Carcinosinum Anhang 5
[Frank W. Gruber]
Carcinosin was always a difficult remedy for me to understand. Partly,
this was due to the lack of information on the remedy. Partly it was due to the
fact that much of information found was contradictory to itself. And partly it
was difficult because the information found was so nebulous that it seemed
similar to so many other remedies. Sometimes it looked like Nat-m., sometimes
like Phosphorus, Staphysagria, Lachesis, or Tuberculinum. This confusion
makes some homeopaths prescribe this remedy rarely, where as others prescribe
it daily. But both can not be right.
The intense disparity within the remedy that seems to make it so
confusing actually makes it easier to understand once we see how the cycle of
the remedy unfolds.
Understanding Remedies through Cycles and Segments
As readers of this journal know, for the last number of years Paul
Herscu ND, has been developing a theory which advocates looking at remedies as
a cycle of segments. Each segment represents an idea which encompasses many of
the symptoms found in patients needing that remedy, as well as those symptoms
recorded in the materia medicas for that remedy. There are generally between
4-6 segments for each remedy. When the segments are all taken together, they
cover all the symptoms of that remedy. This is especially useful, as it helps
explain contradictory symptoms effectively.
Each segment or fundamental idea leads to the next and the next and the
next, until the last idea leads back to the first. This is the nature of
chronic disease. The patient is in a cycle of pathology that they can’t escape.
This cycle prevents the vital force from allowing them to heal.
Notice that the symptoms which are noted in the following cycle of
Carcinosin include those from the mental/emotional, general, and physical
realms. The cycle of a remedy represents the untunement of the vital force. That
untunement is dynamic. It moves from segment to segment. As it moves it creates
symptoms at all levels which are reflections of the untunement of the vital
force.
The Cycle of Carcinosin
FEAR
LET THEMSELVES BE TAKEN CARE OF
INWARDNESS
RESENTMENT
FRENETIC BREAKING OUT
BREAKDOWN/WEAKNESS
FEAR.
In this part of the cycle the Carcinosin patient is fearful. They have
fear of being alone, of animals, of the future, of insects, mirrors, and
spiders. They have fears about their health, riding fast.
They have ailments from anticipation.
This fear is really about their ability to make their way in the world. If
they can’t affect change in their own life, literally everything seems
threatening, uncontrollable. Consciously or unconsciously they choose a
strategy for survival which pushes them to the next part of the cycle.
LET THEMSELVES BE TAKEN CARE OF
If you have a fear about your own ability to make your way in the world,
the easiest thing is to let someone else do it for you. You let them take care
of you. Often this is a pattern developed in childhood. An overbearing parent
may ‘train’ the patient to be dependent, by not encouraging them to make their
own decisions, by constantly doing things for them, or by giving them the
message that they are not capable of doing things for themselves.
So the symptoms that fit this portion of the cycle are: company
ameliorates, loves affection, affectionate, propensity for caresses, smiling,
desires to be carried, resignation, desire for rocking, and sociability.
Also included in this segment are the myriad of things that tend to take
care of them i.e. ameliorate them. > Seaside air, pain lower limbs >: warmth
of bed/music/throat pain warm drinks; everything seems to ameliorate them. They
are letting themselves be taken care of. They take whatever they are given and
it makes them feel better.
They desire foods which are comfort oriented: butter, chocolate,
delicacies, eggs, fruit, milk, sweets, sugar. You can almost imagine their
mother giving them all their favorite comfort foods.
Later on in life, they still need to be taken care of and still find
comfort in the same foods.
INWARDNESS
As Herscu explains in his theory of overreaction, you often get what you
want but the intensity makes it insupportable. For example, Pulsatilla desires
consolation, desires to be carried and rocked
and loved up, to be smothered by others and yet they develop a fear of
suffocation.
Likewise, because Carsinosin wants to be taken care of, they have to
submit their will to the will of the person who is doing the caretaking. They
begin the process of losing their sense of self, not really knowing themselves
as much as they should, not being a solid individual. They hear only the vague
voice of who they really are, who they were meant to be. I think this is the famed
keynote symptom for the remedy. It is not just suppression from the parent, but
rather the loss of self that results from that suppression. Here they may be
mistaken for Staph. or Nat-m. So they are quiet and inward. They tend to hold
on to their feelings in this phase, to suppress them. They don’t speak out.
Things dwell and swell up inside of them.
A telltale symptom is: abdominal pain, bending double ameliorates. They
bend over and take whatever they are given in order to feel better. Or sleep
position on knees with face forced into the pillow. This pretty much describes
the passivity. Yet it’s more than just passivity. It’s the next step. The
overattention or being taken care of is beginning to close in on them. It’s
beginning to grate,
be cloying. But they can’t say anything. They just keep it in and swell
up.
Other specific symptoms include : cautious, reserved, responsive without
interest, taciturn, suppresses his desires, aversion to company, anger with
silent grief, suppressed grief, and answers in monosyllables.
Physical symptoms which reflect the same idea are: styes of eyes,
stiffness of lower jaw, abdomen constriction, rectum constriction, constriction
of the heart, chest swelling of mammae before menses, extremity pain, motion
agg. They are held in, constricted, can’t move, swollen, and so are their
physical symptoms. They can only take this “holding on” for so long before they
move
to the next segment.
RESENTMENT
They get resentful. They can’t hold it in completely any more. They
become contradictory. Three symptoms revealing this idea are: delusions she has
suffered wrong, unhappiness due to influence
of others, and delusions arms do not belong to her. She can’t do what it
is she wants. Her arms, which she uses to accomplish things, can’t be used to
do what she wants. She is at the mercy of someone else – and she resents it.
Other symptoms include: contradictory states, capricious, intolerance of
contradiction, disobedience, quarrelsome, ailments from domination, ailments
from reproaches, discontented, disgust,
anger at his mistakes, remorse, sensitive to reprimands, dreams of
murder, < conversation.
Anything that makes them feel closed in bothers them. They have fear in
narrow places or riding in a carriage (closed in). At this phase, everything that
looks like consolation or affection makes
them worse: consolation aggravates and seaside air aggravates. Eggs,
fruit, and milk were comfort foods. Now they either are averse to, or
aggravated by them.
We see that the cycle explains the divergent aggravations and
ameloriations by the same modalities. During the ‘letting themselves be taken
care of’ segment of the cycle, these things make them
feel better. In the ‘resentment’ segment of the cycle they make the
patient feel worse.
FRENETIC BREAKING OUT
Finally they have to break out. They are excitable, sexually intense,
love to move. They are on their own. They finally can take care of themselves. Symptoms
include: Dancing, desire for travel, restlessness, blueness of the sclera, runs
about, disposition to masturbate, cheerful when it thunders and lightnings,
extremity pain motion ameliorates. They are finally alive.
But the excitability increases. You have the symptoms: starting from
noise, talking in sleep, shrieking at night, weeping, weeping at trifles, tics,
twitching of eyelids, sleeplessness, destructiveness
in children, biting fingers, and tearing himself.
They start taking care of others. These rubrics include: Caring for
others, too much of a sense of duty, anxiety about family, full of cares for
others, anxiety for others. They do many things for others, here looking like
Phosphorus or Causticum.
Cancerous affectations are found here as the cells lose cancer
suppressing ability and proliferate with all the energy possible-with so much
vitality that it can kill the rest of the body. It is in a way
a reaction to having been suppressed for so long before. In the struggle
for freedom, for growth and individuality, the person overshoots and creates
too much, just as what happened with the personality.
Finally it is just too much activity. They move to the next segment of
the cycle.
BREAKDOWN
They break down and are weak, sad. Symptoms of the breakdown are:
schizophrenia, suicidal disposition, mouth aphthae, ulcerations, and bleeding. The
effects of cancer can be found here.
The weakness is seen with the following symptoms: mind development
arrested, retardation, dullness, concentration difficult, want of self
confidence, sadness, weakness of eyes, rectum prolapse, sexual desire
diminished, extremities, weakness thigh. Too weak to walk, or to talk.
Expending so much energy has left a hole in them, has weakened them so
much so that they can feel sensitive to the outside world. So much so that they
resemble Phosphorus or Pulsatilla or occasionally Medorrhinum. They feel
other’s pains, but other’s beauty as well. Just as Phosphorus feels the music,
sees the colors so vibrantly, so too does Carcinosin. But it is a sensitivity
that
can come from weakness and from being too open.
And so, the breakdown and weakness push them back into being fearful,
and the cycle is back to the beginning and starts around one more time.
SUMMARY
So looking at the cycle of Carcinosin explains a few things. First, as
mentioned above, it explains why at one segment of the cycle certain symptoms
ameliorate and, at another segment of the cycle, the same modalities aggravate.
Similarly, it explains why, at one segment they desire a certain food, at
another segment they are averse to the same food. Compare the modalities and
food cravings
of the ‘let themselves be taken care of’ segment with those of the
‘resentment’ segment.
2nd it allows us to see how Carcinosin can look like other
remedies. During the ‘inward’ part of the cycle they can easily look like Nat-m.
During the frenetic part of the cycle they can look like Phos., Tub. or Lach. During
the “inwardness, holding on” and ‘resentment’ parts of the cycle they can look
like Staph. Taking other parts of the cycle they can look like other remedies. The
beauty
of looking at remedies through the cycles and segments is that you can
see how it fits together to form a coherent picture of Carcinosin.
3rd you can easily see how the many descriptions of
Carcinosin have come into the literature. It depends on the portion of the
cycle the patient was in when the homeopath treated them, and on
what the homeopath focused on.
4th the confusion in the literature does not mean that we
should not give this remedy, but that we should work our way through it and
find the real issues underlying this remedy. While I do not
think we should be prescribing it every day, we also should not discard
it.
[Tinus Smits]
Carcinosinum (15T)
Aiming at a deeper understanding of the remedy the author describes the
remedy Carcinosinum, pointing out the different qualities of different
preparations, the history of its development and essential features. A
synthesis of the remedy picture of Carcinosin is given and two cases are
described.
Lack of confidence
Connecting the inner force
Cancer, a deeper understanding
For many years already Carcinosinum has had a special place in my
practice and I have been always seeking for the essence and deeper
understanding of it. Slowly this remedy has revealed its secrets to me and I
felt the need to publish my understanding and experience with this nosode, the
more because Carcinosinum has become part of a total new way of treating
patients, namely the treatment of universal layers.
PRODUCT
Until recently I thought that the Carcinosinum we use all over the
world, was everywhere the same. The one I used all the time was from Dolisos in
Holland, which is the same as that from Nelson in London and is made with at
least 15 different tumors. Colleagues who attended my seminars in the past and
tried to apply my way of treatment told me that they were not able to obtain
the same cures with Carcinosinum as I did and that they didn’t see as often as
I did the shift to the next layer (most of the time that of Saccharum
officinale) after a prolonged treatment with this remedy. One colleague from
the USA even wrote to me: ‘Maybe you have special ability to connect and
transmit healing through your understanding, because our results with
Carcinosinum are not as good as yours.’ Though his explanation was very
flattering for my ego, I was seeking for another explanation that I found only
two years later: the quality of their Carcinosinum was not the same as the one
I used. The one-tumor-Carcinosinum, made with a mammary tumor of one
woman is surely not universal enough to resolve the whole Carcinosinum layer
and not capable of causing a shift to the next layer. In many cases the
one-tumor Carcinosinum will give only partial results for a short time and
that’s what happened to my colleagues in the USA when they tried out what I
taught them.
The Nelson Carcinosinum (London) is made of the following different
carcinomas: Carcinoma Adeno (stomach), Carcinoma Papillary (colon), Carcinoma
Papillary (ovary), Carcinoma Papillary (uterus), Carcinoma (bowel), Carcinoma
Co. (bowel), Carcinoma Co. (K) -(K is a composite of carcinomas supplied by
Koch Light)- Carcinoma Scirrhus (mamma), Carcinoma Scirrhus (stomach),
Carcinoma Squamous (pulm). (source: A. Nelson & Co Ltd., London).
A little investigation in different countries taught me that there are
Carcinosinums made out of 58 different tumors (source Stauffen, Germany) and of
only one tumor. This gives us the following listing:
This means that homeopaths all over the world use and discuss quite
different remedies if they talk about Carcinosinum. It is clear that the
one-tumor Carcinosinum is different from a 15 or 48 tumor Carcinosinum. I
suggest that one-tumor-Carcinosinum should therefore be named after the tumor
that is used, e.g. Carcinoma mamma, Carcinoma rectum. Only the remedy made with
different tumors should be called Carcinosinum, followed by the number of
tumors used, e.g. Carcinosinum (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 being followed for
Vernix caseosa.
HISTORY
When we look at how Carcinosinum was born as a new therapeutic tool for
the homeopath of this century, the first step, the basis of this remedy, was
established by William Boericke, J.H. Clarke and J.H. Compton Burnett in the
first part of this century and put under renewed attention by Dr. D.M.
Foubister from England in the fifties. He mainly experienced the remedy in
practice and never did full provings. The origin of the remedy he used is still
not very sure until our days. I quote from the article published in October
1982 by Dr. Dorothy J. Cooper in the British homoeopathic Journal, Vol.71, no.
10. ‘ORIGIN and HISTORY of CARCINOSIN’. ‘Initially we must identify the substance
under discussion. The preparation used by Dr. Foubister and Dr. Templeton in
clinical practice and trials, was the original preparation of Carcinosin, the
source of which is unknown. It was brought over from the U.S. and was probably
prepared from an epithelioma of breast’…..
And then several other homeopaths published their experiences or did
provings. Slowly the number of symptoms grew, but the deeper understanding of
Carcinosinum remained unknown. In the ‘Journal of the American Institute of Homoeopathy’,
volume 82, number 4, December 1989, Jonathan Shore says in his article:
‘Carcinosinum: an overview with case studies.’ “I cannot say that
I have identified a single thread or idea around which the whole image
crystallizes, a kernel which sets this remedy clearly apart from all the others
such as the idea of being overwhelmed which one often sees in Calcarea, “The
desires and aversions are often the first clue that sets the prescriber’s mind
thinking of Carcinosinum; the diffusion of Phosphorus, or the cowardice of
Lycopodium.” and further on:
But if we understand the essence, desires and aversions become much less
important and in this remedy the desires and aversions are not stable
indications for its choice. That’s why I retained only ‘desire chocolate’ as a
valuable symptom in the synthesis of keynotes.
BACK TO THE ESSENTIALS
The problem with this remedy is that so many homeopaths added symptoms
of which a certain number turned out -at least in my experience- not to be
reliable or not relevant. For many years I verified all these symptoms with
every prescription and it became clear to me 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. So I started to take out symptoms from the picture that were
of no value in enhancing the image of Carcinosinum and to add some others that
seemed important to me from the essence. The fears of Carcinosinum a good
example. The most important fears of Carcinosinum are: FEAR of cancer; fear in
a crowd; fear in narrow places; fear in high places; fear of spiders, mice,
snakes; fear of failure in examinations; fear of failure; fear of
thunderstorms. Therefore 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. That is what I shall try to do.
THE ESSENCE: WEAK EGO AND ITS COMPENSATION MECHANISMS
To discover the essence of Carcinosinum we have to understand the basic
problem of the cancer patient and what exactly is a tumor, because Carcinosinum
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 Carcinosinum 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
that the reactivity is increasing.
MEDICAL INFLUENCES
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. (See my publication about ‘The Post-Vaccinal Syndrome’)
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, who was 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. Has to learn to take his
destiny in his own hands.
RESTORATION OF HOPE
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.
Giving 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 be cured 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 of doing so.
He has to be respected in his attempt, knowing that his doctor will give the
best treatment that is available. Statistics should not
be decisive about how many chances he has of cure, but the patient
himself should be decisive. 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 again take up
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 cycles
her doctor decided to give her two more cycles 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 cycles 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 not dying. 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.”
To take one’s own destiny in one’s hands and to discuss the treatment as
someone who is completely responsible for his own health and life is very important
and enhances the possibilities of cure. The patient has to be strong to face
remarks from her doctors and other people who don’t believe in any possibility
of 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.
On the 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 outlook. On the
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. On the 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 even common practice nowadays. Children often have
sudden high fever for only one or two 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,
are 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. I remember this man, 45 years old,
who got a double otitis with running ears after a dose of Saccharum officinale
200K. He had never had otitis since the age of 5 and had no ear problems. But
shortly after this inflammation and elimination process his joint pains
disappeared completely and his general condition was much better.
It is not by coincidence that children go through a certain number of
eruptive diseases, as Rubella, German measles, Scarlatina, fifth or sixth
disease, etc. and that 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 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 not an acute
phase, no fever, no eruption, no accelerated or enhanced evacuation of toxins.
There is no acute outbreak followed by a restoration
f 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 the exception than
daily practice. The majority of patients are suddenly confronted with cancer
and often wonder that this happened to them, because they were almost never
ill, had no influenza, no fever, no major health problems for decades and
believed themselves 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 aging there is a spontaneous shift from infectious to tumoral
diseases enhanced by vaccination and other suppressive treatments. 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 himself be
suppressed 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 PRINCIPLE
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’s 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 of 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 is 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 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, thus 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.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARCINOSINUM PICTURE FROM THE ESSENCE
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 (see causations) 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
travelling 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 and 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 Carcinosinum 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 reprimands, 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 (Homoeopathic Links 2/92) that Cuprum is
the closest remedy to Carcinosinum. We often see in the same patient both the
Carcinosinum and the Cuprum picture. That’s why I now use frequently a
combination of both, called Carcinosinum 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 Carcinosinum picture.
WHAT CARCINOSIN PATIENTS TELL US BEFORE THE TREATMENT
If we have understood well what Carcinosinum 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
WHAT CARCINOSIN PATIENTS TELL US 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 SYMPTOMS
Physical complaints are most of the time not our best guides to finding
the correct remedy, but can sometimes, especially in acute illnesses, be 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 Carcinosinum 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.
Synthesis
AG = Alphons Geukens, Belgium; DF = D.M. Foubister, England; DC =
Dorothy Cooper, England; HH = Hui Bon Hoa, France; PL = Pladijs, Belgium; PO =
Proceso Sanchez Ortega, Mexico;
TS = Tinus Smits, Holland; WT = Templeton, England
1. ESSENCE: WANT OF SELF CONFIDENCE WITH WEAK DEFENSES
CAUSATIONS: rudeness (PO,TS), sensitive to rudeness (3); domination for
a long time (?,TS); excessive parental control (DF), harsh upbringing (TS);
absence of the father (TS); too much responsibility too early (DF,TS); a too
great effort to please his parents, especially the father; lack of approbation
or constant disapproval (TS), undermining of self-confidence (TS), too high
expectations from the parents (TS); lack of opportunities to realize his
abilities, to make a career; being obliged to do things against his will; long
lasting grief (TS), prolonged fear (DF,TS), long lasting unhappiness (DF,TS);
mental, emotional and physical suppression (TS); anticipation (DF,TS);
vaccination (PO,TS)
2. ASPECT: blue sclera (DF,TS); frequent blinking of eye lids (WT,TS);
numerous moles, especially on the back (DF,TS); cafe-au-lait spots (DF,TS);
warts on soles (AG,TS) or on palms (TS); patient whose life has been a long
hard struggle (DF,TS)
3. FAMILY HISTORY of cancer (DF)
4. WEAK DEFENSE MECHANISMS on the mental, emotional and physical plane
(TS)
5. LACK OF REACTIVITY; no fever for a very long time (DC,TS)
6. The usual childhood illnesses appear later in life and are often very
severe; common childhood illnesses often absent or occur more than once (DF);
tendency to have an inflammatory illness very early in life (whooping cough or
pneumonia) (DF); from repeated suppressions of inflammatory diseases in
childhood (?,TS)
7. LACK OF CONFIDENCE (?,TS); fear of failure (TS); anxiety about making
mistakes (TS); sensitivity to reprimand (DF) TIMIDITY (WT)
8. EASILY OFFENDED, takes everything in bad part (4)
9. FASTIDIOUS (3) in his work (TS); UNTIDY except for what he is working
on (TS); desire to ARRIVE ON TIME for an appointment (TS); fears to make
mistakes (TS); tendency to adapt overly to the requirements of other people to
deserve their approval, fears to be criticized (TS)
10. Excessive sense of DUTY (WT,TS), feeling responsible for everything
(TS)
11. WORKAHOLIC; feeling of guilt when taking rest without having
finished all the work; even when sitting he has the feeling that he must do
something: reading, knitting, crocheting, etc. (TS)
12. INABILITY TO REFUSE ANYTHING; WANTS ALWAYS TO PLEASE EVERYBODY;
feeling of guilt when refusing anything; occupied with the needs of others, but
completely unaware of his own; permits others to overstep his own boundaries
(TS)
13. ANTICIPATION, anxiety anticipating an engagement (WT,TS); anxiety
when people are late (DF); anxiety about others (1)
14. SYMPATHETIC (2); anxiety about others (1)
15. FEAR of CANCER (?,TS); in a crowd (HH,TS); in narrow places (PL,TS);
in high places (?,TS); spiders (TS), mice (TS), snakes (TS); failure in
examinations (1,TS); failure (TS); thunderstorms (?,TS)
16. HORRIBLE THINGS affect him profoundly (HH,TS); cannot watch murder,
suffering, cruelties, surgery, etc. on TV (TS)
17. Sensitive to MUSIC (DF,TS); weeps from music (DF,TS)
18. Loves DANCING (3); marked sense of rhythm (DF,TS)
19. Desire to READ (PL,TS) or DYSLEXIA (AG,TS) or impossibility to read
because of a difficult concentration (TS) or mental exhaustion; difficult
concentration during conversation (TS)
20. Desire to TRAVEL (2); NAUSEA RIDING in an automobile (1,TS)
21. LOVES NATURE, SEA (?,TS); loves ANIMALS (DF,TS); LOVES THUNDERSTORMS
(DF,TS); loves storms (TS)
22. SLEEPLESS (2); difficult to fall asleep, overactive ideas (DF,TS),
needs several hours to fall asleep (TS); wakens at 4 a.m. (DF,TS); short sleep
amel.; sleepless during a large part of the night (WT,TS); unrefreshing sleep
(WT,TS); waking at 4 a.m. (DF,TS); sleepless after 4 a.m. (DF,TS)
23. EXHAUSTION (DC,TS), when overtaxed and overworked, too much pressure
24. DULLNESS (1); confusion of mind (1); difficult concentration while
studying, reading, etc. (TS); weakness of memory (1)
25. Obstinate (DF,TS)
26. Bites nails (DF,TS)
27. MAIN PHYSICAL COMPLAINTS: hayfever (?,TS); chronic, long continued
coryza; chronic tonsillitis and sinusitis (DF,TS); infectious MONONUCLEOSIS
(DF); acne (1,TS); fibromas (1,TS), ovarian cysts (TS); sterility (TS); warts
on soles and palms of hands (AG,TS); acne, pustules on the back (TS); severe
acne (TS); molluscum contagiosum (TS)
28. <: BEFORE MENSES: aggressiveness, sadness, irritability,
industrious, swelling of mammae, painful mammae (TS)
29. >: short sleep (1,TS); occupation (TS)
30. DESIRES: chocolate (2)
CASE 1: To give a clear example of this state that can easily lead to
cancer this 62 year old man is a perfect case. He came to see me in rather a
bad state: he was emaciated and there was a look of death in his eyes.
Investigation in hospital revealed cancer in the colon with metastasis
(ingrowing hydronephroses) in the right ureter. He is operated on for removal
of the right colon, sigmoid, jejunum, the right kidney and gallbladder. His
life expectation is only some months and the surgeon didn’t take pains to close
the wound properly. But the patient refuses palliative chemotherapy and
immediately starts the homeopathic and orthomolecular treatment. The most
important thing now is to understand why he got cancer. He is the eldest of
three children, a dreamer with an enormous tendency to fantasy and with a
certain paranormal gift. He is left handed and already at the nursery school
and at primary school he is forced to write with his right hand, the teacher
caning him on his fingers and on his buttocks; he still has the mark on his buttocks,
he says. He doesn’t feel accepted in his family, because he is so different.
When he was six the second world war broke out and he remembers clearly how a
German solder broke his toy saxophone when he was serenading to a column of
German soldiers marching into his town. At ten he is sent to a boarding-school,
where he is happy because he is accepted as a person and can exercise his
painting abilities. His father is a world-famous artist and he knows him as a
good and incorruptible man, open to everything that is good and worthwhile. But
later he will have problems with his father, when he starts his own career as a
painter, in finding his own identity and not as the son of the famous …. He
grows up in a very severe dogmatic family, strongly under the influence of his
grandparents, his father mostly being busy or absent and his mother running a
shop. He receives a lot of disapproval in his early childhood and his
self-confidence is below zero. Later he works as a teacher in painting and
drawing in a secondary school and marries at thirty. His hobbies are drawing,
music, theater, reading and nature. He has a phobia of water, some fear of high
places, can enjoy lightning and storms tremendously. He is always on time and
inwardly angry when other people are late. His work has to be perfect (100%),
but otherwise he is rather untidy. His marriage is catastrophic. ‘I gave up
everything for her. All my activities, all my personal ambitions and pleasures
such as the theater, music, painting. I painted at school, telling my wife I
had to stay longer because of a teachers’ meeting. I felt deeply unhappy, I
sacrificed myself because I had committed myself with her and I wanted to stick
to my word. I loved her and accepted everything also because of the children. I
am not able to fight and only feel an enormous anger inside. She always wanted
to change me, and even my own children don’t accept me as I am. When she left
me after 22 years I felt broken, as I could never have done that, but later I
felt a sense of liberation and was happy with it.’ This strong feeling of
adapting to what he once promised and to never give up brings us to another
aspect of his character. He is very organized, plans everything, wants to
finish things the same day, he follows rules conscientiously (when meaningful).
He is angry when other people disobey traffic rules. He can be very angry in
his heart about injustice. He says: ‘The greatest injustice is that I am never
accepted.’ He is very persevering: when he wants to achieve something, he is
sure to attain it. All this indicates clearly his Cuprum side and therefore the
homeopathic remedy he needs will be Carcinosinum cum Cuprum. Besides there is a
lot of cancer in his family. His father died at age 49 from cancer, all his
uncles and aunts from both sides got cancer and he also has a lot of cousins
and nieces with cancer. His mother died at age 87 from ‘old age’. But a
homoeopathic remedy alone will probably not be sufficient to cure this patient.
The patient has to be convinced that it is worthwhile to go for it, if it is
for prolongation of life, for a better condition of life or for cure. Any
possibility is valuable and worthwhile to go for. This is not false hope as so
often said. This is giving yourself as much of a chance as you can get. Cure is
only possible if you believe in it, if you feel stronger than your cancer.
Therefore the support by the doctor is important. Other measures are also
important to sustain the body in its effort to throw the cancer out. The
treatment of free radicals with vitamin C, E, Selenium and bioflavonoids, the
restoration of the copper and zinc equilibrium, the harmonization of the home,
organic food with a good quantity of vegetables and fruit and little or no
meat, sufficient rest, natural clothes and connection with the earth by wearing
shoes with leather soles to minimize static electricity. Also good bowel
movement is important. Shark cartilage can be important to check
vascularization of the tumor. I give this in 4CH now because good shark
cartilage is very expensive and because I believe that in potentised form it
can transmit also the quality of the shark, namely be more aggressive and
defend yourself better. The killing of millions of sharks every year for this
purpose is also an important aspect for me that urged me to look for another
solution. But I have been doing this only for quite a short time and cannot say
much about the results. The first two persons who were controlled with life
blood tests after taking this remedy for one month have very active white blood
cells. So the first results are very encouraging.
This patient, five months after his operation, is doing quite well. He
feels in good condition, his appetite is good again and his weight is
increasing by one kilogram every week, he has no pain and feels happy. He has
started painting again. Concerning the homoeopathic treatment I started with
CCC LM6 every day, but now he feels better I changed it to CCC 30K twice a
week.
CASE 2: this 53 year old lady came to me with osteoporosis as her main
complaint. She says about herself that she is not persevering and that she
never was able to stand up for herself. She was born during W W II, the third
of five children. Her father and mother had a confectioner’s shop and she was
brought up by nurses. She had to work all the time even as a child and she
wanted to play and run away. There was no place for feelings and she needed
attention, which she found with a girl friend of her mother’s who unfortunately
died when the patient was just 20. Then she sought consolation with a married
man for four years and there she was caressed for the first time in her life.
But it was a difficult relationship and finally she got overwrought. Then she
was treated by a psychiatrist . Even now my self-confidence is zero she says.
In my mother’s eyes everybody was good, all other children were clever, but we
were stupid. My sister tried hard to be the best, but I didn’t do anything, and
that gave me a lot of trouble with my mother. She was very dictatorial and I
fought with her until her death. I still feel angry with her. My father was a
nice man, but he never intervened; I never knew him well. I have felt nervous
all my life. I have no attachments. My body is as if I have a phobia for it. I
have a lot of fears: of high places, of narrow places, of crowds, of cancer, a
tremendous fear of spiders and thunderstorms. (I feel nervous before them.) My
body is full of static electricity and I walk almost always bare feet. I love
to read and do puzzles. My mother had rheumatism, my father died from a stroke.
My mother’s father, her brother and my grandfather’s sister on her side died of
cancer. I only eat in the evening and dislike bread and farinaceous food (this
is the expression of her Saccharum layer). I wake up frequently at 2.30 a.m.
and am sleepless after that. I prescribed her Carcinosinum 30K, once a week.
Then gradually she feels better. In the beginning she has cystitis, but
she is less tense, feels more confident, and drove for the first time in four years
on the highway. Five months later she says: I have become someone else. I feel
the need for spiritual books and I feel connected with the cosmos, which gives
me a feeling of happiness. I had completely lost my believe in God before, but
now I feel his existence again. My mother was a fanatic catholic and sent me to
church every day. After a dose of Carcinosinum I feel relaxed and content and
don’t have any urge to perform. At the end of the two weeks (she takes now
200K) I feel much more the need to work and to be active. Now again after two
months I feel that I have to do something for all these new things, all this
love, so I decided to stop smoking, which I never was able to do during my
whole life. I made a promise to myself. I sucked my thumb until I started to
smoke at age seventeen. But life now seems empty to me, I am missing something.
Here we see the shift to the Saccharum layer: she needed so much
attention in her childhood and she compensated it with sucking and later on
with smoking cigarettes. This was her only satisfaction and consolation. But at
this point I did not change her remedy because she still feels the benefit of
it and that will help the saccharum picture to come up still more clearly.
In this case the mother played the role of the disapproving father and
the father himself added to it by his absence and non involvement.