Carcinosinum Anhang
x!y
Dr. Tinus
Smits † 27-4-2010
Staufen 58 different tumors (exclusion of bowel
tumors)
Dolisos 15
VSM 58
Homeoden 1
UNDA 48
Dolisos 15
DHU 17
Dolisos 15
Schmidt-Nagel
12
Boiron 1
Nelson mehr als 10
Remedia.at 10 und 52
This means that homeopaths all over the world use and
discuss quite different remedies if they talk about Carc. It is clear that the
one-tumor Carc. is different from a 15 or 48 tumor Carc. I suggest that
one-tumor-Carc. should be named after the tumor that is used, e.g. Carcinoma
mamma, Carcinoma rectum. Only the remedy made with different tumors should be
called Carc., followed by the number of tumors used, e.g. Carc. (15T) 30K.
The mixture of different tumors is important in my
opinion because this makes it a universal remedy, applicable in a very wide
range. That’s the reason that I made Lac Maternum out of 10 different samples
of mother’s milk, the same procedure followed for Vernix caseosa.
For many years I verified all these symptoms
with every prescription and it became clear what symptoms to focus on and what
symptoms should be eradicated from the picture to have a more reliable and
practical picture to prescribe on. It seems to be difficult, once a symptom is
entered in the Materia Medica, to get rid of it, even when it turns out to be
based on an error. I started to take out symptoms from the picture that were of
no value in enhancing
the image of Carc. and to add some others that seemed
important to me from the essence. The fears of Carc. are a good example.
FEAR of cancer/fear in a crowd/in narrow places/in
high places/of spiders, mice, snakes/of failure in examinations/of failure/of
thunderstorms.
I removed fear of dogs, fear of the dark, fear of
frogs. That doesn't mean that a Carcinosin patient cannot have fear of the dark
or fear of dogs, but once we understand the essence of the remedy and we see
this essence in our patient fear of the dark and fear of dogs are not reliable
symptoms and do not add any reliability to our prescription. Therefore such
symptoms should be taken out of our materia medica to make the real picture
more evident. When the essence of a remedy is not clear then we are obliged to
collect every symptom that comes out of a proving or out of one or more
clinical cases and this makes the picture more confused. When we really
understand the essence of a remedy it is possible to build up the whole picture
in accordance with this essence.
To discover the essence of Carc. we have to understand
the basic problem of the cancer patient and what exactly is a tumor, because
Carc. is made from the materialization of the cancer problem. The cancer
patient has permitted cells that are 'not him' to grow in his body without
activating his defense mechanisms sufficiently to destroy them. The tumor is a
foreign entity that does not respect him and finally destroys him, without even
respecting structures such as blood vessels, muscles, lymph nodes. It grows by
transgressing every structure, every border. We can easily understand what
happens when we compare the patient to a country that has borders and an army
to defend its integrity as a country. If an enemy soldier crosses the border
and establishes himself inside the country and the army is not well-trained
enough to capture the enemy, to imprison him or to kill him, the enemy will
call his friends and other soldiers will pass the border and settle down. Their
base will be stronger and stronger. Without any respect for the original
people, they will destroy everything around them which is not to their own
advantage and will take all the food that was intended for the indigenous
people. They will send soldiers to other places in the country (metastasis) to
take over all the power of the country. The only possibility the country has
finally is to ask other countries to help it and to attack the enemy with heavy
weapons (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy). But such a massive fight greatly
weakens the country and the outcome is very uncertain.
On the cellular level the same process takes place.
The membrane of the cell is unstable and weak and the cell is ingesting toxins,
not able to defend its integrity. These ingested poisons damage his normal
functioning, creating anarchy and estranging himself from his own essence. But
the whole process had already started long before on the emotional and mental
level. What happens the most on the emotional/mental level to a patient having
taken Carc. is that his self confidence grows and that he starts to listen more
to his own needs and to defend himself better. He fortifies his borders and
gets into a process of more awareness of what
is ‘him’ and what is ‘not him’, no longer allowing the
poisonous energy from outside to settle within his borders.
He takes more care of himself, being attentive to his
own needs and desires. A process of cleaning out at all levels takes place,
poisonous relationships are broken off or corrected, a consciousness of being
someone
that deserves respect and love blooms gradually, and a
marked influenza or inflammation with high fever for the first time in twenty
years cleans the poison from his body. All this means reactivity is increasing.
Influences from outside that are experienced as attacking
him or weakening him without giving him the possibilities to defend himself can
stimulate the same process: first of all massive vaccination. I once asked
a lady during
regression therapy to go to her first vaccination and to tell me what this vaccination
meant to her and without hesitation she said: ‘It took away an opportunity to
defend myself.’ With massive vaccination in early childhood we give the message
to the child and his immune system that his own defense mechanism is not
reliable and that he has to be protected from outside. This not only weakens
his immune system but also gives his personality the feeling that he is not
strong and good enough and that he has to rely upon other people rather than
upon his own force and vitality.
Also the suppression of fever, a defense mechanism par
excellence, the use of antibiotics and corticosteroids can lower the defense
mechanisms. If during every infection the parents suppress the reactivity of
the child by giving aspirin and penicillin, how can he still believe that he is
able to defend himself against his invaders (bacteria, viruses, etc.)? This
practice engenders a lack of reactivity and the development of severe illnesses
in childhood as pertussis, pneumonia, chronic inflammation (otitis, bronchitis,
rhinitis, etc.).
The Carcinosin patient has a tendency to place
strength outside himself and to feel weak and vulnerable inside. That's also
what happens when he finally gets a tumor and he has to be operated on,
radiated and treated with chemotherapy. He is helpless, desperate and
completely dependent on his doctor. I always insist with cancer patients that
they have to decide for themselves and feel what is good for them and what they
want and do not want. You have to give them back their strength and they have
to take it back. Dr. Bernie Siegel, an American surgeon, insists in his
excellent book Love, Harmony and Cure, that as a patient you have to be
assertive, to ensure that when hospitalized you have a room with a view, to ask
for your favorite music during the operation, etc. To stand up for yourself and
to fulfill your own needs is of primary importance in cure.
Maria Late, one of my patients, can help us to
understand how difficult it can be for these people to stand up for themselves.
She was a young woman, a doctor, with operated breast cancer and metastasis.
One day she had to undergo an examination of her
bladder. The surgeon decided to do a suprapubic puncture, but she felt strongly
that a catheter would be better for her. So she asked the doctor not to do the
puncture, but he had to ask the surgeon responsible, who said ‘no’ and decided
she should undergo the suprapubic puncture. She finally felt unable to
contradict him. Then the contrast fluid was injected by error
in her abdomen. She was very ill and recovered only
slowly during two months of hospitalization, but died some months later.
The Carcinosin personality has a tendency to let
others violate his own space. He doesn't take sufficient space for himself, but
his space is invaded by others and he is too weak to throw them out. The
Carcinosin personality has to learn to take his destiny in his own hands.
Part of the allopathic damage is unfortunately often
the complete annihilation of any hope for cure for the patient. To be sent away
without any hope for better, without any support, leaves the patient in
despair.
But the patient needs hope. In hospitals this hope is
often killed completely, because of some curious thinking of the doctor and the
use of inexorable statistics. Leave any hope for cure to the patient is often
considered by allopathic doctors as giving ‘false hope’. But what is false
hope? False hope is saying to your patient that you will surely cure him, that
he will not die, etc. But no patient can cure if he, himself, does
not decide to survive and for that he needs hope. Hope
that he will not necessarily die, that his doctor will sustain him in his
effort to find a solution to his life threatening illness and that he is also
capable to do so.
He has to be respected in his attempt, knowing that
his doctor will give the best treatment that is available. Not statics are
deciding how many chances he has to cure, but the patient himself. He has to
reconnect with his inner force, even if during the operation, radiation and
chemotherapy he felt completely delivered to the authority of his doctor. He
has to be helped to take up again responsibility for his own life and he has to
be guided to do more than only wait and hope that
there will not be any relapse. I have a patient that reacted wonderfully on
chemotherapy and had almost no side effects and after 7 cures her doctor
decided to
give her two more cures to see if even more progress
was possible. But she didn’t have a good feeling to do so and decided herself
not to take more cures and to wait to see if the tumor would shrink without
further chemotherapy.
Dr. Bernie Siegel gives us a clear vision on false
hope. "The concept of false hope is one of the most ridiculous things I
know of. Why should we try to authorize hope according to the statistics? Hope
is a variable that can change the statistics. If only 99% die of a condition,
then let’s stress the fact that that person has a chance of to live. If you
tell a group of those people that they are the 10% who will survive, you may
find that 30% or 40% or 50% get better."
Take one’s own destiny in one’s hands and discuss the
treatment as someone who is completely responsible for his own health and life
is very important and enhances the possibilities to cure. The patient has to be
strong to face remarks from her doctors and other people who don’t believe in
any possibility to cure.
Restoration of reactivity, from the tumoral stage back
to the infectious stage
Reactivity can be defined as the capability of a
person to maintain his mental, emotional and physical integrity by an efficient
system of protection against perturbing influences from outside. Mental level:
the person has to be equipped with reinforcing ideas about himself, his life,
and about the surrounding world, i.e. that his life is meaningful, that he came
on earth with a purpose, that what he is doing is good for himself, for others
and for the world, namely a positive look.
Emotional level: he needs joy, feeling of love toward
himself and other people, to nature, to the earth and the universe. He needs
the capability to express his emotions, even those that are commonly labeled as
negative: anger, grief, irritability, for example.
Physical level: he needs a good immune system, capable
of cleansing his body of indisposing bacteria, viruses, toxins, etc. Surely the
best reaction of our organism to activate our immune system when our
equilibrium is in danger is fever. Therefore it is hard to accept that anyone
who really understands this mechanism still considers that fever is an enemy to
be suppressed. For most people and doctors this is common practice nowadays.
Children often have sudden high fever for only 1 or 2 days, and this is in fact
a sign of good reactivity. But when again and again such reactions are suppressed
by antipyretics and antibiotics or in more serious illnesses with
corticosteroids then slowly but surely the reactivity is broken down and there
is a slide from infectious disease to tumoral disease. The infectious stage is
a more reactive state (with fever) than
the tumoral stage (without fever). In the tumoral
stage the organism is weaker than the tumor, whereas in the infectious state
our energy is mostly strong enough to overcome an infection or can be fairly
easily activated by a well-chosen homeopathic remedy.
In the infectious stage the energy of the person
organizes everything to overcome the disease: high fever which enhances the
metabolism of the body enormously, an increase of white blood cells,
acceleration of blood circulation, vascular dilatation in the affected area or
all over the body, loss of appetite to give our digestive system the
possibility to concentrate on the elimination of toxins, diarrhea, sweating, a
running nose and eruptions, all elimination mechanisms. These kinds of elimination
processes occur frequently after the administration of a homeopathic remedy.
But also an infection can be a sign of a curing process.
It is no coincidence that children go through a
certain number of eruptive diseases (Rubella/German measles/Scarlatina/fifth or
sixth disease) and they have easily a running nose or infections with high
fever. Everybody who is aware of these facts knows that vaccinations,
antipyretics, antibiotics and other suppressive drugs that are so largely used
in routine modern medicine practice have also their reverse. It pushes the
human being already at a very premature age in the direction of the tumoral
stage. This fact was already described by Hahnemann 200 years ago. Therefore it
is not surprising that we have to face cancer and all kind
of internal diseases as one of the most wide spread
diseases on this earth and that the number of cancer patients increases still
every year.
The tumoral stage is a low reactivity stage. There is
no acute phase, no fever, no eruption, no accelerated or enhanced evacuation of
toxins. There is no acute outbreak followed by a restoration of balance as in
the infectious stage. There is a chronic unbalance sometimes even without any
visible or noticeable physical expression. Cancer can grow without any
perceptible sign that something is wrong. Sure, for the holistic doctor there
are already a lot of symptoms not only on the mental and emotional plane but
also on the physical plane, which he can interpret as a precancerous stage. He
is able to help his patient to return from this insidious tumoral stage to the
infectious stage and can prevent that his patient slips down to chronic
internal diseases as heart diseases, cancer, etc. In But such preventive
treatments are still more exception than daily practice. The majority of
patients are suddenly confronted with cancer and often wondering that this
happened to them, because they were almost never ill, had no influenza, no
fever, no major health problems for decades and believed to be in excellent health.
It is as if cancer manifested suddenly in the body, but we know that tumors
grow slowly for years, even decades before they attain sufficient volume and
invasive power to become
a major health problem.
In ageing there is a spontaneous shift from infectious
to tumoral diseases enhanced by vaccination and other suppressive treatments as
. So reactivity is an important quality not only of our physical but also of
our mental and emotional body. If a person has a tendency to let be suppressed
himself by others, then the immune system does the same thing on the physical
level. In the USA they found out that the immune system
of optimistic people was about 60% stronger than that of
pessimists. Therefore it is of great importance that cancer patients believe in
their cure, that they feel stronger than their tumor(s) and that they ‘go for
it’.
It is a bad sign that cancer patients are so often
robbed of any hope of cure. One of my cancer patients had this experience
several times. I saw her for the first time five years ago, completely
desperate after two breast amputations in one year followed by metastasis in
the spine, lungs and liver. The first physical signs of cure were the calcification
of the metastases in the spine about six months after the beginning of the
‘alternative’ treatment. Seeing this she expressed her joy and the radiologist
said: ‘Oh Madam, you surely don’t believe that you can still be cured?’ Now all
her tumors are almost completely gone and she is in an excellent state,
convinced that it is only a matter of time before she is cured completely. But
her surgeon said at her last visit, perturbed by her enthusiasm and that of her
husband: ‘Madam, are you well aware that you have an incurable disease?’ These
kind of experiences taught me to make an appointment as soon as possible after
hospital check-ups, because a depressive state weakens the immune system and
has to be repaired as soon
as possible.
The father takes an important place in this remedy, or
rather the father principle. The father is the symbol of self confidence, of
strength, of social position and realization of the possibilities of the child.
The basis for the Carcinosin problems lies therefore in childhood. The father
has to confirm the child in his capabilities and encourage him when things seem
to go in the wrong direction. If he is criticizes the child and never gives any
praise when he has done well, or when he is simply not there to stimulate and
approve him, or if he is too demanding, the child will feel incapable of
fulfilling his father’s expectations and feels too weak to do anything. By
being given too much responsibility, or being punished too severely when he has
done something wrong, or by being given the impression that whatever he does
it's never good enough, his self confidence is slowly but surely undermined.
Then he will try hard to please his father, mother, teacher, etc. by being very
industrious, being fastidious in his work, being the best in his schoolwork and
being a nice, good boy or girl to have the approval or praise of his father. He
will be afraid to make mistakes and will be anxious before examinations. He
will avoid every criticism by being on time, doing what others ask him to do
and accepting whatever people inflict on him to avoid quarrels and to please
the other person. So he hasn't learned to defend himself and to watch over his
boundaries. Already as a child he is teased by his school mates, who feel his
weak defenses. All this doesn't mean that the father is the only person that is
responsible for the weak defense mechanisms and the fear of failure of the
child. Every authority can contribute to this situation, the mother, a priest,
a nun, an older sibling or a teacher, saying for example in the class that he
is a stupid and that he will never learn anything. The fundamental lack of self
confidence is a universal problem and everybody in some way has to work this
out. Many people have completely compensated for it by working hard and
performing on a high level, this earning the praise and esteem of everybody.
Often the baby
is already born with this fundamental lack of self
confidence and in his early life this problem is only activated, so that the
father is not always to blame for it.
The Carcinosin patient has a very low self esteem and
fundamental lack of self confidence combined with weak defenses. Therefore he
is very sensitive to everything that can undermine his self confidence, and is
not able to stand up for himself. One way to survive
is adaptation and avoidance of criticism as much as possible. He is very
fastidious in his work, but not especially when he hasn’t to perform, e.g at
home he can
be rather untidy. He adapts to the demands of others
trying to regain their approval.
There is also a tendency to escape this demanding,
critical and unfriendly world by entering a world of fantasy, dreams and
harmony by reading for hours, being in nature, playing with animals, being
transported
by music and dancing, thus giving expression to the
emotions that have been suppressed as part of his survival strategy. Often he
weeps with the music. Also traveling is a way of escaping the harsh world he
lives in. The outer world is threatening and he has a strong need to escape
this threatening world. So horrible things affect him profoundly, because he
has weak boundaries. In situations that he cannot flee from he becomes anxious
as in narrow and high places and in a crowd. But reading, music ans dancing can
also harmonize his energy and help him to get rid of perturbing energies.
Because of his weak self confidence and his fear of
failure this person can also try to nourish his confidence by seeking
approbation by being brilliant.
He feels ill-at-ease with people that are as good as
him. This can make him arrogant with a tendency to talk just a little bit too
much about his achievements. He is critical about the achievements of others
and is very sensitive to criticism. He needs to be admired. This can push hem
to very great heights, working continuously to stay on top and having no other
interests in life. We feel the big ego problem that he is manifesting,
but what manifest itself as a big ego outside, is in
fact a weak ego inside. In a more passive person feeling less talented the
projection on to a master can be very helpful.
He knows that he is less brilliant, but he likes being
in the shadow of the master trying to do as he does and approach his
excellence, even while knowing that he will never attain that.
It is true that all this compensation can in some way
calm the weak ego, but it's like taking sweets when you need love and
affection: you never feel completely satisfied. Here Carc. can be very helpful,
because it
can resolve the ego problem from inside. After treatment
for one or two years with this remedy people are really more confident in
themselves and their ego is satisfied and can sleep peacefully like a cat on
the sofa.
There is still another way to escape from this weak
feeling, namely by refusing to do whatever is required and say ‘No, I cannot do
this’ without even trying. These kind of children are very uncertain, shy and
every negative experience confirms their incapacity. They are very easily
offended, sensitive to reprimand, very obstinate, incapable of admitting their
errors, sometimes refusing to obey their parents. They are very afraid
to have to perform and avoid every disappointment.
This makes them very unhappy and easily angered and aggressive at home, but
weak and yielding at school, so they are teased a lot.
Another way to resolve his problem of feeling weak and
worthless is to prove that he is capable by controlling everything. So he
becomes very persevering, extremely well organized, plans everything, leaves
nothing
to chance. This attitude is known as the Cuprum
metallicum picture that exists in so many Carcinosin patients. Cancer patients
very frequently have high copper concentrations in their blood and the copper
concentration of tumors is higher than that of normal tissues. I have already
said in my publication about the mental picture of Cuprum metallicum that
Cuprum is the closest remedy to Carc. We often see in the same patient both the
Carc. and the Cuprum picture. That's why I now use frequently a combination of
both, called Carc. cum Cuprum from Dolisos in Holland, that was potentized from
C5 to 30K and upwards. This gives really marvelous results. I will publish this
later, but will stay now with the Carc. picture.
If we have understood well what Carc. is all about, it
is interesting to see how patients express this. I noted carefully what they
told me and give here some examples.
* I am not
allowed to fail, to make mistakes/everything has to be beyond reproach
* I didn't get
praise, rather my father used to tell me I was not capable of doing this or
that/I let myself be suppressed easily/there is still a lot of suppressed anger
in me
* I feel less
worthy than other people, I am the black sheep/my father criticized my
appearance
* I cannot say
no, I accept everything otherwise I feel guilty/I always avoid conflicts
* I easily
agree with everything and everybody, I cannot stand up for myself
* I cannot
remember that I ever had fever
After the treatment:
* I feel that I
am someone/I don’t feel less valued than other people any more/I am more
confident
* I can take
time for myself without feeling guilty/I can help others’ problems without
taking them on my shoulders/I feel more clearly what is mine and what is theirs
* I can more easily say no and defend my own
space/I don’t feel guilty any more when I take time and care for myself
* I allow
myself to be angry when anybody shows me a lack of respect
* I express
now what I think and what I feel/I do my best and then it is okay, it doesn’t
have to be perfect
* I now do
what I want to do myself
* I keep at a
distance from my father, I also have my own life
* I set
boundaries for my children and satisfy my own needs
Physical complaints are most of the time not our best
guides to finding the correct remedy, but can be sometimes especially in acute
illnesses of great value and confirm the remedy or help us to think about a
special remedy. In my opinion every physical problem can be helped by Carc. if
the mental and emotional symptoms indicate it. Nevertheless some physical signs
are often seen in this remedy: the blue sclera, the moles, caf-au-lait spots,
the blinking of the eyes, the nails too short from biting, the warts on palms
and soles, molluscum contagiosum, acne, cysts, fibromas, all kind of tumors,
sinusitis, coryza, swollen and painful breasts before the menses, painful
menses. Certainly it is possible to add other symptoms. I selected only the
symptoms that seem to me of some importance.
[Don Webley]
Carcinosin is a remedy that, in my experience, is one
of the great polychrests of the homeopathic Materia Medica. It is frequently
used by European and Latin American homeopaths, but much less so by American
practitioners.
Frankly, I do not understand why this is the case.
Cancer is more widespread here than elsewhere, and common sense would suggest
that the miasmatic nosode of this disease would be frequently indicated.
Indeed it is, and I assume that its under-application
is due to lack of familiarity with the remedy and perhaps also to a prejudice
that goes along with such unfamiliarity. I hope that this article will help
practitioners to feel a little better equipped and more inspired to search for
this remedy. It will never work out in the repertorization/one does have to
look for it. But it will resolve a good number of those cases that seem to make
only fair progress under a "perfectly indicated" remedy. I
deliberately chose to have this manuscript in essentially completed form before
consulting other published works on the subject, so that, for better or worse,
it is my personal experience that is reflected here. It was, however,
instructive for me to read the proceedings of the Hechtel conference on
Carcinosin, as well as Jonathan Shore's valuable presentation to the 1989 IFH
Professional Case Conference. I saw observations that I had recorded verified
in the experience of others. I also saw one or more authors take agnostic
positions on indications that are leading indicators in my experience. Of course,
I also saw indications with which I had been unfamiliar.
This article does not purport to be the final source
on Carcinosin. Much material that is either my own experience or part of the
general body of knowledge on the remedy is not represented here. I do hope
eventually, however, to publish a definitive work on this nosode. Therefore, I
actively solicit responses and cured cases, for I do not feel I have plumbed
the depths of this remedy.
The Carcinosin remedy picture is difficult to
summarize in a single all-encompassing keyword. There is no cowardice, as in
Lyc., or fear of the universe, as in Ars. It is also difficult to make any
categorical assertion about the remedy, for the opposite of anything said about
it might just as well be true. Perhaps more than any other in our homeopathic
armamentarium, Carcinosin is a remedy of polar opposites. I have very often had
a disbelieving mother walk out in a state of more than a little doubt because I
gave her mild-mannered, introverted child the same remedy that I gave to her
obstinate, hyperactive brat who bounces off the walls. Yet this very
amorphousness and this bipolar character suggest the image of Carcinosin.
It is commonly stated that the epidemic of cancer that
now plagues the industrialized world is directly related to the suppression of
tuberculosis. It would be difficult to prove this thesis beyond doubt, but a
number of observations point strongly in this direction. First of all, one of
the factors that alerts one to a possible need for the cancer nosode is
tuberculosis in the family history. Carcinosin shares some noteworthy symptoms
with Tuberculinum, for instance, the hair on the spine, blue sclerae,
genupectoral sleep position, and the desire for travel. I have also observed
the perspiration on the head during sleep with sufficient frequency to add it
to the repertory.
I have had the opportunity to treat the parents of
many children who have benefited from this nosode and have found more often
than not the remedy has not been indicated in these people. What one typically
observes is a very suggestive history on one side - usually the mother's - and
a somewhat less tainted past on the other side. Often neither parent needs the
nosode, even though it may be indicated in one or more of their children. It is
as if the number of suggestive illnesses in the family tree needs to rise to a
certain "critical mass" before the cancer miasm explodes into being.
Thus a child will be a Carcinosin type, while the parents take other remedies.
Significantly as well, I have rarely seen a case where parents need Carcinosin
and the children do not. Taken together, these facts do not augur well for the
future of humankind.
We are, as it were, witnessing the unleashing of a new
horseman of the apocalypse upon the world in this generation. We have seen this
reflected in the steep increase in the occurrence of cancer over this same
period, but the fact that the nosode is appearing, ex nihilo, as it were, in
this generation, suggests that we have perhaps glimpsed the tip of this
monstrous miasmatic iceberg. Carcinosin is destined to be the nosode of the age
in much the same way that Tuberculinum-bovine was the star of Kent's day. There
are shadows of Medorrhinum in this nosode, also. We see the hyperactivity in
children, increased sexual desire, amelioration by the ocean, genupectoral
sleep position, desire for salt, sweets and fats, and insomnia.
The other chief components of the Carcinosin picture
come from the Natrum muriaticum and Sepia family. We see the fastidiousness and
a desire for salt indicative of Natrum muriaticum, < consolation (although
the opposite is as often present), sensitivity to sea air, desire for
chocolate, and aversion to fats and milk of both remedies. We see the love of
dancing of Sepia, as well as its childhood hyperactivity. Like both remedies,
it is very easily offended. Cancer has been called the great masquerader, and
so it is with its nosode. One often sees a symptom picture which is a perfect
example of, say, Tuberculinum-bovinum, like case B.J.S. at the end of this
article, but which has one or two symptoms that don't quite fit. As I have
indicated, these "sore thumb" symptoms, and the family history, often
lead to the use of Carcinosin.
Sometimes one sees a case which seems to have, for
example, a Phosphorus symptom group. Then a Sepia aspect and finally a
Natrum-muriaticum set of symptoms. Knowing this remedy, one sees its aspect as
the unifying thread running through the case. Such an instance is patient C.D.,
whose case is quoted later on. Whitmont calls cancer, "The penalty for the
unlived life," and Wilhelm Reich referred to it as the end result
of the "Carcinomatous Shrinking Biopathy."
Natrum-muriaticum and Sepia reflect these tendencies perhaps more than any
other remedies, and it is significant that they should be so closely related to
this nosode.
The tubercular and gonorrheal tendencies provide the
groundwork or, perhaps more accurately, the miasmatic sod upon which the
poisonous seeds may germinate into the cancer miasm. It is for this reason that
Carcinosin has all these remedies hinted at in its picture. Unless one has a
clear feeling for the essential process occurring in Carcinosin, one will tend
to be confused, because the remedy appears as one type then another, and then
yet another. Consider the disease itself, for a moment. Cancer may manifest in
any organ, and, as a result, show itself by a wide variety of symptoms. Yet
what is common to all cancers is unrestrained, chaotic growth, wherein the
limitless generative energy that animates the life of the body and its cells is
freed from the normal controls and results in the chaotic growth and spread of
a malignant and consuming tumor throughout the affected system. Here we begin
to see the process that underlies the remedy.
R. S.: once characterized cancer as having two phases,
that of fever, heat, or inflammation, and that of tumor formation. This heat,
this intensity, this fire kept barely within check, suggests something of the
essence
of Carcinosin. Carcinosin is the name we give to the
pathological picture that arises when the life force itself, present in an
individual with great intensity, is thwarted and turns upon its host organism,
consuming it
in its mad search for outflow and resolution. The
Carcinosin child, therefore, has frequent and often very high fevers, is often
hyperactive, and has a difficult time going to sleep and staying asleep. He has
"exceedingly strong food cravings which often alternate with
aversions," so that frequently one hears, "I used to LOVE eggs, but
now I hate them." In the Carcinosin family history, and in the personal
history of
the patient, this intensity is also present as
addiction to alcohol, or to drugs, cigarettes, and particularly to caffeine,
and great sensitivity to foods. It likewise manifests as great passion and
sexual intensity, beginning often at a young age, love of dancing and music,
desire for travel, and exhilaration in a thunderstorm. I have also observed
very early eruption of both deciduous and permanent teeth in a number of cases.
It would, of course, be very difficult to add this to the repertory, as, by its
very nature, it is not a symptom that can be cured. But I have seen it on a few
occasions. This chaotic energy also sometimes manifests as alternation of
symptoms from one side of the body to the other. I have seen this in a sore
throat, but it is not a symptom that I can otherwise vouch for from experience,
although others make much of it.
How then do we distinguish the Carcinosin energy and intensity
from that of Medorrhinum or Tuberculinum? In cancer, no poison or foreign
principle causes the cells to begin their destructive and unrestrained growth.
What is occurring is simply a stepped up, if chaotic, version of the growth
process of normal tissue. In the gonorrheal and tubercular miasms on the other
hand, there is the introduction of a foreign principle which intensifies, but
also perverts, the energy. Cruelty and hardness are everywhere manifest in
these remedies, the result, if you will, of this perverse external principle.
Thus, the Tuberculinum or Medorrhinum child is often cruel, or mean, though
sensitivity to reprimand and to others is not foreign to some Medorrhinum
children. A full-blown or typical adult belonging to either of these types is
not someone with whom
you would easily leave your children and pets for a
weekend. There is a darkness about the energy of both these types that is
completely absent in Carcinosin. About the only categorical assertion one can
make
about this type is that it will never manifest
malicious cruelty. Two very important facts to bear in mind about the
Carcinosin picture is that the remedy is listed under "sympathetic"
and "anxiety for others" in
second type in the Synthetic Repertory. Concern and
regard for others is fundamental to these cases, and, as we will see, is the
source of some of its pathology. Thus, even the obstinate kid whose mother says
has
a terrible temper and hits his brothers and sisters
walks into the office looking so sweet and pleasant you can hardly believe that
she is speaking of the one who sits in front of you. One is immediately drawn
to the Carcinosin child, and likewise to the adult, before onset of deep
pathology. There is something attractive and magnetic about their energy. It is
light and warmth without the dark shadow of the other two nosodes.
In the young adult case -"young" really
referring to an early stage of pathology- this energy is often tangibly sexual:
Carcinosin takes a back seat to few remedies as regards the intensity of its
libido. A recent female patient, when asked about how often she and her lover
engaged in sexual intimacy replied: "Once a week, but that's down from the
first year we were married, when we made love three times a day." One sometimes
finds a history of promiscuity, but just as often a few long-term
relationships, characterized as well by this same intensity. The Carcinosin
patient's relationship to sexuality is emotional rather than genital, more
refined and less coarse, and less emotionally complicated than that of
Medorrhinum or Lachesis, for example. The sexual urge is simply the adult
manifestation of the energetic intensity with which the patient has lived since
childhood. Eventually, therefore, the individual realizes that casual sex is
not what he or she really wants. Thus the promiscuity tends to develop into a
long-term commitment, or becomes complicated by coffee, drugs, and chocolate to
ease the pain of disappointment. Therefore, although one feels the sexual
intensity of the Carcinosin patient sitting across the table, it is not the
kind of energy that puts one on guard. Although the intensity is evident, one
does not feel that the patient is going to make a proposition. As evidence that
the high sexual drive is usually non-pathological, it rarely declines after a
prescription.
A 3rd fundamental aspect = fastidiousness. The
Synthetic Repertory gives Carcinosin as a black type remedy, and this is my
experience. It is much more basic to the being than, for example, the
fastidiousness of
the Nat-m. patient, which it resembles/it is usually
for order, rather than for dirt. Though the latter is seen, the
Natrum-muriaticum relationship to punctuality is only rarely present. Even
though outwardly the Carcinosin patient is not necessarily more persnickety
than Nat-m., it is the part in his life that this tendency plays that we must
examine. It seems to me that it is the result of a rigidity, a need to control
that stems from the patient's knowledge that he or she is sitting upon a
wildfire which is potentially all- consuming if not strictly contained. It is
the same sensation that generates a fearful reaction when sickness arises, or
that
is the root of the fear of cancer. Patient K.A., whose
case is quoted here, always felt that she would die young. Deep down, the
patient knows that there is a pathological time-bomb ticking inside. The
fastidiousness is an attempt to control it. Put another way, the fastidiousness
is a valiant effort to keep mortality at bay. Somehow the Carcinosin subject feels
that if she can keep her environment perfect, or her figure perfect,
then she just might live forever. Case K.A.
illustrates something fundamental about the remedy in this regard. She always
has exercised religiously, owns a health food store, and has been addicted to
all the products that she sold. She looks several years younger than her age,
but has always planned to have a face lift at age forty-five. She is terrified
of aging. She takes meticulous care of her body, at least its appearance, and her
environment. When she was raped a couple of years ago, she did not tell her son
(she is a single mother) because she did not want him to be concerned. Another
patient presented with herpes as her chief complaint. She had other symptoms,
like constipation and sleeplessness, but the herpes, which in her case appeared
in rather mild form, threw her for a loop. "I feel diseased. Why is this
happening to me. I wasn't born to do
a trip like this." She felt unclean, and became
extremely agitated when even the tiniest lesion would appear. She was the kind
of person who "loves things to be nailed down." Mortality is the real
issue here, and
the anxiety upon the appearance of the herpetic
lesions is just a proxy for the dread upon the appearance of the specter of death.
It is fundamentally true that all fear is, when fully inspected, only fear of
death.
Yet all remedies do not have fear of death, and some
remedies fear certain things while others have other terrors. Arsenicum is one
of the remedies whose very fabric is woven upon a fear of death. Carcinosin is
likewise. I would not add it to the repertory for this symptom, and indeed, I
have never seen it frankly manifested in a Carcinosin patient. Yet the same
mortal news that, in an Arsenicum patient leads to stark fear and insecurity,
is manifested in Carcinosin as WORRY and ANTICIPATION. Essentially, the
Carcinosin patient fervently hopes that, with planning, and organization, and
by staying on top of things that, just maybe, she will not die.
The difference between Arsenicum's fastidiousness and
Carcinosin's neurosis is best illustrated as follows:
Two girls are leaving on a cross-country trip/anxious
mothers stand on either side of the car, bidding tearful farewells to their
"little girls." The Ars. says, "Honey, drive carefully! I've
heard awful things about how they drive in Ohio. Make sure you fasten your
seatbelt, and don't sit on any toilet seats, and make sure you don't talk to
strangers. Oh! your hair needs some work, the part is crooked. Make sure to call
me every night. Yes, it's fine to call at 1 h., I can never sleep then
anyway."
The Carcinosin mother whispers softy to her daughter,
"Sweetie, take care of yourself, and make sure you always wear clean
underpants. What if you had an accident, and they brought you to the hospital
with dirty underwear on?"
A little bit of a caricature, but not much! I have
seen it suggested in print that perhaps the Carcinosin fastidiousness is not
primary, that it stems from a desire to please. This is most definitely not so
in my experience, and this point would distinguish Carcinosin from
Staphisagria, which is not fastidious. Nevertheless, the desire to please is
there, and because this remedy is so sensitive to reprimand and sympathetic,
Carc. is often quite adept at conforming his or her life to the expectations of
those around. Case K.A. expresses this perfectly. In the second follow-up,
quoted below, she says, "My masks are gone, I don't have to perform any
more. I always figured things out and performed, so that I would not have to
deal with the fear."
This issue of fastidiousness leads into the matter of
control, a core issue in the pathogenesis of Carcinosin.
Foubister: a history of fright and prolonged
unhappiness as features in the history that suggest Carcinosin. These are in
fact often present: the Carcinosin pathology arises when the boundless
centripetal life energy and great sensitivity to and concern for others are
constricted, confined, and traumatized by the cold and brutal facts of life.
Thus one often hears a life story of extensive sexual abuse and horrors that
tests one's credulity. This is the essential process occurring in the
pathogenesis of Carcinosin, and if one grasps it, one will find the remedy
where it is hidden to others. Yet it is true that Carcinosin is as hard to pin
down as
the color of a chameleon. This is because, depending
on which of its component characteristics is present to the greatest degree,
the remedy may mimic Nat-m., or Med., or Staph., or Phos., or Sep., or Tub., or
Calc., or yet some other (Pulsatilla too). Thus a woman with high sexual
energy, very social, sympathetic, and clairvoyant may resemble a Phosphorus and
share its food desires. One may be at the point of giving it until
she mentions how much she likes to drink tea, and no,
she never drinks cold water. Or a fastidious, pathologically responsible woman
who loves chocolate and salt, but does not care for sex, and is not very
receptive to consolation, may be about to receive Nat-m. until it is realized
that she loves to sit in her car in the sun with the window rolled up, and
likes soft, gooey fat on meat. Control by rigid, almost sadistic parents or
spouses is a form of unhappiness often found in these cases. Case K.A.,
discussed later, is such an example. She describes herself as having been
raised by a "Nazi mother" who tolerated nothing short of perfection.
Her first husband was an evangelical Christian (he also womanized extensively
on the side, and was heavily into pornography) who was
even more suffocating. He could not stand to hear
people breathe or chew, so that she had to feed the children before he came
home. He would never touch a woman, so their "sex life" consisted of
her fellating him while he smoked cigarettes sitting in a chair. Nevertheless,
one should not feel that Carcinosin is contraindicated if there is no history
of brutalization. Life's ordinary traumas are often sufficient suffering.
Even in the face of such extraordinary suffering,
however, the Carcinosin patient seems not to resist. In this is a resemblance
to Staphisagria. Even as a child, the Carcinosin patient is extremely sensitive
to reprimands. It is hard to distinguish between the two. The distinction, it
seems to me, is that Staphisagria resists confrontation because the organism is
simply too sensitive to tolerate the anger of others and does everything to
avoid situations where that might arise. The Staphisagria child will not show
the ebullient energy of the Carcinosin child, and the outbursts to which he or
she is sometimes prone. Carcinosin, by contrast, remains with the alcoholic
husbands out of something resembling, but not entirely identical to, a sense of
responsibility.
It is rather that if she can somehow keep it together
on the home front, it will help stave off the fear of mortality and disorder
lurking beyond. We need to return to the Carcinosin patient's anxiety about
others and
its sympathetic quality.
A certain kind of Carcinosin patient will present
herself very like Phos., will sit on the edge of the chair, and lean toward
you, and be very much affected by other people. At times the distinction can be
very hard
to make, because this remedy shows all the sensitivity
of Phos., feeling the emotions of others, and also being prone to visions and psychic
phenomena. If a distinction can be made it is that this patient is more
"solid" or and less amorphous than the Phos. patient. One clinician
at the Hechtel conference expressed it quite well: "Phos.," he said,
"is like a chameleon, and has no skin, that is no boundaries." But it
is not always an easy distinction to make. More usually, however, there is
anxiety about others, and a desire to help, without the loss of boundary
between self and other. In such cases, guilt is often part of the complex, again
deriving from the patient's feeling somehow responsible and obliged to take
care of, and protect all around, from mortality. One patient expressed it quite
poignantly: "My middle name is guilt," she said. This is perhaps as
good a place as any to amplify my quick reference to the fact that almost
anything said about Carcinosin, though sometimes false, will at other times be
true. I have just contrasted the energetic, outgoing, intense, Carcinosin child
with the more sensitive and retiring Staphisagria. It is true that this is the
more common manifestation of Carcinosin in children. It is also true that the
complete opposite is sometimes seen. Carcinosin children can be quiet, shy,
depressed, and pathologically sensitive in much the same way as Staphisagria
subjects of the same age. Even in this type, however, there will usually be the
identifying keynotes: the food cravings, the constipation, the sleeplessness,
and the high fevers suggestive of intense energy lurking beneath the tranquil
surface. I think of such children as cases where the pathological development
has been accelerated so that the implosion or introversion of energy that
occurs only later with the more common type is the case from an early age.
Generally speaking, however, the depressed, collapsed
stage is seen only later, though not necessarily in a very old person. In
taking the history, it will be observed that the patient was once outgoing,
energetic, sexually vital. Sometimes, especially in cases of sexual abuse, this
is not the case/there will be indifference to sex. I don't believe that I have
ever seen true aversion to sex in a Carcinosin patient. Even such women are not
truly frigid, and their lack of sexual response is situational/they will
sometimes speak of a brief interlude between bad marriages, or a particular
relationship, where their sexuality flowered. The typical childhood history is
also present. Now she is exceedingly depressed, to the point of attempting
suicide. The guilt has become a profound sense of failure. In these individuals,
the history of pain and abuse is often marked. Sometimes it is astonishing.
There will often be alcoholic parents and a history of sexual abuse. Another
patient, a child of dysfunctional alcoholic parents, and a woman who herself
struggled with addiction to alcohol and cigarettes, confessed to great feelings
of worthlessness, and had suffered bouts of depression in the past. She hit the
nail on the head when she said: "As a child I never was taught how to take
care of myself."
How to Look for Carcinosin
In spite of what you have read here, you will need to
make a deliberate effort to discover the Carcinosin cases in your practice, at
least initially. I can now recognize them as easily as Natrum-muriaticum or
Sulphur or Ignatia, or any of the other polychrests, but that was not always
the case. The primary difficulty is that the case will never repertorize out to
Carcinosin if you use Kent's Repertory. I myself always use the Synthetic
Repertory first, and Jost Kunzli von Fimmelberg's Repertorium Generale for the
particulars. The Synthetic Repertory contains the distillation of Pierre
Schmidt's vast wisdom, and he evidently used Carcinosin quite a bit, because
there are a number of Carcinosin additions in that Repertory with a
"7" superscript identifying him as their source. Nevertheless, even
these do not provide a complete enough representation of the remedy to have it
come out in a repertorization. Rather, you have to know its hiding places and
how to recognize its tracks. The first thing that will make you think of this
remedy is a case that seems like a perfect Natrum-muriaticum, except that the
patient tells you how she loves to sit in the sun or how much she loves the
juicy fat on pork chops, or you discover that she loves consolation. The same
could be said of Puls., Sep. Phos. Lyc.,
Med., Calc. and a number of other remedies, but I find that the majority of
Carcinosin cases are either slightly kinky Natrum-muriaticum or Sepia cases or
Medorrhinum with a twist: a little too gentle and without the edge, and maybe
with an aversion to salt instead of a desire, and no amelioration at night.
Natrum-muriaticum bears the same special relationship to the cancer miasm that
Mercury does to syphilis, or Thuja to gonorrhea. At least this is my observation.
When you suspect that something is cooking, pay careful attention to the family
history. Look for cancer, diabetes, alcoholism, drug addiction, insanity. You
will occasionally find tuberculosis in the history. Foubister says that
pernicious anemia is also suggestive, but I have never found this in any
patient's history. I think it tends to be the kind of thing that one's
descendants don't know about/it is not as patently obvious as cancer or a heart
attack. I have in recent times begun to suspect that severe asthma and hay
fever in the ancestry is indicative, but I am not certain enough of this to
assert it. I throw it out so that others may consider that possibility and
report it to our fellows. Foubister says that the maternal history is more
important This is true in my experience,
but this should not suggest that the paternal history
is insignificant. It is not necessary to have all 4 grandparents die of cancer
or diabetes. When that is the case, then I have to be quite convinced that some
other remedy is indicated before I will give it. You will, however, find
Carcinosin cases when half the ancestors have a suggestive history.
Sometimes there are fewer tainted forebears but all
five of the patient's siblings are alcoholics. It is not a cut-and-dried matter.
Nevertheless, you will rarely use Carcinosin when there is no suggestive
history at all. But you sometimes will. I wrote in the first draft of this
manuscript that I had done so only once. On looking over some cases, I realized
that I had been mistaken: I have used the remedy a few times - not often, but
more than once - on its indications alone. This is not surprising. Who only
uses Medorrhinum when there is a clear gonorrheal history? Next, examine the
patient's own history. Constipation and insomnia from childhood are strongly
suggestive, as are high or frequent fevers as a child. A patient of mine had,
as a child, the highest temperature ever recorded at Providence Hospital, in
excess of 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Another child would run about and play
outside with a 106 degree fever. These fevers often accompany earaches or
tonsillitis. Hay fever as a child is also a strong indication. Foubister gives
a history of pneumonia and whooping cough as suggestive. I have seen these, but
less frequently. Even rarer, in my practice, are individuals who have had
childhood diseases more than once. Foubister does give this indication. He also
writes that Carcinosin is suggested when there is unusually severe reaction to
vaccination. I mention these for the sake of completeness, but cannot confirm
them from my own experience. Carcinosin children characteristically have very
high energy as children. The sleeplessness and fevers are just manifestations
of this.
Then there are the symptoms associated with the remedy
itself. Carcinosin, as we have discussed, is pre-eminent among fastidious
remedies. It loves to dance and travel, and is affected one way or another by
the ocean. Carcinosin is said to be exhilarated by thunderstorms. To be honest,
however, as a western Oregonian, I cannot vouch for relationship to
thunderstorms. Where I live, asking people about how they react to
thunderstorms is usually only slightly more fruitful than asking Eskimos if
they are afraid of elephants. Carcinosin is strongly moved by music. They tend
to like classical music, though others will like rock. I have observed an
aversion to jazz in several patients. There seems to be real aversion to this
kind of music. My theory, and it is entirely the kind of idle speculation
condemned by our illustrious founder, is that the syncopation offends their
sense of order and propriety. In small children, you will find head-sweats
during sleep. This is a very important rubric in treating children. Kunzli
gives it a black dot in his Repertory, a sign that it is a symptom this is
often a dispositive symptom in his experience. He gives the following remedies
for head-sweats during sleep: Bry., Calc., Calc.-p, Cham. Cic., Lyc., Merc.,
Podo., Sanic., Sep., Sil. To this list I add from my own experience: Tub., and
Carcinosin. Often this single symptom, in conjunction with the genupectoral
sleep position, also present in Carcinosin, gives the case away. This symptom
is of little significance in infants, as it is common in the first year or so
of life. The Synthetic Repertory gives the following remedies in this rubric:
Calc.-p, Carcinosin, Con, Euphorbium, Lyc., Med., Phos., Sep., Tub. I have
found these indications to have the force of generals of high rank: they are
proxies for something very deep in the life of the child. Thus, in a small
child, these symptoms must be present in the pathogenesis of the simillimum.
For example, then, if there are both genupectoral sleep and head-sweats, the
field is immediately narrowed to five remedies of all the entire Materia Medica.
Anyone who has treated children, and wondered how to choose a remedy based on
no symptoms at all will appreciate the value of these indications. It should be
mentioned that Carcinosin also often sleeps spread-eagled, arms and legs
outstretched. This is not at all uncommon in small children, but I mention it
so that its presence does not dissuade one from using Carcinosin. One often
finds the blue sclerae otherwise associated with Tuberculinum, and the
cafe-au-lait appearance. The moles often mentioned as indicative of Carcinosin
are of a very specific type. They are round, dark-brown macules. Carcinosin,
like Medorrhinum, is suggested by a hairy spine and neck, and by unusual
amounts of arm or leg hair, especially in children and women. Many writers have
reported Carcinosin as being worse with warmth. I have seen this, but I have
seen the opposite perhaps more often. When there is a history of prolonged
suffering, think of Carcinosin. This does not mean a broken heart or a
disappointing date. K.A.'s case, quoted in this article in its entirety, gives
a picture of what I mean by prolonged suffering. Foubister gives severe fright
as another precipitating cause. I have no reason to doubt him, but cannot
attest to it from my own experience. Unusually restrictive and suppressive
parents or spouses point to this remedy also. When the history is parental, we
may surmise that it is likely to have been causative. When, on the other hand,
it is seen in a series of spouses, it is, rather, a pathological symptom. In
other words, only a Carcinosin, or perhaps a Staphisagria, would, as an adult,
put up with the abuse K.A. endured from her husband. George Vithoulkas gives as
a keynote, "burning pain in the ascending colon." I have seen it only
once. I suspect it is like the Thuja keynote of "nose runs at stool,"
dispositive but rare, at least in my experience. One individual reading this
article is likely to recognize this latter symptom, since I was guided to Thuja
in his case/but I have not seen it again. The food cravings are very important
guiding symptoms to this remedy. Foubister says that an aversion or desire for
any of the following foods is suggestive of Carcinosin: meat fat, sweets, salt,
fruit, milk, and eggs. My own experience confirms this. What I will add to this
is that a particular characteristic of the Carcinosin type is an alternation,
often over periods of years, between aversion and desire for one or more of
these items. The remedy tends to have a lot of aversions and desires, and that
needs to be present for one to really consider this remedy on the basis of its
cravings.
Thus a desire for meat fat and salt and a neutral
feeling about the other items would lead one away from Carcinosin. There is
often also a sensitivity or allergic reaction to some of these items.
I have saved what I consider to be the most important
food desire for the last: chocolate. Schmidt give it as second type. I believe
he understates the case: I feel that it should certainly be black type.
Nevertheless, you will occasionally see an aggravation from chocolate, and I
think I may even have seen an aversion to it on occasion. The remedy type also
desires onions and garlic. It has a strong relationship to coffee, but then
again, this is the addictive remedy nonpareil, so that should be expected. I
have observed, however, that it is also particularly sensitive to coffee. In
one of the cases quoted in this article, the patient, after marked improvement,
took some coffee to stay awake on a transcontinental trip. She noticed her
uterine symptoms returning before she had finished half the cup. Fortunately,
she had the presence of mind to throw the rest away, and suffered no lasting
harm. When this manuscript was essentially complete, I scanned CARCINOSIN, the
record of a symposium on Carcinosin in Hechtel, Belgium. Several of the
practitioners mentioned desire for soup as being of cardinal importance in
Carcinosin, second only to desire for chocolate as food craving. I did not know
this, but the writers all gave ample evidence of a clear understanding of the
remedy. This should therefore be taken as authoritative, and I also will take
pains to inquire about soup in suspected Carcinosin cases. The following case
sketch is of a "pseudo-Staphisagria" woman. The prescription would easily
have been missed had I not known what to look for.
Her chief complaint was exhausting (3) menstrual
cramps (2). She also had cramps at ovulation. The patient, M.E., is intimidated
by anger (2), and NEVER expressed anger toward her husbands. She was introduced
to abuse early. She recounts that at age 2 or 3, she lost all her hair. The
diagnosis was "stress"/she now feels that she lost her hair because
she would not cry out, of fear of her father, an alcoholic, who later left her
mother, and died of metastasized stomach cancer. Her stepfather would ejaculate
in her mouth, then beat her and threaten her with more serious harm if she ever
told anyone. Later, at 11, it was an uncle fondling her, and a couple of years
after that, a cousin forcing vaginal intercourse on her. She proceeded to
become involved in successive abusive marriages. Both were to black men.
Why did I make a note of this? Prejudice aside, it is
a matter of my observation that in the U.S., whereas the decision to enter into
an inter-racial relationship signifies nothing of interest to a homeopath, the
decision on the part of a white woman to choose only black men as her sexual
partners is noteworthy. Often it suggests the existence of a Staphisagria-like,
or in this case, Carcinosin-like tendency. Before any readers who do not know
the author of this piece cry "Racism!", such individuals should know
that the author himself is a black man - one, moreover, who is married to a
white woman, who, incidentally, is neither a Staphisagria nor a Carcinosin.
The first husband was an unregenerate adulterer,
nineteen years older than she. He would even bring women back to the house and
copulate with them while his wife cried in the next room. Her second husband
was an alcoholic who beat her, and with whom she had sexual intercourse two or
three times a day on weekends, but only out of duty, as she had little interest
herself.
Why did I not give her Staphisagria? This might have
been the logical choice. She had all the food cravings of Nat-m., however:
chocolate (2) [at the menses (2)], salt (1), garlic (1)/she also loved the
ocean (2)
and was fastidious about time (1) and claustrophobic
(1). Perhaps she was a Nat-m., but she was not < sunshine/consolation (2).
That ruled Nat-m. out. I observed that she disliked jazz (2), desired onions
(2),
and was < coffee (2). There was also a suggestive
history: Her father was an alcoholic who died of cancer/his parent's history
was unavailable, the mother had no remarkable history, but the maternal
grandmother
had DM, and asthma, and died of a CVA. The MGF was a
severe alcoholic and died of cerebral hemorrhage in his 40's. With all pieces
of the puzzle in place, Carcinosin was a much better fit than either
Natrum-muriaticum or Staphisagria.
[Friedrich Witzig]
Limbs: Coldness, air, draft of (hands and feet)
Eruption, joints, bends of
-------- shoulder
-------- hands, eczema
-------- itching
-------- finger, bloody
-------- toe, bloody
Hangnails
Heaviness, upper limbs, sudden
-------- limb, lower, morning
-------- foot, morning
Hip Joint disease
Inflamed joints of hand/foot
Numbness, thigh
> effort, physical, marked
> sleep, short
Leg
caused by ovarian cysts
Pain, rheumatic
-------- > warmth
-------- muscles, in the
-------- -------- deep inside the
bigger
-------- > walking around
-------- upper limbs at night
-------- in shoulder
-------- > motion
-------- In arms (elbow)
-------- > motion
-------- < bending
-------- > stretching
-------- In lower limbs
-------- > effort, physical,
marked
-------- >/< motion
-------- Sciatica
-------- > warmth
-------- > of bed
-------- Thigh
-------- -------- > exertion
-------- -------- > sleep, short
-------- Leg
-------- -------- > motion,
gentle
-------- -------- < motion,
quick
-------- --------
Rheumatic
-------- -------- > warmth
-------- Aching
-------- -------- deep inside the
bigger muscles
-------- -------- > walking
around
-------- -------- upper extremities
-------- -------- shoulder
-------- -------- >
motion/warmth
-------- -------- Legs
-------- -------- > in thighs
physical effort marked
-------- -------- > sleep, short
-------- -------- bruising, thigh,
right
-------- -------- stitching
-------- -------- in r. shoulder
Perspiration, joints, bends of
-------- Foot
---------------- Offensive
-------- -------- profuse
-------- -------- sour
Restless from pain
Swelling
-------- -------- foot, morning
-------- -------- Trembling, upper
limbs, muscles
-------- -------- thigh, muscles
Twisting, (upper?) arm
-------- Thigh
Twitching
Uncover, inclination to
-------- foot
-------- likes to go barefoot
Varices (Scirr:Burnett)
Warts, upper limbs
-------- Hands
-------- Palm
-------- feet, sole
Weakness, thigh
-------- > effort, physical,
marked
-------- > sleep, short
-------- Ancles
Weariness, thigh
-------- > effort, physical,
marked
-------- > körperliche
Anstrengung
-------- > sleep, short
SLEEP
Deep
Disturbed
Dreams,
-------- amorous, (sex with many
people, indifferent at the same time)
-------- Anxious
-------- blood, having bad
-------- busy
-------- changing, in the dream
everything is, confused, thinks it
-------- clairvoyant
-------- cleaning everything
-------- death, of
-------- exciting
-------- exhausting
-------- halls, big
-------- ill, getting
-------- interrupted
-------- invention (against thirst
– Cola with Bitter Lemon,
-------- Play - quartet-poker with
detailed rules
-------- journeys
-------- looking for someone
-------- murder, of
-------- nightmares
-------- rousing the patient
-------- sexual
-------- snakes
-------- spider
-------- travelling
-------- work, of
-------- the whole night, treats
patients
Falling asleep, dawn, during
Difficult
-------- thoughts, many foggy
-------- late
-------- reading daytime, while
Position,
-------- on abdomen
-------- hands above head
-------- on back
-------- hands above
head
-------- hands clutched together
firmly and painfully across chest
-------- krampfhaft, schmerzhaft festhaltend über der Brust
-------- on the head
-------- genupectoral =
Knie-Brust-Lage
-------- with face forced into pillow, on the
Side, left
-------- can only sleep on l. side
-------- on r. side
Restless
Sleepy in morning
Sleepless
-------- In evening
-------- after going to bed
-------- After midnight, after, 4
h.
-------- until dawn
-------- old people
Children sleepless
-------- rocked, must be
-------- with weeping
-------- headache, from
-------- menses, before
-------- in nurslings
-------- first going to sleep
thoughts, activity of mind, from - She is thinking and
thinking and it hard for her to go to sleep.
Someone does something to her and she is laying there
at night thinking and thinking about what the person did and what she should
have said and how it should have been done and of course this is …?
Totally sleepless
-------- twitching of limps, from
-------- waking, after
Unrefreshing
Waking between 2 – 4 h.
-------- morning, early in the
-------- dreams, from exciting
-------- frequent
-------- shocks through the body
while
-------- starting
-------- twitching, from
CHILL
Chilly
FEVER
Continua
Excitement from
Glandular
Insidious
Mononucleosis, after
Periodic
Relapsing in children
Vaccination, after
PERSPIRATION
Odor, offensive
Sour
Profuse
Winter in
Single parts
-------- covered
-------- Sleep, during
-------- nightmares, from
SKIN
Cicatrices
break open
itching
Discoloration, blue spots
Brown
-------- cafe-au-lait
-------- pale
Ecchymosis
Eruptions, acne
-------- Boils
-------- r. side
-------- sensitive to touch
-------- crust, black
-------- eczema
-------- anticipation of chlorine
in a swimming bath starts
-------- discharging
-------- -------- bloody
-------- -------- offensive
-------- petechia
(Carc.Adeno.Stom.)
Excrescences
Itching – Jucken
-------- > bathing, washing
-------- scratch, bleeds, must
until it
-------- < undressing
-------- < warmth of bed
Keloid
Moles
-------- Black
Naevi
Warts
-------- Cylindrical
-------- Fleshy
-------- Small
-------- Soft
GENERALITIES – ALLGEMEINES
> Morning
Forenoon, < 10 h.
> Afternoon (13 – 18 h./14 - 16 h./17 - 18 h.)
Evening < 18 u. 19 h.
18 h. – 21 h.
> abends
Night (scirr) – nachts
Acidosis
> Air, open
desires brisk outdoors
< draft
>/< seashore
Anaemia
-------- Pernicious
Brittle bones
Cancerous affections
-------- Cachexia
Cancer after fright
Change, symptoms, constant
Children, affections in
-------- biting nails
-------- delicate, punny, sickly
-------- Finger in the mouth, puts
< Cold
> dry air
heat and cold
place, entering – Ort, Betreten eines
tendency to take a cold
ENT-problems = HNO-Probleme
Collaps
Complexion, dark
Constriction, sensation of external
Contradictory and alternating states
Convalescence, slow
Convulsions
-------- (at night)
-------- (on waking)
-------- ailments before
-------- (hot and sweaty)
-------- (stiffness and heaviness)
-------- after
-------- (tiredness)
-------- (consciousnes, loss of)
-------- (injury of head, from)
-------- (after menopause)
-------- (tonic)
-------- From whooping cough
-------- Dwarfishness
Emaciation
Wiry
> Exertion, exercising
Exhaustion
Food and Drinks: <: Butter/Schokolade/(smell of)
eggs/Lemon/Meat/milk (allergy)/raw onions/oyster (allergy)/Salt/seafood
(allergy)/sour food;
Good health before paroxysms
Haemorrhagia (scirr)Burnett
orfices of the body, from all
Heat, flashes of, climacteric
-------- night
-------- hysterectomy, after
-------- with perspiration
History, family FA
-------- Allergies
-------- Anaemia
-------- Asthma
-------- Cancer
-------- -------- breast cancer
-------- -------- Chickenpox
-------- Diabetes mellitus
-------- Lupus
-------- Malaria
-------- Measeles
-------- Mumps
-------- Suicide
-------- Strep throat
-------- Tuberculosis
-------- Typhoid fever
-------- Ulcers of Stomach
-------- allergic reaction
-------- -------- food
-------- -------- penicillin
-------- -------- asthma
-------- childish illness after
puberty
-------- -------- measles
-------- -------- cluster headache
from age of 10
-------- -------- herpes zoster
-------- -------- inflammations,
frequent
-------- malfunction of
-------- -------- pituitary gland
-------- -------- thyreoid gland
-------- -------- mononucleosis
-------- -------- otitis
-------- -------- pneumonia
-------- -------- -------- at two
month
-------- -------- -------- at three
month
-------- -------- --------
recurrent
-------- -------- -------- sick all
her childhood
-------- -------- -------- swelling
of lymph glands
-------- -------- -------- whooping
cough
Hypertension (Scirrh:)
Inflammation
-------- chronic, Liver - Hepatitis
-------- Sinusitis
-------- Tonsills chron.
Irritability, lack of
Lassitude
Lean people
Masturbation, onanism, from
Medicaments,
oversensitive to
überempfindlich
gegen Medikamente
“You have to be very careful with me/I react very
strongly to the remedies. I am very sensitive.”
< before menses
> beginning on menses
Mononucleosis infectiosa, ailments after
< new moon
Neurofibromatosis Recklinghausen
Obesity
Old age, premature, old people
-------- (Osteoporosis)
Pain, appearing, suddenly
-------- burning (internally)
-------- cancerous affections
-------- sharp
-------- tearing (internally)
Periodic
-------- Annualy
-------- seven days, every
Pseudocyesis = eingebildete Schwangerschaft
Pulsation, internally
Reaction, lack of
Recovery, slowly, after acute disease
Sexual desire, suppressed
Shuddering, on waking
Seasons
--------
Spring
Side, alternating
--------- Crosswise
-------- right, then left
-------- left then right
-------- onesided
Sleep, short, after amel.
Spherocytosis, hereditary
Sun
------------averse
bright sunlight
Trembling, on waking
Trisomy
Tumors, fibroid
keloid, cheloid
Twitching
-------- waking, on
-------- < Undressing, after
-------- Vaccination, after
Varicose veins (scir)Burnett
< Vaults, cellars
> Warmth
< room
Warm-blooded
Weakness
-------- energy, generally low
-------- fever, after
My body does not work as it should
Weariness
-------- Morning (8 h.)
-------- Afternoon 15 h. onwards
-------- 16 h. until bed
-------- > evening
-------- chronic fatique syndrome
-------- in hot weather
-------- lingering
Weather
-------- < cold
-------- > cold, but cold
weather bothers her
-------- < damp
-------- foggy, cool, desires
-------- aversed to hot
-------- < storm, approach of a
-------- Desires it
-------- warm, desire
-------- < warm, wet
-------- Aversed to wet
-------- < windy and stormy
Whooping cough, after
Wounds, slow to heal
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum