Selaginella krausianaA 26-year-old woman comes in with acne vulgaris, with painful abscesses measuring 1.5 cm in size and filled with yellowish pus. She was made unemployed, which left her feeling completely lost. She was treated badly at the garden center where she worked as an unskilled labourer; she was pushed about and told, that if she were to be rehired as a disabled person, they would accept her on those terms. However, she did not want to be labeled as disabled – she felt completely exposed – she had worked hard over the years to overcome her condition through a wide variety of therapies. Leading a normal life with a normal job had always been her goal, and now she was being asked to apply for disability status. For months, she never received a single word of praise for her work. She doesn’t dare say no when something doesn’t suit her. She simply cannot do things without following instructions to the letter. She finds it difficult to maintain eye contact with me.
“I’ve always worked really hard and fought hard to achieve everything. At first, my colleagues were constantly putting me down, saying I’d done something wrong; I had sleepless nights.”
At another job, she was sexually harassed by her boss, so she resigned. She has always sought recognition and appreciation.
She has trouble sleeping, suffers from nightmares and is afraid of losing control over her career. She isn’t the quickest at work because she’s very meticulous; she takes too long to do things, which is why she’s been sacked once before. She finds it hard to concentrate and tends to lose focus.
She felt helpless about the way her bosses treated her. Her dream is to find a new, better job again, with colleagues and bosses who support one another.
She grew up in extremely difficult circumstances; she had a difficult birth – the umbilical cord was wrapped round her neck, she had turned completely blue and had stopped breathing. After the birth, she suffered seizures, which were treated with neuroleptics.
At home, she would always hide behind her mother and have convulsions whenever her father came near her. She was sexually abused and physically abused by her father.
She did not start speaking until she was 5 years old.
Father: Whenever she asked him if he’d play with her, he’d always say, ‘No, I don’t have time.’ She spent most of her time on her own; he wasn’t home very often. When she was four, he went into hiding, was then arrested and had to spend many years in prison for child abuse.
Mother: She’s stressed; she couldn’t stand up to the father; she gave in to him; she was always there for the patient.
The patient suffers from a fear of new situations; she has many anxieties and finds it very difficult to bring herself to go anywhere she is not already familiar with. The way her father used to put her down still haunts her. It’s still the same today: whatever her boss says, that’s what has to be done.
For her, being put down means: ‘Do everything, do whatever it takes’. She would freeze whenever her father came home.
That’s still the case today – whatever the boss says, it has to be done.
She has been receiving homeopathic treatment her whole life and has undergone a great many therapies.
She is nervous, has bitten her fingernails for years, cannot sit still, and is afraid that something will happen to her, though she doesn’t know what she’s afraid of. She simply wants to be normal, work normally and do everything herself. She lives with a much older partner in a one-room flat, which she describes as very cramped.
She smokes cigarettes and drinks alcohol; it helps her cope with stress.
Favourites: avocado, mango, pasta, vegetarian whole foods.
Dislikes: Brussels sprouts.
She enjoys music; she sings and plays the guitar.
Pets: dog, cat.
Analysis3-400.00.00 Pteridophata:
Simply wanting to lead a normal life with a normal job. Normopathy: Norms and rules are more important than her own life; she is not allowed to be herself. At work, she felt and behaved like a servant. She was conditioned to do whatever her father ordered her to do. Her father’s ‘orders, rules and norms’ became her illness. A brutal, abusive father who enforced his ‘rules and norms’ with the utmost severity; the feeling of worthlessness, of feeling small and weak, too weak to be herself.
She believes she must accept society’s rules in order to be accepted as part of the community; there is no other option but to obey, to function, and to maintain the façade of normality.
She finds it difficult to interact with others and struggles to maintain eye contact with me. Nervousness, restlessness, an inability to concentrate = inner chaos and turmoil; outwardly, however, this manifests as a desire for control – she has to do things precisely; she simply cannot speed things up.
Her forced self-denial leads to a feeling of worthlessness: feeling small, weak and helpless, too weak to be herself. Control is a major issue for her. (Ferns: OCD)
Carbon
Series: Abused as a child, did not start speaking until the age of 5, no self-esteem, a partner twenty years older, skin disease.
3-000-00.00 Plant Kingdom: sensitive, enjoys plants and nature, Berryllium oxydatum helped only a bit.
3-422.10.00
Lycopodiales: This personality carries within herself the conflict between being true to herself and surviving, on the one hand, and finding a place (at work) within the community, on the other. A child who has to survive alone amongst adults in a very difficult environment.
3-422.17.00
Selaginellaceae Phase 7: A brutal, abusive father who enforced his ‘rules and norms’ with the utmost severity and ended up serving 20 years in prison as a result. Being sacked, ‘thrown out’. Seizures/epilepsy.
3-422.17.02
Selaginella kraussiana Stage 2: Freezing up whenever her father came home. Doing everything, going along with everything, unable to say no.
Follow-up consultation after 2 months:95 per cent of her acne vulgaris has cleared up; she no longer has any large pus-filled abscesses. She is better able to set boundaries, can now say what she wants and that she wants her affairs to be handled in a particular way.
She has found her own flat; she is extremely happy about it and is decorating and furnishing the flat exactly to her own taste, just as she likes it. “I’m doing my own thing with my flat, just what normal people do.”
In the meantime (since the first consultation), she has found a job, and things are going quite well there. She is stricter with the young trainees, showing them that they have to tidy up after themselves, etc.
She feels that she is now quite good at her job. She is less irritable, gets less annoyed with the trainees, and tells herself it’s not her problem.
“New job, new flat – I’ve climbed out of the hole and I’m living.”
“I feel like I’m living and am no longer stuck in a hole – life.”
Her sense of well-being has risen from 60 to 80.
Beryllium oxydatum and
Onychium japonicum had no lasting effect.