Author:
Maarten van der Meer
Book:
Evolution of analysis
Type:
Case
Chapter:
3-642.11.17
Aconitum napellus
A 76-year-old woman, she is small in stature, a chatterbox who needs to tell her story. For a year now, she has had severe facial pain on the left side, which pulls toward her ear, head temporal, and nose. She cries from the pain, she cannot eat, drink, or talk. She cannot lie on it. It gets worse when bending over. Nasty stabbing pains. It feels like it's in her teeth. She can't handle it anymore. It's stiff and itchy, as if you're numb. When she rise up for sitting, there's a jolt of pain, she can't touch the painful areas. The pain is worse with sweet foods, when she disagrees with something, when she talks, loud music or noise causes pain. Occasionally, it feels as if her throat is constricting. It had been gone for a few months, but now it has been back for three months, since her sister's funeral after an emotional ordeal. When she talks about her sister, it can suddenly flare up again, in a flash. She bottles everything up, and then suddenly bursts out. She has also been struggling for years with the loss of her deceased older brothers. She sometimes picks up their photos and then she has to cry, saying aloud “Boys, help me, I miss you so much”. Her surviving brothers have Alzheimer's, and she is very concerned about them. She wanted to take them into her home at the time to care for them. Every consultation she tells the same story, emotional, charged, desperate. The itching is returning slightly. She still often feels that she is doing everything wrong. She often felt lonely at home. Her older sister was also her mother. Without pain, she can talk cheerfully. Vacation is fun, but she loves being at home so much. She was given Spiranthes autumnalis, Spigelia anthelmia, Plantago major, Vanilla planiformis, Ara macao, Berylium muriaticum, Ilex paraguaensis, Lithium phosphoricum, and Juncus effusis, all without effect. Over a year. 25 years ago, she had many skin problems, emotional tension, sleep incontinence, and dramatic stuttering. Her insecurity and skin problems decreased after Barium phosphoricum, 10 years ago the restlessness disappeared after Acipiter nisus, and five years ago her stuttering and bedwetting disappeared by 80% after Ananassa sativa. After that, she stayed away for five years. From her childhood, she stuttered severely, was very emotional, and felt inferior, “I couldn't learn.” She rattles on, despite stuttering when discussing painful subjects, with a naive openness and awkwardness.
Analysis
Series 4: family and village as living environment, she wants to help with practical matters, worries about this, does not feel at home in the outside world (theme of establishing yourself), adulthood as an issue.
Series 2: Family you come from, tradition, unstable, childhood. Series 2 fits the Magnoliales: survival, one's own body (as a limitation, as a boundary of space, experience, and possibilities).
Ranunculales: Protection, comfort, conflict between adult and child as a theme, clinging, support. Conflict between oneself, and one's strength (Series 2) versus society, ‘community’ (Series 4) is visible. One's vitality and survival from Series 2 and being functional, being part of the group, and society, achieving something as an independent person from Series 4.
Phase 3: ‘Need for support’. Help and protection as a theme.
Stage 1: naive, impulsive, unity, symbiosis. Severe pain, sudden.
Aconitum napellus: Despair pain (toothache), ailment death family, confusion about emotions, grief resigned, veneration, weeping with trembling and exhausting, painful face.
(Prescription was based on Wonderful Plants, Qjure now definite the remedy in Subphase 1 (here the same aspects of Stage 1) and Stage 17, seen in the despair, the loss, the pain out of control. Both interpretations are useful, with help of Repertorium one can find the remedy in rubrics, that fit the frame of the Ranunlales.)
Prescription: Aconitum napellus C 200
Follow-up
soon she is doing better; she can now touch her face. The pain is becoming less severe and less frequent. Her voice and face are now calmer than ever. She had her sister staying with her for a month, caring for her all day. After three months: it had been gone for weeks, but now it is coming back a little. After the vacation, she experiences a sharp pain when swallowing while lying down. She is busy with memories of her deceased sister; the urn has been reburied. The stuttering has now completely disappeared. She is always busy with others; it is hectic, and people say, “You have such patience.” She gets furious when she loses something; she is afraid of dementia. She is afraid that her husband will pass away; she cannot do the paperwork herself and does not understand banking matters (Series 2 and 4 conflicting). She still has memories from school: ‘You can't do it,’ she was ridiculed in front of the class. After four months, I bumped into her on the street: “Do you have some time for me?” Her oldest brother died the week before and had been suffering from dementia for a long time. She had a premonition, she had been “having to” go there for weeks. Despite the corona virus measures, she insisted, it was his last day. Year before they went to Lourdes together, and took a spiritual course with someone who protects them, who lifts her to a higher level. But now she is emotional, “What should I do now?” Since the death of her brother, she has had pain attacks again, and while talking about it, she feels such pain again that she has not been able to lie down for two nights.
Analysis 2
Predicting and sensing death fits with Aconitum napellus. This may be typical of the entire Ranunculaceae plant family. Because the situation now involves farewell and loss, Stage 17 is more applicable.
Prescription: Clematis recta C200
Follow-up
After this, she was at once calm that evening, no longer taking medication (pain killer), just feeling tense about the funeral. Characteristic is again seeking support in faith, together with family.