Psycho-dynamics of Platinum

In some workshop some difficult group behaviour were identified and given the personalities of animal from which Platina can be identified as combination of -

The Giraffe - who looks down on others and in general feels that
"I am above it all".
&
The Peacock - who is always competing for attention
"see what a fine fellow  I am".

This is a very rare constitutional type. PRIDE is the chief characteristic of this constitution associated with   hysteria & nymphomania. Presence of pride in an individual can be identified by the following characteristics.

Rudeness		Egotism
Contradiction in tolerance of	PRIDE	Consolation intolerable of
Admonition		Censorious

Platina individual can be grouped in to 3, i.e. -

1. 'Sane', more or less
2. On the borderline case of 'sane and insane'
3. 'Insane'

 

SANE - All hysterical are prone to feelings of anxiety and panic, Platina has no exception.

Free-floating anxiety alternating with feeling of power of superiority is very much common in Platina (particularly in Insane type).

They are very sensitive, passionate (sexually & in many other things), emotional individual (like Ignatia), less healthy psychologically and easily gets frightened by the intensity of her own feelings.

They have mental delusions, as if everything around her are too small, all persons are inferior physically and mentally, except her, sometimes associated with a sensation of growing larger in all direction .

She thinks and realizes about being a great person of high quality and confident enough about her superiority as mare negativity of her associates attracts her attention instantly, even she interprets the quality of her associates according to her quality.

It differs from Cannabis Indica -

PLATINA Pitiful "looking down' upon people usually venerated, a kind of 'casting them off' unwillingly. She experience that other people as very small - a visual illusion which is consistent with the pride.	CANNABIS INDICA Feels that the body is too large which is not related to pride.
Kent : DELUSION AS TO THE GREATNESS OF THE BODY.

Above said delusions are sometimes associated with strange and highly characteristic like -

Kent : ' DEATH - SENSATION OF'

• body is dead or generalized / localized numbness; 
• constriction or ring around the bodily parts. (Plumbum Met.)

Kent : ' AILMENTS FROM SCORN'. 'OVERSENSATIVE, DELUSION - DESERTED, FORSAKEN '.

• Haughty, indifferent suddenly while in company. Treats others a little dismissively as if they were not worth her time.
• Very much sensitive to rejection which is ironic in-view of her own attitude towards other people.
• Feelings of slighted, ignored or abandoned. (Nat.Mur & Ignatia)

W. Boericke : PHYSICAL SYMPTOM DISAPPEARS AS MENTAL SYMPTOMS DEVELOPS '.

Alternation of mood, which is the characteristic feature, found extreme in less healthy Platina, e.g. -

• Alternation between physical symptoms and psychological states -
  
  

  HEADACHE		ANXIETY
  SEXUAL- EXCITEMENT		DEPRESSION

  
  
• Alternation between sanity and insanity as the pathology progresses.
• Alternation between two markedly abnormal state -
  
  

  INTENSE SEXUAL AROUSAL

  RAMPANT FANTASISING

  
  
• Alternation between two distinct mood -
  
  

  GYE		SAD
  MOROSE		EUPHORIC
  CALM		EXTREMELY IRRITABLE &  TENSE

Kent : ' RELIGIOUS-ALTERNATE WITH SEXUAL EXCITEMENTS', 'RELIGIOUS AFFECTION''.

Kent :  ' IMAGINES BEING DOOMED '

RELIGIOUS

DELUSION OF GRANDEUR or FEAR OF DAMATION

Kent : ' MANIA-PUERPERAL, 'ANGUISH DURING MENSES '

• Alternate mood is particularly marked prominently and after child birth.

INSANE -

SANE

after life difficulties, especially involves in grief or shock

gradually derange mentally towards INSANITY

Kent : ' PROPENSITY TO KILL' , 'SUDDEN IMPULSE TO KILL'

Violent thoughts may become persistent as sanity recedes, particularly
the thoughts  of  stabbing  somebody  at  the  sight  of  a  knife,

minimumly

impulse to hurt someone, mentally condemning him up to any
extent which gives relief to her mental condition. (Borderline case)

 W. Boerick : 'MENTAL TROUBLE ASSOCIATED WITH SUPPRESSED MENSES '.

• Platina has a tendency to suffer from Gynaecological and hormonal problem.
• Tightness of the thighs, as if too tightly wrapped, numbness and weary sensation.

Kent : ' SEXUAL THOUGHTS INTRUDS '

Platina principally known for its sexually obsession		when indulged
	SEXUAL DESIRE (feels guilty)
It is so demanding that usually causes distress as well		Sensible women cannot escape from it which interrupt her normal thinking

The Platina individuals those who resist the urges becomes gradually psychologically imbalance.

 

Inflation of ego increases more and more, to the extreme as the pathology progresses.

When she accepts someone and gets close to, she becomes devastated when loses them (Nat. Mur & Ignatia). So Platina's emotional depth should not be judged by her sexual desire.

Kent : ' AILMENTS FROM GRIEF '

Ultimately she torn between her  'great love' to whom she love from the core of the heart and 'Insane anger'. The outlets of this typical type of emotion are -

• singing / dancing releases her fiery emotions. As the mental state deteriorates, she develops aversion to it to act in front of others because of panicky feelings and gradually stop even at home. Thus she miss this outlay of her emotion.
• love is an passionate as her anger.
• feels better from crying, worse from consolation.

 Kent : ' PRESENTMENT  OF  DEATH '  

Platina has fear of people particularly of large group. Hallucination of spirit brings fear of ghosts & fear of being killed someone by it. Fear of immanent death.

Kent : 'LAUGHING OVER SERIOUS MATTER'

When becomes more unhealthy psychologically, there may be a tendency to laugh inappropriately.

 

Emotional disturbances not only disturb the Platina individual in the mental level, gradually it attacks the physical level. In such cases emotion typically involves reactions throughout the organism. The complexity of emotion is indicated in the many changes and inter-relationships, which occur in emotional arousal.

In chronic stages, emotional stress sometimes results in psychosomatic reactions, such as ulcer, which are physical disorders influenced by psychological factors. In addition to the duration of stress the predictability of the situation and the opportunity for coping responses seem to be influential factors in the appearances of psychosomatic disorders, and thus it extends to physical level. 

Reference :

1)       Allen's Keynote
2)       Homoeopathic Materia Medica - W.Boericke
3)       Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Kent
4)       Homoeopathic Psychology - Philip M. Bailey
5)       Psychology - Peter S. Fernald
6)       Contribution of Homoeopathy to the development of Medicine - Otto Leeser