to take care of her for at least 3 years. The depth of the diagnosis is such that you cannot expect a fast cure. You will be disappointed. So that is why we have to know a little bit of orthodox medicine. The prognosis here is long, but not perhaps incurable. Continuing: Amenorrhoea can be underlined three times. She has a tendency to gain weight. Since age 15 or 16 she lost 20 pounds on a very restrictive diet. Then she had to stay on something like 500 to 600 calories a day in order not to gain weight. She goes on hunger binges. Then she would have to starve herself afterwards. At this point she had a diet because of glucose intolerance. The sugar curve was very high and very low. At that point I had just started using homoeopathy and I was a little afraid to use it in her case and so I put her on a diet. She got quite a bit better and I saw her again in August of 1980. At that point, her glucose tolerance curve was much better and she was feeling much worse. In August she was feeling quite mentally and physically depressed. She had anxiety about the future (underlined twice), and anxiety about health (underlined three times). She had weakness (underlined three times) and was tired from the slightest exertion. She cried easily and preferred to cry alone. She rarely feels anger. She is worse with cold - chilly. George: This looks like a Calc. at this point.
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PAGE 205 Question: Would you explain the underlining? Response: Amenorrhoea (3 times), tendency to gain weight (3 times), depressed (2 times), anxiety about future (2 times), anxiety about health (3 times), weakness (3 times), cries easily (2 times), chilly and worse with cold (once). She also had dizziness on waking. When I went home this weekend I had a note in my office from her. She had continued her 700 calories a day diet with 2 cups of coffee a day. This, was strong coffee, without sugar. She says that she was sticking to this, except when she goes on a binge. She craved bread and butter (underlined three times). She would eat something like 3000 calories on one evening and then starve to death for the next week. She says that one and a half months ago she had one day of menses. I gave her a remedy a month ago. This was the first remedy in September, but she has been drinking coffee since then. Question: Was she craving bread and butter before the remedy? Response: Yes. George: So on this symptomatology, which you give us now, we have to prescribe? Response: Yes, that is the case. George: Do you have feedback on that? Response: Yes, she wrote to me and said that she was much more depressed. She felt that she was at the end of her rope. She had been wanting to go and see an endocrinologist and she thought that thyroid was her only hope. Question: If she is ready to go to an endocrinologist that fast in a case with this long term prognosis, it is going to be a really difficult case. George: There is some information lacking. What about fruits? Response: She has no real cravings except for bread and butter. George: Are there any aversions? Response: No. No aversions and no cravings either. Response: In my experience it seems that in cases like this food cravings are irrelevant. They just stuff themselves with any sort of food. It all comes out in one direction and that direction could change at any time. Response: But if she binges just on one item, we have to take that into consideration. George: There is one thing that I would like to warn you about in such cases: they are very dangerous and one has to be very careful not to suppress them because they can easily go into mental disturbance. VERY EASILY! PAGE 206 Continuing: This young woman is not depressed ordinarily. She feels that the depression is from physical sources because at times she feels very cheerful and happy. George: With the kind of constitution she has, there is a tendency towards diabetes. Continuing: She is a college student right now and she is doing very well. She is VERY bright. Question: George. Is this a case where you would have to be careful in giving remedies? George: I wouldnt worry as much about the remedies as I would worry about that diet 500 calories. Continuing: I think she has been malnourished for years. George: And also coffee at that stage is a very dangerous thing. It has given her a stimulation in order to do homework and so forth. If that girl takes a remedy by the time
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of her examinations, you will have a mental case on your hands. Question: Was she only 110 pounds when she was 15? Response: I think so, yes. George: She is a responsible person who is able to work with her mind. They feel responsible on an emotional level. Now, what are you going to do in that case? First you see that it is a tricky case. It is a case which is not going to be easily managed. There are underlying currents in that case. You see a girl who is very soft. Therefore you would expect to have some inferiority complexes on one level or another. At the same time, she is intelligent and she is doing well in college. But she says she is taking two cups of coffee a day. Why? Because coffee stimulates her and she is ambitious. She wants to replace the lack of height with being first in school. That drive is quite strong. She wants to be like that. You are going to interfere in that case as a health professional. And you have to correct the health. That is all you are interested in. But she is not interested in that. She is interested in being first that is of primary importance. So you have a problem which you will have to judge in how to handle it. If you are very strict and you say that she has to eat in order to pick up weight, it is important for her to have the stamina. Take away the coffee, which will not give the extra energy for the mind to work, and she will find herself very soon gaining weight and feeling stupid. PAGE 207 Continuing: She followed the diet I gave her for a week and gained a pound. George: She gained a pound. They are afraid of picking up weight to the extent that it becomes a fixed idea - an obsession. So you have to know the problem with which you are dealing here. It is a complicated one. She is going to lose her health completely and if you explain that to her she will not understand it. So you have to find a way to compromise. Anyway coffee must go out. You cannot give a homoeopathic remedy with coffee. She is making herself diseased by her approach to diet. So the diet must be corrected definitely. Now the third point is the remedy, you are going to give, a remedy which you know is not going to act perfectly because first of all the picture is not clear. Secondly the pathology is deep. It is a malfunction of the interior. Are you going to correct that and how much? You have to find out what the parents are like and the brothers and sisters. Response: There is no illness in the family at all. The mother is obese. George: That gives more help. Apart from all that, now we have to find a remedy to prescribe. What are you going to use as far as symptomatology is concerned? How shall we proceed? We shall go to the repertory. We have to take a few symptoms and repertorize it as close as possible. Which symptoms shall we take for repertorization? Give me three symptoms. Response: I would look on obesity and anxiety about the future and cries easily. Response: I would look under the rubric dwarfish. I would be tempted to use something like dwarfish amenorrhoea and anxiety about health. Response: Is this anxiety about health really anxiety about her weight? Continuing: No, I think that she is really concerned because she realizes that she has a very severe metabolic problem.
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Response: I would use anxiety about future, and dwarfishness. I would look at the bread and butter issue, but I do not believe that that is as important. The whole tendency about her working and achievement orientation, I feel, should be examined. Question: Does she have any hair on her face? PAGE 208 Response: No, there is plenty of hair on her head, but none on her face. Response: I have a hard time making a case out of that. George: You can play with it and take three and first time and see which one comes and which you do or do not like. Then take another three or four and repertorize them. Response: Okay. I would say bread and butter, anxiety about future, and dwarfishness. Response: What struck me, as the interviewer, was this remarkable control that this woman kept intellectually. It has been all these years that she has kept herself under this kind of control. She could go through the day having two cups of coffee, some nuts, a carrot, an apple, and that would be all that she would have for a week or two. That was every day. George: That would go into a state of anorexia nervosa. This is VERY bad. Response: She should be put on a very good diet. George: If we look under amenorrhoea, there are too many remedies. Tendency to gain weight is something I keep in mind, and I would look under dwarfishness. So I go and look at what is most underlined in the mental sphere. There are certain symptoms which are underlined such as anxiety about the future and anxiety about health. I would compare the two and find which is the remedy that pertains to this. There are too many remedies related to weakness. So I have to compare these remedies with another symptom which is valid. Cries easily presents too many remedies again. Chilly gives too many remedies for us to pinpoint. I am using the repertory as a tool now. So immediately I go here to desire and aversion symptom which are very strong. For the time being, I can use that and see what is running through. (George assigns various desires and aversions to members of the group to look up). K.: Agar., Bell., Ferr-p., Grat., Hydr., Ign., Mag-c., Merc-d., Puls. Response: Puls. (numerous times). George: I got down to these two remedies (indicates on the blackboard). You go now and look in the repertory: Puls. and Sulph. So we have dwarfish in Sulph. In amenorrhoea we have all of them. Comment: And Ferr. is under craving for bread and butter. PAGE 209 George: Which would be the remedies that have weakness? Responses: Bry., Calc., Nat-c., Lach. Question: Are you confident you can come up with the right remedy by doing this? George: No. In this case we are not confident. We said in the beginning that it was a different case and it would not be a straightforward remedy. Therefore we need to look again and again for one more reason that it is a different case. Forget about being accurate here in the beginning. Lets try some other combinations. What else can we try? Another way to start is with obesity, anxiety about the future, anxiety about health, weakness, cries easily, chilly. We feel that we must think that she is suppressing something, but she does not say so, so look under suppression. Finally we take the
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dwarfish. So we will probably come down with Calc. or Puls. also. Group Response: And Sulph. George: These three now have certain similar characteristics and peculiarities. Bread and butter is Puls. The question is whether she is a chilly Puls. We can judge this from the essence. Cries easily is Puls. Prefers to be alone is not underlined. Did she cry during the interview? She is an intellectual. Response: No, she feels that crying is a weakness. George: What else can we use here? There is not much left that we can use. So we say she is a dwarf and we give Bar-c. (Laughter) Wait, there is another surprise in this case. This is an idea we have. Because she is a dwarf and because there is amenorrhoea, that means ... Bar-c. is very intelligent? Response: No. George: So again Calc. is no good. It is not Puls. Why is it not Calc.? Response: Too intellectual. George: Okay, let us discuss Calc. She is an intelligent person and puts on weight easily. She is ambitious. I would be afraid in that case to give Calc. Why? Because the chilliness does not have the chilliness of carb. But the person who is undernourished is bringing up some chilliness anyway. When she goes into mental characteristics, why doesnt that go to fears at all? Calc. whose mind has broken down and has gone into a kind of mental symptomatology will not go into anxiety about health and become depressed etc. She will go to fears and anxieties. If this had said here, fear of insanity, I would go with that because I had a strong symptom. PAGE 210 Desire for sweets, which appears with Calc., does not appear at all. The vertigo from high places is not apparent. There is no characteristic symptom apart from being obese. But Ferr. also is obese, so why not use that? Because the Ferr. is obese, is cold, and desires bread and butter - very salty. So the best prescription from our point of view would be that. Now there is another point here that says weakness from slightest exertion. That is Ferr. But we do not have again a characteristic of Ferr., which is working (walking) slow ameliorates. And in Ferr. there is the circumscribed pseudo ........ They are plethoric people and you see a healthy individual. That is how a Ferr. looks - a very healthy individual with red cheeks, white skin, and very little stamina and palpitations. They will get palpitations very easily and with the least exertion. All of the remedies which have been named are to me no good. I have no complementary symptoms to back any of them. I will tell you something now that you should not use frequently. You would use it only when you have to make an analysis like this. And you know that the trouble is on of the pituitary. The first remedy I would use is potentized pituitary extract in that case. Response: I had a woman that I worked on constitutionally for at least a year and a half. Finally she was given Pituitary 6x and it just turned her whole life around. George: We are allowed after that kind of analysis to prescribe like that, but please do not use this method in every case. So after you have done this kind of analysis you are justified in giving the remedy. This is after the diet has been regulated and the coffee has been removed of course. I think that she will appreciate that it is a matter of life and
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death. Question: What potency? George: I would first try a 12 potency, one every day for about 20 days. If there is no effect in those many days, I would go higher with one dose of 200. Wait for at least one month to see if there is any change in the spheres of health and anxiety, etc. Question: Would you consider taking her off coffee and waiting? Maybe the coffee has a dramatic effect on her symptomatology. So then see what happens regarding the symptoms. PAGE 211 George: You can do that as well, but if you have the right remedy and you stop the coffee so that it will not kill it, you will see dramatic changes. On cutting back the coffee, you may reduce the anxiety a bit. She is trying to break down her constitution by what she is doing. She is going to bring another level of health altogether where she will have fixed ideas and become paranoid. Comment: She is going to have to be taught the whole spectrum of health. It will take a lot of educating. George: That is why we have to .... Comment: It is the only chance she has. Question: How would you assess her vital force? A 2 or 3? George: She has a good vital force even with what she has gone through all these years. She still has not developed a real mental case. She has a good vital condition. Comment: I think that what he means is that your overall assessment of her total health on a scale of ten would be .... would you say that this is a sick person? George: On a scale of ten, I would put her at five. Why? Because she says that the family is all happy. This is of great importance. Question: I dont understand what you mean by that. Did she have three brothers who were all 6 feet tall? Answer: Actually, she says that she has only one sister. The family is small - all of them. They are not large people. But they are not as small as she is. Question: That is one thing that we never even talked about. Her mother is four feet five, and her father is five feet tall, then what does that have to do significantly with the pituitary of a small person? George: It makes much less significance, definitely. The amenorrhoea still gives you the idea that there is a malfunction of the pituitary. Comment: In a starvation like that, amenorrhoea is not uncommon. George: Menses started late. It is a big problem. There was suppression. Question: So before Calc. will get depressed and develop so many anxieties, they will go through a stage of fears? George: Yes. No, not stage of fears in general, but I would expect here that instead of anxiety about health, I should have thought that if it was Calc. that her mind would have gone towards fear of insanity, associated also with the coffee. PAGE 212 Question: And also the lack of desire for sweets? George: Yes. She doesnt say anything about sweets. And she is eating so little. Comment: This is a warm climate here in Southern California, I dont think you can put too much emphasis on the chilliness.
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George: It is a warm climate and she is chilly, then of course we would put more emphasis on that. Normally she would be warm because it is a warm climate. Now she is chilly. So before I would try Calc. or Ferr., and I dont like either, I would try potentized pituitary extract and I believe that there is going to be an improvement. In consequence there is going to be a remedy on another level which will appear. PAGE 213 22 Victim of conjugal brutality Coffea cruda (coff.) Case George: Who wants to do the analysis of the case? Response: On reading this, I was most struck with the fact that this woman seemed to have suffered a lot of humiliations which might have generated anger, such as 6 abortions. I got the impression that she sequestered that a lot. An example being that she had never told her husband that she was not satisfied with sex. Also the fact that almost any alteration or anything which might generate an upset was avoided at all costs. Yet she said that she was tremendously emotional which gave me the impression that there was a lot of boiling but she clamped down on it. Maybe she was afraid of getting carried away with it. Some irritability is generated. There is intense sleeplessness. Coupled with that is that she is anxious and shy (underlined twice). I noticed the mental activity and the tooth neuralgias and from that standpoint I thought of Coff.; however, because there seemed to be so much repression of emotions, I opted for Staph. Response: There is one thing that came right out of your lecture in Greece last year which is that the reason she did not divorce this man is that she did not want to cause any suffering. She is very strong about that. She did not want to hurt him. George: She had 6 abortions and 3 children. Desires salt is not underlined. But in my record it is underlined three times. Question: What about the sour fruits? How many times is that underlined? George: At least twice. Thirst is twice. Salty foods is twice. Salt is underlined three times - she gave that information herself. Desires beer is not underlined. Does this information change your prescription? Two or three times she has separated from her husband. They remarried. So the analysis was quite right. It is between Coff. and Staph. We have to see keynotes that will turn the case over to one side or the other. Response: The keynote for me was the sleeplessness and being sleepy all the time during the day, and that seemed to be Staph. PAGE 214 Response: The main thing against Coff. for me was that they are exquisitely sensitive to noise and there is no mention whatsoever about her being sensitive in this area. George: So her sleeplessness is about the activity in her mind. The more tired she is the more difficult it is to sleep. Response: When you read Coff. you get much more of a sense of physical hypersensitivity. Despite those symptoms, she did not strike me as though she had that great sensitivity.
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Response: Also, all of her symptoms are better when she is in a good psychological state. It sounds like it is all based on the emotional problem. George: Who voted for Coff.? Who voted for Staph.? She feels that she is flushing and perspiring from the emotions. Her mouth gets dry and then she will get freezing. She has trouble communicating her grief. She has headaches. She is worse with the sun and there is sleeplessness. The more tired she is, the more difficult it is to fall asleep. It is a very close decision between Coff. and Staph. Many symptoms tend to one and others towards the other. You do not know Coff. well yet. This is a Coff. prescription. You have to evaluate every symptom. The fact that she is so irritable, has neuralgias, and cannot sleep gives you the idea that that person is supersensitive to joy and grief. She gets headaches. She is over-active in her mind. There are symptoms of Staph. definitely. If I had given you the desire for salt, you probably would have written Phos. or Nat-m. That is a nervous sensitivity. It says that she has been a sensitive person all along. So you want me to give you the report? That was Coff. 10m. She came back 34 days after that and she said, From the first day I took the medicine, the headache became much stronger. She started seeing definite amelioration after 10 days. During this time she was having pains in the feet and behind the right knee. She had one colic of the left kidney. She had 3 episodes of cramping in the calves during the night. She would wake up unrefreshed. She was much better psychologically and the headache was much better. She is better sexually now. The trembling of the hands had improved and the irritability was also better, but she still does not sleep on the left side. There was no dryness of the mouth. The lump in the throat was only once. The memory was better and the neuralgias had improved. The leucorrhoea is the same and the vertigo is the same. Perspiration is the same. Comment: Periodically she has vertigo with a fainting tendency George: Yes, and she lost one kilo. PAGE 215 Question: How tall is she? George: We dont have that information. You have to make another decision on this now. Responses: Now? And she is doing so well! George: What are you going to give? Response: Wait! George: You have learnt to expect the unexpected from me. (Laughter) So she comes after one month after that - that is two and a half months from the beginning - and she added that she again had another kidney colic. She was examined and it was found that she had sand in the kidneys. An X-ray showed an arthritic condition in the fifth lumbar region. She says that her pains are now from the waist downwards - from the area of the kidneys, actually - to the coccyx. This is worse when she lies down. She cannot find a place to rest. She is better with motion and better when she lies on something hard. Question: What was the other modality? George: Worse when she lies down and she finds no place to rest. She is better on motion and better when she lies on something hard. There is a perspiration of the feet (underlined twice), and generally she is perspiring more. And this is the middle of the
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summer. She has had some vertigo for the last ten days. She gets tired easily (underlined twice). She feels her health is weak. She has cramps of the calves while sleeping. She wakes up better than before. The desire and aversions are the same. Irritability is better. Fear of high places and the leucorrhoea are the same. Sex remains on the same level as after the remedy had been given. She has now a great odour from the mouth. Question: Is the kidney colic extremely painful? George: Yes. She had 2-3 kidney colics so far. She is now working as a maid. She has been very much mistreated by her husband, Coff. seems to attract that kind of person. It is Nat-m., or Rhus-t., or Calc. You have to make a diagnosis between these. What picture is showing now? Response: She still desires salt (Underlined three times)? George: Yes. Response: The back pain is either Rhus-t., or Nat-m. She still has a fear of high places and she is cold. Response: Multiple votes for Calc. PAGE 216 George: There is cold perspiration on the feet. There is pain in the lumbar region. This is worse when she lies down and better with motion (not underlined). She is better when she lies down on a hard surface (not underlined). The perspiration and coldness of the feet have increased (underlined twice now). Question: Is she warm-blooded or chilly? George: There is a fear of high places which continues. The things that continue are the brittle nails, the vertigo and the fear of high places, and the leucorrhoea. The cramps in the calves appeared after the Coff. There she has a symptomatology which looks like Rhus-t. It could also look like a Nat-m. The new feature which is coming on and presenting a new picture are the feet and the calves as well as the continuation of the high places and the brittle nails. The desires are the same. If I had given you desire for sweets, everybody would have said Calc. Desire for salt is underlined three times. You may think that Coff. has a desire for salt, but we see an underlying remedy which is not making itself prominent yet. You give Coff. and the characteristics of the underlying remedy will stay - the brittle nails and the vertigo in high places are characteristic of Calc. Then she comes to an arthritic condition. There was nervous excitement and she was suppressed. It is interesting how the Coff. woman is suppressed, as in Staph. They can take a lot of suppression. They dont feel it as suppression. But if they tell you such a story and you ask them if it is possible that they might still be needing that man, they will say something like, Oh, its okay. There is a kind of insecurity which does not allow them to break. But even if the security is there ... I had a case where a woman was a lawyer and her husband was a teacher in high school. What this man had done to this woman was an odyssey. She was talking to me and the husband was staying behind the door listening. They were almost divorced by the time she came for treatment. He would follow her to see where she would go. When she was in the office, he was listening to the conversation that we had. He was after her all the time. She would tell me this terrible story and he would listen to what she was telling me. She was telling me a story where they had been in a hotel and another woman was sitting at another table. I dont know how he approached her in front of this woman-
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my patient, but he would make her absolutely completely drunk and he took that woman to his apartment where he stayed with his wife to have sex with her. So the wife became sulky and then put the woman completely out of her mind. She went upstairs to see what had happened and she opened the door to see them making love. It is really too much! She is a lawyer and she knows what to do and how to do it, but she could take no explicit decision. In the meantime she is the one who is secure because she has the money. He wants her because of a lot of money that she has. He would then take the child and tell it never to talk to the mother and then sent the child to aggravate her and to do all kind of disruptive things. She would still tolerate that. She got Coff. a few times before she was able to reach a point where she could say, No, Ive had enough. People would telephone her and tell her that her husband was with this or that woman and she would take it and take it and take it. The nervous system was highly strained. After several closes of Coff. it had gone down. Then of course he played on her nerves by doing that with the child. They seem to be able to take a lot of stress without having the courage to go and fight for a divorce. This is exactly a similar situation. The man was hitting her. She came from a nice family, but she was being hit by him. He was cruel to her. She had never had an orgasm with him because he was brutal. You can remember about Coff. that state of over-excitability when the nervous system has been excited but there is not much will power to make a decision. There is a kind of insecurity inside them. You will not find an American Coffea woman. (Laughter) PAGE 217 Response: On yes, there are some cases. Question: So you gave her what? George: Calc. 200. Question: Was she still as suppressed then? What was her personality like at that point? George: She did not do anything like divorce him. But she has been well for almost three years now. Comment: It is interesting because you said that Calc. tends to be persevering like that. PAGE 218 23 Upper respiratory tract inflammation Corallium rubrum (cor-r.) Case George: So here is the case of an 8-year-old boy who comes with sinusitis, catarrh, cough, frequent diarrhoea when he eats spinach and meat. He has had repeated tonsilitis. The question in this case is whether we can find a remedy through this symptomatology. The real question is whether we can find the constitutional remedy of this child through the symptoms. It may be very difficult. We must bear this in mind. The other thing we must remember is that there is a kind of chronic state which is now acute - this catarrh comes all the time. We have to decide whether to give a deep remedy or an acute remedy. We would give an acute remedy to clear up the inflammation and then later try to find out what is underneath. If we can give a remedy which covers the symptomatology which is acute and also touches the underlying process, then we should try to find it. We talked about these layers before. So here we have a Calc. layer, we have a Sulph.
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layer and a Sabad. layer. We have to decide through the symptomatology if that layer is acute or whether it is an underlying layer. If we have one or two symptoms of Sabad. and five symptoms of Sulph., we arejustified in giving Sulph. to try to cure this condition. We do not first have to give an acute remedy and then the Sulph. presents itself for another remedy. Also that does not come from one day to the other. We give Sabad. and that does not mean that within the next month we can get into the next layer. It may take 2-3 years for us to see the next layer. Question: Let me get that straight. If there are 2 symptoms of Sabad. and 5 of Sulph., we are justified in giving Sulph. immediately? George: From the beginning, and with the conviction that the Sulph. will take care of that upper layer which seems to be Sabad. But if the Sabad layer is clear and this other, underlying level is not clear, then the right thing to do is to give the first remedy and then go to a deeper one. Question: So what you are saying then is that the Sabad. symptoms are the symptoms of the acute condition? They are symptoms of the acute condition and not something like a desire or an emotional state? PAGE 219 George: Yes. In every case we see, we have to decide. Another example is the acute case that G. presented us last night. Okay? What was presenting there was a picture of Cocc. in a person who might be Phos. We did not know. The picture was Cocc. with some hints to Phos. But we were not justified in giving Phos. So we determined the remedies which are justified according to the picture given clinically. Desires sour is underlined three times and it is going to be our guiding symptom. That will give you the key to the case. What are the remedies indicated in this case? Response: Cor-r., Hep., Vert-at. (P-486) George: The acute remedy in these is this - Cor-r. You can prescribe Ver-at. but you have too little symptomatology really to justify that. So you go and study Cor-r ... (Laughter) Response: I read EVERY ONE of them that were under sour. (Laughter) Response: Cor-r. sounds great for pertussis, but ..... Response: The post-nasal drainage too. George: You did not find that tendency in Cor-r. to have this catarrh? Four of you prescribed Cor-r. Cor-r. is the remedy. You see we have little information about this remedy. Response: It sounds like a rather sudden event and this does not seem at all sudden. Very chronic. Response: There were no pains in the calves either. George: You dont have to have EVERYTHING (Laughter) The idea of the essence must be there. Acts powerfully on the mucous membranes, this is the essence. For the time being the action of Cor-r. is action on the mucous membranes. In the repertory it says worse with both extremes (of temperature). You must learn to read the materia medica, otherwise nobody will be able to teach you. It says here develops catarrh of the nose. A little bit further on it says spasmodic coughs And the attacks follow so closely as to almost run into each other. When you read the case, the person says that there has been catarrh the whole year. Further down it says, Tonsillitis which comes very frequently.
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Question: Oh, when it says that the attacks follow so closely as to almost run into each other, I took that as spasms of coughing. Response: Cor-r. to my way of reading it is violent, whereas this seemed as a sort of chronic dragging thing. PAGE 220 George: Yes, chronic. There is a constant running of the nose, a stuffiness. Response: Well, this talks about ulceration and bleeding of the nose. George: Yes, of course, ulceration comes after much disease. It says intolerance to both extremes and so it is not Hep. However, this is a very good and thoughtful prescription. Question: If you had written catarrh the whole year round then it would have created the idea, but you just wrote catarrh. It sounded like he was stuffy with an allergy or something all year around. George: Oh, I did not give you the idea of catarrh? Response: You gave us the idea of his running nose, but not frequent episodes, which would make it sound like it happened everyday for a long long time. George: Yes, it is everyday. That is what the boy said. Question: It seems that often when we give a little remedy like this that the patient as well as the symptoms in the materia medica dont have many confirmatory symptoms. George: So he came in one month later. Response: The dates of follow-up are easier for us. George: The date is 16th November, 1976. This is one month later that he comes in. He says that the cough is practically gone. The discharges continue, but it is less at the moment. He still had diarrhoea if he takes fruit, spinach, or meat, especially with fat. There is an improvement in the obstruction of the nose. There are no more pains in the legs. He likes fat, but it brings diarrhoea. How he wants sweets. The fear of the dark is less. Question: He was adverse to that too. Response: Yeah, it was a two. George: Interesting. The diarrhoeas which the child gets are VERY offensive, as is the flatulence. This is the information which is given one month later. What are you going to do? Responses: Wait. George: Good. The child then was completely well. He came after one year on the 27th of October, 1977. It is an interesting case. I did not know that it was interesting when I first took it. (Laughter) He said that he started coughing a little bit again and could bring up some mucus. This had started a few days before he came in to see me. Again there was the catarrh, but it was much less than of the first time. During the whole year he never caught a cold or anything like that. He says that he had not taken any vaccinations during that time. The diarrhoea stopped eventually. As far as the mind was concerned, he was again afraid. This was to such a severe degree that he was afraid to go from his room to the bathroom. He again had obstruction and the pain in the legs had come back. This was not as frequent as originally. He now likes sweets (underlined twice). This time he is back to an aversion of fats (Underlined once). His father says that he does not have a good appetite. I had been told that he had not had any vaccinations, but here it says that he had a mantoux. And the child took some antibiotics because he had had a kind of conjunctivitis. Antibiotics had been put into the eyes.
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PAGE 221 Question: Do you find that just doing a tuberculin skin test or TB test is disruptive? George: Are you asking if a mantoux would interfere with the treatment? I have not seen any kinds of reactions from that. Unless we clear the underneath layer, although they get better, someday they will have a relapse for one reason or another. So in order that this boy will stop having this kind of trouble, we have to go deeper. So he came once and then he came a second time, and then was well and he left. He did not give us the opportunity to work deeper. So he comes again after a year with a kind of relapse. So what are you going to do? Question: You would not give the same remedy? Question: The sour has gone? You havent mentioned anything about that. George: The sour is gone. The reactions to heat and cold are not mentioned here. There is something else that I did not mention. The obstruction is mostly during the night. Sometimes one and sometimes both nostrils are obstructed. There is no particular color to the mucus now. The catarrh from the nose, however, is yellowish. This is less than the previous year. Okay, what are you going to do here? Question: Is there no cough now? Is the only underlining in likes sweets and the aversion to fat? George: Yes. Response: It sounds like the fear of darkness is strong enough that it should be a consideration. George: Yes, you can say that. It should be underlined as very strong. PAGE 222 I will tell you what I did. If you want to tell me your prescription and why, I will do that to you. Response: I liked Calc. because it was the swing towards desire for sweets and the going back to the aversions to fats, the leg cramps, the chronic catarrh, and fear of the dark. And it is a deeper remedy. The leg cramps before were worse in cold, wet weather. Response: And Calc. is related to Cor-r. It is considered to follow well. Response: I would give Sulph. George: Another possibility? Response: Puls. George: Who wants to repeat the Cor-r.? Who would give Sulph.? Now this is a tricky situation. Why? Because there is a relapse, but it is missing the keynote. In the meantime we do not have clearcut symptomatology for another remedy. It might have been antidoted with the antibiotics. I thought that because some kind of eruption had been brought out in the eyes and it had been suppressed by ... it says antibiotics, but it must have been Cortisone. The preparations that they use for the eyes contain more Cortisone than antibiotics, but they call it antibiotics because the people understand that better. So that must have something to do with the situation. I gave a dose of Cor-r., in the same potency again. Because I thought that this was a relapse. He had gone back to an aversion to fats where he was before. So even though the desire for sour is not prominent, either the doctor did not ask it, or if it was not there, it was going to appear after some time. I took it as a relapse because I did not know what to do otherwise at that moment. So he
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took the Cor-r. 1m. He came in again after six weeks, on December 14. The parents said that the child daily had hectic fever of 37.6 degree C. Question: That is like 98.9 degree F? George: What is the normal? Response: 37 to ... George: It is between 36.8 and 37 degree C. that is considered normal. Question: What is a hectic fever? Response: Low grade fever. George: They also made an X-ray of the thorax, which was normal. Question: How long had he had the fever? PAGE 223 George: He had had it for the last three years. He did not mention it before. Question: I am considerably confused about how you can call that a fever. George: It is what you would call a low grade fever. It shows a degree of inflammation .... a mild degree of inflammation. The catarrh continues but the nose is free. He can breathe more easily. Again he has a kind of inflammation of the conjunctivae. The child said he felt well and he did not feel any fever himself. There is a kind of dizziness the moment that he wakes up in the morning and gets up. The pains in the legs have gone. The fear of the dark continues and it is underlined once. There is no coughing. Question: Is the doctor the same as he had had before? George: No, this handwriting is so different to read from the other doctor who took the case. This one takes more details in the case. He says that he has no cough. He has appetite but he always leaves a little bit of food on the plate. The desire for sweets is underlined three times, there is a desire for apples (underlined twice), desire for macaroni (not underlined). He is perspiring during the night. He sleeps well but takes his feet out from the covers. He says that he is a little bit lazy, but he is a boy who is positive in his attitude. He moves slowly but steadily. So what has the Cor-r. done? The picture has developed a little bit further, but it most probably would have developed without the Cor-r. as well. Response: It looks like it has superficially affected the leg pain and the cough. George: Yes. But there is not the amelioration which we showed with the previous dose. The boy was well and did not get sick for over a year. We now again see the conjunctivitis, rising of the sweet desires, dizziness on waking up in the morning, and a bit of laziness. There is a desire for apples that has come up. So what are you going to do? Who votes for Sulph.? Okay, we have Sulph. 200. Question: Why did you choose Sulph. over Calc.? George: Why? Response: Calc. works slowly and steadily. George: But there is a strong point in favour of Sulph. Response: He has a fear of the dark though. That was an early mental symptom. PAGE 224 George: Wait and see what happens later. Response: Even though it is not there, it is easy to imagine Sulph. having that fear of the dark. They have an active imagination and make shadows out of things.
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George: It is interesting what happens. Because there is a desire for sweets, because there is laziness, because there is a desire for apples, thirst is normal, and because Sulph. is complementary to Cor-r., it is preferable. In the books it is given that Sulph. is complementary to Cor-r. So we gave a dose of Sulph. 200. Question: What ........ George: You will be satisfied if you listen. You will see what is going on. The child came the last time February 8, 1978, two months after the last remedy. The examination of the blood, sedimentation rate, and X-rays of the sinuses were all normal at that point. He still had fear during the night (underlined twice now). He keeps uncovering his feet during the night. If he drinks milk in the morning, he will vomit. Up to 10 days before that date, he kept on having the little fever, but it was not as steady as before. During the last ten days prior to being seen, he had had none. There was still catarrh, which was not affected whether he was inside or outside. He comes because he has fear of the catarrh and vomiting in the mornings. He wakes easily in the morning and appetite was better. Previously he did not wake up well. For 15 days he had demanded food where he used to have difficulty eating and had to be urged. Now there is a craving for soft boiled eggs (underlined three times). He wants to eat soft boiled eggs all day long. He has blackness under his eyes. So he was given a dose of Calc. 200 and we lost him as a patient in February of 1978. Question: Why did you only give 200? George: That is a good question. You see when we do not have severe problems and we are treating constitutionally especially we do not want to go too high because we reserve our ammunitions for something which may be severe and where we will need higher potencies. If we had given him cm now at this moment and he was coming back on a relapse on Calc., then you would have a chance to give him one more dose. 200 is quite a strong dose. When there is not much pathology involved, we dont need to go too high. Question: Would a higher potency last any longer? George: I knew that this would last. He is fairly stable and it was two years that this child had remained well. Question: Did you need to give the Sulph.? PAGE 225 George: Yes. It is interesting how he developed a picture of a layer of Calc. after the Sulph. had been given. The layer was there from the very beginning, but now could we know, because there were so many symptoms. The fear of the dark was not going away. That fear of the dark belonged to Calc. Some of you saw the Calc. It was there, but he needed Sulph. to bring about the bridge for this layer - to break through it and to make it appear. Response: It is interesting too how Calc-s. from the beginning showed quite strongly in this case. It was one of the main possibilities. Question: So if that had been given, do you think it would have done nothing at all? George: Calc-s.? You see, it is very difficult for me to answer that question. Who could have such an experience? Nobody can guess what another remedy might have done if you had given it. Question: So if the Calc. had been given instead of the Sulph., would it have damaged the patient?
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George: I dont think so. No. I dont believe that we would have done anything with Calc. Sulph. had to be the bridge. It is a kind of sequence that is necessary. And how do we know? What happens is that when you give the Sulph. the child progresses still, but not quite to complete cure. There is still something left. From the very beginning one could see the fear of the dark, which was not touched by any of the remedies we had given. Question: If you gave Sulph. 200 and it worked for only 6-7 weeks, I am surprised that since it was a deep remedy like that it did not work longer. George: Two months. After two months a deep remedy brought about the picture of another remedy. The boy could not have come back with this little symptomatology. He might have come back after ten months or a year and then we would have given it, but showing the picture of Calc. helped him and now it is two years that he has not come back. The picture after Sulph. was very clear. You see the way that it is underlined. So the child was eventually cleared, where the Cor-r. only showed another layer. I cannot say that if Calc-c. had been given from the very beginning that he would have been cured. I dont believe that. Neither would Sulph. have done the trick, nor any other remedy. You have to go through the stages. The principles underlying that are seen so clearly. Question: This question is not about this case. When you said that you were doing a follow-up on the 14th, that he was a bit lazy and yet was a very steady worker ... PAGE 226 George: These are the words of his father and the way he sees the child. Whatever he does, he does it correctly. If I am seeing a child and the father says that he has become lazy, I would go towards Sulph. first and then other remedies that are heavier. The child was lazy or was becoming lazy and this was a child who was very much connected with his father. The child loves his father very much. The doctor that took this particular case likes to write down EVERYTHING. Question: So if we didnt know this remedy and it didnt come up to Calc. but came up to a remedy that we didnt know very well .... George: Please dont ask me to answer that kind of question. Question: But normally, is there any way of telling that this isnt just a disruption? Sometimes we give a remedy that clears a case, but yet we might not have the ability to see what remedy it has cleared it to. PAGE 227 24 Anthropo-phobia (pathological) [ - Anthropo-phobia (pathological)] Platinum metallicum (plat.) Case [Laren]: This person came into my office wearing dark glasses. She would not take them off because she was afraid of people seeing her. She was a very attractive woman who was very stylishy dressed. She appeared very normal in every respect outwardly. It was a sort of a West Coast dress. It was not neat or prim or the Ars. type. The dress was casual and very nice looking. She was very attractive. Question: She would not take off her glasses because she did not want anyone to recognize her?
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Response: She did not want anyone to see her. She felt protected by the dark glasses and she did not want anyone to see her ... period ... not just because she was coming in the office, it was not just because of me. She always wore them. She looked very healthy and she seemed half-way open when you would talk to her. Her major complaint was that she had a fear of people. There was TREMENDOUS fear of people. She could not go to the store, movies, restaurants. She would ride around the block for half an hour before she could go and face the gas station attendant. She would avoid even things like saying, Fill my car up with gas. Almost every time she came into my office she had been drinking beer or taking some drug so that she could quiet her anxiety and come into talk with me. With the fear comes the sensation that her head is shaking. She says that she becomes tense and that she cannot turn her head. She feels that this makes her look weird and makes her stand out. I could not perceive her head shaking any time that she was around me. But she has this image and is very conscious of this kind of thing. The fear of people is obviously underlined four times. Question: Shaking in what way? Response: Kind of trembling. But it was imperceptable to me. She was very concerned about how she looks to the world. She will go out of her way to avoid looking dumb or stupid. She constantly repeats now degrading it is that she cannot control her fears and how unfair it is that she has to deal with these problems and how humiliating they are. She has a specific fear of bees (underlined twice). She has no history of having been stung and she is not particularly allergic to them or anything. PAGE 228 She gets very depressed about her own state. She will lie in her bed and cry about how awful this condition is for her and how she cannot function. Every day she feels like she HAS to get up and go out to battle her fears. She sighed a lot during the interview. She is over-punctual (underlined three times). She is very sensitive to criticism (two times). She arrived early and she is always waiting out in the hall fifteen minutes before the interview. Question: What was the one you said right after over-punctual? Response: She is very sensitive to criticism. She desires company but her fears prevent it. She has no problems sexually. That seems to be the one area of her life that is normal. She has problems finding partners, but being involved in a sexual relationship seems very easy for her. Generally she is worse in the mornings and she wakes up with the sense of her head shaking and her fears are always worse in the mornings just after she wakes up. She feels a lot of anger inside (underlined), especially related to her boyfriend, whom she feels is treating her unfairly. She gets fed-up with him, but never expresses it. She constantly expresses tremendous frustration during the interview. She would break down and start to cry during the interview and become very frustrated. She is worse with noise. Question: She cries with frustration? Answer: Yes. She is worse with noise (underlined twice). She is not fastidious. She has no problems making decisions. She desires bread (underlined once), salt (once), hates slimy eggs (underlined twice). She hates vegetables and sea-food. Her body temperature is freezing cold (underlined three times). She is adverse to the sun (not underlined). She is sleepless when she first goes to bed. She lies there and worries about her life being so crazy. Then she will fall asleep very deeply and wake up unrefreshed. Her left ovary
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aches. She keeps breaking up with her boyfriend, but then she gets so horny that she calls him up and wants to get together again. That has been a consistent pattern over the past year. They break up at her insistence and then they get together again at her insistence. She feels as though her body is one large knot because she is so tense. I have given her Ign. 200 and Lyc. 10m. I have also given her Nat-c. There were virtually no results over four to five months. George: We will try to analyze this. You will see why it is a difficult case and then you will see the remedy. PAGE 229 She is worse on waking? Response: The depression and the anxiety about her life being so crazy are worse when she wakes up. The fears come on whenever she sees people. Her appetite is very large. BIG appetite (underlined twice). George: Can you describe her? Is she kind of fat or ...? Response: She is tall. Very well proportioned and with a very soft-looking body which is slender, but not skinny by any means. She has brown hair and she wears sunglasses all the time, so I dont know the colour of her eyes. During the interview she took them off, but most of the time she has them on. Her complexion is very clear and she looks very healthy. Question: How do you know that she is over-punctual? Response: She said that she was extremely concerned about time and my observation is that she is always there, and she is always waiting outside my door. Question: How long has she had this problem? Response: This whole thing started at her menarche and it became very marked at about age twelve or thirteen. It became very severe in high school and she left the high school she was attending and went to some private school or something. Her father is a congressman or senator or something like that. She sort of works for her fathers campaign at home and sometimes she works as a janitor at night. She is a very intelligent woman and she is very sharp. She has bought both of Georges books and read them thoroughly. George: So who is ready to do the analysis? Continuing: She keeps coming back. She first came to me about five months ago. I have given her three prescriptions and she keeps coming back, although she is getting desparate and she sort of feels like she is living out her last hope in some ways. She was on Vallium or something like that until she started seeing me and then she stopped doing that and started drinking a lot. George: Drinking? Response: Yes, she desires alcohol. There is no question about that. Question: Does she drink to calm her anxieties. Response: Yes, it is to calm her anxieties. 2nd Response: I can start an analysis. I was consulted on this case the other day and I gave up. (Laughter) I could not come to a satisfactory conclusion at that time. The lines that I was thinking along were: Well, my first thing was that what really is that fear of people? Is she afraid that people will hurt her or that they are going to reject her or what? I could not quite penetrate that from the symptoms which were given. A theme that Laren kept saying over and over again is that when she goes to bed at night and when she wakes
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up in the mornings she says that she is afraid that she will go crazy or that her life will be crazy. And so I thought combining that with the way that she covers her eyes all the time so that people cant see her, that perhaps the fear of people may not be the only symptom to rely on, but rather that the fear of insanity might be more fundamental to the essence of the condition. But then I didnt know where to go with that. I thought that ... PAGE 230 George: With fear of insanity, you see, you go to Calc. Response: Right. But I didnt see anything else. She did not have a desire for sweets, and she had some other strong desires, so I would expect to see the desire for sweets, although there was an aversion to slimy eggs. Actually, I didnt know what more to do with that. [Laren]: I tried to probe her on the fear of people issue to find out exactly what she was afraid of. Every time I would start really pushing her on that point she would side-step it. I could never find out exactly what it was that she had this fear of. Question: Does she have a high sexual interest, would you say? Response: I dont know. I would think so, but I dont know that for sure. She makes love perhaps 2-3 times a week. Response: The other thing that I thought was kind of peculiar but didnt know what to do about, was her fear of bees. She does not have a lot of fears about a lot of things, but she has that specific fear of bees and yet she has never been stung or had a reaction or anything like that. Response: The other thing that is unusual about the case is the fact that she has such a fear of people and yet can be in a social relationship. That seems strange to me. Continuing: She has difficulty meeting people and finding partners, but she has a boy friend and sex is great. Her sexual desire must be very high to force her past the fear of people. George: You say that she is a nice looking woman who comes inside with sunglasses? Why? There are two things: either she wants to keep herself in mystery or she does not want the others to see the wrinkles she has. She is too vain. She is 26 years old and it is interesting that she says that she has a fear of people and yet, as you pointed out, she has good sexual relationships. So this good-looking woman with the glasses and with a sense of mystery behind her ... can you get into the psychology of that woman? PAGE 231 It is, I imagine, the mind of a seductress. It is a very interesting fact that Platina women will come to you with dark glasses. They are good looking usually ... very good looking. But they will come inside with a sense of mystery behind them. In their attitude they become too romantic. In their fantasies they make themselves heroines and big Cleopatras. The Cleopatra in fantasy is Plat. It is interesting how they will wear dark glasses. There is a sense of lack of self confidence with people. You should probe deeper and you will see the real lack of self confidence. It is interesting now in this case that if you repertorize, Plat. will be one of the main remedies which will come up if we look up: fear of people, over-punctuality, offended easily and sighing. Many times you will find some problem with the woman related to a cyst of the ovaries. In this self-conscious appearance, she wants to look a certain way. She may not wear expensive clothes, but she will be dressed in a way to impress. That is why Laren actually was impressed by her appearance. They want that and they attain that.
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They have an impressive appearance. I do not have the picture of a typical Plat. to give to you. They want to be a kind of intellectual and outside of the common track. Usually they dont like children. They dont want to have children. But what is impressive here also is that I believe the fear of people comes from a kind of seduction. When a woman is raped at a young age, this comes up. I believe that there is an incidence of rape there in this case and that has caused this fear of coming in contact with people. But once she is in contact, because of her high sexual urge, that is eliminated. Why? Because the sexual urge is much greater and stronger than the fear. Question: Do you think that she actually does have sex two or three times a week? Response: I really dont know about that. Response: I always imagine Plat. having a very high sexual drive all the time. George: But dont forget that she is quite sick emotionally now. She is mentally sick also. And so with this sickness inside ... Also an interesting thing about Plat. is that you will confuse them with Ign. because many times they will want to stay in a closed room. They will close the windows and doors and even a little bit of wind will cause them to want to close everything up. They want to stay in a dark room. They will go to a mirror, and in a bright light they will see blemishes and wrinkles. A dim light gives a better image for this person. In a dim light, they cannot really see. I believe it is the same idea with the glasses that they wear. They do not want others to see their imperfections. PAGE 232 Question: This thing about rape ... have you found that to be true in many Plat. cases? George: It can be true because the Plat. has a high sex drive very early in life. And most probably she was involved in a situation where that was displaced and some men may have taken advantage of the situation. Question: But did you find this situation in many Plat. cases? You have actually gotten a history of rape? George: I just say this in conjunction with her symptomatology. It is consistent. I believe that that case is a Plat. case, but these fears will not go away immediately. The fears will be eased, but eventually the more contacts she makes the more she sees that nothing will happen to her, and the more she will go for it. Within a year she will find herself in a sociable situation. Question: Can the fears in Plat. also be related to her own awareness of her seductive tendencies and she is afraid to make contact with people because she will create that situation? George: Sure. Comment: She is also very critical of others as a Plat. and so presumes that they will be critical of her. George: But there is a sense of pride, Here I am and I am very beautiful. Response: That sounds like it exactly. George: It was in the air. (Laughter) You have to give her a high potency of 10m. That would be a good potency. Question: Speaking of well-dressed women ... George: No, it is not just the dress. It is the whole context. Question: That would be a completely different question?
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George: That can be Ars. They dress VERY properly. If you see a woman like that, it is not for touching. They are absolutely perfect. Every hair will stick to the right place. PAGE 233 And then they will go behind the visitors in their house and polish everything. But this Plat. has an air about her. I was trying to elicit information about thick lips. Response: She has them. George: Fleshy. Response: From looking at her, I would have thought that she was a Puls. She was sort of round and very sensual looking. George: It is interesting in his description that Puls. was coming up all the time. But there is the basic air of Plat. there. He would have described Ars. or Nat-m. in an other way. He would have described another context altogether. It is a case where you have to have quite lot of experience. I would have missed that case in my first years of experience. [practice]. Question: How does the Phos. woman look? George: (Laughs) There is nothing special about Puls. women. Response: I thought they had a very special appearance. George: Stylish. But they are very casual. They will not be dressed to excess. When I was in London I went to see John. It was a case where he had given Ars. He asked me, What did I prescribe in that case?, after he had read the case to me. I said, Ars. And he said, No, I prescribed Nux-v. This is similar. I prescribed Nux-v. and the patient came back after a month and told me he was the same, and then I prescribed Ars. He asked me then what I would have given as a follow-up, and I told him placebo. PAGE 234 25 Sinusitis and somnambulism [ - Sinusitis and somnambulism] Cocculus indicus (cocc.) Case This is a 17-year-old girl who is the eldest with three brothers and three sisters. For the past seven months she has had intermittent earaches. She has had hoarseness for the past five days, worse in the mornings and evenings. She has been breathing through her mouth. She has had sinus headaches, but these seem to be better lately. She has had slight fever on and off. She has nausea in the mornings. It is worse on going up a hill or up some stairs. George: Nausea on ascending? Response: Yes. She was a little uncertain about that because later on it was worse on descending. Her nose had been stuffed up and she had been sleeping sitting up to be more comfortable. She had been to a doctor and had a couple of shots of Cortisone. George: She was sitting that way in order to breathe more easily? Response: Yes. She tires easily. She has headaches in the forehead. They start in the back of the neck and then come forward to the bridge of the nose. She is a very sensitive person. She has had asthma since 1971. She has had her tonsils out. She had an intestinal infection which lasted for a few days and she was in hospital for it. George: She still has the asthma now? On and off?
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Response: On and off, yes. She had a cat-scratch infection which cleared by itself. Her menses was at age 13 and they last. for 7 days. They had been normal. One of her most prominent symptoms was that noise builds up. When she hears noise, it builds up so that it bothers her. George: When noise builds up? Question: Do you mean that the level of noise will bother her more and more? Response: Yes, she is bothered more and more by noise. Question: So it is not building up? Does it build up in her? Response: Yes, it builds up in her. Question: Are any of these things underlined? PAGE 235 Response: I think we will get to some underlying here shortly. She walks in her sleep. She has even showered in her sleep. Question: How often does she walk in her sleep? Response: It is quite frequently. Question: So that is underlined? Response: Yes, two underlinings. She sleeps curled up on either side. She is a chilly person (underlined three or even four times), and she is worse in damp weather (underlined three times), and her ears hurt (underlined three times). Question: Both ears? Response: Yes, both ears. She lives on health foods. She is sensitive to cabbage, tomatoes, smoke, perfume, and she has no particular cravings. I gave her allergic tests and she reacts to moulds (3x), milk (3x), corn (3x) and chili (3x). Her loves were arranged as follows: first God, then her family and then her friends. She loves playing the organ. She likes a challenge and likes oral expression. She is quite an achiever. She is an organist at the church and a student. She knits. She likes efficiency. She likes obedience and has a strict conscience. She hates cheating and she hates people who do foolish things. She does not like being honked for when someone comes to pick her up. She does not like reducing diets. She is not too fat, but has that tendency. Her father said that she is very headstrong - stubborn. She is very busy. She goes to college and she has her organ lessons and church work and hospital volunteer work, she cares for the other children and baby-sits for other people. She usually has a great deal of energy, but now she is really tired. She wants to go for some kind of medical career. Because of her allergies and so forth, at this time I was not much into homoeopathy, I gave her an R immunization reaction, a shot, and she was much better from this. A month later she came back and her face was swollen. She was suffering from flatulence. This came mostly from apples. She has quite a desire for apples, in fact a craving for them. She would fall asleep in class. She was doing B work in maths. She had hives all over her face, headaches, worrying, tired, chilly and at that time I gave her Psor. I was just getting into homoeopathy at that time. About a week later she went away to college and she was determined that she was going to get all As. She put a great deal of effort into her work and she began to have some leucorrhoea, more gas and some diarrhoea. Through the mail I sent her Nux-v. 200. Three weeks later she had severe shaking all over. She was chilly and she had bruises all over her body. Her nose was stuffy. Her skin had improved. She still had headaches in the forehead, which came from the neck. They were throbbing in nature. Her ears hurt. She
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had had no two BMRs alike and at that time I advised her to come home because she was going to a school a thousand miles away and it was difficult to treat her. PAGE 236 That month she came in and she was very slow to react. If she touched the stove, it would take 2-3 seconds for her to respond to it. She could not stand her room mates spray, nor her room mates body odour. When I examined her, there was fluid behind the ear drums and the right optic nerve showed some atrophy and was a little white in appearance. The optic nerve appeared like multiple sclerosis. It was white. George: Can you see that? Response: With the opthalmoscope, yes. Question: Did she have any visual problems? Response: No, she didnt have any visual problems. She had difficulty holding her thoughts, difficulty concentrating that is, these are her own words. Her knees were aching (underlined twice), better in the mornings. A very peculiar thing to me was that her back and shoulders were very tender. As I was looking at her eyes through the opthalmoscope, I just touched her back and she jumped like she had been shot with electricity. It was a very light touching. Question: Was it not a startled reaction? Response: No, it was so sensitive. And it didnt lag. It was immediately painful. This was all over the back and not localized. It was painful to just slight touch. Question: Did you see that other thing where she came back slowly in a neurological examination where you stick her with a pin or something and she is slow to react, or do you have any proof of that? Response: She told me that. I havent tested her for it. Her father had verified it. The headache was bothering her constantly. It was the same headache. Then she began to complain that her memory was bad too. She had a slight fever at the time. She had had the flu two weeks before. She said that her thoughts were slow and that words did not come as she felt they should. She was slow comprehending. She was slow in reacting to pain. She has to re-read things. She knows what she wants to say, but no words fit. She must concentrate in order to walk. PAGE 237 George: Does she lose her balance? Response: No, in order to get her legs to move, she has to concentrate and tell the legs to move consciously. Her hands, feet and nose are always cold. Now the sounds are magnified. My writing on the desk just bothered her to no end. The little noise of the wind coming through the air conditioner bothered her and I had to turn it off. My office is down the hall about 50 feet and there was someone typing in there. I had to have her stop typing because my patient could not stand it. She is getting weak and drops things. Her feet swell. She gets dizzy driving a car. At school, she noted that she could not keep up with the other kids and the things that they were saying. She would get it so long after it was all over that she just wasnt in it. She even lost her way on the campus and girls told her that shed better see a psychiatrist and that she was going crazy. At this time I gave her Cocc. 1m. A week later she had an aggravation. She improved with that so much and she was really anxious to get back to school. Her thinking was better, as was her neck and she was better
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generally. She had the urge to go back to school. She did well then until December in the last two weeks, when she was taking her examinations. She really pressed for these examinations and symptoms were beginning to come back again. This was about a month and a half to two months later. Then at the end of the semester, at the end of January, she came back and we advised her not to return to school, but stay at home. She had headaches constantly which bothered her a great deal. The noise seemed to be worse at that time. I gave her another dose of Cocc. 1m. The noise seemed to increase so much that I thought this was the wrong medicine after a while and I gave her Ther. 30. This produced an aggravation. Over the phone she said that she was doing much better. That was just this last week. Her father said that she was getting better, but not much. There was some improvement. George: What are the possibilities that we have? It is as the patient gave the case. She comes and gives this story and so how should we think about what to do? We have to base our prescription on the last symptomatology, on the first symptomatology or on the WHOLE symptomatology? Response: I would tend to prescribe on the first set of symptoms. George: So what is the best in this case? PAGE 238 Response: A constitutional. George: Yes. If we try not to palliate the case but to prescribe deeper, where shall we go? Which picture shall we go to? Response: Well, if we are prescribing for the whole thing, then we should prescribe for the entire case. If you can find one. (Laughter) Response: The question is that if she was a clear picture two years ago, she may now be a very advanced case of the same thing. That is a speculation. Response: She got so that she could not come to the office because she could not stand the ride in the car. It made her dizzy. It was a 45 minute trip, but it took her an hour and a half because they would have to stop. She could not stand the noise any more and the dizziness was too much. Response: The way that I would look at it would be to consider it a disrupted case because of the prescribing. Then you would try to go back to the original picture. But if it isnt disrupted case and if that is just ancillary and if there is a whole other disease going on, then we would have to take the more recent findings if we could find a clear picture out of it. Response: I guess it would depend on how clear the picture is of what is happening now. George: In this history, we are not very optimistic about it. She is not doing well at all. But where shall we go and look? I am going to prescribe according to certain symptomatology and from where should I take it? Response: From the very beginning. Response: If you can see a remedy, take what is there. George: In that case, it is best to take the beginning of the case - how the case came before anything had been decided. This is the most reliable. Because after that there are changes in the case which may be temporary. Even what she says now may go away into other things.
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Now we have this information and we want to prescribe and find the deeper indicated remedy in this case. Do we have enough information? There have been earaches for seven months. We dont have modalities and no worse lying on either side. There is no modality at all. So this is a symptom that we cannot use. Hoarseness for the past five days. This is an acute thing which comes up for the moment. Before we prescribe we should wait for it to go away. There is intermittent fever and I dont know if this is related to the earaches or the general condition. Nausea which is worse on ascending and descending. PAGE 239 Response: Later on, it was markedly more on descending. George: Okay. Easier to breathe when sitting while sleeping. Do we have here a sleep symptom or a symptom of asthma? Response: She says that she just feels more comfortable sleeping. George: She is a chronic asthma patient, so that means that the asthma most probably prevents her from sleeping on her back. But we are not sure yet. We do not have a sure symptom to rely upon yet. Sensitive to noise is a symptom that seems to be worse now. This was a symptom that was not underlined in the beginning, but later it developed and became more sensitive - VERY sensitive. She walks in her sleep and this is a symptom from childhood. Okay? She is chilly and numb. These are the two symptoms which are clear-cut and upon which we can rely. Response: She is a religious person. She used to sing in the church. Response: That does not seem to be pathology. Response: She takes an over-all sense of intense properness. George: Yes, she wants to be proper. Response: For a 17-year-old it was pretty intense. George: She gave the impression of, I am a good girl I go to church and this and that. I dont want my boyfriend to honk for me from his car. I dont know how she would have related to a younger doctor. Question: Her father was with her? Response: Her father was with us all the time at every meeting. He confirmed that she is proper. George: So what are we going to do with these symptoms? Question: George, the headaches from the back of the neck and extending to the forehead seem to be pretty definite in description and they have continued to be that way. That is pretty unusual. George: Yes, to the bridge of the nose. From the bridge of the nose to the forehead. So it is a symptom upon which you cannot rely. It is not reliable information from the beginning to rely upon that symptom. You can rely upon these two symptoms - very chilly and very numb. What other symptomatology can you find upon which you can rely? Response: Stubbornness. George: Stubborn, tired, somnambulent, asthma and sensitive to noise. What else? Response: She is a very hard worker. Nausea is worse in the mornings. PAGE 240 George: There is another symptomatology involved here: obesity. Response: But she isnt, she keeps herself down.
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George: What can we do with this information? What are the strongest? Chilly and damp is very strong. What you will find in a Kali-c. patient are characteristics of what? She is asthmatic but she is not taking any drugs for her asthma. It seems to be a very severe asthma. Response: I dont think that it is a severe asthma. She just has a little bit of it. George: It has been 9 years already and this is a person who is quite sick in her body. So asthma keeps up the disturbance. It is an expression of disturbance. So if that disturbance was there at the time, she must have been through a severe attack of asthma. The whole person is not a healthy one. We hear that this person is generally not healthy and she has had asthma for nine years. I conclude that there was a time when the whole force of the disease was here on the lungs. By that time the asthma must have been severe and she must have taken drugs at that time. Response: On the initial visit she did not look that severely ill. It was only later on that we realized how bad she was. She is so sensitive to EVERYTHING. Her vital force was strong. George: When did you say you found those things in the eyes? Response: After the third visit when she came home from college. Response: No, it was the fourth visit. It is written here. The diagnosis is optic atrophy. George: So if we take chilly, stubborn and tired, what is the remedy? Response: Calc. George: Calc. Now what is missing here for Calc.? Response: Sweets! George: Sweets. Response: But she is so disciplined, she might just have wiped that out. George: What else is missing in this information? Usually they will have vertigo from high places. What it says here is that she has nausea on descending. It is very difficult for Calc. to descend. PAGE 241 26 Headache over the eyes [ - Headache over the eyes] Ferrum iodatum (ferr-i.) Case George: So this is a case. Who wants to do the analysis? Response: There wasnt very much information and not very much underlined. I tried to go through and think what things could be used that we were sure of. The position of the headache was over the eyes. It said that he was worse on smoking, but it was not underlined. It says that he stops smoking because of that and so it must be important. I used that. Then thirst was underlined twice and cold water was underlined twice. Those were the only underlines in the case. So I used thirst for cold water. The headaches sounded like a congestive problem. Then I read through the remedies which were under those and tried to verify according to the left sided characteristics and the congestion. George: He takes about three strong pain killers. I missed that information. It is a kind of pain medication. He loses his joy completely. He is better with cold applications and worse with smoking. There were such bad headaches that he had to stop smoking. It was
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not the other way around. It was an important symptom because he was ready to give up the habit of cigarettes because it was affecting him so intensely. He has vertigo when he stoops and looks down. He has no fears. He is irritable. He sleeps well, snores, wakes up refreshed. He has warm feet which he uncovers. He grinds his teeth. He had bruits on the left side three years ago. Colitis. Somebody else? So you thought that the headaches were congestive and you prescribed. You would expect to find a very great aggravation from heat and especially from the sun. They will always tell you that they are worse with the sun and with heat. Let me hear somebody elses thoughts in this case. Response: Ill tell you my reasoning and you will probably give me Cann-i. after that. (Laughter) It took a lot of imagination for this. I looked at his weight 185 pounds and since he is a Greek he must be a short and heavy set man. So he is heavy set and he gives very very few symptoms on an emotional level. They are basically physical. He is 65 and he has been fairly healthy all of his life. He is not an educated man. He is a worker - an electrician. All that fits. Then he sounds heavy, but when he gets the headache he feels even heavier. I am sort of imagining this heavy set man sitting there. I am reading all through and the only thing that didnt fit with that was that he cries easily. That struck me for this electrician to cry easily and so here is that heavy set man who cries easily. None of the rest of the case seemed to fit. I came up with Graph. PAGE 242 George: You had a point, but it is not the remedy. Who else will give the impressions? Response: I had the feeling of a layer of Phos. in this case. Since he is worse from smoking, I thought at first that it was Nat-ar. George: What do you take as repertorization for the pain? What symptoms did you take? Response: Worse from tobacco. Then the pain above the eyes extends to the temples. There were six remedies. George: Just a moment. There was pain above the eyes on the forehead, extending to the temples. Nat-ar. is there, yes I see it. Response: Then he had a desire for cold water, but that goes against Nat-ar. However, that was the main remedy as I see the case. I thought that there may be another layer of Phos. later. George: You are ignoring the present symptom of being very warm (underlined twice). Response: Yes, my second choice is Bor. Bor. has exactly that description of the pain. Response: There are many remedies with pain in the forehead above the eyes. George: What did you say, Allen? Response: I was trying to find that rubric. George: There is one with extension to the temples with 4-5 remedies. Anyone else? Response: I used just three rubrics. I used the underlined desire for cold water, the underlined aggravation from heat, and worse with smoking to get Arg-n. George: There is no worse with smoking, but worse with tobacco. So one point is that he is worse with tobacco and the other is that he is a fatty type. The third point is ... Argn. is not the remedy. Anybody else? Response: Whoever got the right remedy is going to be surprised. (Laughter) George: Yes, but I would like to see how you thought on this. PAGE 243
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Response: I chose Chin. The thirsty-cold plus the fact that he had malaria would be pointing towards Chin. I really am not sure how I came to this remedy to be truthful. I cant remember why. George: There is a point which is impressive here in this case. Of course he takes pain killers every day to keep his pain down. So what is the characteristic of the pain if the person has to take pain killers every day for years to keep the intensity down? Response: The continuous headaches. George: Yes, the continuous headaches. When there is an exacerbation of the pain he immediately has to take more pain killers. If he takes it in time, he can have 2-3 hours and not have a crisis of pain. He does not allow the headache to come on. The headache is very strong. The person is fat. The pain is continuous in his head. Look in the repertory and you will ... Response: Ferr. George: But he is hot! You have the idea about obesity, tobacco aggravation, and now you have to put all of these things together. He is taking three pain killers to take the pain away. That means that it is continuous. You go to the repertory and see continuous headache strikes out very prominently. Page 138. And this person is obese. Ferrum is one of the main remedies but he is warm. Ferr. is towards the cold side. And worse with tobacco. And all of this comes on every two or three days. It looks easy. You do this kind of analysis, but that does not always mean that you hit the mark. If you do hit it, see what happens. Page 138 talks about constant headaches. Question: How did you extrapolate Ferr-i. out of that? George: He is hot. The Ferr-i. element makes a cold patient hot. Of course, I know something else which you do not know. Obesity is Iod. They are warm, perspiring. Response: That was my second choice and Davids second choice. George: How did you place it in your analysis? Response: First I picked up Graph. and he picked Glon., but then both of us picked Ferr-i. second. Response: We talked together and Roger was talking about it having to have the smoking element in it. So we thought, well Ferr. has the smoking and it is fat and heavy, so we looked at Ferr. for a long time. Then we said Ferr-i. and put it second. It was too strange a remedy for me to pick up. PAGE 244 Question: Should we add that remedy to obesity? George: Definitely. Obesity and warm. You see the obesity remedies which you have indicated that they are obese and steady. They cannot lose weight, never mind how much they try. It seems to be a thyroid disturbance, but the combination between Ferr. and Iod. brings about the kind of disturbance in the thyroid which produces obese persons with a tendency to be warm. Usually the obese remedies are cold like Graph., Calc. and so on. Question: So these might be thought of as warm Calc. So they seem like that? George: Yes. It can also be Ferr-i. Desires ice cream is underlined twice. Desires cold water is underlined three times here. But I did not give you this underlining because I was going to lead you completely away from the remedy. Desires salt is not underlined. Thirst is also underlined (3 times). Also they have perspiration. I dont know if this case had a lot of perspiration. Response: It had one underlining.
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George: And there is the warm feet which he sticks out from under the covers. I have seen it in other cases. You see how much you can learn from that case about Ferr. Has anybody found it? It is under uncovers. He also used to grind his teeth. Question: Do we add Ferr-i. to uncovers feet? I cant remember it in other cases. Also another Ferr. element which I have given you ... it says vertigo on stooping down. It is the middle of the case. What you will not see here is the Phos. element essence. What is the essence of Phos.? He has no fears of anxieties - nothing to remind you of Phos., yet his desires may lead you to Phos. Question: But there is no essence to lead you to Ferr-i. either. George: Yes, but there are a few things which lead you to Ferr. rather than to any other remedy. There are a few things you can put together which are not given in the case immediately. He is not concerned about whether or not he is obese. He is concerned about his continuous headaches. The stooping down vertigo and the obesity and the headaches immediately lead you to Ferr. One who knows materia medica and searches in his mind says Ferr. But he is warm. Ferri. is one of the remedies which is obese and warm. PAGE 245 Now where we can put desires ice cream and cold water I dont know. I think we have to add it to the repertory, although it might be a but premature. What I have to do is go and find other cases like that and see what coincides and confirms the situation. You will see another element here in Ferr. Ferr. patients do not give you much symptomatology on the mental-emotional levels. Question: Can you usually extrapolate like that from a complex remedy like Ferr-i. or Calc-p? Can you extrapolate from the originals? George: It gives me the idea of Ferr. for that person, but then I know that it is a remedy which is aggravated by cold. He is warm. Question: Would you do the same thing with Calc-sil. and Calc-s.? George: Yes. Sometimes there is Nat. and Sulph. and I combine the two and we say Nats. So here we gave a dose of Ferr-i. 200. He came back after 7 months. There had been an initial aggravation of the headaches for three days where he took many pain killers. He actually could not go through the aggravation without pain killers. The headaches were gone completely after that. The symptomatology indicated that his heartburn had become much less. He had had heartburn. I believe this was from all the medicines and pain killers he was taking. The itching in the feet was gone. The feet still remain warm, but he does not have to stick them out of bed any more. He said that he was psychologically much better. Even with the little symptomatology that he gives, he feels the difference in his psychological state. On November 18th, about 10 days after he took the remedy, he had a severe pain in the chest for weeks. He was taken to hospital. It was quite severe. An electrocardiogram was absolutely normal. He was given some tranquillizers when he went into the hospital. He returned on the 3rd of May and said, For the past three weeks the headaches started again. He had again started taking pain medication and he started drinking coffee again. Question: How long had he been drinking coffee?
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George: I dont know. It doesnt say. What are you going to do? What we have here is that he has taken some medicines and he drinks coffee. He says that the headache still is 70% better than when he was first seen. What do we do? PAGE 246 Response: Stop the coffee and wait. George: The doctor gave a dose of Ferr-i. 200. He took sac. lac. of course one time. He was told to stop the pain medication, stop the coffee and take the remedy if there was an increase in headaches. It was a repetition of Ferr-i. 200. This was to be taken in case there was a relapse. Now the man came back on the 5th of January, 1978. Question: What was the potency that you gave the first time? George: 200. What would you say has happened? The doctor gave him sac. lac. in case of a crisis. Response: He took the remedy and there was no change. So after a week he took the Ferri. anyway. Response: He took Ferr-i. and now he has other problems. Now he is a Phos. George: He came eight months later. He says he was absolutely well but for the past 15 days. So the doctor asked him if he took the Ferr-i. 200. He said he had not taken it and had brought it back. That is interesting for he stopped the coffee and the organism brought itself into balance. He now says that he has had a headache for the past 15 days, which comes at 10 or 11 oclock in the morning and then again at about 5 in the afternoon. It does not look like the old headache. It is in the temples, has a stitching feeling and is over the eyebrows. It is better if he touches the area of the headache with his hands. He still feels the heat and he perspires mostly about the face and throat. This is not underlined this time, but this doctor does not underline very easily. He has a good appetite and he now desires salty foods (underlined once), milk and ice-cream (underlined once). Thirst is strong for cold water. He was crying easily again. He wants company (underlined once). He says that 20 days ago he started working with a dentist. Isnt that interesting? So what are we going to do now? He said he was still under treatment but that it would be finished soon. Response: Wait. Question: Are the headaches the same? George: No, it is a different type of headache. Response: Phos. George: Most probably Phos. is coming. Shall we give it now or wait? Response: Wait until the dental work is finished. PAGE 247 George: But you have taken the case and spent all this time and in the end he tells you that he has been to the dentist! Now what are you going to do? I told him to come again after ten days. He was very aggressive and didnt want to do that. This is a practical problem and you will have to face it. You have to do reasoning here about what you should do. Of course you think that it is funny because you dont have the problem. You are thinking superficially about something which requires logic. What is going on in that person? Before you prescribe whatever you prescribe, you will need to think about these things.
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Response: He is a pretty healthy person first of all. There is not a complete relapse in spite of the dental work. It may not be a complete relapse and he is a reasonable man because you gave him Ferr-i. and he didnt take it for how many months. He held on to it. So I think that this man can be trusted to make decisions like that. It is likely that Phos. is the remedy here. So you could explain to him that after the dental work he should wait for a week and if the headaches go away then to leave it alone, but if they come back or stay for a week after the dental work is completed, then he should take the remedy. Response: The headaches could be just from the dental work too. George: That is for sure. He said that ten days ago his headaches came back and he said, I have started dental work, and this was at the same time, so apparently it is a direct result. But he has remained without symptoms for two years with one dose of Ferr-i. I will tell you about the policy of the Center. I will give you the practical reasons for prescribing, because prescribing has to do with practical reasons sometimes. If somebody comes and gives his whole case and in the end he takes this remedy and that remedy and his heart is affected and all that, the doctor may say, We can do nothing for you. Goodbye. In that case he is not allowed to charge. So if you spent time with the man and did not treat him, you cannot charge. The doctor feels obliged to give some kind of remedy if he is going to charge. It is not the policy of the Center to keep the patient coming back. We try to keep the patient from the Center as much as possible because there are many patients waiting to take their turn to come and if somebody says, It is nice here and they do well by me, they will keep coming back. They want to find something that you can give them some medicine for. They want the doctor to look after them. It is a difficult type of patient. The policy of the Center is to send them away. You are well now and so we dont need to see you any more. PAGE 248 This then was why I didnt tell him to return in a week after he had completed the dental work. If he had said in the beginning that he had had dental work and had had a relapse, the doctor might have said that he could make another appointment. But the appointment is so difficult to make. They have to phone 15-20 days before they can come. And to find the special doctor they want, they might have to phone one month ahead of time. How can he make an appointment if he is full for the next month? So there are all of these practicalities that dictate he should prescribe something. Now there is a possibility of a relapse. He has taken dental treatment for 20 days. Most probably there is a possibility of a relapse or a possibility of going into another remedy. Okay, either you have to prescribe the same remedy, sac. lac., or Phos. Okay, but why Phos. in that case? Because of the thirst involved. The time aggravation of the headache is more Nat-m. than Phos. But his mental symptoms and the desires are more towards Phos. Do you want to give it? Are you sure about it? Give it and see what happens. Question: Phos. follows both Iod. and Ferr. well. George: I want you to do the thinking. If you dont do the thinking properly I am not going to tell you the remedy. Question: When you gave him sac. lac., did you give him Ferr-p. or something else? George: The second time he came he got one dose again as an initial dose just in case ... Response: I understand that. What was the sac. lac. that was given? George: No, it was not a tissue salt. By that time we gave the real thing.
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Response: But if you were to give a tissue salt, would you give the closest? You wouldnt give Ferr-p.? George: No. Response: It is only when it is Nat-m. that you would give Nat-m. George: When it is exactly the same, I give the same. When it is not exactly the same, we go far. I would give Nat-p. or something like that. There you have a case that was ameliorated completely for two years with a remedy which has affected all of his body and his psychological state. It has acted beautifully and here you have some drugs which have been given which bring back the case. This seems a little bit different now. PAGE 249 You see what my idea for this is. What you will say to the patient and what you will do is, Wait until the dentist has finished his treatment and do not take a remedy while the treatment is going on The second thing you may say is, Either wait for a month without taking a remedy or do the same thing as before, which is to take sac. lac. in this case. Or in this case I prefer to repeat the same remedy and tell him to take it if the headaches continue after the dental work, Why? Because in spite of having changed the headaches into a more specific headache at the moment, Ferr-i. has acted so deeply and there it is antidoted by dental work or coffee. It is not developing. You have a case that develops by itself without the interference of any remedy. It develops and you see changes. These changes are important and you watch them. But when you have a case that has been antidoted definitely by allopathic drugs, dental work will usually antidote. The first remedy you will try if it has acted so well should again be one dose of the same remedy. You have an antidoting of a beautiful case which has acted deeply. Dont go away from that remedy unless you have VERY good reasons. Here you do not have very good reasons. It is not a perfect Phos. case after all. It is not a perfect Nat-m. So we gave Ferr-i. 200. He took it and he was well. Question: He took it and did not wait for the dental work to be finished? George: It does not say exactly when, but most probably he took it after the treatment was completed. The headaches were continuing and so he took it. Now he comes exactly one year later, 1979. Question: Did the obesity change? Did he lose weight? George: It does not give that information thus far. What has happened in that man is that on October 12, 1978 (that is 10 months later), he had an automobile accident. He had a broken leg and he had to stay in the clinic for two and a half months for this condition. They gave him a lot of medicine during this time of course. But his constitution resisted that for a long time. But he comes back to us on January 19, 1979. The headaches become worse now during the noontime and are better again with cold water. There was a heaviness in the head. He was still sensitive and kind of sympathetic. He still had warm feet, but he does not take them from under the covers. He has thirst for four to five glasses of COLD water. What is the prescription? Response: These cases are wonderful because we can really see the remedy. A couple of these could even be provings. PAGE 250 George: Yes, it is very good information which we can receive only if we do right homoeopathy. You can imagine what would happen if we had given Phos. or Nat-m., or
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this and then that. Then you lose the picture. You had a very good constitutional case. Where you dont know Ferr-i. and you start seeing it. Next time when you will see this type of headache, in your mind will come something about Ferr. and you will ask, What was that? and you will look. This is like studying materia medica. When you need that remedy, you will have to give it. I dont think that Phos. would have done anything in this case. PAGE 251 27 Mental depression (recurrent) [ - Mental depression (recurrent)] Arsenicum iodatum (ars-i.) Case This is a case of depression in a 33-year-old female who did very well with prescriptions from David Warkington of Staph. The depressed condition cleared and then after two months she came with new symptomatology. The depression was suicidal. She said that occasionally she had a depression. Then she had it every two weeks and it would last just for several hours. When she has it it is triggered by feelings of great insecurity and anxiety centered around her new love relationship. She says that it is the best relationship that she has had in a very long time. It is very good for her. She also says that sometimes she sees the world as if it is full of suffering and that causes some depression. Also if she has anger against someone and she does not express it, she gets very depressed and she has the desire to mutilate herself, which is the way that the old depression was in the past, with impulses to mutilate herself. George: By what means? Response: With a knife. She wanted to slash her wrists or her face or her neck. This happens after suppression of anger. This is an old symptom which is a lot better than previously. But it is still there. She says that she does not hold back her anger now as much as she did in the past. She has a main complaint now of lack of clarity. On waking, she says it is as though she sees something opaque and she has difficulty concentrating. She says that she is very dull in the mornings when she wakes up and she is so dull that she can hardly talk. She stresses this and it is underlined three times. She has extreme dullness and irritability in the morning when she wakes up. In the morning her body hurts. This is all over and it is an aching which is almost through the bone, as she describes it. Almost but not quite. She says that she just moans and groans in the mornings. It is better when she is lying down but this is not underlined. Question: Is the aching underlined? Response: Yes, three times. It is better with a hot bath (underlined once). She says that all of the aching is gone by 12 oclock noon. Also the mental symptoms start to improve by noon. The dullness is better, although she still feels a little bit tired. About 10 oclock at night, she feels no illness at all and she totally wakes up at that time. She stays clear mentally, but during this time period where she stays clear, she will become increasingly restless. The restlessness is a crescendo pattern until about 3 a.m. when she finally exhausts herself and sleeps. The restlessness is underlined three times. She says that it drives her from the bed frequently this restlessness. She feels compelled to get up and do house work or go to the bathroom, or she sorts through bills and does that kind of thing. She says that she is compulsive and
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that is underlined three times. And this compulsiveness is especially present at night. She goes from one task to the next; she cannot finish one task before she has to go on to the next. PAGE 252 She had an impulse to return to the house after she left for a short period of time. She said the impulse was to check and make sure that the door was locked. She said that that had been better during the past few months. She is sensitive to music (underlined twice). She says that music will lower her energy and she will turn on fast music specifically to pick up her energy. That is a strategy when she feels low energy and she needs to turn it on. But only fast music will help that. She says that she is impatient (underlined once). She is hot (underlined twice), and the heat drives her crazy and makes her even more restless. She is thirsty (underlined twice). This thirst is for ice-cold drinks. She craves sweets (underlined once), ice cream (twice), chocolate (twice), spiced foods (twice), salty foods (twice). She has headaches over the forehead (underlined once), which are worse in the light (twice). She has cystitis (twice), worse after sex (twice). She has hemorrhoids (twice). Her only fears are of becoming disfigured (once). This would be either by an accident or some sort of physical growth. George: She has a good relationship now? Response: She says it is the best she has had in 18 years. I would not call it good, but it is the best she has had for a long time. I think the way she describes it is that the man is using her, but she allows it. George: Will anybody analyze the case? Response: I have one question about going through the depression to lack of clarity. That seems to go from the emotional to the mental. George: What I would ask in that case is whether the Staph. has helped or whether the relationship has helped. Response: The relationship came eight months after she was improved. She was literally to the point of never leaving the house, she was suicidal and she was preparing to kill herself before the Staph. I should never have given her Staph. in the first place, but it was way in advance of where I was at the time. I looked at the symptoms wanting to stab herself with a knife and it was almost completely a case of that remedy. PAGE 253 George: She is better mentally during the night but becomes restless and compulsive, She does not have the compulsion to walk, and there is one remedy which comes to mind ... Response: That is a lot of Alum., except that I dont think they would be so restless. But they are worse during the day and they have clarity at night. George: The restlessness is so much. I forgot to add that she got Ars. which did not help her. Question: Was this before or after Staph.? Response: A long time after. It did not work at all. George: Lets finish the case. I dont have much tell to you. In this case you have an Ars. case - Ars-i. Of course you have to SEE the restlessness of an Iodatum to realize the tremendous restlessness. It is interesting to see that she is restless until she falls down, exhausted. I have seen it in a child and nothing would work. I gave everything. They could not stop in one place and they would bring down the whole house. It is a remedy which we do not
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have much information about and I was looking for it. I wanted to justify it, but could not find much information. It is a specific remedy for psoriasis. I never found it useful in psoriasis in my experience, however, Kent lists Ars-i. Response: This picture remained unchanged for about six months. George: It is a case of Ars-i. Kent does not give the picture clearly. Question: I have a question about the Ars. part of it. There were none of the fears and anxieties that I am used to see. All I see is the restlessness and how would I differentiate? George: There is a suicidal depression there definitely. Even now, though she has a good relationship, she still thinks of suicide mangling herself with a knife. Ars. has a lot of that. They do not have to have the other fears, because once the Ars. goes into this kind of a depression, the fears become of lesser importance to the individual. To have that case going down through the different fears - fear of dying, then fear of death, fear of anxiety of health, are all a better state than what she is in. Here the suicidal depression ... you remember in Ars. that the suicidal element is very strong and actually they do commit suicide - these Ars. people. They have a STRONG urge to suicide once they are in that depression. So the depression is there and the desire to kill themselves is there. The particular way they want to kill themselves is there and then also there is all of the restlessness and irritability. It is worse in the mornings and they are thirsty. They are compulsive. When Roger was describing the case, he said that she goes from one place to the other, and cannot stop in doing one thing, until she is exhausted. That is TREMENDOUS restlessness. So you would give Ars-i. PAGE 254 PAGE 255 28 Rheumatoid arthritis [ - Rheumatoid arthritis] Medorrhinum (med.) Case This is a two year old case of a male who is about 60 years old. He had a rheumatoid arthritis. He is a retired commercial airlines pilot. Initially for the previous six and a half months before I saw him, he had had a whole bunch of remedies prescribed through the computer. He had taken Lyc. 3x, 6x, 200x, and Calc. 6x, Lyc. 1m and 6m, Tub. 200 and so on and so forth. The last remedy had been given to him two weeks prior to the time I saw him. The remedies had been given over a six and a half month period. Question: Did any of them help him? Response: There was no response to any of them. In 1962 he had a myocardial infarct at the age of 38. Prior to that he had been in good health. He was having marital problems because of gambling and he had gambling debts of thousands of dollars. He was full of anxiety. Question: Was this in 1962 or just now? Response: That was in 1962. He is 56 now. At that time also he was wrongly accused by his Chief Pilotand suspended from flying. He stewed over that problem for three months, figuring out how to get back at the Chief Pilot, but he never expressed his anxiousness or anger. Shortly after returning to work in 1972 he had the MI. Three months later, after the myocardial infarct, his arthritis began and it was mostly in his hands, elbows and feet. It was severely painful. He was treated with Cortisone for six years. He also had one Gold
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shot, tried DMSO, mineral baths, vitamin therapies, colonic therapy and nothing helped, except drinking wine. (Laughter) He did this every evening. He said that he had had no medications for ten years. Seven years ago the pains diminished and about that same time he began to develop these large synovial cysts around the joints. He has very large bags around the elbows, ankles, wrists, and also nodules which are huge, arthritic, rheumatoid nodules around his joints. The hands are very deformed because of this. During the period of time when his arthritis was severe, it was worse in August (underlined twice). He would sit in total pain for the entire month of August. It is a hot time then. George: What remedy can we give? Response: Nat-s.? PAGE 256 George: No. Lach. Response: He says, I have no pep or energy at all (underlined twice), I feel lousy all the time. He has had ringing in his ears since his myocardial infarct and a different pitch in his ear. That is a different tone in his ears. Four years ago he had epistaxis which was copious from his left nostril. It poured out. It was cauterized three times. It was a horrible experience for him and he still has a tremendous fear that this could happen again. Question: Is it always the left nostril? Response: Yes, it was the left each time. He has some shortness of breath on exertion and angina (underlined once). He drinks one or two bottles of wine an evening. He has loose stools in the mornings. He had stringy mucus in his stools until he had a colonic and he has not had any of that since. He has a small external haemorrhoid, but this does not bother him. At age 33 he had what he called a measles-like eruption on the glans penis one morning after he had had sex with a strange woman in the Orient. (laughter) It was very itchy and it was treated with antibiotics. Question: I am confused. In all of these symptoms you gave us just a minute ago, were they from ten years ago? Response: Everything since no energy is all current. He still gets a few red dots and itching occasionally and he has strong urine with an ammonia odor following the red eruptions. He has been married for 39 years. He has two children and he argues with his 18-year -old son. He says, I dont think very much of myself (underlined once), I dont feel like doing anything. Impatience (underlined twice). Three years ago he lost everything in a real estate venture and he had to start all over. He says that he has little anxieties all the time, but what can be done about it? He has been a Catholic all of his life and he found the Lord. This was five years ago. He smokes two packs of cigarettes per day. He is disgusted with himself each morning on waking because of his drinking and smoking. George: But he has found the Lord. (Laughter) Continuing: He repents every morning. (Laughter) George: Sounds like Phos. Continuing: He has a tremendous fear every day that his nose will start oozing again. He has a boring life (underlined at least once). Day after day I feel like a bum and dress like a bum. He has no sexual desire (underlined three times). He has very little feeling and very little seminal discharge with masturbation. That occurs about twice a year that he masturbates. PAGE 257
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George: He is married? Response: Yes, for 39 years. He says, Sex went out of the window seven years ago. They have separate bedrooms. That was not when he got the eruptions - that took place many years prior to that. He is worse in a draft (not underlined), and he is warm blooded. He says that he is too warm in a room which is 68 degrees. He has very painful soles of the feet and it feels as though he is standing on marbles. I believe that this is secondary to the arthritis of the metatarsal heads. He has weak ankles (underlined once). He seldom gets cold. He is worse from eggs. He gets right lower quadrant abdominal pains when he eats eggs. Desires salt (underlined twice). He says that he does not know what he is anxious about. A past medical history observation is that in 1949 he had a streptococcal infection of the nose with TREMENDOUS swelling. He was treated with antibiotics. In 1942 he had pyorrhoea. He had a head injury at age 5 and he had had headaches for three years after that. His blood pressure was 194/104. His liver is about 2 c.m. below the costal margin. The joints themselves do not appear deformed as a result of the arthritis. The knees are normal but the other joints have nodules on them. So that was the case at that time. I gave him Staph. with no benefit. George: What is the reaction to weather? Response: The weather changes do not seem to bother him. He does not have any pain now. There is some stiffness, but little or no pain. George: Rheumatoid arthritis with no pain? Response: Right. It is interesting. We will get to this later. George: Why no pain with rheumatoid arthritis? Response: It was very severe at the time. It was all diagnosed at the time through laboratory tests. George: So actually the arthritic pains and symptomatology are not much apart from the sexual picture, which is very low. Response: There is more symptomatology as we go on. George: But let us see the case as it is now what the remedy would have been Lets wait for further information and think about what we have here now. Is he open or closed in nature? Response: Closed. George: A gambling person who incurs so much? Response: He was buying friends. George: He incurs so much debt. PAGE 258 Response: He is more like a Phos. George: He is a wild type. He was in the army and there he was gambling. He was accused of being drunk while he was flying. He drinks a lot, almost to the point of being an alcoholic and he has the businesses. Okay, now what could the remedy be? Response: Med. George: Either Phos. or Med. Why Med.? Response: I was thinking of all the symptoms of arthritis alone with the impatience ... George: He is the kind of person who has a keynote symptom tied to Med. He has painful soles, very painful. We have said that this is a keynote. The desire for salt is also a keynote and there are weak ankles. It is interesting that Med. affects the ankles and
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causes an inflammation. So in your repertory, you must see it as swelling of the ankles. And what did he get from the woman he was with? Response: Measles-like eruptions on the glans penis. He was treated with antibiotics. Question: How was his sexual energy before? Response: Low sexual desire. George: So in this case we shall be thinking either of Med. or Phos. I dont see Lach. since the August aggravation. Response: Lach is for a rheumatic swelling of the ankles. Response: They are not usually gambling, wild types, Lach. Question: What about the epistaxis? George: Yes, the epistaxis brings us to Phos. Question: Is angina Med.? George: Yes. Is it not in the repertory? When you get a history of heart disease in the parents, especially the man - the father - look for gonorrhoea. We spoke about this before. This is another thing I want to tell you. Med. patients will go wild and do all these things. They may have gonorrhoea at the age of 20. Their sexual desire is increased and they will go wild. They will have no symptoms. They will show no symptoms of angina, but then they will go into a BIG angina crisis with myocardial infarct (MI) and usually will die. This is at a young age - between 38 and 48 years old. I just passed this age. (Laughter) Question: How did you find this out about Med. and the heart? PAGE 259 George: How? Because you see a person whom you suspect to be Med. and you ask him about the father. He will say that he has had no gonorrhoea, but when you inquire about the father, many times you will find that the father had suddenly died from heart attack. So you will find these symptoms for Med. through the father. That means that he had constitutional gonorrhoea which was suppressed and badly affected the heart the way that I described to you before. Question: That means that the father had gonorrhoea? George: Yes. Question: And you would see such a low sexual desire? George: Yes. Response: To me this is extremely important because of all the heart disease which we have. There is a correlation. George: It is not ALL due to that, but I believe quite a lot. Response: Diet too. Question: Will the father die at a relatively young age? Before 50? George: Yes, but it can be 55 or so. Question: But have you got some confirmatory evidence that people who die suddenly have had gonorrhoea? George: Yes. Or they have a really big heart attack. Or you get people who worry and think about their heart all the time, they may have an attack without gonorrhoea. You get another one and there is no problem at all with the heart. Suddenly there is a big cardiac accident or death, and that is likely to be sycotic. Question: What about the painful soles? George: It is very characteristic of Med. in that case. Question: Would you expect nodules of the soles?
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Response: Inside his feet he has the swollen heads of the metatarsal joints which were deformed by the arthritis and he was walking on that. Also there were painful callouses on the soles. Question: So that is what you call painful toes? Response: Right. Actually it is there. The pain is from the callouses on the bottoms of the feet that he walks on. Question: Have you given Med.? Response: He has been given Med. with no effect. (Laughter) PAGE 260 Response: At this point, because of the suppressed anger episode, I gave him Staph. He had a slight decrease in his stiffness and soreness for two and a half weeks after the Staph., but then it came back. He says that he feels a little better now. He has itching in the lateral side of his left ankle. He has applied Cortisone to this all along. George: Cortisone? Response: Yes, he was applying that to the skin of the ankle. This was being put on an eruption of the skin of the left ankle. His blood pressure was 120/100 and I checked the blood count. The haematocrit was 66.9. George: That is hyperemic. Response: Very much so. And the blood pressure is 194? Response: Well, it is 170 at this point. George: He will have another heart attack. Question: He is a smoker since? Response: Heavy smoker, yes. Continuing: So at this point I talked to his wife. I made an appointment for his wife to come and see me because I was not getting the full case from the man. She said that he loved flying, but unknown to her at the time that he was flying, he was frightened (underlined three times), each time he flew a plane. He said that the myocardiac infarct was a good excuse to quit. His gambling was a way of buying friends. He had not gambled since 1962. He was the only survivor of a 15 man crew in an airplane crash in a hurricane in 1942. As a pilot, he had had two accidents as a commercial pilot. She said that he also lacked self confidence (underlined twice). He had great empathy and he does volunteer work for St. Vincents de Paul. He has guilt (underlined once), and, He does not accept himself as he is. He seems to need to prove himself over and over. I talked to him again later and he said, I have never found anything that I am interested in doing. If someone is in need, I will go and help. He is indifferent to socializing. Fun to me is just drinking wine. Life is not very exciting. (Underlined three times), too serious (underlined once). Ten years ago he was a happy-go-lucky kind of person. He had a lot of joint pain at that time. At the time that his joint pain went away, he lost his happiness and became apathetic. Question: Why did it go away? PAGE 261 Response: I dont know. Question: That was after the Cortisone? Response: He had had Cortisone, but that had never helped him. George: He had Cortisone as a treatment of the rheumatoid arthritis? Response: For six years. He continued to have pain that whole time.
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Continuing: So I gave two other remedies - Lyc. and Aur. - during this period of time, and there was no change. He says that the arthritis clears up after anger (underlined once). In the first six years of his arthritis, the stiffness was much worse at the seashore (underlined three times). I also tried Nit-ac. without relief. He is impatient (underlined three times). He says that erections were lost during intercourse. He had apathy (underlined three times), he was irritable (underlined twice), and he says he gets involved in other peoples problems and he weeps if someone close to him is hurt. He desires salt. I dont tell anyone my problems, he says, When people tell me about their aches and pains, I want to turn around and walk away. I am tired of hearing about sick people. He has no sympathy for a complainer (underlined twice). I gave him Nat-m. So it was still the same old routine every time he would come in. He is still very nervous when he is a passenger on an airplane (underlined twice). His marriage is in a rut and he is completely bored. He is restless in bed (underlined twice). He awakes at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and then takes an hour to go back to sleep. Sleeping on his abdomen is impossible since his MI (underlined twice). George: So the case develops now. Do you have more? Response: A little more until the last part. I am almost finished. He is worse when he becomes heated (underlined twice), and I gave Sulph. 1m, which was followed in two weeks with SEVERE pain in the left shoulder joint which lasted for a day and a half. It was more severe than even the pain he had had with his arthritis. Then he was back to the same old routine, although maybe the angina was a little worse. George: You see here that this is a kind of proving for Sulph. He has pain in the left shoulder joint. Response: To give an idea of the way he would talk, he was speaking disparagingly about his son-in-law. He said, He is a pin head, with about as much ambition as a door knob. (Laughter) He described his son-in-law as a heathen. It so happens that his son-inlaw is Oriental. The angina is worse in cold, wet weather (underlined twice). He prays morning and evening. He is sighing quite a lot. So I discovered that while he was taking the remedies that I had given him he was using Cortisone cream for his haemorrhoids, and that he had done so for years. PAGE 262 He says he tends to interrupt his children and so they go to their mother with their problems and then he feels left out. He will then go downstairs and drink more wine. George: So this is the last information that you have? Response: Yes, I gave him Sulph. last. I gave him Med. in September of 1979, right before he told me that he was still very nervous as a passenger on a plane. Question: Is praying underlined? Response: No. I have also given him Ign. I will tell you the remedies which I gave him: Staph., Lyc., Aur., Nit-ac., Nat-m., Med., Sulph., Ign. and then Sulph. again. Pardon me, there was one more remedy, which I do not have written here. I had a consultation with Lou. K. and he prescribed Kali- bi., but there was no effect. Question: So he had a deformative arthritis and he was burned out ... Response: His joints are not deformed. He just has these large synovial cysts and nodules. His hands are covered with these things.
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He is a real estate buyer and seller, but there has not been anything happening in his life in real estate for a couple of years. He owns some land which he is sitting on. Every day he gets up late in the morning, then goes out and drives around to visit friends, and then he will go to the tavern for a few glasses of wine, buys a couple of bottles of wine and takes them home. Then he drinks those and goes to bed. That is every day. George: A bottle of wine every day? Response: At least one and usually two every day, yes. Question: How much other family does he have? Response: His wife. His son is living in a trailer mobile home in his backyard. He made money in real estate and has some things happening for him regarding money. George: When he says he is a serious person, does he look to you to be serious? Response: His wife said that. Response: I dont think that he is overly serious, but there is not an awful lot of emotion that he can display at all. PAGE 263 George: Would you say that it is a person who is conservative in the way he dresses and so forth? Response: Oh yes, he has a white belt. That is what real estate people always wear. George: How was his desire for sex before? Response: I dont have that information. When he started losing his erections during intercourse he and his wife had a falling out sexually. (Laughter) The MI was three months before his arthritis symptoms began. The MI came first and during a time when he had a lot of anger. Question: So it was not a matter of the arthritis being suppressed into the heart? Response: No, it is the other way around. Question: Doesnt that wreck our theory? George: No, it was relieving the heart by having less reaction. Question: The body trying to cure itself? George: Yes, it was a curative action of the body which took away from the center of gravity of the disease. It took it away into the joints. Because some of the angina stayed. He was in a very precarious state because of the blood and the kind of vessels he has. Question: Does he have a lot of dyspnoea? Answer: No, not a lot. He can walk a couple of blocks. Response: That cant be secondary polycythaemia. Question: Couldnt the Cortisone cream which he was using have kept the other remedies from working? George: Yes, but it should have a kind of reaction for at least one or two days. Response: There were reactions both from the Staph. and the Sulph. George: No, I mean aggravations. You see, a curative action in that case would go immediately aggravating the haemorrhoids. He still uses steriods? Response: No, he has stopped the Cortisone now. George: And the haemorrhoids are not bothering him? Response: Intermittently, but they do not bother much now. They were bothering him a lot when I talked to him in May. There was a lot of itching which was worse at night. PAGE 264
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George: The way that I see this case pathologically with that type of blood and with this high blood pressure, with angina already there, the haemorrhoids are an outlet. This is a very sensitive place to touch. Put Cortisone on there, and you will have another one. So why he doesnt have another one, in spite of using Cortisone, is because of the disease going into the joints and also going into the emotional level because of the flatness and boredom which he talks about. It makes him flat. So we have to be very careful in prescribing for that man. If I had seen him from the beginning and had all of this information, I would have considered Med., but I wouldnt have given it. I would be afraid of going too deep and disturbing the body too much. I think that this case is one that will not give us the deep remedy and perhaps we should not go searching for a deep remedy because there is so much possibility of damaging his heart or the brain. I would like to know the condition of the arteries. I would have an opthalmologist look at his eyes to determine the condition of the arteries. I believe that he has arteriosclerosis. Response: If I remember correctly, in my actual records I have done that and there were moderate arterial changes. George: Oh, you looked? Response: Yes. Question: When did you find his hematocrit? Response: 1967. That was about the second visit, but I have checked it since then. Question: Did he ever know that it was high before? George: He looks very solid. Question: Is he overweight? Answer: He is not thin, but fairly thin. Question: But his face is red? Response: Yes. Question: George. A lot of his symptoms fit Aloe. It is worse with heat and desires salt. They are beer drinkers and they have joint pains and they feel bad about themselves their image. And haemorrhoids too. Response: They are weary people, beer drinkers, dissatisfied and angry with themselves. They usually have low back pain. Question: How did you come up with that? PAGE 265 Response: I started with the desire for salt and followed it with the fact that he is so hot. Continuing: The guy said that I am his last hope. He has tried all the quacks there are. George: I would like to think more about it. There are several possibilities. One is Ph-ac. and Asc. Ph-ac. is light and it is going to touch him a little bit. Question: I asked that Question in class the other day - about a history of physical disease and then the patient changing into the Ph-ac. state where the emotional level has been affected. For them the natural progression was to Ph-ac. George: It might be that being thrown out of the army produced this indifference. Response: He has had a lot of little griefs. George: If he was not worse with heat, I would have given Sep. Kali-i. should also be considered. Digression on how to study the remedies: Sep.
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George: I will try to give you the idea of how you study the remedies in the materia medica and things that are important to remember. From my observation in seeing how you deal with cases, I have noticed that there are certain aspects of Sep. which are not clear yet. And I would like to say that perhaps we have not talked about the whole thing. We may never be able to talk about the whole thing, but anyhow ... I would like to be able to talk about an aspect of Sep. which is the first stage of Sep. lets say when the person developed first into a young girl or a young boy. YOU WILL NOT SEE THE SEP. WHICH WE HAVE DESCRIBED SO FAR IN THESE YOUNG PEOPLE. YOU WILL SEE EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. You will see that they are over-excitable and nervous, thin and pale children. They are bothered by noises. They are bothered by quarrels, much more so than their age would justify. They are little girls and they will look almost like Phos. They are very active and usually you will find a tendency in them to want to dance. They have a talent and flair for dancing. It seems that dancing expressed that extra excitability which is there and makes them more quiet and balanced. They tend to be apart from the other children and they tend to go by themselves and enjoy that. They do not need actual social company though they do not like to be by themselves. They are like the Lyc. in that respect. They want people around as long as they do not have to have personal contact and as long as you dont talk to them personally. There are people who say that they feel okay in a group as long as they are not confronted on a personal level. They have inside them the idea of being a loner. Question: Is this the same as in Lyc. where they want to be in a room alone, but with somebody in the next room? PAGE 266 George: Yes, but this is for another reason. In Lyc. they want to do that because they are afraid. They have a kind of fear and where they come together is with the fear of ghosts that they both have. As we advance in seeing Sep., we will see that it is very sensitive. They feel easily hurt in case something goes wrong. They are excitable to the extent that they may fear ghosts and things. The children may say, I dont want to go into the next room alone because I feel the presence of something. They may express it with the words ghosts or spirits, or whatever. Later on, the same symptom will be seen in the grown-ups, especially those who have been quite weak in vitality. They go into a state of mind which is very dull. The books say dull and stupid, but it is not dull. It is a state of mind where the mind does not work quickly. But at the same time there is this sensitiveness and there is a kind of mediumship which eventually develops. You know how the mediums look? Their eyes are a bit far away. They have that kind of a look. There is an air of spiritualism in them - in Sep. When they go away from that exciteable state into a state of more progress towards Sep., they will be like ... you see, when one is very quiet in his mind - because the mind does not work fast in Sep. - they have the look of being burnt out. This state is very sensitive to other peoples feelings and thoughts. And because of that state they are able to understand the feelings and thoughts of others and be affected by them. So if you progress with this idea, you will see finally a medium there. A medium, who understands how you feel and think, how others think and feel, and so on, not because they have developed a specific talent for that, but because the sensitivity of their organism brings them to that state and that is not dullness or stupidness. It is something else.
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From their physique you always have the feeling that they are going to be a sensitive person. They are not stout or fat usually. They are lean and they give the impression of being fragile. So when you say stupid and dull and things like that, we say it is for a different remedy. You have an entirely different understanding for each one of them. So the first is the exciteable state in which they have a lot of sexual energy and appetite. And during that state they will act on that sexual appetite, not promiscuously. In order to have a relationship, they have to have a kind of deep relationship. So if a man or woman gives you his case, 21 or 22 years old, and they are excitable and they want sex, but they want a different relationship which will not hurt them. They cannot understand a relationship which is superficial, such as a Lyc. You see how you go away on the one time where it touches Lyc. because it is spirit-like and there is fear of ghosts and spirits and the presence of spirits which they feel, like Lyc., but yet on the other hand they will go entirely away from Lyc. In the repertory it says they are better when alone. They will tell you that from their headaches and pains, but mainly they will give you that symptom on their mental and emotional level symptomatology. Their mental and emotional level is in peace when they are alone. Why ? They are sensitive and when they get all of this impact from the people, it will tire them, especially when they have personal transactions. That which is excitable in the beginning is eventually going to break down and we will have the opposite state in all directions. So it is the same with the Sep. And that which is excitable is very refined in the love element. They are not ... and that is a very prominent symptom because Sep. acts mostly on the hormonal system which is connected with sex. So what they want is a relationship which is deep and harmonious. Why do they seek that? Because they do not have the energy, the power, or the strength in their emotional level to communicate on a level which is superficial. You have to have a superficial heaviness... you have to have a person who is quite insensitive or insensitive to a certain extent, to have a superficial relationship without being hurt. PAGE 267 And so Sep. has very much love, but it is a quite refined love. The affections are strong and stronger than other remedies. You see now the idea for Sep. thus far is falling apart in the younger ages, although it can be a man of 40 or a woman of 40 who has remained as a child. They have remained with that attitude of mind and spirit. We are not talking about the real age. We are talking about an experience and a state of affection which is young and inexperienced. And of course that state of affection is a much more healthy state than that in which they go eventually after crashes. And what brings about a Sep. state mostly? Response: They are overwhelmed by the demands. George: Yes, but it starts at the physical level from abortions. Response: Abortions? And hormonal imbalances. George: Yes, And what is an abortion? You discontinue the hormonal patterns and the organism cannot find its rhythm again. Therefore you will see after an abortion that the woman immediately loses sexual urges and drives and she even goes into the opposite where she will have an aversion to sex. She does not want to be involved with it. Many times you will see the woman has become almost flat - chested. This can be within 24 hours. Or within 3-4 days you will see this tremendous hormonal change taking place and the woman becomes wiped-out from all energy and suddenly she has become irritable
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and she does not want to see anybody. She wants to stay by herself all of the time and she is without appetite. She is nauseated. Everything has gone wrong. Now what is another state in which Sep. also is very prominent? Response: During pregnancy. George: During pregnancy. You will see the nausea and the aversion to sex, the feeling of isolation which comes about during pregnancy where the hormonal system also has not been able to regulate itself. You will see the same phenomena or rather similar phenomena. Then you will see the nausea, the same as in pregnancy especially in the mornings, coupled with an aversion to sex. One more keynote will be leucorrhoea. Leucorrhoea during pregnancy, coupled with nausea in the morning and aversion to any sexual contact is only Sep. So this is on the physical level and these are the usual causes which can bring about a Sep. state. Now on the emotional level we have distresses on emotional problems. The Sep., because of our society, will tend to form relationships. They will remain apart and say that it is not good for them. They withstand all the pressure, but the society or the family will wonder what is wrong with the person because she does not have a boyfriend, etc. And there is a pressure. Then she goes into a relationship without feeling anything. The woman can act without feeling anything. Okay, so they are less protected than men. You will hear a Sep. story where the girl will say, I never felt anything in the sexual intercourse. This is usual. Why? Because she was pressed by society and circumstances to go into relationship in which the circumstances were not ideal for her. PAGE 268 That means that she did not have the right person, but she was pressed and all appetite and sexual desire were lost. The trauma of the experience with Sep. becomes powerful and she cannot overcome it. It becomes the background theme in Sep. after that. That is how the Sep. has developed. So there is actually a weakness on the emotional level and especially of the affections. There is a weakness of the affections which is easily hurt and going into a stasis. There is a sort of inertia of the affections. There is no power behind the affections and that is when they say, I do not love my children, and that is the time where the irritability becomes tremendous. If you analyze behind irritability there is a lack of affection. By the warmth of affection we feel connected with others. In Sep. there is no warmth, therefore she feels isolated - not connected. Therefore the outside world is a foreign world. So when anybody makes ANY kind of contact, there is an irritability. Sep. becomes very irritated. You will hear the story: I love my husband, he is very nice. We have been in love all these years. We have been very much in harmony. After an abortion, will then come the state in which she will say, I do not feel anything, not only in sex, but in affections. Then the children become so noisy. She cannot really hold herself. The irritability is so great that she cannot control it. And she tells them to shut up. Sep. together with Nux-v. burst out in hitting the children. If you ask them, Do you feel like taking the child and throwing it out of the window? They will say, Exactly. This is the confirmation if they say it themselves. Many times they will say that they really feel like taking the child and throwing it out of the window. This is a state where they have lost their emotions. Their affections are nil. And when we come to the mind, what are the cases which bring about a Sep. state?
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I have met a lot of Sep. people who have been going from one spiritual practice to the other. And they have tried every kind of spiritual practice. What they have been able to do is to subdue the emotions. Usually in spiritual practices they - the gurus - say detachment is the important thing. So sublimation and detachment. For Sep. it is very nice and they can do it easily. They sublimate and kill their emotions easily because there is already a weakness on the emotional level, and the weakness which exists on the physical level in regard to the sexual urge. You see this weakness and there is no power animalistic power - in sex. They have refined ideas about sex. It is not this instinctive power which usually drives a person. Question: In the days before abortion, there were not the same causes. How do you explain that? George: Yes, but another cause can be that while the woman ... Question: Could it come from birth control pills? George: Yes, and from cutting down the lactation of milk abruptly. The child may die and the milk dries up. You go and have an experience in life and if it is a positive one you will integrate and then another level will show up as the remedy. Or if the experience is negative it can lead you to a destructive kind of life. Neither can we avoid negative experiences, through drugging, whether homoeopathic or other. Neither must you expect that you will change the characteristics of a person because every personality is unique. Even if you wanted to you could not save every personality. You have a very nice vase - ancient Greek. You drop it and it falls to pieces. Now you want to put every piece in its place. It takes all of the pieces to make the vase whole. This is the function of every piece. There is going to be a whole there when you are finished. In every work which we do as a group, as a family, as a nation, everyone has his own function which is absolutely unique. You cannot say that I am the teacher and you are the student and therefore I am greater. Forget it! I am not great and I have said it many times. I dont feel it towards you and many of you of course do not feel this way. But sometimes the idea will come to our mind, You can do things which I cannot do. And if you were not there to do those things, we could not do the whole thing altogether. This is a great thing if we manage finally to do that which is whole and complete. So everyone has his own personality. To say why this man is so closed or this one is so open. He is so open because he must be because he was created like that. The other one if he is open like that, he would not stay and study for 12 hours a day. He would go out with a woman and do this and that. He would disperse his energies. He should be closed then in order to sit and work for hours and do the job. But I believe as healers that we want to be. Our job is doing what we are doing and no more or less. So lets continue with Sep. PAGE 269 Question: I had a Sep. suppressing emotions and becoming sublimated and detached. I became detached with what was going on. George: The spiritual attitude of the person that goes from one guru to the other and mixes things up. The guru says that you sublimate and detach and eventually a Sep. patient is much more prone to putting into practice what she thinks should be done. Eventually you have a mind which is confused and not able to apply and concentrate. They become dull.
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But at the same time they are perceptive. It is perceptive on another level - on an intuitional level. That is why they say that a Sep. can really hurt if they want to. It is interesting that in order to move the emotions she will hurt exactly those whom she loves the most. She will find by intuition what is the most painful spot for you and she will say it at the right moment. Even though she has been dull in her mind and not able to think clearly, but understanding what is going on in the situation around her, especially with those she is close to. She picks up feelings. That is why in the books it is described as spiteful. Question: What do these people come complaining about? Do they usually come complaining that their mind is not clear? George: They will complain about the memory and the lack of concentration, and you will notice a kind of spirit-like attitude of the person. When a persons eyes are shining and bright, you have the picture of a clear mind. Then when it becomes more and more withdrawn you will have more and more the picture of a mind which cannot work. So this is where the mind of Sep. belongs and you will get this kind of sensitive person, especially in women, who have been doing spiritual practices for years and then they have that look. Their symptomatology is weak. Question: You said people who have a spiritual look about them? George: No. It is not that the people are spiritual. There are people who have been doing practices and have suppressed themselves. Response: It is a far away look? PAGE 270 George: Yes, it is ethereal, spiritualistic. Far away. They are not present Sep. will be more withdrawn and detached. And that is due to a slowing down process on the mental and the emotional level. And then this process goes towards a stage which is beyond the neutral point. That means in emotions. They go into neutral emotions. They feel indifference and then they keep on going towards a state which is negative. Then the young children become suicidal. The grown-ups also think of suicide. Here also is the same idea in the physical level of the prolapses of the internal organs. Whether it is the stomach or the kidneys or the genitals. There is a prolapse which is painful. Question: I would like to ask something further about this spiritual look you are talking about. If you have somebody who is going from being a hyper-sensitive person into an actual negative kind of phase, and they are involved in spiritual practices and groups and have an intellectual mind that will indicate that they are not to express negative emotions, and that will come out, so ... George: Usually the spiritually inclined people will stay in that neutral state which is very close to a really spiritual state. It is a state which is not negative or positive, a state which the yogis call an emptiness of the mind. But emptiness of the mind which is quite good may bring Samadhi; but emptiness of the mind which is not coupled with maturity and the healthiness of the body, may bring about destructive tendencies. In one case the person becomes very whole and in the other case the vase breaks into pieces. It is the responsibility of the spiritual leaders today to know what they are doing. They must know how to handle a Sep. case, a Nat-m. case, or a Phos. case. In a Phos. case, you say detach, and he will do it in moderation. In a Sep. case, tell them to attach and know the feeling of human love first. These are just my ideas and if does not mean that they are correct. This is the way I understand them.
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Nobody is perfect and therefore there is disturbance and therefore we are here to help every time we can. Question: What does he say to the Nat-m. George: They need contact and expression - the Sep. and Nat-m. That is why they are closed and they go from one state into another. They interchange their states. The loneliness, or the desire to be alone of Sep. and the aversion to company of Nat-m. are the same thing with a little difference in the state. Sep. wants to stay at home alone and feels better. The Nat-m. does not want company. It is not necessarily that he stays in the house. He is antisocial. But without these people we would not have the scientists, the poets, etc. Question: Are they antisocial or asocial? George: It is asocial. They are not actively against society. They dont want to destroy society. Caust. wants to destroy society. So we have the prolapse state which is characteristic. Another characteristic of Sep. is the amelioration by violent exertion. It seems that the stasis which has been created in the body starts moving about and creates more the idea of life in Sep. A Sep. will feel that life is lost, does not exist. They may say, I dont care if I die. There are all the stages and in this mind which is hazy and dull they feel that they may be going insane. And it is in the state of mind that they have fear of presences in the body. A great relief for Sep. is the leucorrhoea. You may have a great leucorrhoea, white, yellow. These are the colours of Sep. This is thick and profuse. And it will be cured by Sep. You have another case where you have stomach trouble or kidney trouble or whatever it is and you give Sep. and produce that, dont give Sep. again to stop the leucorrhoea which came about after you have given Sep. When you have the leucorrhoea person who wants to be treated for that specific condition, you give Sep. But if you bring about the leucorrhoea by relieving the different elements in the body, then dont succumb to the person who says, Give me a remedy. I now have too much leucorrhoea. The leucorrhoea may last for from 1-6 months or even a year. And unless you have a good picture, dont prescribe it. In this state, they last quite a lot and there is where you will have trouble because they will want to see a gynaecologist. And then they will take Flagyl and this and that. This will destroy the case. Every husband will have ailments from this because the woman has leucorrhoea, even if it is trichomonas. Sep. also has certain symptomatologies which you may confuse with Lach. There is a lump in the throat, and they cannot sleep on the left side because there are palpitations. The person will go back to sleep and then trouble will come. She will wake up in the morning and there are all the troubles. They are very similar to Lach. But where Lach. is plethoric and vital, Sep. is sedate and quiet. You will have a loquacity in Lach. and a taciturnity in Sep. PAGE 271 They will say very few words and will just answer your questions with yes and no. They are silent, taciturn people. And they are unpredictable. Before you reach that stage which is really dull, they will jump from one state to the other. They will be nice and sweet, and will talk and then they will go into a tacitum state where they will not talk and they will be withdrawn and want to stay by themselves. They dont want company. And depending on the shocks they have, finally they will withdraw. Question: Do you say that they withdraw and stay withdrawn? George: Yes, they will stay withdrawn. And if you have a case which has stayed in a Sep. state for a long time and they become very grounded and a kind of philosopher. I
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believe it is better to be alone. That is a way of life and they integrate it into their way of life. When you see Sep., they will say that life is coming back and they are enjoying life, and they have started going out with friends as they did ten years ago. This means that this state is now a pathology and not the real character of the person. They have warts, especially around the genitalia. Sep. is one of the best remedies for vitiligo. Question: Does it stop or reverse it? George: It reverses it, but not always. When you have a vitiligo which has been present for 5-10 years and it is extensive, dont expect to reverse it. But if it is just starting and there are only little white blotches for about a year, you may expect that it will disappear when you give the remedy. Question: The pigment tends to go from the white spots to the surrounding spots and that makes it appear more white. Question: One of the books says that Sep. dreads to be alone. George: I have not seen that in Sep. There is a state in which they want people around and the state of mind is that they have a kind of fear about ghosts. When that fear comes into a kind of spiritualistic kind of state, then they want people around, but not company. They do not want somebody to talk to. It is similar to Lyc. in that respect. PAGE 272 Question: How does this fit in with the 19th century idea that the woman who works in a damp laundry or someplace like that and becomes tired out and then becomes angry with her children? George: That is a good point. I dont know who asked that. Kent? The woman used to bend to wash like this. Whatever needs that position of bending forward and putting pressure in the arms, then pressure is put on the inner organs and the tendencies which Sep. has for prolapses is exaggerated. And then they will feel exhausted and have pain. And they have prolapses of the uterus and sometimes there is a dull pain with a feeling that the intestines will fall out. There is a heavy feeling together with pain, as if everything was pulled down. And that is why you will see that the best position for Sep. is to sit cross-legged. They usually have feeling of a lump in the rectum or in the perineum which is ameliorated by sitting like that and keeping the legs tight. This same tendency of prolapse is depicted also in Sepias tendency to lose urine. They have to go fast, especially the women, otherwise they will lose a portion of the urine and if they dont, while they are talking with somebody and they have an urgency, they cannot stop the discussion, they have to keep their mind constantly on the sphincter so that they will not lose their urine. So with coughing, laughing, sneezing, they are apt to lose urine. Somebody brought me such a case and I said Sep. What was that? Response: It was a lady with constant dribbling. She had pressing pain on bearing down. George: Sep. is aggravated in the sea. Okay? That is one of the main remedies. The others are Tub., Nat-m., Mag-m., etc. Their condition is aggravated before and during menses and during pregnancy. They are worse with cold. I forgot to give you more tips about the eruptions - psoriasis. One of the prominent ailments is lupus erythematodes disseminata. I have seen it as a very fine discolouration of the skin above the nose. There is a fine discolouration of the skin. You will definitely see that it is a different colour. I have seen it only once in a man. Question: Do you see it in a woman fairly frequently?
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George: No. Response: And all of the books have it. Everybody knows about that, but nobody has ever seen it. George: I saw it once in a man in my lifetime and it was very slight. Question: Does Sep. have pains which go up from the vagina and rectum and radiate straight up? George: No, this will be Ign. mostly. Question: Do you see the start of Sep. problems with taking birth control pills? George: No, I have not seen it. Abortions, yes. I said that when you disrupt a pregnancy. Question: You said that when an infant dies and the milk stops, that there is a disruption. PAGE 273 Question: I have heard people talk about Sep. as some of these women who are very aggressive and emasculating like Womans Liberation people trying to outdo the men and that sort of thing. George: Sep. would be that type of woman, but not a masculine sort exactly. She will be thin and flat, and that is not masculine. It is nervous energy and it is because they do not have experience in sex. A Sep. woman may have sex for 30 years and never experience an orgasm one time. Not even once. So you expect that such a woman is tending to be towards the type who would be such suppressed and dominated by men. They just dont want that. What is it for? That is the idea. And therefore they become champions of these kind of situations. And they are very irritable of course. I told you that they could just throw the children out of the window. There is another point where you will find Sep. indicated in people who have taken drugs or those who have taken a lot of allopathic drugs and homoeopathic drugs, mostly allopathic drugs. These and recreational drugs will create a mental state which is more or less similar to Sep. Also you will see in the books that Sep. is indicated after antibiotics or whatever drugging has taken place. The case has been mixed up and dont give Sep. just because someone has taken a lot of drugs. It has to have this kind of confusion. There will be weakness, no vital force to go out, no sentiments, no mind which can go fast. Everything has come to a stasis. This is the time when you are justified to give Sep. But not otherwise. Also when we have disorder in a person. But not always, for it has to have this element behind it. The essence which I described to you has to be here - this kind of spiritualistic, euphemistic look, brought about by many druggings. Then you give Sep. and there is going to be some response. She is going to sleep better and she is going to be a bit better in that, but dont be in a hurry to prescribe another remedy. You have to leave that case for six months, even if you have to give a placebo. Dont go and throw another remedy on top of it. The person has been weak and that is why they were brought into that state. So every other remedy will tend to create confusion again. It is also said that Sep. will clear up a confused case of malaria. You see, we dont see these cases anymore. I have seen the drug addicts and the people who have taken a lot of drugs and they have brought about this state. They will be very much ameliorated by Sep. Question: So it was not the malaria, it was the drug used to treat it? George: Yes, it was the drug used to treat it. It brought about a disorder. What are the desires?
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Responses: Sweets, sours, bitters. George: Which is the remedy which desires coffee very much? It starts with A ...? Ang. You should have that in mind because sometimes you will get the person who will be in a tremendous catastrophe. They will take a remedy and they will tell you that they have had no effect, but they will drink their coffee. Ang. Question: Will it stop the craving? George: Yes, and it will cure the person. It is a remedy which is indicated in rheumatoid arthritic conditions, conditions which affect mostly the cervical region and the joints. It brings about a kind of irritability which is similar to Nux-v. and a kind of dullness which is similar to Cimic. PAGE 274 Response: You are getting in over our heads. Question: They like vinegar? George: Very good! They like vinegar, yes. But acids in general such as vinegar and lemon, should be withdrawn from Sep. That information is very good. When we give Sep. to a patient we tell him to stop vinegar and lemon, or anything which is sour. They have to stop it because they are somewhat antidotal to the remedy. Question: You have seen that? George: I dont remember because I have been in the process of telling them. Response: I have never told them to stop and they always stop automatically from the remedy. They just lose the desire. I have noted it many times. George: I have been a little bit careful with that because it is a pity to have a remedy which is correct but which is not working because they are taking vinegar. Question: Is that true with allergic things? George: Desire for vinegar now, which is the remedy? Response: Hep. George: For lemon? Response: Ars. and Benz. George: Yes, Benz. is a gasolene like you use in the car. Response: Merc. and Sabad. Response: Nat-m. and Bell. George: Bell. had this characteristic - not only of lemon, but the juice. It is very prominent in acute cases. You may differentiate between Bry. and Bell. by that. They will say, Yes, I want that. Question: Is that true of other remedies as well? That you should suggest to them that they abstain from ... Answer: No, with Sulph. we suggest not to take Cham. tea. With Nat-m., not take menthol or peppermint. Mint in general. Question: Arent you supposed to stop strawberries with Ox-ac.? George: No. Kent writes that sometimes his patients were very much allergic to Ox-ac. Question: With Puls. you should stop fats? George: Yes. Why? Because you will have reactions. If you have a Puls. case where she can take fat with immunity, most likely after taking Puls. when she eats fat she will have diarrhoea from it. Question: Not because it antidotes it? PAGE 275
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George: That kind of reaction may antidote if the person has diarrhoea for 4-5 days. Question: What about Arg-n. and sweets? George: The one that I am REALLY afraid of is coffee. All the others you cant avoid, but there is going to be a time when you will need to know that. You will give the remedy and it will act for a certain period of time. Then there is a relapse and you do not know why. Because of taking one of the things that we were talking about. In Rhus-t., for instance, you may see a relapse because he is taking a cold bath. Or even if he has a bath twice a day, you may see that the remedy does not act. So you have to have all of this in your mind. Question: Could you antidote your remedy by taking something you are severely allergic to? George: Yes, I belive so. Question: Oysters and Lyc.? George: Yes. I have seen big reactions from oysters. Also with Lyc. if you hear a story that the person has been repeatedly poisoned by oysters, most probably it is going to be a case of Lyc. PAGE 276 29 Neuro-fibromas in children [ - Neuro-fibromas in children] Jatropha curcas (jatr.) Case Response: There is abdominal distension in children with neuro-fibromas. George: And there is perspiration. Desires sweets and bread. There is an aversion to water, or maybe just fluids for she likes milk. Response: The aversion to water is based on a psychological thing. It makes her stomach distended. It is more of an aggravation than an aversion. She does not say anything about eggs. George: In a child with that kind of abdomen, in 99% of the cases we will see a desire for eggs - soft boiled eggs. Question: It has been my experience that I do not see the desire for eggs that much. George: In Calc.? In children? Response: I have not seen it that often. George: Perhaps the eggs are not good - some are chemical eggs, and they dont like them. Response: That is true. You have to go out of your way to get a fertile, organic egg. George: Maybe that is the reason that children do not like them here. We see it very frequently in Greece. Question: How about Merc.? They have that kind of abdomen and perspiration, desire for milk, similar aversions. George: There is only one thing about Merc. which I do not see from the others. We have to choose a remedy which is tympanitic and not a flatulus (flatulent) remedy. Correct? Here there is a characteristic of the child which Merc. has. Does anybody remember about Merc. when I lectured on that regarding children? You may call that child precocious. So actually I dont know if that is the symptom. Precocious is a child of 5 or 7 who behaves like a grown-up. They will flirt and ... is she like that?
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Response: No, she is more timid. She is serious. George: She is serious for her age and she does not make a show for others? PAGE 277 Response: No. George: We discussed Sil. and felt that it was a possibility. But I want to hear some more ideas. Question: What about Thuj.? Partly because of the imaginations and there is flatulence and distension. George: With the vaccination we cannot take Thuj. in that case because it is not the small pox. Response: I am wondering about Chin. except of course there is no haemorrhage. I dont know if we can relate that to the vaccination ... George: Chin. is a quite good idea. Question: What about Jatr.? George: That sounds like a good idea too. (Reads in materia medica about Jatr.). Did she have any acute condition when she took the vaccination? Response: No. Response: Lyc.? George: Yes, Lyc., of course. It is interesting that it says loud gurgling noises in the abdomen like water coming out of a hole. That is exactly what the child said. Question: None of this comes out, does it? Like diarrhoea or something? George: This is the remedy and you spotted it before I did. This is what happens in Athens. You would give 200. But now you must have some other possibilities if this does not work. Response: There is a rubric distension in children. That is abdominal distension. George: That is not very important here. Something has happened. The liver is functioning properly. Response: The fact that the antibiotics stopped it goes along with the idea of fermentation and it killed probably all of the bacteria which produce the gas and so the gas stops for a while. The antibiotics kill the bacteria which produce the gas and so it stops. That would indicate some sort of fermentation. Question: Is Sil. close, George? George: I think so, yes. Sil. is quite close and so is Chin. I would like to differentiate between those two. How has the appetite been? PAGE 278 Response: Good. Question: Is she too bright to be Bar-c.? George: Yes. Actually we do not have reasons to give Bar-c. except for the flatulence. Resuming: Her skin is so characteristic in this case, that it is hard to look past Sil. There is the seriousness and everything else ... George: It is interesting that under distension Kent does not give Jatr. Question: Isnt it often under gurgling? Response: It is under rumbling. George: We must add it I think. It is a good symptom. Response: There are three for rumbling after stool.
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George: AFTER stool, yes. So you give 200 and in case that does not work, the next possibility is between Chin. and Caust. The distension is very big. Response: Okay, I will let you know at our meeting in February. George: Well done. You saved us a lot of searching. Caust. has a LOT of flatus. In Jatr. there is a tympanitis with diarrhoea mostly. Here the stool is not formed. It is not so much diarrhoea. The fermentation takes a great place. So if Jatr. has no effect, give Caust. PAGE 279 30 Migraine headache [ - Migraine headache] Lac caninum (lac-c.) Case Presentation: This is a woman who is 27 years old who came to me for headaches. She is a very loyal person and very precise. Her headache started when she was 20 years old and she cannot remember the first time she had it. It increased gradually and now she has headaches every 4-8 days. It alternates between the left and right side. She says that it starts behind the eyes. If it starts on the left side, then it is behind the left eye. It is powerfully concentrated just behind the eye and then it extends to the middle of the head, down to the nose and to the ear. It has a hammering characteristic (underlined twice). It is worse in the afternoon between 5 and 6 and it is better in the evenings (nights) between 11 and 12. It is better with cold applications and better lying down. It is worse with damp heat, change of weather, and with light. Noises do not affect it. She always gets migraine headaches from alcohol. She desires cool things (not underlined). She desires sweets, ice cream, chocolate and butter (not underlined). She desires fruit and vegetables (underlined twice). She has an aversion to fish (underlined twice), and she is allergic to potatoes. She has an aversion to peas (not underlined). She is a bit thirsty and prefers heat. She has a disgust for cats (underlined twice). She feels a little better about dogs. She appeared tense and apprehensive. She does not meet people easily and she is VERY easily hurt (underlined three times), but she does not show it. She likes to read (underlined three times), and she likes to listen to classical music. She is not a very open person. Question: Was this underlined? Response: No. Question: Were there any prescriptions? Response: I gave her Nat-m. with no effect at all. When I gave her that she said, Why dont you tell me what you give me? I cannot understand. George: So she wanted to know what you gave her as a medicine? Response: Yes. George: The time of the headache is steady? Response: I am not sure. I have no underlines on it. PAGE 280 Question: Do we know if she ever had a head injury? Response: She has not. George: Has anyone concluded? Response: Have YOU concluded?
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George: In homoeopathy you dont say concluded. You say, I have had enough of searching. Response: I would give her Lac-c. because I cannot see any other images which have the alternating sides as strong as this. George: Very good! Very good. The first remedy we should try here is Lac-c. If you search and do a repertorization, there is no remedy that will come down. Here we have a strong keynote regarding the alternating sides which is characteristic for Lac-c. We dont have symptoms which contraindicate it, though the desires and aversions do not fit Lac-c. You see somewhere in the desires we should have salt and pepper and hot things. The disgust for cats and fear of dogs is Tub. Better with cold applications is Aloe. She is worse with change in weather. Is she repressed in heat? So her likes are vegetables, chocolate, ice cream and butter. If you take the amelioration conditions and the likes and aversions, you get Mag-c. But of the remedies we should try first in this case, it would be Lac-c. Question: How close do you think was the Nat-m. in this case? George: How close? Except for the aversion to fish, we do not have any other characteristics of Nat-m. Easily hurt is a broad rubric. It is not a keynote symptom. There are many remedies before we get to Nat-m. which are related to this broad rubric. Question: In thinking about these alternating headaches, I looked in the book and there is a rubric alternating one side and then the other where it ceases on one side and becomes more vital on the other. Nat-m. is in italics in that. I was thinking that we have that thing with Nat-m. and with Lac-c. and also we have as an essence of the case that this is a very sensitive person who hides her feelings and is very closed. On that basis, I probably would also have given Nat-m. George: But here you have a characteristic and if you read the essence of Lac-c. you will see that it goes from one side to the other and then back to the first one and then back again. This is something which characterizes (it) completely. You may see a cyst on the right side and then goes away. And then after six months, there is a cyst on the left and goes away. And then in another six months, there is another cyst on the right. So alternate sides is a must for Lac-c. You see Lac-c. is the only capital lettered essence and all of the others are merely ordinary. Perhaps Nux-v. is with italics. I thought of Iris, but there are no complementary symptoms. So Lac-c. would be the first choice. If you give that, it should be 200. A second choice would be Caust., if Lac-c. fails. PAGE 281 PAGE 282 31 Psychic depression [ - Psychic depression] Tarentula hispanica (tarent.) Case Presentation: This is a 27-years-old woman whose main complaints (all underlined three times), are depression, weeping, (she cries daily and sometimes it is a hysterical crying), sadness and anger. She does therapy almost every day and she will cry and scream during therapy. Sometimes she feels she is on the verge of screaming for a day or two days. Question: She is under what kind of therapy?
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Response: Different kinds. Autogenics, biofeedback, co-counseling, and she has gone from one to the other, without relief from the crying. She goes on binges (underlined three times) of eating - crazy eating. She has been doing this since age 17 when she went away to college. She became anorexic the first year of college when her weight went from 115 pounds to 175 pounds and then down to 60 pounds, where she stayed for two and a half years. Now she goes between 125 and 165 pounds to 180 pounds. George: What is the height? Response: Five feet, six inches. She is 160 pounds now and she can gain 20 pounds within a week and a half. George: And the depression stays whether she is slim or fat? Response: All the time. It is always there. There are periods when she does not cry every day, but she feels the depression all the time. George: Does she have a tendency to suicide? Response: She has had in the past. George: Has she tried? Response: No. Resumes: She has been depressed since age 17, since she entered college. She was very unhappy being away from home. She did not want to be an adult, is the way she described it. She wanted to stay a child. At the present time she has no close relationships and she is lonely (underlined twice). She wants to be married and have children (underlined twice). That is a recurrent theme. She was sexually molested at age 5 while coming home from school. She continually recalls this event. As an adolescent, she started stealing, lying, cheating. She used dope during that time (marijuana and drugs). PAGE 283 George: Why was she stealing, for money? Response: Rebellion. Response: She comes from a wealthy, professional family. They are scientists. Continuing: She alternates between being promiscuous and being celibate. She will go and pick people up for a time and then let them go. George: Nice case! (Laughter) Continuing: Her energy is always pretty high but sometimes she does not want to use it for sex. She often has a longing to be at home with her parents, even though she does not get along with them. She will feel lonely. Continuing: She wants to have kids. That should be underlined three times. She is desperate to get married. She wants that very very much. George: Why does she not get married? Response: It never works out. George: Is she good looking? Response: Average. She is not unattractive. She is not ugly. Continuing: She takes the ideas of her religion very seriously, but they do not comfort her. She prays a lot but she does not receive comfort from that. She has acne which comes and goes. She is impatient (underlined twice), she has despair of recovery. She worries about being constipated and she has anxiety about health, mostly related to the constipation. Response: I should say that she came to me two years ago this month because of a pain in the right upper quadrant, in the liver area, and that was her main complaint. She had
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had X-ray studies and various allopathic studies, all of which have been negative. The pain can be extremely intense and mimics Chel., and radiates to the scapula. She has had that remedy and many others. Question: Did that help? Response: It helped a little, but then everything, including placebo, helps to some degree and the pain will come and go. George: It comes and goes? Response: It does come and go and it is not even worth thinking about because it is entirely an emotional problem, it just happens that she has a pain. George: You dont think that it is a real pain? PAGE 284 Response: It is real in that she feels it but it is too emotional and when she is in a good psychological state the pain is less. She has had periods in which she has done both better and worse. Question: She craves sugar (underlined three times), sugary foods (three times), and salt (twice). George: And she is warm? Question: Does she crave sugar or sweets? Response: Anything sugary. George: And you have given Calc.? Response: She looks like that. She is pale white. She has an odour which is sweet and sour - it is very distinctive. Response: I had to go back to this ... when she is in counseling and she starts reacting to her past, she will go into a deep state and she will repeatedly say, I want to go home. That comes up week after week and month after month. She never lets go of that. George: Does she say, I want to go home while she is consulting with you? Response: No, she does this during psychotherapy, but she tells us that that happens. Response: She was told to be very active all day long. She will keep busy with activities from morning until nearly midnight. This has changed somewhat since she was given Tarent. It used to be that people could not even find her because she was always moving from one place to another. She could only sit still for 45 minutes and then she would have to go on to the next thing. George: Was she really busy doing something or just moving? Response: Busy. Going from one class to another, doing exercises, doing errands, and she had to be moving. George: Which remedy has that? She wants to be busy all the time. Response: Sul-ac., Med., Aur. George: There is a tremendous urge always to be doing. You have not given Aur. yet? Response: I gave Aur. 6 in the very beginning, when I was new in homoeopathy and I did not have any courage to give a high potency. She has described herself as being cunning. Continuing: She believes that other people are talking about her behind her back and that has been since childhood. She says she is cunning. PAGE 285 Response: We should mention that in January of this year, we suddenly saw her picture as Tarent. She fits it completely. She was given 10m and she had a great improvement for
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a month or so and then the effect stopped. She is a folk dancer and is the number one dancer in the entire state of Mexico. She teaches all of the time. George: Even though she is so fat? Response: She is quite agile, like a Calc. Before we gave Tarent., she had a job teaching high school or kindergarten and she played this folk music all day long, even when they were not dancing, and the principal told her to stop because it was disturbing everyone, but she needs and craves that music all the time. This was at a time when she was picking up men and having all of these promiscuous affairs and she was moving all the time. She was really in quite a Tarent. state and that essence helped enormously, but it did not take care of these depressions. It was like a layer. Continuing: She has anger and depression. George: And the desire for doing things is still there now? Response: Not as much. George: And she describes herself as cunning. Response: With men in particular. Question: Is she angry with herself or others? Response: She is particularly angry at her parents who are sort of ordinary people. Continuing: She is very dramatic when she comes to the office. This is in the way she presents herself. She will be very strong and happy to help me or she will very much be, I dont care. Response: Let me given you an idea of what she eats when she eats: This is only in one sitting. One loaf of bread, three cups of yoghurt, one stick of butter, one can of tuna, 4 lbs. mayonaise, 1 dozen chocolate chip cookies, 1 head of cauliflower, 1 bowl of pudding, 1/2 gallon of ice cream. All of this is after 3 normal meals during the day. Comment: That would be compulsive. Question: What remedy have you given her? Response: I have given a whole lot of remedies. Question: Is this all of the case? Question: Did you give her Staph.? PAGE 286 Response: Yes. George: What are the remedies you have given? Response: Low potency Chel., low potency Aur., Staph. 30, Sep. 30, Nat-m. 200, Ign. 1m, Cimic. 6, Ign. 1m again, Calc. 30, Staph again in 200, Hyos. 1m, Puls. 1m, Lyc. and Acon. recently because she was in an automobile accident and had a fright. She functions quite well. She is becoming very well known and has many people attending her classes. She is respected and earns a living. Question: What does she pray about when she prays? Response: She prays every day. She has had different gurus and teachers and so her practices are varied, but she has been praying about, What is wrong with me? Why is life so hard for me? She wonders why she cannot get better. Continuing: Or she will do affirmations such as, I am getting better and better every day, and I am a good person. She will do that hundreds and hundreds of times. Response: That is from co-counselling.
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Continuing: She does Tai Chi, she does biofeedback, she does co-counselling, and she wants to get better. Question: Are there any perversions? Answer: No. Response: Eating! (Laughter) Question: Does she really have an appetite or is she compulsive? Response: Absolutely. It is real hunger. Continuing: There is an empty feeling that never will fill. Question: Does she have thick lips? Response: No. Response: Maybe we should go back to Aur. and give a high potency. That is a good idea. Response: That insatiability has been there since she was young and started stealing and doing those things. She describes it as an emptiness, but it is not relieved by eating. Question: Was this anorexic period in college strictly a self-imposed kind of thing? Response: What she describes is that she became very unhappy and depressed and stopped eating. PAGE 287 Question: Is she the kind of patient who calls you a lot and demonstrates anxiety about health? Answer: Not a lot, but she will call and be hysterical and scream, You have got to help me! This is mostly when the pain is back. The pain becomes very severe at times and then she will turn to me and call. George: What are the characteristics of the pain? Answer: In the beginning, she felt like there was a bubble which was stuck in there, and it moved straight to the inferior angle of the scapula. I must say that recently I have become disinterested in the pain. Continuing: The last time I talked to her, it also went up the neck. Sometimes it goes to the right nipple and into her neck. And that is the reason that she has a fear of cancer. It is because of the pain that she has. Sometimes she will come in and laugh hysterically and then cry, and then laugh and then cry. Response: She can be aloof, sulky, peevish, haughty. She picks fights a lot with her dancers. Question: She thinks that she is pretty good? Response: I dont know. Question: Are there good or bad times of the day for her? Response: No. Question: I did not understand why she alternated between celibacy and promiscuity. Response: She will decide that this is no good. It varies. She feels compelled to do it, although she says that she does not have much feeling about it. Or she will feel regretful and say I have to stop this. Question: Does she stick her feet out at night from the covers? Question: Does she feel malicious or destructive? Response: She can be very abrupt and throw something, she will not feel strongly about it. Question: She does not deliberately hurt people or things?
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Response: No. Question: What about company? Does she like to be with people? Response: She does not have anyone that she is close to. She is not able to have a relationship. Question: Is she aggressive? Is she averse to company or certain people? PAGE 288 Answer: For a while she could not stay in one place long enough. Even if she would come to dinner, she would get up and leave and she could not have a conversation. She would have to go and move and move. She would become very restless. Response: There is a rubric added to anorexia, mental and hysterical girls. Question: Is it added under that? Response: Yes, Ars. was 3, Chin. was 3, Puls. was 1, Sulph. was 2. George: What is the main thing for which she complains? The depression and the anger and the binging eating. I cant put them together. Question: What does she do with her anger? Response: She screams it out and dances. She will scream when she is by herself. She has only had Calc. 30. Question: Did Ign. work at all? Response: Not really. Question: How long a period did this anorexia cover? Response: She is now 27 and it started when she was 17. Question: Is she still anorexic? Response: It is the flip side of that in the binge eating now. Question: But has the binge eating been consistent for some time? Response: She has not been anorexic per se for years. Response: That is what I wanted to know. And the stealing goes with that picture too, but that was much earlier in her adolescence, before she went to college. George: So what shall we do in this case? What is interesting in homeopathy is that we never have the same pattern. It always varies. We prescribe on different ideas which we could sometimes put into a sort of pattern. You will see that we have prescribed on a tripod of three symptoms; we have prescribed on peculiar remedies, and we have prescribed on keynote symptoms. Lac-c. was a keynote prescription. Nothing was there. Out of all the cases we have seen, we can say that Lac-c. was keynote prescribing, but it was not. In keynote prescribing we shall describe on a note INDEPENDENTLY of what is going on in the case. If we examine the case, we could not put it together, and we had a very strong keynote, and finally we could give the remedy. This is NOT keynote prescribing. Keynote prescribing is burning on the top of the head. I know a remedy Sulph. - and I give it. With burning of the soles I have another remedy - Med. - and I will give it. This is keynote prescribing and it is independent of the whole person. And after taking a case, if you cannot find any remedy to fit at all, then you are allowed to have a keynote which goes with the keynote, but this is not keynote prescribing. We have to be very versatile and to deal with the problem as it appears. You see now that problem is interesting and the thoughts that we could have are, first of all depression, which is very constant. So this and then the next thing in which she says, weeping suddenly and becoming angry. We will put these two together. Depression and anger which is vicious
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and violent. The depression is constant and these together will always give one remedy Aur. That is where we will start from. PAGE 289 Then she says she feels lonely. Aur. can feel lonely. Then she was molested when she was a child. It is interesting that she is promiscuous when she was molested and so our mind can go to Plat. Molested at the age of 5 and yet promiscuous with high sexual energy, we think of Plat. But here this woman wants to be married and have children. It is one of the characteristics of Plat. which I forgot to mention. They do not want children. They mentalize and say that they do not want to have children because this world is not a good world and, If I have children, they will just come here and suffer. And they exclude the children from their lives unless they are pressed by the other partner. The main thing is that they do not want children because they have lived a very energetic life and have seen how much they were hurt, and finally they decide that children are here just to suffer. And then again we go to the next thing which is serious, religious and she prays. You will remember in Aur. that we have said how much the person prays. They pray for hours sometimes and the time of praying is of great importance. That means that they have some anxiety, either about health or their own people, or a big problem, and they go to pray. Praying seems to be a kind of magnet which draws them and it does not allow them to go away from what they pray to (icons or whatever). Now the despair of recovery and fear of a cancer and anxiety about health. Put these things together with the desire to eat so much, and the tendency to be obese, then depression and anger can go together with a Calc. But she is warm so we must forget Calc. And then we look at the constipation and the desires for sweets and salts. This is again Calc. There is a sweet and sour body odour in the perspiration. Question: Aur. is the only listed for sweet body odours. Sweetish. PAGE 290 George: So there is another keynote that says, I want to go home immediately. Of course we have Bry. Then we have that she is always busy, which is Tarent. and Aur. Aur. wants to do things very much but she is dancing and playing the music and she suddenly becomes a Tarent. case. Tarent. is the remedy that should have been given. Because then we could put the cunning together with promiscuity along with the desires for sweets and salts and it does not touch the anger or the depression. But Tarent. should be given. It is correct. And after Tarent. we have to note the difference with what has gone, what has remained, and what is new. This is necessary in order to make the next prescription. It is very important to have the follow-up. The exact follow-up has to be taken. You have here a case where you gave one correct prescription and you mixed it with the whole case. It is not right. It is confusing. In case a remedy has acted and we need to see what we are going to do, we have to see the follow-up. After that remedy, this has changed and that has changed, and that has remained the same, and there is a new symptom and another one which has been made worse, and then only can we decide. Question: Do you want me to tell you what happened after the Tarent. George: Yes, what does she say now? Answer: The eating got worse.
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George: Worse! Response: She gained 10 pounds. The depression became less. The pain came and went at times. After Tarent., very soon she began to feel better emotionally. She stopped racing around. I am not as intensive about activity, she says I am slower about things. She still likes to hear folk music all the time but she is playing it less. She has stopped being promiscuous and that went away naturally. She was able to sit for longer periods of time like a normal person. She is not on the move so much any more. She stopped running. She was running for exercise and she was doing Tai chi and she stopped that. She also had been jerking in bed and that became less. She was less cunning. My assessment was ... she had no aggravation, however. She was better in everything except the food. Question: What about the temperature? Response: I dont have that. George: Is this the last report? Response: No. this is back in February. PAGE 291 George: Okay, something has happened after that. Did you prescribe a remedy straight away? Response: No, I waited for ... she was given Tarent. on January 23rd, and on March 14th I thought that she was a Calc. at that time. She had a lot of sweating on the forehead and the back of the head, plus everything else. George: Just read the case if you have it there, the whole picture again. Response: The pain from underneath the right breast went into the shoulder and that came back. She was eating more, she had started weeping more. She was working very hard (underlined twice). All I do is work. She works for works own sake. She had heavy sweating in the axilla and forehead, (underlined once), and the back of the neck (underlined twice). She was still calm emotionally from the Tarent. She was worrying about deadlines and getting her work done. After the Calc., she had dental work. From then on, it became very confused and I am really quite lost with the case. George: You see, you have given ten remedies before you reached Tarent. Now we say that we have spoiled the case and so forth, but once we spot the remedy and it has acted then we have another picture. Karl has beautifully spoiled the case, but we dont know. Maybe she is now in a state where she has come back to the cunning state and she needs another dose of Tarent. It is after Tarent. that we shall be able to evaluate that place and see what she needs, but you have not then attacked that case unless she has developed a CLEAR picture of the next remedy, or she goes back into a complete remission. There is a relapse. Now you cannot give Tarent. if the symptomatology is what you read to me. You cannot give it at that stage. You have to wait. Because there is no remedy which comes up clearly the way you have read the symptoms. So therefore you have to wait and see what happens. Now will you read to me the material from the last interview, please? Response: September 28: She has just finished an LM potency of Lyc. She says that she had less pain and that she was better emotionally. When she stopped the potency ten days before coming to see me, she was very depressed. She had been doing binge eating, there was no vomiting, and she had gained 30 pounds in three weeks. She was very restless
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(underlined twice). She dislikes her job teaching children. She told me that she wanted to be treated for her anger and depression. She says that she wanted that from me. Then we found out that two months earlier she had been in a car accident in which a car smashed right into her broadside and she was parked at the time. She had no reaction until afterwards. Following that, she increased the binge eating and increased the emotional problems. At that point I gave her Acon. 10m. because of the shock related to that. That was the last thing I had done. We talked to her on the phone. PAGE 292 Continuing: Here Tarent. is indicated because of the restlessness and the busy attitude and the desire to hear music. There is the dancing, the cunningness and the promiscuity. That is the Tarent. level. What we are interested in now is whether Tarent. is coming back as a relapse or another remedy is developing. So you have to give a placebo until you have either Tarent. back or dont worry when she says she is eating and putting on weight. If you wait, that will go away. Dont tell her anything. I believe that she will come back because you have given her a lot of other remedies. She will come back to a relapsed state. Then you can give Tarent. 10m. Just repeat the Tarent. and then wait for a long time to see what will happen. Even if the pain is much worse, wait, unless you are absolutely sure that the case is now falling into Lyc. I believe that she may go into an Aur. state, but nobody knows for sure how these cases develop. So you have the remedy, but you are too much in a hurry. Response: She comes with pain that is so severe. George: You can give her placebo three times a day if you know that this is not a real pain. Response: It is so severe that she cries with the pain. Comment: Yes, but the pain is going to be worse as the mental state progresses. George: Was there an examination of the gall bladder? Response: Yes, four months ago an upper GI series and gall bladder study was done. Question: Is there a way to use cunning in the repertory, or is Tarent. the remedy that you think of when you hear the word cunning? George: I think there is a rubric. Response: It is not under deceitful, suspicious or selfish. Response: Tarent. is under cunning. PAGE 293 32 Inferiority complex [ - Inferiority complex] Cannabis indica (cann-i.) Case Presentation: This is the case of a 38 year old man who had been seen by Bill and by George, and many other homoeopaths. He had been given lots of remedies in the past and from looking over the whole case I could not really see that there was much change with any particular remedy and so I want to give you the picture. The case is actually pretty consistent all the way through the whole picture. At this point the difference between when he was first taking homoeopathic remedies four years ago and all of the remedies which he had had in the course of four years, and now his mind state is pretty similar but it is a little more aggravated. His physical symptoms are few. Basically they have stayed
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at about the same level. His major complaint is a lack of self confidence (three underlines), he consistently feels that he cannot do something; he will stop projects, leave jobs, or will not undertake to do anything in the first place. He is constantly comparing himself with others (threeunderlines). He is a very intellectual person. He has been involved in many therapies and he is very highly educated. On the outside he is very soft spoken and he has a very pained look in his eyes. He has very high expectations for himself. He has got to the best and he is never satisfied. He can get very resentful if he loses. He hates to lose. He can become very resentful of his 11 year old son when he is losing a game and he can become very ruthless when he is winning. He says that when he is winning the game he will do everything he can just to win as completely as he can, even with his young son. He resents people who are more successful. He worries a lot (three underlines) about the future and things that he has done wrong and has not completed. He is married, but says that he does not express himself sexually very much. He feels as if he suppresses a lot of his sexual interests. He has had an attraction to men for the past 10-15 years, which he struggles with internally a lot. He feels a lot of guilt after expressing anger, but when he is angry he will yell and start lecturing and ranting. This is with his family only; he will not do that with other people. He never tells other people that he is angry with them. He has periodic urges to let loose and severely spank his children or shove his wife around. He has very aggressive impulses which he tries to control. Question: Does he control them? PAGE 294 Answer: Pretty much. He talks about wanting to spank his children really hard or shove his wife, or when he is hugging somebody he has an impulse to squeeze them real tight. He has been through dozens of homoeopathic interviews and months of different types of therapies and so it all comes out very .... George: When I took his case, he seemed very pliable and quiet. He did not admit this aggressiveness. Comment: It is all internal. George: Externally it looks like a Staph. and is very pliable. Comment: And a Nux-v. inside. George: Yes. Externally he looks very nice and so forth, but underneath there are great impulses to aggressiveness and they want to prove themselves. Continuing: He says that he can deal very well with people directly. He is sensitive, gentle, and intuitive, but he feels very critical about himself inside. He says that anyone can put him down and people talk him out of things easily, especially if he is upset. He will get confused and pull back in his decisions. If he follows a routine then he functions well, but if not, he will get very anxious and he cannot focus. He will start feeling that he should do this thing or that he has neglected to do that, and he will start jumping from project to project to project. He tries to please other people (two underlines). He enjoys movies and science fiction. He gets emotional and cries during them. He said he loves the ocean. I dont know if that is a childhood memory or actually a current love. He fears grounding very much. He will go boating and swimming, but there is fear. Question: You say that he becomes confused and ends up jumping from project to project?
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Answer: He says that if he does not have a routine, anything that he HAS to do and he starts working at home, he will become involved in a project and then he will start thinking, I should have done this or I am not interested in that and I cannot do it very well. He will jump from project to project and he will become confused if people confront him. He gets upset and confused and will often retreat. He has a fear of heights (three underlines), he is prone to overeating (2 underlines), and he feels that he never has enough, especially if he is paying for a set amount of food, he feels as though he has to eat a whole lot to get his moneys worth. He alternates between not spending money and spending a lot of money. He can be very selfish with money, for example buy books or do therapy for himself, and then gives his family a hard time if they need money. He has some anxiety about this. PAGE 295 He has constipation (underlined three times), flatulence (twice), constipation is consistent. He feels as though he cannot push the stool out no matter how hard he tries and even if it is a soft stool. He can get a loose stool if there is some extreme emotion going on. He is very chilly (twice), but at the same time very averse to hot weather (underlined twice), he desires fresh air (once). He desires sweets, meat, fruits (once), he gets nausea from greasy foods. Fruits may be underlined twice. He has a constant postnasal drip, with thick mucus down the back of the nose and throat. He says that he sleeps well in the beginning, but then he will wake up in the middle of the night and then will not return to sleep because he thinks of all the things he should have done and perhaps has not done adequately. He enjoys people being sympathetic and listening to him. He has been given over the course of the last four years, Aur., Lyc., Staph., Med., Sil., Sulph., Gels. and Cann-i. The Cann. he said improved his thinking somewhat. That was given by you George, in 1978. But in looking over his chart he complains about exactly the same things now that he complained of then. And basically there were the same underlinings and so I think that was just a memory. George: The Cann-i. was the last one that I gave? Was there no other remedy given after that? Response: You gave that. Bill gave him Lyc., Staph., and then he wrote to you and you suggested Med. he was given Med. last spring and has not noted any changes during that time. George: After Cann-i., he was given three other remedies? Response: Right. It is interesting that I was now thinking again of Cann-i. I was not able to remember what I gave him. I thought I had given him Lyc. and I was thinking about Cann-i. again. Question: Why? George: Because he talks about how much he is confused and he cannot finish a job or different projects. He had different theories when he expressed the case. Question: He sounds pretty successful. Is he successful in his work? Answer: No, not really. He is trained, but he has not really gotten anything together with this or done anything about it. PAGE 296 Question: Is he an M.D. ?
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Answer: Yes, when you took his case George, his major complaint was lack of confidence and unhappiness in his work. He felt hopeless and unable to cry. He had fear of failure and heights. He was worse with hot weather. He was chilly. He desired sweets. Low sexual desire. Depression on waking. Anxious thoughts when he woke from sleep. He had a fear of drowning but he was better at the seashore. He desired fruits, meats, sweets. From what I could see it was basically the same case. There was nothing that was significantly changed. That is what he was like when you prescribed for him. George: So I must have prescribed Cann-i. on what I observed. Is this my handwriting what is written? It is in English. Response: It does not look like your handwriting. George: Anyhow, I did not prescribe on those symptoms; I most probably prescribed on the confusion I felt and also the different theoretic patterns that were coming up. Response: He is very intellectual. He has done a lot of different kinds of therapies, and so he has thought a lot and he is very introspective. George: This is exactly the kind of thing Cann-i. does. It has been years, but if I remember well I think he would make a statement and then he was not sure, and then he would make another statement. Continuing: There was a real desire to qualify everything and make sure that he understood exactly what he meant. He would keep adding things on. George: It is a very good case. What possibilities can we think of? Response: Nux-v. Response: Anac. George: The first thing that definitely comes into mind is Anac. Did you take his case before you heard Anac. from me? Response: I took his case after that. George: Because this is a perfect case of Anac. It can be a perfect case if he speaks the truth and has not misled you. It is a case of Anac. for the way the case was taken. But there is a second possibility, if Anac. does not have an effect on him, and according to me that would be Cann-i. Not the only thing that he gained from Cann-i. was that his thinking was more clear? Response: That was what he told me during an interview and that is also what he had written down here in 1978 My thinking became more clear. Again, in looking over the case as it was taken at that time, and comparing it to what he complains now, I dont see much evidence of that. PAGE 297 George: Yes, but there was an intervention of another 3-4 remedies. It is very important not to spoil the case. Yesterday, in Karls case, you see how the remedy is spotted and how important it is that he should let this remedy act. The person was saying that he was feeling better in certain important areas. What Karl did was to give another 5 remedies after that. Definitely now it is a spoiled case. Now we are expecting to give Tarent. in his case as the most probable remedy. So I really wonder what potency has been give, 200? Response: You originally gave ... Question: Has he used pot? Fairly regularly? Response: I dont remember.
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George: Has he ever used drugs? Response: Coming from this country, I would suspect so, but I dont know that for sure. Question: What kind of practitioner is he? Response: I think he is a psychiatrist. He was given 200 of Cann-i. Bills analysis of the reaction the next time, he took the case, was ... lets see, you prescribed for him in May and Bill took the case again the succeeding May. You took the case in May of 1979. In May of 1979 at the beginning of the interview he said that the Cann-i. may have helped the memory and mental clarity for about a month, but there has been no change since then. And then Bills analysis at the end of the whole interview is that there was a doubtful effect of the Cann-i, although it may have helped to clear the case. George: He says that his mental clarity and memory was better, and then after a month he came back to the previous state? Answer: What is said here is No change since that month. George: So he remained a little more clear and with a better memory? Answer: Let me read to you what was said in the succeeding interview. The first interview basically looks like this picture - the one that you prescribed on. This is the interview after the Cann-i. was given. This is a year later: Has anxiety. Cant focus his mind. Has fear that he does not have enough knowledge. His thoughts seem to swirl and he is afraid that others will see that (two underlines), fear of losing control (twice), he hides anxiety from others and has fear of insanity (twice), anxiety about health (once), he is changeable and avoids responsibilities (twice), he leaves situations when there is too much responsibility. He fears failure (twice). He has a poor memory for past events, especially names. He is depressed and lacks motivation, feels as though he is struggling through each day. He is not content, and always wants to change jobs, locations, etc. He sleeps well and says that sleep is a release from worry. He is unrefreshed by sleep. He has anxiety about his children (once), some attraction to men. He is warm-blooded and has cold hands at this time. Desires ice-cream, meat sweets, salt. There are burning eructations, flatulence, fear of heights, fear of drowning, and fear of death. Has irresolutions (three times), self critical and desires praise. Conflict is my middle name, he says. That was all a year after the Cann-i. PAGE 298 George: Now that aggressive element does not appear in the previous interviews at all. Response: There are threads that he talks about. He will talk about hugging his wife and having this impulse to squeeze her hard and hurt her. This was earlier in the case. I think he mentioned it a few times before the Med. was prescribed also. George: Is there anything else which may be coming out? Response: There is one change that did occur. He was warm blooded and he was given Cann-i., and then somewhere after Lyc. he changed and became chilly. The chilliness has been since the Lyc. Question: The constipation is new too? Response: The constipation has been there pretty consistently. Question: What about Tub.? George: Why? Response: Because he seems to have a sense of not being satisfied with anything and feeling that he always wants to change things. There is a certain kind of aggressiveness
Talks on Classical Homoeopathy-Case Reports and hostile maliciousness involved.
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Response: My feeling is that that is not a really high symptom. People who know him very well say that that is not a strong feature in this case. George: The question is whether he is really unfeeling. If he knew the fact that he is unfeeling, then he is presenting a kind of cruelty which says, If you are hurt, I dont care. If that is the case then you have definitely a case of Anac. PAGE 299 Response: Listening to him talk, and I have seen him only very briefly during this interview, there have been a lot of difficult situations in his relationships, and I have not heard a lot of sympathy or concern about the other people involved in what he is saying. Most of his concern is really self-directed. There is an intellectual concern about other things, but I do not sense a lot of feeling concern. George: A pleaser. This trait which is in his character is to please others. Together with the underlying aggression, and lack of self-confidence ... Responses: The aggression is really not very strong. George: The lack of self confidence is so strong. This is the main theme. Response: This was the first symptom that he mentioned in all of the different cases. George: It could have been that Cann-i. has acted and produced mental clarity and a better memory etc., and he is warm, still has lack of self confidence, he wants to please, has fear of heights, and that would give Puls., as a follow up. Becoming warm-blooded takes a place of great importance. Underneath perhaps we will see a person who is easily led - pliable. So actually why did he wait so long - one year - to consult with you again? Response: I dont know. George: It seems that Cann-i. has not touched that level. But if it brought about a kind of cohesion and if he had taken hashish before, Cann-i. may have taken away that level and then perhaps it should be followed by Puls. And then after Puls., perhaps Sil. But if we suppose that Cann-i. did nothing and did not touch the case, which would be the case if he just wants to please us or that was only for 3-4 weeks and then he came back to the original state. For three weeks he was better and then he returned back to the original state, without an aggravation and without any changing of the case. It may have been a superficially acting remedy. We have just touched the case minimally and for a while it gave a kind of improvement, which is not a real improvement, and eventually he came back to the same state. So this is the assessment which we have to do. In cases like that, we have to be precise. What is really happening? And to be able to see that something is happening with Cann-i., or whatever the remedy, and the changes which a remedy produces are deep, like producing a warm person from a cold person, from a great desire to a great aversion to sweets, or takes away one or two symptoms and produces one or two others which are very characteristic of a certain drug. That drug becomes very important. PAGE 300 If this man, after Cann-i., would say that, At ten o clock every day I have headaches, that becomes absolutely very strong in the symptoms and you give Nat-m. So we shall be changing remedies which finally will do nothing. Once we find the beginning we must follow it.
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If Cann-i. was the beginning and we do not follow it, then we lose the case. One question I have why he is coming after a year. Was it because he was satisfied? Or was it a tolerable condition during that time? And then two months before the consultation he started having a kind of unbalancing again and he needed to see the doctor again? That would be in favour of the Cann-i. and following the Cann-i. pattern after it was given. Then after the Cann-i., what has happened? We have given Lyc. and then...? Response: Staph. 200, Lyc. 10m, and Med. George: You repeated Staph. and Lyc. and there was one Med. But the most probable thing is that Cann-i. has acted superficially. The strange thing is that he has said, I cleared up mentally. This is the thing where we have to be careful. Cann-i., if it was not acting, would create more confusion. Response: Another thing you really dont know is whether he used pot or hashish during this time and whether he is used to Cann. George: Did he use any drugs after Cann-i.? Response: I dont know. George: He might have used ... in that case, it could have antidoted the whole process. Response: Someone else who took his case says No. Response: I know the case. He had not used any since long before the Cann. George: Do you know if he had ever used it? Response: Yes. It was one of those situations where he had had effects eventually and then stopped for a long time. That was the point at which I think you gave Cann-i. George: So therefore it must have been an action which did not touch deeper. And so this then became Puls. Response: He wakes up in the middle of the night and starts thinking about the things that he has not done or the things he should have done. PAGE 301 He has a post-nasal drip. He said he had thoughts that it would be sort of nice to just end things, but he has not had an impulse to do that himself. I asked if he had suicidal thoughts and he said that at times he had been in a mind state where he would welcome the end to resolve the conflict, but he has had no impulse to commit suicide. Response: He has a lot of guilt. George: A lot of something, but I would not say guilt. Response: My feeling is that the guilt is secondary to his wanting to be more confident and looking down on himself because he has not done things. He thinks that if he had done things differently that it would be different for him. That is my impression. George: If he had a strong aversion to fruits ... what could we think? Response: Ars. George: Bar-c. With the extreme lack of self confidence, it we had one good complementary symptom for Bar-c., we would have given it. Response: He is smart. He is an intellectual and sounds intelligent. Response: He gets upset when he does not win a game he is playing with his son. George: Now I would not think that Cann-i. would do anything now if it was repeated. So therefore ... Question: Puls. was given a long time ago. Response: He was also given Gels., Sulph., more Lyc.
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George: It appears, we must try Anac. We dont have much choice in the matter. If that fails, I would suggest strong psychotherapy. There is such a lack of self confidence and it is so prominent and so deep. Question: Would you take a moment to speak about that issue, because I am confused. So you say a remedy in a situation and then psychotherapy in a situation. How do you do that? George: You remember that I have talked already about those situations where you have given certain remedies and you have done whatever you could, and then you let the person go into the world to have experiences unfold. I mentioned that during this time the person will meet with friends and discuss with them. He will meet with other people of a higher philosophical understanding, and he will discuss with them. He will discuss with his wife or his girl friend. The individual is seeking information which is going to be useful for him. Always he will be seeking information which makes him more free. So within the information which he gathers mostly what he is interested in is related to himself. It would be very interesting to know how you really see me. It is very very interesting. Never mind how much spiritually involved I am and how clever, how intelligent I am. I am sure that you can see in me many things that I cannot see in myself. So if I had the possibility of taking that information and utilize it, I might have been able to improve myself through a crisis. As long as you say nice things to me, I say that it is okay; but once you will say something that will go through the heart of the matter I will be disturbed and I am going to have a crisis. Now this crisis is the psychotherapy finally. So I have reached a point in myself where I do not know what remedy I can take. What does that mean? That the pattern of symptomatology which I present is not clear. Why? Because something is blocking energy from me and giving it to the defence mechanism to produce a more clear picture. As long as I am a good homoeopath and I can see what I am doing. We suppose idealistic situations. So through a crisis which is produced by a friend who tells me Man, you are very egotistical, and he outlines the reasons. So I go back and think about it and either I become an enemy with the one who has told me and I dont want to see him again, which means really that I do not want to see the problem, or the second possibility is that going through a crisis really shows this element. I see it and I go through the agony of dropping that and then of course I evolve. PAGE 302 Or there is a third possibility that I may discover that the information he was giving me was really wrong after I had examined it. In such a case the reaction that I will initially have, will mostly determine whether he was right or wrong. A big initial reaction - if you tell me that you are a robber, I could not take your opinion and I could not have a reaction - but if I know the quality of person you are, then I will feel what you say immediately. That means that there is something there. But if it is something altogether out there, I am going to think about it and maybe I have not seen it, but it did not touch me, then this is psychotherapy. All of what we are doing is a kind of psychotherapy. And we need it, particularly if we cannot see a definite pattern through which we can touch that organism. In this man you may see that he goes through a crisis. Somebody tells him that he is a fool for this or that reason. He will demonstrate a different pattern of symptomatology. He will change completely. We see flushes of heat, and then we say, Oh, Puls! So in this case, where the problem is absolutely psychological - CLEARLY psychological - lack of self confidence - and I cannot see the pattern, I may as well use a
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tool which is not going to do harm. If I sent him to a psychologist and he told the person to take Valium three times a day, then that would destroy him. If I can do it myself, that is okay. But there are people who have a kind of special experience and they may be able to help in such cases. Question: You dont think that you could do harm? George: We always have the potential to do harm. Of course. He might get away with lack of self confidence and he may develop claustrophobia and be unable to go out of his room. He cannot walk one mile away from his home. It is the sick syndrome process. But here we have tried. We have more possibilities. As I said, Sil. is another possibility. PAGE 303 Question: I have a question about that. A lot of us would think about Lyc. in this case because of the lack of self-confidence and the pleasing, but you did not have this come into your mind ... George: It did come into my mind, but it has been given without effect, and that is why I excluded it. Comment: He had Sil. also. Response: You are talking about a difficult decision for someone to make between psychotherapy ... you are saying that psychotherapy is a better choice in a situation where the picture is not clear, for example. George: And the problem is exclusively psychological. It bothers him because it does not allow him freedom. What this man needs, according to my understanding, is somebody in whom he believes, perhaps to reproduce his mother, or a spiritual guru with powers whom the individual believes is right, and he will tell that person Welcome, I have been waiting for you for a long time. You are my successor. This kind of thing. He needs a lot of understanding to stop the fear of the surroundings and the society. Once he understands society is not going to kill him, he will develop but he needs a lot of patting on his back to show him what is underneath that lack of self confidence. But first of all we have to attract that confidence as a psychotherapist. Then by great love and by giving great affection ... you see psychotherapy is a very difficult job...and there is a great connection between them, at that moment you suggest that underneath that is another man who is stronger. He says, I want to be first, but this can change meaning and mean that What I want really is to be an autocratic person. It might be a person who is very egotistical and because he could not attain that thing, he took the other position of, I am completely incapable. He knows how egotistical he can be and how much he can hurt others by this egotism, and so he has chosen this direction. So he has to see the connection between that and the other element - the selfishness. To do that takes energy and wisdom to really understand and not to hurt. He is ALREADY hurt. If you approach this with egotism, you may have an aggressive action which will lead him to further deterioration. There is danger. And this person needs a treatment of 3 years with a good psychologist before he can go through that in himself. And he must admit that the other person, the psychologist, is a wise person. He is good, well intentioned, and he does not want to exploit anyone, and all of the things that go with trusting that relationship. This is my experience and my understanding. Response: I guess where I am unclear is the point where you make that decision and why, when the possibility is there, you cant give him Anac. and in three months have him with confidence and maybe a limitation to a more superficial level which he can deal with.
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Where I am confused is where to make a decision about where it is not appropriate for a remedy to work and where it is appropriate for a tool such as psychotherapy. PAGE 304 George: At the point where you have exhausted your knowledge. Response: When you cant help him, it is time to turn to go to the psychologist IF it is a psychological problem. George: Certainly. Because after all we must not be fanatics about this. We have a tool and we use that tool to our capacity, and this is our capacity. It is as far as we can go. Further than that, we cannot go. It is the same thing with a pneumonia patient. You give him the remedy and within 24 hours there has been no change at all, it is better that he be given antibiotics. Answer: Yes, that decision is much easier to make and I understand what you are saying now. It is a matter of what you are able to do and it is not a matter of certain situations being better in any given situation. George: There is also another possibility that this man may go and then return in six months and give you another case. You have seen him every month and he is the same. You are also getting tired. You are not probing deep. You see that he is not making progress and you are disappointed with the case. So you send him away. Then he comes after six months and gives you another case. Then he may give you the keynote to the case after six months, after he has been doing this therapy and that therapy. Response: This particular man has a history of having had other therapies. He has already been to psychotherapists. George: Because he is psychotherapist? Response: No, because Laren said that he had a lot of therapy. Laren: It did not seem to change much. Response: It is up to you! George (Laughter) Comment: What is interesting about what you are saying is that you are integrating the idea of information theory - that homoeopathy as medicine is getting information to this etheric body. And it is the same with psychotherapy. You are giving information. And so we are integrating these approaches on a certain level. PAGE 305 George: This is actually outside the information. On a level, you can call that information if you like. It is information which is potent. No? I use that word on purpose because it is a colloquial word. Response: The thing which seems to me like might be blocking this is that the person is so intellectualized that he might not be getting and giving the right history, and that is why the remedies are not working - because the person himself is not yet able to get to the core of his own problem, and so he is intellectualizing it. George: I believe this is the reason why I gave him Cann-i. in the beginning. There was no real force behind the symptoms. There were just symptoms presented in this way. Response: That is where I myself found that it is very useful to have a therapist that you work with - a psychologist or a psychotherapist. They can if they are very skilled, help to clarify the picture for you. George: I believe that a good psychotherapist can help, but it must be a GOOD one. You see, I have had bad experiences with psychotherapists.
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I have not been through psychotherapy fortunately, but I have seen people destroyed by them. Comment: Most of them are not that good has been my observation. George: But if I am stuck with a problem like that and I really dont know what to do next ... if I have possibilities, I will proceed and exhaust the possibilities. But once I have exhausted them it is an honest thing to say what is happening. Suggest another therapy to the person, whatever it is. He may find scientology of value. He may find Rolfing beneficial. He may find Gestalt to be of value. These are the different possibilities which are developing now. Question: Before one goes to that, would you consider using Balner salts(?), which might have a broader spectrum? George: Not in this case, no. I dont know the Balner salts(?) to the extent that I could say. If I had some hints, then perhaps I would use it. Perhaps here there is a vaccination which is holding the case and Thuj. could open the case. If there is a problem where he has been vaccinated for small pox, for instance. There might have been a history of warts, which again would indicate Thuj. He spoke openly. He said, I want to be the best, and I am mad with my son when he wins, then definitely Anac. must work. So before we proceed any further, let us give him a dose of Anac. 1m. PAGE 306 33 Violent misconduct of a 2 year old [ - Violent misconduct of a 2 year old] Lycopodium clavatum (lyc.) Case Question: Who wants to analyze the case? Response: My first impression when I saw this case was all the violence, the fighting, the shrieking, the biting his mother, and the thing about short circuits, and so my first thought was Stram. I found out that that was wrong because it did not work. Still along that line I began to look at desires sweet and thought of Sulph. And then the next thing is what led me to the right answer, and so I will wait to say that. I sort of skipped over it when I was analyzing the case, but it did not seem to fit in. Question: Why not Tub.? Roger, what was your vote? Answer: Stram. and Sulph. Question: Does anyone want to defend the Tub.? George: Tub. is a good choice for that case. It is okay. Answer: I chose Tub. because ... first I thought it was Stram. because of the lack of fears. The thing that stopped me from choosing Cham. or Cina would be the maliciousness. I thought that Tub. was more malicious, and then the kid liked milk and a few other things, and so I thought Tub. because of the maliciousness. It seems to me that he is malicious. He is bad to his brothers and spills his milk while looking right into his mothers eyes, and so on. Comment: I agree, my first thought on studying the case was Tub. But what was impressive to me was that for one thing on page 2 it mentioned that the mother did not even try to hold him until he was a year old and that was just in the past few months she was starting to hold him and allow him to drink his bottle. Throughout the case, there are these remarks that I made about my observations regarding the child. There is no reaction
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on the mothers part to his violent behavior. He seems to have no structure in his surroundings, within his family. And my feeling as I was looking at that was that perhaps his violence was not as pathological as it looks on the surface, and that perhaps a lot of that is a response to the lack of structure where he is looking for his limits. Question: But you did say that the mother had tried many ways to get him to stop. PAGE 307 Comment: Yes, she had tried all kinds of different mechanisms to get him to stop. Question: That is structure, isnt it? Answer: No, because she does not stick with any one thing and he does not know what his limits are. If she tried one way and stuck with it, I suppose that would be structure, but the fact that she ... Comment: That is what I thought. Answer: What? That that was a structure? Comment: I thought that the mother was trying. Answer: Oh, she tries, and very hard, but she is unable to give him a sense of surroundings in his life. I think that that is why he defies her and just pours the milk on the table in front of her. I think he is looking for a response from her and is looking for some kind of discipline. Another thought here ... Did I mention how old the younger brother is? At any rate, the thought here is that there may be sibling rivalry and jealousy that is bringing out this apparently pathological mental problem in this child and so I thought of Hyos. But as I continued to look at it, I decided that when he is in the surroundings of some situation where he cant get away with this behavior, such as when he is around older children, that then he becomes submissive and does what someone else tells him to do. On the basis of that, and because of a strong desire for sweets, and the defiance, I prescribed Lyc. George: And the time aggravation. Comment: And the fact that he is subdued around other children. It is sort of like dictatorial behaviour at home and subdued behaviour with others. Response: Yes, he lashes out and bites and hits, as long as it is okay. Comment: I automatically excluded Lyc. because I did not think it would be so violent. Response: I think that is the real issue in this case. Is this child really mentally disturbed or isnt he? Comment: The fact that he shakes and grits his teeth with intensity and that he squeezes his sandwich, that does not exactly indicate that he is just having a normal reaction, or that his mother is incompetent. Answer: Or like wanting to strangle a cat. Response: So I dont think it is a question of whether or not it is pathological but rather the degree to which it is. PAGE 308 Question: Do you have an idea of the mothers level of intelligence, and if you do, how does that relate to her husband? I wonder if this kid is very much brighter than his mother, which would also go with Lyc. Answer: Well, he is only two years old. I dont know if I really could evaluate that. He is probably brighter than his mother. George: I may have some comments. He read me the case and I suggested basically two remedies - Hyos. or Lyc. - depending on whether the child is REALLY mentally sick or
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not. Now the question of whether he is mentally sick or not comes out from a few remarks here. She says, He eventually does what he is told. And, He is very subdued around older children. He lets a 4-5 years old child boss him around. A mentally ill child, we should reason, could not differentiate between that very much and it was a Stram child. Actually, I thought of three remedies: Tub., Hyos. and Lyc. in the beginning. I said that these were the three possibilities. I did not take Stram. because you will not handle Stram. so easily as it says here, He is very subdued around older children. It already shows the element of cowardice, he is afraid that they may hit him. Where he is not afraid, he will act outrageously. His mother cannot discipline him and he knows that he has the upper hand and is the boss. He does whatever he likes in that situation. When a little boy is around, he is afraid that that boy may hit him. And he stays behind and is quiet. This case is interesting because one has to see that he is not as mental as he appears, and so we do not go exactly with the symptom that is related to us. We go about and reason out the whole case. You see, how would you explain that he would let a 4-5 years old child boss him around if he is REALLY a malicious child? He would hit the other child and take things away from him. A Tub. would do that and it is the same with Stram. They would strike out because they are very jealous. It says also somewhere that he is very jealous. He does not tolerate his father paying attention to his mother. So you see the element of jealousy? He is in love with his mother, actually. It is pretty normal. But there is jealousy coming out and reaction when his father pays attention to his mother. They dont want this. But at the same time he is bossed around by a 4-5 years old child. Response: I think it also goes against a really disturbed child in that he has a definite focus. When he wants to go out of the door, he keeps going back to the door. he knows that this is what he wants and he usually gets what he wants. I would think, although I may be mistaken, that a really mentally disturbed child would not maintain his mental clarity in terms of what he was after. PAGE 309 Question: Wouldnt some digestive disturbance be expressed with Lyc., particularly since he desires milk and Lyc. is normally averse to milk? George: Is he not drinking milk? Lyc. shows aversion to milk. Response: This child desires milk and has an aversion to cheese. George: Have we added Lyc. under aversion to cheese? Response: No. George: Chel., but not Lyc. Dont add it. I am interested in this fear of insects. Response: It got stronger and then it went away. Question: What did you do in July of 1980? George: Nat-m., Calc., and Lyc. are listed under Fear of insects. Response: Calc. is all that I have. Should we add Lyc.? George: Yes, and Phos.! Question: Who said that Lyc. was averse to milk? Answer: It was a mistake. I am sorry. Continuing: It is interesting that he had been having an ear infection or a severe cold almost continuously, one after another, when he first came in and he had had lots of antibiotics and things.
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Three weeks ago, which would make it three weeks after the remedy, he had pharyngitis. The mother called me, wanting to know what to do about it. In order to put things off for awhile, I ordered a throat culture which came back negative. Over-all the illness lasted ten days, but there was no treatment given for that. In the follow up, all of his irrational response to discipline with laughing or shrugging, or having screaming fits, his unpredictability and irregular sleeping habits, all became worse for 2-3 days. Then he calmed down and things became much more bearable. He was a sweet little boy for four weeks. Then two and a half weeks before coming back, he began to slip back in his old behaviour patterns, especially with the irregular sleeping patterns. He became more malicious and hurtful of his little brother again, but he would apologize afterwards. The mother said that he is not as bad as before and not quite so uncontrollable. He is not That sweet little boy. He is very quiet with the babysitter. He is easy to discipline there. He plays alone a lot and he spends four hours a day at the baby-sitters house. He had some wheezing at his last cold. He was shrieking again for two weeks. His fear of insects was worse. It is interesting that now he refuses to drink his milk. He ate a cheese sandwich a week ago - the first the mother can remember - and he is now worse in the morning rather than in the afternoon. So, what would be done? PAGE 310 Response: I would repeat it or give the next potency. Comment: I believe I gave 1m of Lyc. the first time. Some people then say to wait, some say to use Lyc. again. Some say to prescribe the same potency, primarily? (Asks for call of hands). Eight say the same potency. How many would raise the potency? Two. How many would wait? Eight. It is about a tie. Why would you wait? Response: I thought definitely that it was not a full relapse, but I also thought that perhaps the child was still quite a little bit better before and that the mother was just a little anxious for me to make a move for something better beyond the point where he already was. That was my reasoning for waiting. I gave a placebo at this point. George: No, the effect is not complete. The fear of insects has become worse. So when there are changes, either you have to wait for the next remedy or you give a placebo. There might be a new remedy coming up. Response: I was thinking that maybe Calc. was coming up at this point George: Worse in the morning has changed from being worse 4-6 p.m. He is not drinking milk. He had a cheese sandwich. All of these things are changes and there are some changes in the irregularity of sleeping and he is malicious, but quiet with the babysitter. He is easier to discipline. Response: I agree that it should not be repeated. But if it was to be repeated, I would go higher and not give the same remedy again. George: Better to give the same, if you have a full relapse. Question: I am still confused by that. George: I may have confused you. The general rule is to give the same potency twice if it has acted, and then go to one dose higher on the third prescription. * But if there is a good response to the remedy and then a full relapse without any intervening causes, then you are justified to go higher the second time.
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Lyc. has acted for six months or one year and he has come back with a full relapse without an intervening allopathic medicine, you are justified to go higher. But in a month or two months, I would not repeat it. PAGE 311 Question: Is an acute illness considered an intervening cause? George: Yes. Response: One of the points that I would like to make about the case, which helped me decide it was not a mentally disturbed case, was the fact that after the remedy there were not a lot of physical symptoms which came out. If the child was really that sick on a mental level, I would expect the curative response to show asthma or something coming out of the physical level. George: You can see the idea of Lyc. where he is the dictator of the house, but outside of the house, he becomes another person. And the cold-eyes attitude is a Lyc. Comment: There was an interesting remark that Karl made that by repertorizing the case Lyc. came out without even thinking about it. Question: Why isnt Stram. apparent in this? George: It did not appear to be so to me. Response: It was involved in some very important rubrics fighting, shrieking, and all of that. George: It was not so much mental. And then when you went to the rubrics where he was subdued so easily by the grownups, it could not be. They are violent remedies - Stram. When it bites, it bites and it is a kind of deep mental disorder. If that was the picture, then he would go to Stram. If we take it as a mental case, we would go first to Hyos., then Tub., and then Stram. In Stram. in this case, we would definitely have to have the fear of the dark. The child would not be able to sleep by himself.

Talks On Classical Homeopathy (1980) - Vithoulkas

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