Minutus

Hi All,

I have started a conversation with a Minutus participant about her experience as one who reacts well to a syphilitic miasmatic analysis of her case. I have trouble with seeing the syphilitic miasm when it is not an obvious devil or totally a self destructive individual. A small heart murmer, or any genetic illness could be an indication for syphilinum. That is, we are lead by physicals. But, is there a mental profile as well?

Sankaran and Mangialavori talks about the poles between really significant themes in remedies. When you are looking at the very healthy person the opposite of the "devil" described in Anacardium ((by Sankaran) or probably syphilinum appear in symptoms. There is some theme (as opposed to a single rubric) that manifests itself as active expression in one obviously neurotic patient and passive in another apparently very healthy patient (Sankaran). The devil is the active expression. Anaacardium passive is repressing the devil. She suspects the devil, and works hard to suppress those suspected traits by being a super angel. (she joins an ashram, is the perfect wife etc) That's why anacardium is the cancer miasm (Sankaran). This choice is made by Sankaran relative to other members of the botanical family. Magialavori deals with theme (as above) and also specific rubrics where both extremes of a key rubric appear. This he calls an issue. So if goodness and consistency (truth) is an issue, Anacaridium is going to be super aware of any deviance from prefect. That's why the upbringing may not be so horrible by objective standards, but the deviations are terribly painful. This background is very clear in the devil cases, but not so clear in the angel anacardium cases. I am using anacardium, because it is one that I am familiar with, but I think that the same may be true for syphlinum. If you can find the themes and issue, you can begin to find the extremes. But you have to look carefully at the healthy version (passive) of the patient who is cured by the syphilitic remedy. Where are the theme that are the exact opposite of the devil (active) version of the description?

In Jungian psychology, I heard a lecture once about people who survive traumatic childhoods. There are those who totally collapse in the very sick homeopathic cases and those who excel at overcoming hardship and become apparently stronger (eg., cancer). They may be the healthy cases that are so hard to find the remedy for. The MM is often missing the passive expression of the remedy. Sensitivity is big in defining what is hardship so I am using the subjective measure.

I don't know if I am understandable using these author references. If I am does this give anyone some idea of why what kind of syphilitic miasmic remedy might be in the passive extreme. I don't know. But I suspect that it should exist. If you don't like these authors, I am open to that possibility.

Best,
Ellen

I had not seen Ellen’s email to Minutus when I wrote before. I had seen a private version of it. I am no more than familiar in passing with the names Sankaran and Mangialavori but I am certainly very familiar, from a sufferer’s viewpoint, with depression, anxiety and the worst of the lot: profound insomnia!
Now that I have seen Ellen’s email re Anacardium, I have to add something—something I have in fact not told my homeopath because I did not ever think to do so—even though I try to tell everyone everything that might be helpful in treating me or in understanding other patients/clients. I will indeed mention it to him now, by bcc-ing him on this email FWIW.
I do on occasion—even kinda often at times; other times very rarely—have thoughts that I just let go of immediately: “devil” thoughts. They just pass through my head, unbidden, and I don’t beat myself up about it, just let them go. I kinda assumed everyone had such thoughts. They come when I am otherwise well; not when I am in “depression”. Thankfully I am able to let them go and not ever act on them. They are so bad that I won’t even specify here what they are, but they are indeed “devil” thoughts. One rather “mild” example was that when one of our kids was a newborn, I had thoughts/visions of taking scissors and stabbing her. Other thoughts are along that line, though even more horrific to me. I thought the one I am mentioning was due to postnatal depression... Maybe not…
And I guess I do try otherwise to be a sort of “angel”, so I guess Anacardium fits the bill, though heaven knows how my homeopath came upon it. I wish he would explain… So far he has not used it for me; it was just in that unopened envelope I mentioned earlier.
I have said before that all of my fathers 7 or so siblings (he was the youngest and was born in 1904), incl. my father, suffered from some form of mania or depression. (I have no siblings, but have passed the problem on to my kids to some extent, sadly) Many in my father’s family were hospitalized or on drugs. Far as I know, they also never did anything bad to anyone else; they were all very intelligent and educated. Two were alcoholics, one of them a binge drinker—self-medicated off-and-on-type depressions? But he was severely crippled in World War I and so that could have had other causes.
Their father, my grandfather, was an itinerant photographer in the late 1800s. Seems pretty reasonable to me to suppose that he contracted VD, was treated with suppressive conv.drugs and passed into the syphilitic miasm. All my relatives on that side are long dead so I have no problem mentioning this, hoping it will help you to understand the syphilitic miasm. And anyway, I see nothing embarrassing in all this—it is physical illness manifesting as what used to be (and sadly is still often) called “mental illness”, is it not? Where’s the embarrassment in that? As one talk therapist I saw said: “Look upon depression as if it were a broken leg. No one would just ask you go to ahead and walk on that broken leg and think positively and eat well!” Teresa
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From: minutus@yahoogroups.com [mailto:minutus@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ellen Madono
Subject: [Minutus] Syphilitic miasm
Hi All,

I have started a conversation with a Minutus participant about her experience as one who reacts well to a syphilitic miasmatic analysis of her case.

Hi Teresa,
I think everyone or most peoople or at leaset some people do without
realizing it.

Doing certain kinds of meditation practice one can observe thoughts as
they come up and how they never get to the conscious "thought" state -
those may be "develish" or "angleish" or just neutral, they may be
significant or just rubbishy.

I think that some people are just aware of their "thoughts" (I use the
".." because thought is a very complex phenomenon) on a different
level than others (most)?

The character of a person may to a certain extent be determined on a
very "deep" level, to a certain extent it is probably for all people
determined by the level where the thoughts are filtered before they
get conscious, their reaction to them, and then, of course, by
whatever it is that makes them judge what is good and bad and what
they would act on or not.

They come when I am

This shows exactly one of those parts I mentioned abov: Your
reaction was one of horror!

The person who has been for centuries considered to be our greatest
poet/playwrite.., Goethe, has said that it had been in him to commit
any crime ever committed. Something of the same would be "Here, but
for the grace of God, goes I (whoever it was). I think that they meant
that kind of thing. After all, to be able to write what Shakespeare,
Goethe and many other playwrights/novellists did, they had to be able
to live that part in their imagination.

So let me venture a guess of what you homeopath will say about
choosing Anacardium as one probability; he has recognized in you
either this way of getting to deeper levels of thought or he saw that
you have a poetic vein and has identified Anac. as a good simile in
such cases:-)

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========

Dear Theresa,

I guess anacardium was a bad example because it is so famous for the spilt will (angel on one shoulder and devil on the other). What I was trying to say is that many remedies are reported in two extremes. A complete picture of each extreme is not so common, but hints of it are. Examples are the laborer type sulpher and the ragged philosopher type. The issue is the burning of energy (protein), elemental interests... But I don't really mean just types in remedies. I mean that there is a theme that is central to both extremes. You find the theme just comparing two extreme opposites of rubrics as well. So is there that central theme and extremes in Syphilinum also. For example (pulling this out of imagination) destruction and fear of destruction. Deep involvement in destructive processes for good and for bad. Concern with the code (genes), the deeper meaning of things not being right.

In chronic disease, there is a compensatory stage when the organism manages to return to homeostasis but must constantly compensate. So the healthy extreme would be that compensation. The there is a further destructive stage. There the fundamentals of life are destroyed and the organism must react just to survive the destruction. That's where you would find the violence, hatred, acting out fears... This same sort of extremes should exist in most deep remedies. So I am asking, what does the compensatory stage looke like for syphilinum?

Blessings,
Ellen

Dear Ellen,
I'm finding your discussion of the syphilitic miasm fascinating and enlightening. Thanks! Thinking about the polarities in this regard is a perspective we aren't often invited to consider.
I know with Aur, for instance, that the person is often a deeply reflective, aware community leader in a healthier phase -- making it hard to reconcile with the negative, destructive aspect of the miasm (for me, at least). And I recently prescribed Merc with great success for a child who had a relatively slight birth abnormality (of course making me think "syphilitic miasm"), but the "strangest" (SRP) aspect of her case was that she was constantly over-the-top "happy." That was an interesting polarity! The presenting problem was a slight learning disability -- but combined with extraordinary musical talent.
I'm also really interested in learning more about unobvious ways in which the syphilitic miasm manifests in older age.
Thanks for your wonderful reflections.
Warm regards, Rosemary

Hi Rosemary,

I was reading somewhere that Peter Sellers was a Merc. The devious aspects of his personality were emphasized, but happy over the top seems also possible. It's necessary for an actor like him to be able to imagine and play out the extremes. That's a talent not just deviance.

Yes, getting the mental/emotionals of basically "normal" (in our society) people is where its at for me. I am very interested in cured cases where the remedy affects the client deeply on a mental/emotinal level even though that may not have been their main complaint. Syph is particularly interesting because the E/Ms are so extreme that we might never get that kind of patient but also like the extremes of so many other remedies.

When I see polar opposite rubrics in the MM of a remedy, I always make a note of it looking for the "issue" (Mangialvori's term) that is central to the remedy. I see all these homeopaths (Most recently Sherr with his meta rubric rep in Radar) doing a Boeninhausen type analysis for the mind. That is, they are grouping related rubrics and looking for the common remedies. You need techniques for pulling out the themes (Mangialavori). Some way to systematically look for pictures that can be easily compared with other remedies, but also that will clearly distinguish the remedy. This has always been done, but not with such an emphasis on the M/Es.

I think MM's should be made with a symbol system. For example, I use iii to indicate a opposition between rubrics and a central issue (described above).

Do you have other techniques of this type to look for the compensated extremes of a remedy or to find issues and themes?

The other problem that I see is the current need for homeopaths to deal with suppressed apparently "healthy" clients who don't feel at all right about themselves. Suppression in the early stages is always compensation sometimes with few physicals. Also, people with lots of physicals also get those physicals healed and then you have a really difficult time analyzing how you bring the case to a conclusion. Maybe the remedy is not perfect so the case does not finish or maybe I should be waiting longer. It is hard for me to tell. Maybe the person needs mediation at that point and not homeopathy. But people tend to hang on hoping that homeopathy can preform that occurred when they were really sick.

I have an ignatia case that has so few physicals. Her "hysteria" is also not obvious because she is socially well compensated. The couple (both clients) started fighting so for the first time from the angry husband I started hearing slight innuendos of her hysteria. I don't think I could have found Ignatia without hearing the cause for his anger towards her.

Best,
Ellen

the temperature modalities also puzzling at times. Can one give Flouric Ac to someone cold and better and > heat, I am inclined to think one can if other modalities present. Jean

Hi Ellen,

Thought of this discussion as I was reading Sarsaparilla in
Vermeulan's 'The New Synoptic One'. It's just a snippet but might be
what you are talking about.

"Delusion of being friendless. Reserved; doesn't make friends easily;
no close friends. Quiet: like to be by themselves and to do things on
their own. Difficult to share things. Or: Feels left out and
neglected. (these basic syphilitic traits are in keeping with the
essence of Monarde's sarsaparilla therapy for syphilitis: confinement
and abstinence for 10 weeks)"

So maybe the basic theme here is around being alone (Delusion:
friendless).
The apparently healthy compensation would be: A person liking to be
alone, happy with and prefering their own company, self sufficient.
This person can take control of the situation, and put their own
frame on it. Digging into it might find something not so healthy at
the base about not liking or trusting other people - but the person
appears to have decided to be alone and is happy about it.

The unhealthy looking version would be on their own but feeling left
out and neglected by others - so that is about blaming others and not
having the internal reserves to make their world a pleasant place to
be for themselves. This person believes that others have control
about his happiness - he is alone, doesn't have a choice about it and
isn't happy about it. This person may move into revenge in an effort
to control the external world.

Thinking about it I remember Phosphorus also has a delusion about
being alone (on an island) - interesting to compare the phosphoric
reaction to the syphilitic one.
Don't know if that's the sort of thing you're talking about or
whether I've pulled the ideas out in the right direction,

Gail
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "Ellen Madono"
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Rosemary,
What an intriguing case! Are you able to tell us more about it, or at
least tell us how you came to give Mercury? (Other than the clues
toward "syphilitic"?)
Thanks!
Shannon

Hi, Rosemary & Ellen
Ellen mentioned in one of her earlier posts that Massimo deals with the polarities in remedies. Indeed, he does, and in a way I've found very useful. He seems them in terms of compensated and decompensated. Accordingly, the "deeply reflective, aware community leader" that could be Aurum in a healthier state is the compensated Aurum, whereas the despairing, suicidal Aurum is obviously in the decompensated stage, either because his coping strategies no longer work or something drastic has happened to push him into decompensation.
Since we're talking of the syphilitic miasm, would anyone who's seen "No Country for Old Men" care to venture the remedy Anton Chigurh needs? If you haven't seen it, don't -- that movie does stay with one, not in a pleasant way.
Peace,
Dale