I am a Short-tempered, Selfish loner - A Case of Intense Anger and Anti-social Behaviour: Androctonus amoreuxiAuthor – Dr. Rishi Vyas, In-house Consultant, the other song
I first saw this 32-year-old man on 13th July, 2013. When I first scanned the case record form filled by this person, it was very apparent that he hardly had any physical complaints. He had mainly come to me so that I could help him with short temper.
This case has excerpts of the patient’s narration and is edited for brevity. The understanding of the doctor is highlighted in italics. The index for short forms is D: Doctor, P: Patient, HG: Hand gesture.
P: I am very short tempered. I am also very selfish. I come across as a loner, I like to be alone… My anger is terrible. I regret later on. My biggest scare is that I may do something terrible in anger.
(Observation – restless legs)
My sleep is not good. I get very restless. I get very angry even when driving on the road. Often get road rage. I get very impulsive when driving. There is intense anger. Even when telling you about it, I am feeling angry.
There is a pause, the patient does not seem to speak further. As anger was the main thing that the patient spoke about till now, and it indicated a lot of intensity, I ask him to speak more about this anger.
D: Talk more about this anger.
P: I am very punctual. I get very irritated if someone is late or if I get late. That time I feel as if my blood is boiling, I become very aggressive. I throw things. There is intense aggression in me then. There is anger if someone ditches me, if someone is not on time. I am used to having my own way, anything otherwise makes me angry.
D: Tell more about having your own way.
P: I want to do all things as I want. I feel that I am right, I do not listen to people. I am selfish that way. If things don’t happen as I want, I get very angry. I start screaming, become abusive. I feel like punching. I shout at the top of my voice. I often hit the cupboard very hard. I just want to do everything my way. I am very quick to act, almost impulsive, react very fast.
D: Tell more about want everything my way
P: when they tell me something, I feel that they are attacking me. I become defensive. There is lot of aggression in me, I start screaming. I feel very bad. If someone does not listen to me also I feel bad. No one should say no to anything I suggest. I have a lot of ego. How can they say no?!! in my ego, I sometimes do things which are not right too.
P: As a child, I was very aggressive too. I used to take the chair and hit it on the floor or I kicked the bucket hard in anger. I was not afraid to tell no to someone if I did not like it. Even today I am very opinionated, form quick opinions. It is like a double –edged sword, my anger and opinionated nature; I know it is wrong, but I cannot control it. It is just that I cannot control my mind. I do something and 30 seconds later, I regret it. I know my actions have no justification.
D: Tell more about your nature
P: I am very lazy otherwise. It is like sometimes I care about things and sometimes I don’t. It is like I have a lot of ego and sometimes I don’t. I am selfish and selfless both. I am not close to people. It is like one month I have a lot of friends and the next month I don’t know where they are. If someone is not respectful towards me, I feel bad quickly. We have a family business, I am a team player in that. I do not feel jealous of other people.
(Observation – Loquacity)P: I do not feel jealous, but if there is no recognition, I feel bad. I want to be alone that time. Do not want to talk to anyone. I am angry, I just want to be in my own world and not talk to anyone. I will quarrel if anyone talks to me then. I just don’t want to be disturbed. I just sit quiet for a long time, maybe I am randomly thinking then or maybe I have no thoughts. This happens 3-4 times in a week. I just don’t want to talk to people, be with them. My wife thinks that I am becoming antisocial, but I don’t feel I am….
P: I am very sensitive to comparison with anyone. I am not very ambitious. I want a good night’s sleep. Feel that I should have a comfortable life. I have a tendency to snap easily at my wife. She is very ambitious. I do not sulk over things, just get things done in a jiffy. In the process, I can be very selfish. I can detach very fast, hardly have any attachment. I feel I am strongly connected to someone, but in a minute there is no contact. Maybe I do not care, maybe I do not have a good communication. I did say I was friendly and open earlier… Sorry! I have no hang ups later.
I see that the patient is quite loquacious, I am noting points without interrupting him and making note of important symptoms in the process. I let him continue in the flow of his narration uninterrupted.
P: I have a dream of being recognized, that many people know me, respect me. I expect that people should speak up and tell me if they do not like me. I am not diplomatic….
Now, I have a fair idea of his main complaint – anger and his nature at present. So I would like to see how he reacts in different situation. Important for me is to know how his original nature was, his nature as a child. This is where I will get a true uncompromised picture of his nature. So I proceed and ask him about his nature in childhood.
D: Tell me about your childhood.P: I had a lot of issues with my grandfather, I did not like him. He was always controlling my father. I was very small at that time. He was drunk all the time. I used to scream at him. I hated him and always thought why my father could not stand up against him. I felt like taking a stand for my father, but could not thinking what others would say. When my dad came home from office, he would tell me of the humiliation he faced. When I heard all that, I felt very bad. Was very angry – I felt like screaming, abusing, just going away and felt intense anxiety in my stomach. I used to be very upset by how my grandfather used to control my father so much. He was always putting my father down. Watching this, I was so angry that I wanted to kill my grandfather. Maybe he did not like the fact that my father was going to succeed him on the ladder of success. My father had been to Harvard and he was the first in the family to do so, so my grandfather did not like it. I wanted my father to move away from him and the home.
P: My grandfather was a very negative person, he always kept on complaining that he was always alone. I did not like it, I wanted to have fun. So I moved out of home. Now when I had to come back home, I did not like it. I was very angry. It did not feel like home anymore. I felt like locking myself in room and not talking to anyone. I felt everyone there was a hypocrite and that everyone was like animals. We were like entertainment for servants. I missed the peace of mind.
I do not like politics, so I keep people at a distance. I make good friends, but sometimes I would just close up and snap at a person, so there was no lasting attachment.
D: Tell about your interest and hobbies.P: I like sports, almost fanatic about National Football League. I also like golf, cricket. I played a lot of soccer and basketball during college but never pursued it further. The experience in playing is totally different all together. I like competitiveness. I want to win when I play, I am not like that at work. I am not very ambitious. In school too, I used to just get cut off marks. Even at work, I do not like being at work constantly. People suggest different things – do this, do that, then I get very angry and feel like shouting a lot. I do not feel like working a lot. E.g. if a client is expected to visit by 10 am, I feel there is no use reaching the office by 9 am.
As a person he loves non-vegetarian food (he belongs to a strictly vegetarian family) and likes red meat, steak, hamburgers, alcohol++, berry, fruits. He is totally averse to sweets. Thermally, he cannot bear hot weather and needs an air-conditioned all the time. He is afraid of stray dogs. He does not like planning things.
Explanation:
The patient’s main complaint is his behaviour which is almost antisocial and his intense anger. He gets angry easily and in anger gets impulsive. He gets abusive, impulsive, hits, punches and feels his blood boiling. He has no control over his anger and easily indulges in road rage. He immediately regrets his outburst of anger, but has not control over it in the moment.
The patient is very impatient by nature, cannot wait and unpunctuality makes him angry. If he gets close to people, he immediately cuts off, almost a sudden detachment and then he has no feeling for them; they don’t matter to him anymore, and reacts as if he knows the, no longer. He also cuts off in particular from his wife and acts very cold towards her in anger. Thus if we are to see only his anger and try to see various aspects and take its characteristic so as to describe it in complete, to understand it as a totality, we get:
(Complete Repertory, copyright @Roger van Zandvoort, from MacRepertory 8.2.01, Professional)
Then if we are to look at the other side to his nature, is a state where he does not want to meet anyone and just wants to be with himself. He goes into a room and does not want to talk to anyone; likes to be quiet and alone by himself. That time, he does not like to interact or be with anyone. So this might comes from a deep feeling, a sense of isolation from the world. He likes to in his own space. When we are to repertories these symptoms, we get:
(Complete Repertory, copyright @Roger van Zandvoort, from MacRepertory 8.2.01, Professional)
If we are to see his childhood, we see here a subtle hint of animal kingdom – of me v/s you, a projection in his sensitivity towards his grandfather. He describes his grandfather as the one who was always pulling his father back and who never allowed him to go ahead in life. The patient hated his grandfather for taking control of his father’s life and not allowing him to do things independently. He would get very angry at his crass behaviour. Since then he became very aggressive. The patient desperately wanted that his father should move away from his grandfather’s influence and away from his home. The feeling that he persistently had was that his grandfather controlled both his and his father’s lives. There is so much hatred that he still does not want to go to his old home and does not feel connected to it.
The patient loves playing sports and likes to win. He is very competitive by nature. He loves to travel and is very sensitive to heat and has intense desire for meat. All this when added to the earlier totalities and when looked together as a phenomenon, gives us a totality which is peculiar only to that patient. So on repertorizing all characteristic symptoms of the patient, we get:
(Complete Repertory, copyright @Roger van Zandvoort, from MacRepertory 8.2.01, Professional)
When we just take the simple symptoms as it is we get Androctonus as remedy coming. What is interesting that when I read the proving from Jermy Sherr’s, the one of the main thing which came in the proving was about the anger and indifference of the animal. He says, “there is a chilling sense of detachment and indifference among those needing Scorpion. They seem indifferent to either pain or pleasure, to their surroundings and to the welfare and the opinion of others. This can feel like dreaminess or being drugged”. Also we if we are to look at some other rubrics of the case, we see Scorpion coming up prominently.
(Complete Repertory, copyright @Roger van Zandvoort, from MacRepertory 8.2.01, Professional)
We have in our materia medica 2 more provings of scorpion, one is Scorpio europaeus, (European Scorpion), the proving of which is listed in Allens Encyclopedia. We have a recent proving of the same remedy done by Eberle, Hans & Ritzer, Friedrich, which adds to more understanding of the remedy. In Scorpion proving done by Eberle, Hans & Ritzer, Friedrich we also see affinity – of hatred / anger towards family.
Also, if we are to look at the case from the perspective of system, Androctonus belongs to the Animal Kingdom and class
Arachnida which is the same class which spiders are classified under. This class is known for his impulsiveness, quick anger, malice and rage.
References:
Jermy sherr Proving: Androctonus
Mind
Felt depressed and destructive, did not care if things were broken. (1)
Averse to his normal work, wanted to quit and avoid work. (1)
Felt detached, very interested in little things. (5)
Felt disconnected from the human race, as if everyone were another species. Directionless. (7)
Totally detached - not from self but from surroundings. (10)
Cancelled an appointment without any remorse. Thought "maybe I shall feel guilt later." (7)
Very changeable moods, one moment extremely friendly, nice and amiable, then irritable. (1)
Felt constrained and had a gloomy approach to everything, averse company, desire to be alone. I feel people will not want to talk or be with me. (28)
Absolutely terrified of dog on street, for no apparent reason, with numbness and tingling through every part of his body, followed by a sick feeling in the stomach.
Terrible uncontrollable temper. (7)
Can't avoid shouting at people she was intolerant of, could not hide her feelings. More impatient with others and herself. (7)
Assertive, impatient, aggressive. Felt resentful and abused. Had no control over her temper. Bellowed and lashed out at everyone. In the evening, furious for no apparent reason. Wanted to kill her husband and children, banged doors and threw things.
Desire to break things. (7)
Short tempered in afternoon, easily excited to anger, worse from being interrupted. (12)
Became excited to anger and confrontation. She was not aware of hurting others' feelings and did not seem to care.
Interesting – issue with grandfather:
He dreamt that she had murdered her grandfather by poking a knitting needle through his eyes while he slept. Though she felt no remorse, she wanted to be punished but no-one would accept her guilt.
Remedy given:Androctonus amurreuxi hebraeus 1M, 1 dose
Follow – upWhen the patient visited me in 2 months time, he felt very calm. He said that he was very patient and took a lot of time before reacting. He hardly got angry now, and he lost his temper only when someone really irritated him. His overall health was good, but he took a long time to fall asleep. He gets dreams which are work related. His work pattern had improved as his concentration levels were better and also irritation was absent. He also went to a holiday for 3 weeks where he was peaceful and experienced no anger at all! His anger during driving also has greatly come down.
What is more his life had changed for better. His relationship with his wife was much better. In his words, “I am closer to her and am becoming more connected. I feel as if we are becoming one. The agitation in our relation has gone away and we are very happy. I am listening more, and not reacting much in anger.”
The patient continued following up with me for the next 7 months and every time I administered placebo due to continual improvement and no new signs or symptoms. In one of the follow-ups, his wife who had accompanied him, said that he was a changed and a much calmer person. After a few months, we agreed that he did not need treatment anymore and I instructed him to stop the medicines.