High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
Mark O'Sullivan, 2
nd
Year Irish School of HomeopathyEssay: Sycotic Miasm & Remedies10. Jan. 2006
Compare and contrast any two anti-sycotic remedies to identify andillustrate the fundamental nature of the sycotic personality.
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing exceeds like excess” -
Oscar Wilde
The sycotic miasm, one of the original Hahnammanian miasms, is said to be present as the resultof inheritance of suppressed Gonorrhoea, a sexually transmitted disease characterised by intense,painful inflammation and profuse discharge of yellow-green pus. The key here from thehomeopathic perspective is the profuseness of discharge, accompanied by increased urination.The disease causes the profuse production of pus in order to counteract the infection. The Sycoticmiasm is said to be Gonorrhoea, suppressed by allopathic treatment and thereby pushed deeper into the vital force. This mistunement is then passed down the ancestral line, expressing itself inmental, emotional or physical symptoms which have excess and extremes as their keynote.The word
sycotic
has its roots in the Greek for “fig” (
syco
) due to the figwarts, resembling figs
,which sometimes accompany gonorrhoeal conditions and along with growths of many kinds, areindicative of a diathesis involving overproduction. Figwarts and other growths feature in thesymptom picture of some prominent anti-sycotic remedies, two of which are discussed below.
Thuja Occidentalis
Made from the
Arbor Vitae,
or “tree of life”, a species of Cedar tree which grows in damp places.Known to herbalism for its balsamic resin, invaluable for moving catarrh from congested lungs. TheCedar is held in many cultures, quiteindependently, as a tree which wards off evilspirits and is planted close to dwellings for thisreason
. Already we see some
Thuja
remedykeynotes – susceptible to damp
andoverproduction from the mucus membranesalong with a tendency towards spiritualism,including communication with the dead. Smallcones, like warts, form on the branches of theCedar. It is the original sycotic remedy,
1 Ortega, p692 Buhner, in lecture at Convergence Festival3 Vithoulkas, p205Page 1 Of 4
Thuja Occidentalis
Mark O'Sullivan, 2
nd
Year Irish School of HomeopathyEssay: Sycotic Miasm & Remedies10. Jan. 2006
identified by Hahnemann as a treatment for suppressed Gonorrhoea.Individuals needing
Thuja
feel as though there is something wrong with them and compensate byextreme strategies of subterfuge both toward themselves and others. Abuse can sometimes be thetrigger for this. The more primal drives are guiltily denied expression within the personality. Hence,they can become disconnected from themselves in an elaborately constructed social personadesigned to appear virtuous, calm and above reproach
. They can appear open, like Phosphorus
or very structured, like Kali Carb
while all the time being secretive and very careful not to exposetheir “true” natures. They compartmentalise their lives and can be quite different in temperament toone set of friends than to another. While all the time behind this façade they can be filled withdoubt, believing themselves to be ugly and contemptuous.This disassociation can lead to their feeling weak and fragile in their bodies. And through anexcess of mental control, rigidity in thinking and in the physique can result. Therefore, they can becruel and obsessive in mind and arthritic in body. The basic drives can be sublimated into religiousfervour and relations with the spirit realms. They feel “split” and estranged from themselves. Thesuppressed vital force, needing expression, can manifest physically in growths, tumours, warts,polyps and moles.
Argentum Nitricum
Silver nitrate is a poisonous compound which used to be used medicinally for eye infections. It isalso used in the development of photographs, due to its sensitivity to light, and in the production of explosives. Photophobia is an
Arg Nit
symptom, as isepilepsy brought on by flashing lights
. They can havevery good, “photographic” memories.A person in an Arg. Nit. state is hurried, anxious andexcitable. They feel pressure when working to deadlinesand fear failure. They can be riddled with phobias andsuperstitions, strange ideas that stick in their headsleading them to act in a seemingly irrational manner.
4Sankaran, p2035Wallace, p1506Vithoulkas, p2077Vermeulen, p155Page 2 Of 4
Argentum Nitricum
Mark O'Sullivan, 2
nd
Year Irish School of HomeopathyEssay: Sycotic Miasm & Remedies10. Jan. 2006
They are highly loquacious, lateral thinking troubleshooters
who are intellectually omnivorous.Their performance anxiety can lead to gastric problems, “explosive” flatulence, eructations anddiarrhoea
. With all the mental energy firing, nerves can also become frazzled, with heartpalpitations and in extreme cases, epilepsy. They are warm blooded and crave sugar.Two key issues for the
Arg Nit
state are fear of losing control and expanded personal boundaries.The
Arg Nit
state is one of feeling somehow internally disordered, set apart from others andperhaps even feeling despised. They fear insanity. They can do nothing right and feel that theycannot ever succeed. In the face of this they must maintain control and “hold it together”, prevail intimes of crisis or alternatively, just drop everything and leave on a whim if they give in to their escapist tendencies
. They are accelerated and impulsive, getting into everything around them.They can lack a sense of social appropriateness, being extremely direct. Their anxiety can beexacerbated if there are temporal or spacial boundaries set around them, blocking any means of flight. They are better for open spaces.
Sycotic Nature of the remedies
As already noted, the sycotic miasm is one of extremes on every level of the individual. Both
Thuja
and
Arg Nit
exhibit extreme overreaction to negative internal feelings resulting in a flight to themind, where fixed or obsessive ideas and a desire to maintain control result in disordered mentalbehaviour which distracts them from that which they would rather not acknowledge – dark inner feelings of somehow being deficient. This is expressed through polish and control in
Thuja
but
Arg Nit
distracts himself with frenetic activity.The flip side of this extremity is weakness
and both remedies experience symptoms of physicalweakness along with obsessive worry about the state of their health and low self esteem.Physical overproduction is marked in both remedies. In growths and discharges for
Thuja
, whereasthis is cheifly expressed in flatulence for
Arg Nit
. Mentally, both remedies are extreme with
Arg Nit
in particular turning this into a torrent of verbiage. Ultimately, both have an excess of cowardicetoward their primal energies which causes one to hide and the other to take flight.
8Sankaran, p169Tyler, p8110Sankaran, p1711Wallace, p148Page 3 Of 4
Add a Comment
simillibusleft a comment