Aethusa cynapium :: The self contained personality

Aethusa Cynapium

The need of the homeopaths for an accurate and realistic description is the personalities of the remedies. Our old materia medicas describe only the crude and extreme elements of the mental picture of the each remedy. There is extreme lack of subtleties of mental aspects of remedies. But the physical details are delineated nicely. As a matter of fact the mental symptoms are the least understood even today. So often the remedies are prescribed on the few physical symptoms, along with the gross simplification of the personality of the patient, and it is no wonder if there is a failure.

Independently of each other, medicine and psychology have accumulated a considerable amount of information in their particular fields. Much less progress has been made towards an understanding of how these two fields could be systematically correlated.

The diagnosis of a disorder as psychosomatic still implies the absence of "real" organic disease; that psychological difficulties might have very "real" physical manifestations is seldom considered seriously. The general trend of medical thought is still dualistic; psychic and somatic happenings are treated as mutually exclusive rather than inclusive.  

"Edward C. Whitmont"

Long persisted-in psychological imbalances particularly leave a deep mark on the body.

"Cornelia Richardson-Boedler"

Mind

Aethusa is a very fascinating remedy when we study its mental state. The main impression it gives that the patient is a loner and self-contained. He is introverted and is not involved in intimated relationship. Inside he experiences very deep, intense emotions, yet he does not communicate these emotions to other people. He may be moved to tears, but tears do not come. He may feel friendly, but he appears aloof. It seems that at a certain point in the psychopathological development of the Aethusa individual he has decided to refrain from communicating with other people. The emotional injury or disappointment which provokes this withdrawal may be surprisingly mild. We do not find in Aethusa a prolonged history of many bitter disappointments and griefs which can account for such introversion or withdrawal. Usually there is some past stress which does not seem very significant. The patient may say, "I didn't grow up in a happy family" or some other such vague statement, but nothing definite seems to have occurred to explain this decided withdrawal. This lack of a definitive and sufficient causation and its strange effect is a peculiarity of this remedy.

Such intense emotions, however, must find expression, and the Aethusa person seems drawn to one singular outlet: animals. This person who does not want to communicate with other human beings may have extraordinary communication with animals. He may develop an exaggerated attachment to animals and communicate all his pent-up emotions to his pets. From our earlier comparison of the primal emotions of Aethusa to those of a child we can understand this love for animals by recalling the love certain children develop for a pet. The Aethusa person may love animals more than he loves any human being. The patient actually may say, "I am not interested in the love of human beings, only the love of animals." He converses with animals as if they were human, and he derives great emotional satisfaction from this communication. In some cases he may even collect dozens of animals; he becomes an animal protector. If someone were to throw a rock at one of his pets, he could become livid and literally have the urge to kill the offender. The attachment can be so extreme that the patient may even consider bequeathing his estate to his animals.

Persons with a saturation of the subconscious mind, such as is the case with Aethusa, tend to manifest a host of symptoms at night and especially before falling asleep. The Aethusa person is aggravated by the dark. The darkness seems to permeate his being producing a heavy sensation in his chest. He fears suffocation in the dark and, as a consequence, is forced to turn on a light and open a window. He also fears death; this fear in Aethusa is especially peculiar and striking in that it tends to occur just at the moment when the patient is falling asleep, startling him to wakefulness. It seems that as the patient relinquishes rational control of his mind, the force of his loaded subconscious mind asserts itself in its entirety. Just as he begins to fall asleep subliminal, tumultuous emotions force themselves into his awareness, threatening to overwhelm him, and he starts with a marked fear of death.

Restless, anxious, crying. Unconscious, delirious. Inability to think, to fix the attention; from over study. Brain fag. Idiocy may alternate with furor and irritability.  Weepy; agg as disease progresses. Wants to jump out of bed or out of window. Examination funk from simple sense of incapacity. Fear before sleep to close eyes lest he should never wake. Delirium, amel perspiration. Delusions; fancies herself lost on waking; of animals; persons are rats, mice, insects, etc.; sees cats; sees dogs; sees rats. Irritability, during headache. Stupefaction during vertigo. 10 Feels different from other people; lives in his own sentimental world. LOVES ANIMALS, TALKS TO ANIMALS, LOOKS AFTER THEM WITH UNNATURAL PASSION. Reserved; feels unconnected to other people. Emotions strong but kept in, without a clear cause or a traumatic experience. Love for animals stronger than for humans, because of the idea that interpersonal communication is apt to fail. Reserved people with inwardly strong emotions; loners. Fear of narcosis.  Great sadness when alone. Irritability, especially in afternoon and in open air. Moroseness, and heavy feeling in forehead, and heat in head. Unable to read after overexertion of mental faculties. After social talking, all symptoms disappear.

Ailments from insignificant emotional trauma/disappointment, no clear cause. Aversion of things that excite their emotions. Fear: dark, fears suffocation in the dark. FEAR TO GO TO SLEEP (Mag-m.) fears come out when falling asleep (Acon.), esp. fear of death; fear they will never wake up.

Fear of not waking up after an operation. Fear of examination. Strong attachment to family. Fear member of family may die.

From the above symptoms one may think of Natrum Muriaticum, but on further examination in the history of the patient one does not find any type of strong mental trauma like intense grief or mortification which has compelled the patient to go in solitude.

Reportorial Analysis Aethusa Cynapium  

MIND - Awkward, lets things fall from hand. Brain-fag. Cretinism, imbecility, idiocy. Delirium - Sopor, stupor, coma. Imagination fancies, hallucination, illusions - Being frightened by a mouse running from under a chair. Memory - Forgetful, weak or lost. Memory - Difficulty or inability of fixing attention. Memory - Unable to think. Mood, disposition - Anxious. MIND - Mood, disposition - Fretful - cross, irritable, peevish, quarrelsome, whining

(Reversed Combined Repertory\Aethusa Cynapium, Some Unique Symptoms)

Delirium, perspiration amel. Delusions, tongue, long, too. Gestures, convulsive, sleep, during. Morose, heat in head, with, Serious noon amel  Stupefaction, vomiting (in a child) after. Thoughts, persistent, garment made previous. Unconsciousness, lying stretched out. Convulsions, eyes turned downwards. Dozing, convulsions with. Dozing, stool after. Garment, made the previous day. Menses, suppressed, bathing from, warm.

Note: I am skipping the physical symptoms of the remedy since the same are available in routine MMs.

References:

• Professor George Vithoulkas, Materia Medica Viva Vol I.
• Professor George Vithoulkas, Essence of M M, by B Jains.
• Roger Morrison I, 1987, Collected Seminars From Modern Classical Masters, Page 34.
• Edward C. Whitmont, Psyche and Substance.
• Cornelia Richarson-Boedler, Applying Homeopathy