Hi Tim,
everything you've written on/off-list about this case reminds me of anac.
Dave Hartley
www.localcomputermart.com/dave
Santa Cruz, CA (831)423-4284
(from Encyclopedia Homeopathic)
NEESGAARD P., Hypothesis Collection - Primary Psora and Miasmatic Dynamic
Anacardium orientale
(cashew nut, east-indian marking nut)
Anac.
Motive
The guiding motive is unity. He suffers from not having it. On the other
hand he is aware of a deep split between body and soul in himself.
Transcendental
God is undivided in himself. With him unity and simplicity coincide.
According to Thomas Aquinas, God is infinitely perfect, i.e. He includes in
a higher sense all of the perfection of existence in Himself. If there were
more than one god, they would have to differ from each other in one way or
another, and that which separated the one from the other would, of course,
exclude the other as a god. Any determination is at the same time a negation
of all other possibilities, and thus a separation. The one who embraces an
indeterminate extent will represent the greatest unity. Anacardium envies
God's unity and simplicity. He does not know which of his own constituent
elements he should choose or prefer.
Conditions
Man is a composite of body and soul in substance. He needs both parts. If
they are separated, man dies. Both parts participate in every thought, every
emotion, and every action. Anacardium rejects having to live as a
substantial composite being. He feels forced to choose one of the two
components, but both choices seem wrong to him.
Inner focus
Anacardium feels constantly confronted with a choice. He must choose
between body and soul, between Good and Evil, even between the smallest
trifles. But every choice, every decision seems equally bad to him. This
results in the process of decision never ending. Anacardium is irresolute
regarding all things. The reason for this is his deep longing for unity and
his equally deep inner feeling of being split. He cannot accept being
composed of body and soul. He is aware of the inadequacy of both. His body
seems deficient to him, and with it alone he cannot achieve unity. But
neither can he do so by the soul alone. Nor with the soul alone, would he be
able to lead an existence and achieve unity. He gets caught in this split,
and it rules his entire inner striving and yearning.
Guilt
He rejects as a human being to be composed in substance of body and soul.
But human beings require both parts in order to manage existence.
Loss
Anacardium loses the feeling of unity which human beings have by nature.
Instead he experiences a split, a splitting between body and soul, but also
a splitting off from the world. He feels forsaken. Everything seems unreal.
The splitting primarily manifests in duality and in the experience of
another, opposing will, which could be personified by the Angel and the
Devil, who each give him conflicting instructions. He is also aware of a
conflict between his soul and will, which leads to indecision in all things.
He is unable to decide anything, as every choice is only the choice of a
part, and thus exclusive of the unity. Therefore, no decision can satisfy,
and he continues his search for unity ad infinitum.
Punishment
The split felt by Anacardium is also experienced in relation to his
environment and fellow man. Everything around him seems devious. He feels
surrounded by enemies and constantly threatened by accidents and dangers. He
feels separated from the world to such an extent that he is no longer sure
about the identity of the people closest to him. He no longer knows whether
his wife is really his wife, whether his children are really his children.
Another expression of punishment is his experience of his body. It seems
repulsive to him, as if covered with smallpox and abominably twisted. He
believes he is a dead man lying on a bier, or is tumbling down into a deep
abyss. Life in his own body seems almost like living in hell. He smells
sulphur, feels fire, and his body stinks.
Main themes
1) Doubling. He is double, two conflicting wills, conflict between soul and
will. 2) Separation of soul and body. Separated from the world, forsaken,
everything seems unreal. 3) Devil and Angel, who give him conflicting
instructions. 4) The repulsive body. 5) The threats. Enemies, the uncertain
future, the abyss, the demons, etc.
Themes
1. Enemies. 2. The bier. 3. Called by his name, became afraid. 4. Laughter.
5. Sensitive. 6. Intellectual weakness. 7. Intellectual analysis. 8. A flow
of ideas which obsess him. 9. Preaching. 10. Coffins, dead bodies, cleft.
11. The smell of sulphur, pigeon droppings, putrid fungus. 12. Repulsive
bodies, loathsome diseases. 13. Music and weight. 14. Fire. 15. Cruelty,
cold-hearted, violent. 16. Demons. 17. Double will. 18. The soul separated
from the body. 19. Despair. 20. Mistaken about close friends. 21. Pushing
away after caresses. 22. Unreal. 23. Cursing. 24. Strangers. 25. Awkward.
26. Redemption of the soul. 27. Feeling as of a peg. 28. Feeling as of a
band. 29. Torn. 30. Misfortune. 31. Future. 32. Work. 33. Indifference. 34.
Eating. 35. Motion and rest. 36. Open air. 37. As-if sensations.
Secondary psora
The main problem of Anacardium is that he does not in any action or
decision have the feeling of having done the right thing. Therefore, he
suffers from irresolution and uncertainty. He regrets decisions and occupies
himself with old, completed decisions and life periods. He never gets any
peace, as he in principle never can do the right thing in order to achieve
unity. This suffering also manifests in the feeling of duality. He feels as
though double, has two conflicting wills, and the will and the soul
contradict each other. Symbolically, this is expressed through the Angel and
the Devil, who give him conflicting instructions, or through the impression
that the body and soul are separated. The projection of this is seen in the
feeling of being separated from the world, forsaken by everybody, and
everything seeming unreal. The inner splitting into Angel and Devil is also
projected out on the environment and his fellow man. He sees himself
surrounded by enemies and threatened by strangers. He fears for his future.
He is concerned about the redemption of the soul, the soul feels too large
for the body. He sees his body as repulsive, covered with smallpox,
stinking, full of loathsome diseases, and lying dead on a bier.
Egotrophy
Either absolute exaggeration of things physical, or spiritual as being
separated from all bodily, physical things. In the former case we might see
a super-athlete who ruthlessly drives his body. He practices until he drops
without paying any heed to any injury inflicted on his body. Projected out
on the environment, it will be others he is hard and ruthless to,
cold-hearted and indifferent to their suffering. In the latter case, one
might, for example, have a person who undergoes very severe spiritual
disciplines and becomes haughty. He is only interested in spiritual things.
The subconscious of Anacardium is also tormented by the choice between body
and soul. Here we see people who preach loudly against something which they
are later convicted of, e.g. a sex scandal. At this stage, Anacardium's
sexuality is characterised by a marked split between the physical and the
emotional parts of a relationship. He can only have sex with those with whom
he has no emotional relationship. He feels it would be perverse to have
anything sexual with someone he is emotionally or spiritually connected
with. In this manner, the motto 'either body or soul' is adhered to.
Clinically, it has been seen that Anacardium often needs to prove to
himself and others that he is able to perform and complete certain actions.
This may be viewed as a compensation for his intellectual disturbances. He
must prove that he can act as a whole, as a unity. Thus, performance and
success are the proof thereof.
Egolysis
He condemns all spiritual matters. He identifies himself with the Devil,
with Evil, and his body which he even compares with a coffin. 'I am a
devil.' He feels totally separated from the world and as if in a dream.
Awkward. Intellectual faculties and memory are very reduced and weakened. He
sees only the dark side of everything, has next to no self-esteem, and makes
room for himself by cursing and blasphemous speech.
Alterolysis
He blames others for being unable to resolve his inner split between body
and soul. He gets excited and violent at the smallest provocation and is
ruthlessly cruel, cold-hearted and brutal. He becomes malicious, strangles
others, strangles animals, and kills them. Others are worthless to him, they
are scum. He has no moral feelings, he hates others, and is totally
indifferent towards them.
Dd
Kali-c, Asar. and all other remedies that reject the body.
Kalium carbonicum wants unambiguous cognition and this is prevented by the
body.
Asarum wants to be purely spiritual, and therefore does not need his body.
For both, the body is a barrier, but for different reasons.
Other hypotheses
Masi '89
Motive
The fight between Good and Evil has a high priority with Anacardium. But
Anacardium is unable to differentiate between what is Good and what is Evil,
because the source of this problem complex is due to the conceptual
confusion of ascribing an independent existence to 'Evil', and seeing this
Evil in a fight with 'Good', but Evil has no independent existence. 'Evil'
is the absence of Good. Just as 'darkness' is only the absence of light.
Thus he who wants to fight Evil, and directs his efforts towards a concrete
goal, is fighting against something which does not exist. The solution to
this metaphysical problem consists in, with the aid of Anacardium, making it
clear that the only way to fight Evil is to choose Good, to increase the
domain of the Good, to stand for the Good. Doing this, Evil disappears, just
as darkness disappears when light is switched on. One of the factors of
Anacardium's mistake is precisely this ascribing an independent existence to
'Evil' which, in reality, it does not have.
Guilt
Anacardium's sin is envy of God's being One, not composed of body and soul
as humans are, but being a unity. Anacardium identifies God's unity with
Good and the splitting of man into two parts with Evil. Anacardium's
secondary sin consists in believing that Evil has an independent, concrete
existence, even though Evil is only the absence of Good. He has wanted to
experience both Good and Evil and has thereby deviated from his
determination, namely to know only the one thing that exists: Good. He
believes that Evil also has an independent existence, and that God knows it.
Punishment
The logical punishment for being entrapped by the impression that Evil also
has an independent existence, is a consequence of being entrapped by these
two elements of which he himself created the one, namely Evil, instead of
recognising that only one exists, namely the Good. Anacardium's error was
believing that in unity is included full cognition of duality, that he with
the cognition of unity at the same time could have cognition of the two
opposing sides of duality. Therefore, he ascertained that it was not only
this type of divine unity he was in accord with, but that he as punishment
became addicted to exaggeration of his being as consisting of two elements.
The impression that remains is that Anacardium achieved what he was seeking,
namely to separate what was inseparable. He has denied the human unity of
the monistic view. He did not want to believe that also he was a unity, a
unity with the Divine, consisting of only one element. He believed, on the
other hand, that he was a unity composed of two elements which had united,
the body being the Evil element and the soul the Good. In this inclination
of Anacardium for dividing body and soul, Good and Evil, he becomes addicted
to separating everything into these two categories. Thus, he is torn back
and forth between two principles, and never knows whether it is his
inclination toward Good or his inclination toward Evil he is yielding to,
because of being unable to see which is which. Therefore, in his actions he
is the eternal irresolute, who does not know what to choose. Whether he
should choose the physical, which he erroneously considers as Evil, or the
spiritual, which he erroneously considers as Good. Therefore, Anacardium is
the remedy for atheism and Manichaeism. Examples of this are the belief that
the body is Evil and the soul is Good, and that the soul is caught in a
sinful, Evil body which is the product of original sin. Anacardium is cured
when he conquers duality and becomes a unity as a human being.
Themes
1. The future. 2. Lack of confidence. 2. Weakness of memory. 4. Lying on a
bier/bed. 5. Laughing at serious matters. 6. Assumes the negative side of
everything. 7. Difficulty of expression and memory. 8. Lively. 9.
Intellectual analysis. 10. Crisis. 11. Obsessed by ideas. 12. Time. 13.
Pursued. 14. Crime. 15. Preaching. 16. Splitting between soul and body. 17.
Several wills. 18. Enemies. 19. Fire/sulphur. 20. Cruelty from the heart.
21. The devil. 22. Angels. 23. Artless. 24. Separated from others. 25.
Imminent death. 26. Clairvoyance. 27. Shouts at mother or sister. 28.
Ambivalence. 29. Eternally irresolute.
Secondary psora
In the secondary psora, Anacardium appears very irresolute in daily
affairs. He is the typical irresolute who is unable to set priorities or
establish any scale of values, because he is afraid of mistaking Good and
Wrong, or Evil, and can therefore not decide or choose. It is difficult for
him to know the difference between what is Good and Evil, Right or Wrong and
he is therefore afraid of mistaking Evil for Good, or vice versa. He is
always in doubt and very worried. When he speaks, he does not know whether
what he is about to say is right or wrong. For example, he says that he
wants to drink a glass of orange juice, but then starts doubting, and asks
whether one believes it will be good for him. When one then asserts that the
vitamins are good for him, etc. he hesitates again, because it may be
fermented or too sour for his stomach. If one then tells him to forget it,
he objects that he won't be getting any vitamins. If one says that he should
drink it, he objects that he might not be able to tolerate it, etc.
Anacardium's irresolution or hesitation is always about whether something is
Right/Good or Wrong/Evil. The irresolution of others revolves around whether
one thing is better than another, that is, about two things in which they
cannot determine which is the best or worst. But Anacardium's irresolution
revolves about only one thing which he cannot determine is good or bad. He
is unable to determine the real value of things. There always arises the
possibility that his choice will prove to be harmful for him. He is unable
to judge whether what he wants is good or bad/evil. When Anacardium thinks
something is good, the objection raises itself that it also might be bad.
Therefore, Anacardium cannot achieve what he wants, because he is always
impeded by doubts about whether what he wants would be good or bad. Whereas
Nat-s does not achieve what he wants because the necessary means are not at
his disposal, Anacardium is the eternal irresolute who is always in doubt
about whether he has done the right or wrong thing, what consequences will
follow if he has made a mistake or not, what others will think if he has
done something right or wrong, etc. There is always the ambivalence between
whether something is good or bad in a spiritual sense. This state where
Anacardium continually wavers between two possibilities is not only based on
the theme of having two wills, but also on the theme that his body and soul
strive to separate. He has the feeling that his soul no longer has any
connection with his body. It has torn itself loose, and therefore he has the
feeling of emptiness. Anacardium cannot accept the unity in substance, and
is subject to the impression that man is divided into two independent parts
which live side by side within him. This philosophical impression is very
clearly expressed in Anacardium, as where this striving to separate body and
soul is seen the soul is for Anacardium Good and the body Evil. In this way
the remedy picture for Anacardium can be exemplified in Manichaeism.
Manichaeism is the gnostically influenced, heretic philosophical doctrine
that postulates two oppositely directed parts in man of which the one is
Good and the other Evil. The body here represents Evil and the soul
represents the Good soul which is confined in an Evil body that attempts to
get the Good soul to abandon its transcendental determination.
Egotrophy
The egotrophic Anacardium prides himself in being a person who only
occupies himself with spiritual aspects, Good, and who has a deep contempt
for carnal things, which are only miserable, contemptible and Evil. This is
a religious, spiritual person who despises the carnal physical and who is
irresolute regarding questions about whether something is Good or Evil. The
egotrophic Anacardium is thus an almost 'angelic' person who cannot tolerate
any really instinctive mode of expression, and who can be compared with Hep.
in this exaggerated Puritanism.
Alterolysis
The syphilitic Anacardium has decided to follow Evil, where Evil expresses
itself in the decision to be a carnal being, in which cold-heartedness and
cruelty are expressed.
Dd
Stramonium feels controlled by supernatural forces, i.e. by a will outside
himself.
Anacardium also has another will that tries to control him, but it is
within himself, and he cannot decide which of the two wills to follow. The
two wills are always in opposition, the one wants Good and the other Evil.
This causes irresolution in daily affairs, and can be seen symbolically as a
Devil on the one shoulder and an Angel on the other. Many remedies have the
theme of feeling pursued, but the way he describes it separates Anacardium
from other schizophrenics, who describe it in another way. He feels pursued
by his family, by thieves, by the police, and feels imprisoned.
Lachesis. With Lach. the feeling of being pursued stems from the more
specific feeling of being subject to a higher power whose existence he
denies. This leads him to believe that the higher power or will which
controls him is another will of his own. Physically, this appears as the
feeling of being double. Lach. thus feels that there is another power or
will that controls him and, as he does not believe in the supernatural, he
places this other will within himself, as his own other will.
Anacardium on the other hand does not feel controlled by another. He has
the problem within, when deciding whether something is good or bad. He is
actually quite aware of having a shadow side. It is precisely a part of his
problem that he sees both the good and the bad. Other types suppress having
a shadow side, but Anacardium is actually very aware of his shadow side.
When Anacardium thinks something is good, the objection is raised that it
also might be bad. Therefore, Anacardium cannot achieve what he wants, as he
is continually impeded by doubts about whether what he wants will be good or
bad.
Natrium sulphuricum, on the other hand, does not achieve what he wants
because the necessary resources are not at his disposal.
The substance
Cashew, also named East-Indian Marking nut, is the fruit of 'Semecarpus
anacardium' the marking nut tree. This tree-like bush grows up to twelve
meters tall, has an ash-coloured, rough bark, innumerably branched, almost
hairy branches and giant, oval, dark-green leaves with many veins on short
branches. The small star-shaped flowers are dull yellow-green and hang in
vertical clusters. The fruit is a black, shining, heart-shaped nut on a
yellow stalk.
Between the outer, shiny-black, heart-shaped, hard shell and the sweet
kernel within, covered by a thin, brownish-red skin, the fruit contains cell
tissue with a viscous, resin-containing juice the Hindus use to indelibly
mark their linen. The juice is pale and milky when fresh, but rapidly
becomes black when exposed to air. The juice is so acrid that even moles may
be cauterised by it. It was with a trituration of this juice, of the
consistence of honey, that Hahnemann conducted the original proving.
Unfortunately, at present this has been replaced with a tincture of the
whole fruit. (?)