Minutus

Thanks so much to VT, Rosemary, Jean and Andy for contributing to the case.

Jean gave a really big clue as to the remedy (broken bones and broken life)
and VT's repertorisation - excellent and included here again to peruse:-

MIND - AILMENTS FROM - fortune; from reverse of
MIND - AILMENTS FROM - mortification
MIND - AILMENTS FROM - rudeness of others
MIND - BROODING - condition, over one's
MIND - DWELLS - past disagreeable occurrences, on
MIND - FORSAKEN feeling - isolation; sensation of
MIND - GRIEF - silent
MIND - INDIFFERENCE, apathy - business affairs, to
MIND - IRRESOLUTION, indecision - choosing things; in
MIND - WEARY OF LIFE
GENERALS - INJURIES - Bones; fractures of - slow repair of broken bones
GENERALS - INJURIES - Bones; fractures of - compound fracture.
There is more that could be added to these rubrics but this case came to me
at the end of a day and I chose NOT to repertorise or prescribe there and
then. I took time out to think about what was the diseased state that needed
curing.

I began thinking about "falling to pieces" - Lac Can; Lob; Thuja; Phos; etc
but I knew he was none of these. The case did not seem to go beyond the
injury to the bones and I went straight to Symphytum - mainly because I had
closeted this remedy as being only for broken bones. And it is so wrong to
do this - helpful, initially, when we begin to learn our MM but very
limiting in the long run.

Needless to say I prescribed Symphytum 1m without doing any repping (yes I
can hear the out cry from here, but it was at the end of the day) and I
could hardly believe that Symphytum covered the case so well. The analysis
came afterwards.

The client went on to a remarkable recovery, swiftly with no aggravations or
disturbance, 'got his life back together' and took off to enjoy it.

On reflection, there were parts of this case which were not to be included
in the 'needing to be cured' picture - the flamboyant language (more of that
later), the clothes he wore, the early hair loss (Symphytum does contain
Silicea which might be an angle on this), the itching skin (Symphytum has
really hairy leaves and if you touch it too much, although those hairs are
soft, they leave the skin red and sore and very itchy to those who might be
susceptible), the passionate and sexual level of his love. His hair did not
change but he was not concerned about this, even considered it quite trendy
and he has not since had a return of the itchy skin sx. He didn't choose to
talk too much about his relationship except that it was highly sexual and
passionate and Symphytum does has have ailments from sexual excess - this
was part of his sense of loss.

Symphytum is all about pain killing and it might be physical or emotional
pain. (I will always take that liberty of extending physical pain into
emotional pain.) The injuries or wounds are not from incisions or
lacerations (as in Calendula and other remedies) but from blows, blunt
instruments and have most effect on the soft parts.

Symphytum also has an affinity to broken bones, bone cancers, skin ulcers,
gastric and intestinal ulcers (draws off decaying tissues), haemorrhages and
bruising, eye injuries, suppressed menses, ailments from sexual excess,
inguinal hernia, skin and other parts has pricking pains, dysentery like
diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, defluxions of the lungs and spitting of blood.
Loves water - very thirsty. Contains Silicea and Gallic acid which might
give its connection to the lungs and blood.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Most of us will be familiar with this nursery rhyme, unfortunately the
origins actually refer to either a powerful cannon used during the English
Civil War which was tumbled to the ground by the Royalists and couldn't be
repaired, or to King Richard III who suffered from some kind of Scoliosis
and he was slain where he lay when he fell from his horse and no-one was
able to help him. Also the term humpty was often given to people who were of
portly stature. There are other renditions and you get the drift but it is
Charles Dodgson's use of Humpty Dumpty which gets to be really interesting.

Generally thought of as being haughty (high up on the wall and looking down
on people - but from great heights you can only fall downwards),
intellectual and an obnoxious egghead, it was Humpty's use of language with
Alice which fascinated me..."When I use a word", Humpty said, in a rather
scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor
less."

Alice then goes on to ask Humpty what the meaning of the poem Jabberwocky
is.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

My client wasn't quite of this calibre but it had me thinking about the
possible intellectual and emotional affinities to Symphytum. I really don't
know of any that come from the meagre? proving but Symphytum has a history
of being useful for many pulmonary diseases and there is often thought to be
a link with the emotions and the lungs.

My recent request about eggs was to do with this case - for fun I really
wanted to make a connection with Symphytum and eggs (the egghead reference
to Humpty was entirely coddled (sic) by Dodgson), but to no avail either.

Back to Homeopathy - there were some interesting points raised by those who
worked on the case.

In no way was I trying to trick people with this case, I gave it as I
received it. Perhaps I could have presented the case with a view to
influencing your direction of case analysis, but I didn't want to do that. I
think I found the remedy partly by chance and partly by homing in on the
'origin' of the case and not being flustered by what to rep, how to rep, or
being drawn into the richness of what stood outside of the case, like the
language and clothes. Normally I would give high grading to such aspects. It
is very easy to get carried away with repertorisation but it has to be
factual, pertain to the diseased state and not the healthy state, and be
kept simple.

Rosemary also brought in some valuable observations, she wrote:-

"When I ask myself "what needs to be cured?" I find myself thinking that the

I always try to take a case back to its origins - by this I mean take it to
where it really begins. I will always give importance to tendencies towards
certain conditions before that time as this can be clues as to the general
miasmatic influence, but I try to put a circle around the case and contain
it. In this case, although there were family problems, possibly the ease of
wealth could have been contributing and there was skin sx in the background,
this case began with the broken bones - who knows what would have happened
if that accident had not occured.
seems basically pretty sycotic, the present situation might well be an acute
miasmatic response superimposed on his constitutional state. What's the
best way to deal with this?"

This would make for a really good discussion - any offers? Hopefully it
would not be cheeky to suggest that Ardavan might contribute his thoughts on
this subject of acute miasms fusing with the chronic state.

Finally, from CD,

"Alice waited a minute to see if Humpty would speak again, but, as he never
opened his eyes or took any further notice her, she said 'Good-bye!' once
more, and, getting no answer to this, she quietly walked away: but she
couldn't help saying to herself, as she went, 'of all the unsatisfactory...'
(she repeated this aloud, as it was a great comfort to have such a long word
to say) 'of all the unsatisfactory people I ever met...' she never finished
the sentence, for at this moment a heavy crash shook the forest from end to
end.!"

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes, Joy Lucas.

Wow.
Joy, this was fascinating!!!!

You say, "The case did not seem to go beyond the injury to the bones." Can
you explain? While I understand that slow healing is a situation very
fundamental to the organism (and so one I would try hard to include in my
repping), I would not have recognized it as central to the current situation
-- unless I felt I was onto a plausible constitutional/chronic prescription,
but you've noted only constitutional features *not* to rep....

The girlfriend left while he was recovering from broken bones, but if this
had not happened, she presumably would have left some other time, for some
other reason, and presumably his reaction then would have been similar. If
the breakup had occurred after, say, being out of town on family matters,
and he had come in complaining of the same things minus the "slow healing of
broken bones" part, what might have been the clue to symphytum?

Thanks again!
Shannon
on 2/17/03 8:02 AM, Joy Lucas at joy.lucas@ntlworld.com wrote:

Dear Shannon,

What I meant by "not going beyond the injury to the bones" is that the case
started there and there was nothing really before that (except the skin)
which was brought forward either by the client or by my questions to him. So
this is why I started at this point. This is something I do with most cases
- go to the starting point. If he hadn't had a residue of that accident to
his bones then the slant on the case might have been different - but he did
and it had to be included - maybe it was coincidence that his emotional
suffering began at that time as well. But we can only speculate about what
didn't happen and utilise what did.

If there had not been any aspect of "never been well since broken bones"
then it would have been a very different case and probably a very different
remedy.

Pleased you enjoyed it.

Best wishes, Joy

Thanks, Shannon, for phrasing my basic question much more clearly than I
managed to do.

I agree -- this is a fascinating case, and I thank Joy for sharing it.

Rosemary

>

What about Hahnemann's concept of stronger dissimilar disease? In paragraph §38, he talks about the new disease (say, an accident) being stronger than the chronic disease. In this case, the chronic disease will be kept back and "suspended by the accession of the stronger one, until the latter shall run its course or be cured, and then the old one reappears uncured."

Or, as in §40, the new disease and the old chronic form a complex disease.

In any case, the most prevalent disease should be addressed first (as a smaller totality) and then go back to the other one. Hahnemann also talks about alternating remedies to treat complex diseases.

Just a thought.

Yol
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