Case by Maarten van der Meer
A 62-year-old woman, she is restless and anxious. She looks calm and stable, talking and moving with businesslike efficiency, carefully observing how and if her intentions come across, maintaining steady eye contact, and having a clear grip on the course of the conversation. A bit rigid, the eyes are alarmed. In her speaking and body language, she shows that she is constantly probing exactly what is being asked while considering what and how she says things. The emotional topics do not just come up; the telling comes across as a constant consideration of whether this is important to tell for the understanding of her situation; do I want to tell this now, is the atmosphere in which I am telling clear, and is it familiar to tell. Only after a while does she show the back of her tongue, although she is still open and very helpful and cooperative. Principal she came for an elevated cholesterol level of 8.7, which worried her intensely (this dropped miraculously quickly to 6 a week after
Aurum muriaticum natronatum). Six months earlier she had surgery on her left eye for acute glaucoma, which was an anxious time for her with intense emotions “because there was something wrong with her.” Two years before that, the turmoil began in response to a cyst found during a breast examination. This succession of examinations and treatment left her emotionally fierce. It left her feeling anxious and insecure, unable to trust her own body, feeling outlawed. As a response to the recently developed anxiety, she is going to spend a period reflecting on what she wants. Her job is policy officer in a healthcare facility. She no longer likes the work, quality is no longer at the forefront. The human touch is no longer there and has given way to professionalism. “I have two different sides, contributing nicely and neatly to healthcare, and a creative piece; drawing, singing, haiku's, I would like to write.” She feels better with lots of exercises, walking, dancing, and Chi Gong. She has an interest in art but also enjoys nature very much. Sleep has always been light and she wakes frequently but is not tired during the day. Several years ago, when the transition gave dry eyes and mood swings that made her feel very affected, she had dreams in which she was being chased and could not move forward. In busy times, she had dreams involve water. In this dream she is walking in an old beautiful city and at the end of a street she sees a beautiful vista, through which she sees a tidal wave coming, straight toward her, but she wakes up in time. She calls herself sensitive and frets about people she is involved with but also about TV images. Especially when she sees children grieving and by war images, she is strongly affected. She tends to take care of others, take over work, and would like to take over the fate of children. This is a pattern that developed early, she had a little sister with heart problems for whom she often cared. She had a strict father, who presented God as a strict gentleman. She was brought up very religiously with images of hell and damnation, giving herself a bad label. Throughout her life, she has been searching for what God is, through reading and spiritual things. She is a seeker in life, it is in her to think about meaning. She calls herself opinionated and a bit of a free spirit. “If they give me space it goes well. But don't constrain me, that gives unrest and makes me unkind!”. Much of what she talks about is in a careful, analytical way, which is remarkable because she talks so much specifically about feelings and emotions. She also has a stomach complaint; upon waking she feels a slight nagging pain that disappears after bowel movements. Sleeping is going well. She wonders if she is holding back things she feels are coming. Cries often at music. A dream that has made a big impression: “I'm driving with my youngest son in the car, and see a fire in the distance, have to keep driving, left and right on the road are burning cars with half charred people in them. We turn the corner here, can turn and are gone” She experiences this period as heavy because of the confrontation with the past, the lack of assertiveness, not standing up for herself, a childhood with loneliness without asking. Recently she canceled the dentist, she has always been anxious about it, which she finds very weak herself. She names a sensitivity she has always had: a very strong sense of how other people feel, and strong experiences absorbing energy from others. She also feels trees, she has something special about them. She deals a lot with her past, and anger and always adapting).
AnalysisPatterns from her past surface: not standing up for herself, just keeping your mouth shut, beating emotions inward, taxing great sensitivity to people and feelings, not expressing anger, withdrawing from people, need, and sense of art and beauty. A clear and characteristic reference to the
Malvales. The dream with her youngest son tells a lot: in my experience in dream symbolism, a dream about one's youngest child symbolizes the future, in a car symbolizing one's power, meaning “being on the road,” going somewhere, and this brings her to the confrontation with fire and charred people. This fits with the repressed and kept-inside anger (fire) and things and feelings that cannot be changed (dead people) that she escapes by taking a different route. Within this
Family of
Plants you can differentiate: the directory mentions at dreams dead bodies
Dirca palustris, at dreams fire
Daphne indica). Her doubt at this stage of life fits an early stage, 4 or 5, in my own experience Dirca fits
Stage 4 and Daphne fits
Stage 5.
Prescription:
Daphne indica MK.
Follow upAfter intake she had very red eyes for two days, abdomen became less sensitive. The month after intake she names as turbulent mentally. She had many moods and went through a development, in terms of awareness and self-reflection. For example, she decided to stop working altogether. She gets angry about the lack of respect in the workplace but does not express it on the spot. At home she ventilates, when she is alone she can swear but doesn't. Once she was so angry she had to go for a walk to get it under control, which she had never experienced before. She realizes that she has always let all kinds of things wash over her. Now she is working on assertiveness, she suddenly can set boundaries, but it's just still very unsubtle. Sleep is good. In a dream she first sees her current husband's ex-wife through a window, then in a mirror, she sees her face but all black. She has always lived from a model of harmony, but that doesn't always work. To maintain unity she has put herself aside, now doubts whether she should have named more things. She can look back with tears at what she has made of it in life. A pattern from her childhood was to always be considerate of everything and everyone. Caring about others, caring, helpful. It hurt her when others were not that way toward her. But she has never indicated what she wants and how she wants to be treated, even to her husband. The energy is getting better and better. After three months, she calls sleep beneficial, she no longer has scary dreams, though the theme of water is still present. She says she has come closer to herself. A feeling of vague anxiety, a dark feeling that had been present for months, has now disappeared. The mood is no longer so sad, she is more hopeful now with all kinds of plans. She can stand up for herself, although she can still feel guilty about it. She has visited the dentist without fear. Over the next six months, the abdominal discomfort returns regularly, but energy and mood are still improving. Confrontations she deals with, after which she often has unusual dreams. She describes herself as shy, although no one sees that. In the company, she does not feel happy. She is there, she behaves socially, sees many things happening, and can feel very lonely about it. She says she loves hollyhocks, but they never do in her garden.
Discussion: this case tells us a lot of the indications of the
Malvales, and in my opinion also the characteristics of the
Malvidae. In
Plant theory the Thymelaceae were incorporated in the
Malvales family. She continues to do well, dealing well with her sensitivities, which give her many wonderful impressions and allow her to enjoy them, but also make her vulnerable. Given good sleep and peaceful dreams, processing no longer seems to be a burden. When there are strong emotions, they work out in the gut. The additional information, she gives by describing herself and her sensitivity, fits very well with the previously seen image of
Daphne indica. Her story before and after the drug, reflect well the sensitivity and feeling is a theme. Sometimes recognizable as a burdening factor, sometimes as a resolving factor, and sometimes as an eliciting or characteristic trait. Differentiation in this is: Daphne goes much more with the attention somewhere, as it were energetically with the head towards someone, where the question is whether there is still enough contact with one's own body. This can create uncertainty. Dirca will let everything come to him, and stays in his fortress, not a fighter.