Identity and Relationship
Alize Timmerman, Lyn Snow & Suzanne Marlow Fries
a seminar review:
This seminar was the first of a series that was originally presented in Europe and later in New Zealand by Alize Timmerman. Anat Dagan, of Ojai Seminars, organized the event, and a more majestic and conducive setting would be difficult to find. Homeopaths flew in from many parts of California to hear Alize present cases and share her ideas on what is to be healed.
Prior to becoming a homeopath, Alize achieved notoriety as an accomplished biochemist and biochemical analyst, researching and publishing many important papers, journal articles and book chapters on the subject. She lives in Holland with a successful 19-year practice, and like other teachers from this part of the world, she offers a creative and straightforward approach to homeopathy. Her presentation included not only her successful cases, but also those in which she experienced trouble in understanding the patient, a truly great method of teaching. Alize was forthcoming with her teachings, findings, and her interests in expanding the knowledge of homeopathy. She both inspired and challenged all attending to further expand and develop their homeopathic practices.
Alize emphasizes teaching a process of understanding rather than facts to memorize, distinguishing her from many other sources for homeopathic training. The seminar was based on the work of Jung, Whitmont, etc., on the development of the Self, the ego, and the totality of the individuals psyche. It focused on treatment of patients with relationship problems, and particularly with the relationship between the Self and the ego. These patients can be difficult to treat because their inner state may be masked by physical problems. The presenting complaints, casetaking, and, ultimately the selected remedy, may not reach the core of the problem. This was illustrated by cases whose underlying illness stemmed from a wide variety of relationship problems, including individuals with multiple personalities and “depersonalization”`.
Materia medica at this seminar centered on remedies from the Periodic Table of Elements. Alize discussed the appropriateness of heavier elements for the more solid and stable personalities. In contrast, she also showed many cases that revealed an “underdeveloped Self,” and in these cases the lighter elements were often needed, such as Aluminum, Beryllium, Lithium, the Natrums, Carbons, Magnesiums, Nitrogens, Kalis, and Argon and Hydrogen. She also discussed similar remedies from animal and plant sources, with special focus on Lac felinum, Lac leon, Lac humanum and Thuja.
A unique aspect of this seminar was Alize’s ability to synthesize meaning and application to homeopathy from many areas of human thought. She converges natural sciences and social sciences into a whole that conveys her deep understanding of health, disease, and healing.
Chaos Theory
A well-chosen remedy will necessarily cause chaos. This will help the patient to establish balance, as the organism/vital force rearranges itself to establish a new balance as it strives for health. Chaos theory might typically be compared to the remedy “causing aggravations.”
Looking at this chaos as actually “rebalancing” is more positive than seeing it as the formidable “aggravation.” If the remedy goes too deep and the chaos is overwhelming, a person may become too uncomfortable and will not be able to handle so much inner turmoil. The patient´s “inner Self” can be so vulnerable that it cannot handle any aggravation due to weakness, and the chaos, for example, panic attacks, can be too much. Alize believes that although a little chaos can be good, sometimes it is best to just prescribe on the outer layer, (the Wall, as Ananda Zaren has suggested), depending upon the depth of pathology.
Chemistry and the Periodic Table
As a close friend and colleague of Jan Scholten, Alize also sees the Periodic Table of Elements as a map for organizing and generalizing themes of homeopathic remedies. This seminar covered the upper part of the Periodic Table, with several cases shown and many remedies occurring in the first three rows.
Remedies in the upper rows of elements tend to show pathology as lacking ego or self-development. The weaker personalities tend to be higher on the periodic chart. Consider the Calcareas, Borax and the Barytas. Alize feels that these and other upper-row remedies are the homeopathic substances most needed in everyday practice, as these represent the beginning structures of life, upon which we build our foundations. Another upper-row remedy, Beryllium, which may resemble Pulsatilla, will often be very self- critical, dependent on others, and have a very weak will. A Beryllium muriaticum might be an insecure mother, one who is fearful, and does not know how to handle her children. She adapts to her surroundings too much, and does not develop her ego, loses energy constantly, and feels that her life does not go in any direction. This split of energy allows her to feel power, but it does not feel as if it is her own. This is how a schizoid personality can develop, which we will discuss later in this article. The ego becomes stronger as we go down the periodic table, and the pathology also gets deeper. Studying personality development in conjunction with the Periodic Table enhances the significance of the elemental remedies. The structure of these substances and their placement on the Table has become easier to understand when researching it with homeopathic reason.
Human developmental stages
Timmerman gave students training in depth-perception prescribing, as she emphasized the psychological underpinnings of cases and their role in the origin of pathology. She conveyed that psychological background is the essential foundation in human social development, and this foundation is “created” or “grown” in stages. It comprises, first, the instinctual/physical stages of development; then the expanding range of emotional experience and integration; and finally, the intellectual/spiritual capacities of a growing and maturing adult. (Readers here are assumed to be familiar with Margaret Mahler or Louise Kaplan, who have written on benchmarks and key stages of normal development. Kaplan’s Oneness and Separateness is excellent on this subject).
Alize gave an example of a key development stage. A child is born and then it separates, but in the beginning, a child is still at one with the mother, and stays with her. Later, when the mother leaves, the child feels as if its own self is leaving. Then, at around eight months, the child has what is called “an existential birth.” The existential birth only comes when the child is secure in knowing that there is someone who will be around for him or her.
Alize asserts that if a child or young adult gets stuck at this or any other phase of development, this blockage or fixity in the vital force continues into adulthood and leads to pathology in varying degrees of severity.
Carbon, according to Alize, is the main element in mineral salts remedies useful for children and young people, i.e. Magnesia carbonica and Baryta carbonica. Utilizing carbon, bones are structured. Similarly, a child needs to develop structure, both physical and emotional, to grow beyond being unformed or immature. For instance, an infant is totally open, both emotionally and physically. Look at the infants
fontanelles: until these bones develop and complete the encircling of the brain mass, the child’s central nervous system can be considered to be at one with its surroundings. It is free to experience events interdimensionally, though with only limited instinctual or emotional , in order for the child to progress and mature. Alize contends that the upper Periodic Chart remedies are those most needed in daily practice because these remedies show the greatest tendencies to be weak, unstable, impulsive, and irresolute. These tendencies are most often seen in children and our most chronically ill patients.
Depth psychology
Finally, before going into cases, Alize rounded out her intellectual foundations and assumptions for the seminar with reference to Carl Jung’s work and also to Edward Whitmont’s writings.
According to Jung, the psychological concept of Self is developed on three levels: Conscious, Self, and, Subconscious. Very briefly, conscious development is that of which we are aware and can objectively, directly, perceive or observe, while the subconscious is hidden just “below” what we typically directly perceive. The Self is part of both the conscious and subconscious, and source of the plan behind them both. Thus, the self is the root of the personality. Alize feels that we are always trying to be more our Selves, and health is about becoming and being more one’s true Self.
According to Whitmont, the Self may even contradict the ego. In his book, The Alchemy of Healing, Whitmont asserts that a certain degree of “fixedness” is required for “ego firmness” and “strength of personality.” He contends that this resistance to change is healthy, but can also become pathological. Hence, he states that “it is unavoidable that we respond to new life turns with discomfort, dis-ease, and resistance.” (1). Alize believes that the self is often intent on change, therefore, it is much more moveable and adaptable, ever changing. In contrast, the ego is much more stuck, especially for persons needing remedies from the elements at the bottom of the Periodic Chart. Here, we find the ego to be overdeveloped and very intent on having its way, making it very difficult for these individuals to be in touch with their true self. Jung has wonderful insights into the relationship between the self and the ego:
“Intellectually the self is no more than a psychological concept, a construct that serves to express an unknowable essence, which we cannot grasp as such, since by definition it transcends our powers of comprehension. It might equally well be called the God within us. The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to be inextricably rooted in this point, and all our highest and ultimate purposes seem to be striving toward it…. In as much as the ego is only the centrum of my consciousness, it is not identical with the totality of my psyche, being merely a complex among other complexes. Hence I discriminate between the ego and the Self, since the ego is only the subject of my consciousness, while the Self is the subject of my totality; hence it also includes the unconscious psyche. In this sense the Self would be an (ideal) factor which embraces and includes the ego. In unconscious fantasy the Self often appears as a superoriented or ideal personality.” (2)
Development of diseases through over- or underdevelopment of Self
With these multidisciplinary underpinnings in place, the presenter led students into a deeper understanding of the origins of much disease/illness; of how to perceive these origins and their pathological expressions; and finally, of how to treat and manage cases of patients who have developmental imbalances in their identity or relationships.
According to Alize, overdevelopment or underdevelopment in one’s instinctual, intellectual, physical, or emotional drive, is the beginning of the more chronic diseases we see in today’s society. The cases of eczema or lung problems, hundred years ago, were not suppressed by our modern medicines, making those cases more clearcut and easier to treat.In order to understand the source and development of diseases, one of Alize’s fundamental tenets is that universally, each healthy human being must pass through these aspects and stages of development if he or she is to be able to live, adapt, love, and self-actualize freely in modern society. She stressed that we must look to ontology (the study of the nature of existence) to further unlock our cases at much deeper levels, beyond our patient’s personality or situation.
Applying this clinically, Alize advised that the practitioner needs to observe and comprehend, “From where does the patient speak?” The way in which a person deals with a stressful situation can be expressed by their unique, vital reaction, stemming from one of three main stances: from the Real or Embodied Self; from the Self Image; or from the Observed Self.
She describes a person acting or reacting from her Real or Embodied self as being in touch with her instincts, perceiving her own identity, needs, desires and limitations; knowing that choices or options exist; and taking action to fulfill those needs or desires in a conscious and deliberate manner. This Embodied Self, interacting with the outside world, may experience contact, love, and understanding. These experiences of contact, love, and understanding, of which a truly Embodied Self is capable, stem from a state of health. Further, the joy inherent in these experiences gives purpose in life by its very presence.
Overreacting from an Embodied Self, however, can also be out of balance. Consider the remedies in the middle and lower rows of the Periodic Table, which, according to Alize, typically have ego development issues of another sort. These individuals are usually reacting to the stress of being out of balance with the needs and desires of others. They are disconnected from not their Embodied Self, but from their higher, spiritual Self.She describes a person acting or reacting from her Real or Embodied self as being in touch with her instincts, perceiving her own identity, needs, desires and limitations; knowing that choices or options exist; and taking action to fulfill those needs or desires in a conscious and deliberate manner. This Embodied Self, interacting with the outside world, may experience contact, love, and understanding. These experiences of contact, love, and understanding, of which a truly Embodied Self is capable, stem from a state of health. Further, the joy inherent in these experiences gives purpose in life by its very presence.
For example, the Aurum ego is developed so strongly that he forgets this spiritual self: he is big outside, ambitious, yet nothing is left inside. He has climbed the mountain, seen in the middle vertical columns in the Table, yet he has the desire to jump. An individual needing Aurum may feel forsaken and death can be seen as a big relief (“cheerful, happy about his death”). The ego in Aurum is so important that he forgets about the sublime, and in order to come into contact with his true essence he must kill his mortal being. Other Aurums who have forgotten to feed their spirit, forget to nurture relationships with their family or loved ones. Syphilinum is closely related to Aurum and in some cases both remedies will be needed in sequence. An Aurum muriaticum person will develop more heart pathology. Depression comes from using one part of the self too much. In general, Alize teaches that the lower parts of the Periodic Table of Elements show remedies with overdeveloped egos. This imbalance causes the individual to lose touch with his inner Self, thereby becoming disconnected from fulfilling the deepest parts of their lives.
A patient reacting from his Self Image, in contrast, is aware of his own needs, desires and limitations, but filters and reshapes them according to externalized familial, cultural or social standards or ideals. He does not go from a sense of instinct, need or desire (feeling) directly into function. Instead, statements such as “I should…,” “I have to…,” and “I ought to…,” often reveals that the patient is acting and living by his Self Image. These projections of Self show that the vital force is operating at a layer removed from the core of the patient. This leaves the patient with less vitality to heal.
Alize gave an example of a person reacting from his Self Image, caused by an imbalanced, overdeveloped intellectual capacity, in the following Silicea picture: Silicea is usually living up to the image of the father. There is a lack of emotions, and it may be hard for the Silicea type to relate to other people. There is disunion between inner self and personality. Silicea exists very much in this image and is concerned with how others see him, wanting to fulfill that image. It is very important for a Silicea child to do well for his parents, and he will want to prove to them that he knows everything in school. A Silicea child is insecure, and the insecurity comes for the lack of connection to feelings and emotions.
These rubrics apply especially here:
ailments from stagefright
antagonism with herself
anxiety exaggerated
confusion of identity
delusion: head is too large
delusion: divided in two parts
dependent
oversensitive to mental impressions
indisposed to talk
timidity with other children.
Finally, a patient may react to stress from his Observed Self vantage point. In this form of disembodiment, the person disconnects or disassociates from his own Self-being. He exhibits a loss of Self and weakness of will, yielding these to various forms of dogma, fixed ideation, or domineering personalities (Thuja, Lac caninum). For one reacting from an Observed Self, his body or actions become the center of attention, and he is extremely concerned with how others perceive him; alternatively, he has a tremendous fear of being observed (Calcarea and Magnesium). This kind of patient is an outsider within himself. He looks at his Self through the eyes of other people, and acts out from what others think. There is no direct participation in life itself, and he has an inability to go from sensation straight into functioning. A disunion of inner Self and personality occurs. Behavior is like that of a robot, an automaton. Everything becomes objective.
Maintaining the Observed Self vantage point requires again that the vital force fragments and splits off its energy. Figuratively speaking, one living in his Observed Self actually lives two steps away, at a layer even farther removed from the core of his own body, emotions, or mind. A vital force that is thus fragmented or “disassociated” affects the energy needed for healing the patient’s true pathology, which according to Alize, is the “disordered” or “depersonalized Self.”
From this disembodied state, Alize teaches that a false Self and its sub-identities form, and we see the beginning of the schizoid personality. This split of the true Self from the body produces a fragmentation in consciousness by which schizophrenics experience themselves as both perceiver and perceived, as observer and observed, as “me” and as “other.” For example, the inner or real Self may feel angry, but the false Self acts happy, very friendly, but also feels like it is a fake. This false Self forms its own personalities, raked by fears, deep denial and a twisted view on reality. There is no sense of love, and no sense of the person inhabiting his own life. Feeling naked, brittle, or the desire to hide, are signs that this false Self predominates. Alize feels that “the more false one is or becomes, the more Thuja one is or becomes; and the more sub-identities one has, the more one wants to hide.”
Schizophrenia is defined as loss of self, lack of will, and personality disassociation. However, according to Alize, the schizoid patient does not build up protection against the loss of a part of himself. Instead, he strives to protect the self. This false self is a facade through which others cannot penetrate to threaten the individual’s security. For this patient, the outer world becomes very threatening. For example, a child may say, “my mother has eaten me up,” or, “the chair did a bad thing,” and then hit it. Hyoscyamus is given for this state, or other instances reflecting the following rubrics:
delusion, has done wrong
delusion, is being injured by his surroundings
delusion, under powerful influence
delusion, he has suffered wrong
growling like a dog.
Alize feels Hyoscyamus is one of the core remedies (along with Thuja) needed for treating schizoid problems. These problems usually arise from a lack of support from the mother. An untreated schizoid personality may lapse into a deeper pathological state of psychosis. Clinically, psychosis is shown by the following symptoms of the disordered Self:
fantasy
dissolved
changed identity
emptiness
hatred
In psychosis, the false Self becomes autonomous, and expands. Neurotic behavior such as touching or repeating develops, because there is no emotion behind the act, and it serves as protection from being in contact with the real Self. Destruction of reality and the Self ensues, with the patient’s expressions including words like “unreal,” “dead,” “love is dead.” Kept apart from others, the Self is left out from the total (mental, emotional, physical) experience, from the true reality, and from the consciousness of life itself. There is crying instead of laughing, and, “all of what you see, I am not.”
A person in this stage of disembodiment does not perceive himself as the center of his own being; he is attached to another, or separated from others. The practitioner may hear the attitude, “others give my existence” which may seem an opposite attitude to “others take my existence.” Both attitudes, however can exist together in one patient. Alize used the metaphor of “living like a vampire:” someone else’s blood is needed to stay alive. “I have to be with someone” shows this loss of identity. From a case management perspective, Alize feels that it is very important for the practitioner to discern the patient’s state in relation to this continuum from Embodied Self, to Self Image, to Observed Self. The more a patient is dissociated from their Self, the longer the treatment will take.
Alize concluded her discussion of treating the disordered self with some general principles of treatment:
Stimulation of personal development occurs.
Long-term follow-ups are necessary.
The patient starts to live in her body again. There can be long aggravations, as complaints come and are felt on the physical plane, eczema, for example. Alize said she has spoiled her cases by giving remedies in these instances.
The patient must have a holistic outlook.
Sometimes, one must begin by prescribing on the exterior of the case, the outside state instead of on the innermost state. The remedy makes the patient go through the pain, and provides the strength to go through it. Without the vital force strengthened, the patient cannot do the deeper work.
Family support is very important.
The patient needs to understand these things, or else they may say, “I don’t want to go through this,” or “this is not working,” and drop homeopathic treatment.
There is no therapy where there is not a therapeutic relationship (R. D. Laing), so the view on the disease depends on the relationship and rapport between the patient and the prescriber.
Perception and case analysis for accurate prescribing:
A universal psychological development approach
“Psychological development approach” is given as a descriptive label or handle, to describe the central theme of this seminar as perceived by the authors. As such, this label represents one of many tools or approaches a skilled homeopath will have available to help a variety of patients. In addition, Alize offered the following questions and issues to consider in case analysis and prescription:
What are real issues behind the physical complaint(s)?
The more the patient is away from the real self, the longer the time treatment will take.
What remedies are linked to self-ego-persona problems?
Healing can be achieved by homeopathy, but also by learning from life.
To summarize Alize’s unique understanding of disease and healing, we learned that we must observe where, from a human development perspective, does over- or under-development occur in our patient. Whenever we observe that over- or underdevelopment is on the instinctual/physical level, in the emotional realm, or in the intellectual/spiritual domain, the actual root of much of the disease we see today becomes apparent. Symptoms will show themselves as extremes of one’s over- or underdevelopment, at specific psychological development stages, viewed from the patient’s Embodied Self, Self Image, or Observed Self vantage points. These vantage points indicate just how close or far from health the patient may be at a given point. These maladaptive perspectives also signify the depth of pathology and are valuable indicators for a homeopath to understand just how much treatment will be required.
Tying the preceding ideas together, Alize shared many brilliant cases, which illustrate her keen perceptions of the origins of illness in these patients, her understanding of the depth of the pathology, and, in turn, of what type of remedy would likely be needed. Four very interesting cases were offered for our continued study and learning.
Case 1: Baryta muriaticum
Overdevelopement on the instinctual level, seen through the Observed Self
This nine-year-old girl had been treated by a colleague, who prescribed Hyoscyamus. She had also been treated by a Vega therapist and food therapies, which had helped. Her mother brought her in and said, “My daughter is not herself.” She looked to other children to see what they were doing, and then she imitated them. She would wear the same clothes as them. She loved chocolate spread on bread, but if one of her friends said she did not like it then she would not eat it. The patient had a fear of growing old, she loved little children and wanted to be around them, maybe wanting to be small. She did not want to be complimented because then she may have had to live up to those standards. She did not want any responsibilities. She preferred to be with strangers, and withdrew from the people she knew, making her also very timid with friends. At home she would play with ten little puppets pretending that she was the mother. When the girl saw the other homeopath, she went with her father and was sitting on his lap wanting to hold his genitals the whole time. If a friend’s father came into the classroom she would sit on his lap, until she knew him, and then, she wouldn’t approach them. She wouldn’t go with people she knows, it was as if the more you knew her, the more you would expect from her. She preferred male therapists, and with one male therapist, she wanted to go to him and kiss him. When friends would visit their house, she always gave the men a kiss, but not the women. Her sexual development was quite advanced, already growing breasts and pubic hair. The girl did not want Alize to tell that because she felt ashamed. Developmentally the girl began talking late, not until age three. At six months of age she developed a urinary tract infection. She exhibited childish behavior and would eat too much without constraint, not having a sense of being full. Her fears were of growing and being looked at. Sometimes she would just walk into a neighbor’s house, say nothing and just sit there. She was very strong and did not feel much pain. (Observation: during the interview the girl was mouth-breathing and sticking her tongue out a lot.)
Analysis:
She did not have a sense of self. The girl was living very much in the Observed Self, mimicking what other children would do, eat, and wear (like at the beginning of life: you are your mother, and your mother is you.) Most children discover their real self at the time when they are discovering their urine and stools. Her instinctual behaviors were out of control, e.g., she couldn’t control her food intake. Alize said that ideally, development proceeds from gaining control over needs and instincts, to the development of intellect. This girl had a problem on this level with lack of control over food and urine. She did not want responsibility or to grow up, and she behaved like a baby in one sense, yet on the other hand she was growing breasts and pubic hair and was inappropriate with her sexual interests.
In Boericke’s Materia Medica, the remedy with swollen glands and nymphomania is Baryta muriaticum. They also have urine problems and a great increase in uric acid.
Baryta muriaticum is a childlike mother, and they are very insecure about their ability to be a mother. Baryta has the fear of responsibility.
Summary
timidity with friends
fear of growing old
fear of being looked at
childish behavior
too much eating without constraint
sexual development as an adolescent
Plan: Baryta muriaticum
Follow-up
Three months after starting to take Baryta muriaticum, she became wild after a dose of the remedy. The girl said, “I can not imitate my friends anymore.”
She developed coryza that lasted a while, and she had pain in her ears for the first time. A green coryza came out of the ears, but there was no pain. There were no swollen glands. The girl now wanted to do more of her own thing, and she was less closed. She had more control of her eating and now knews when she was full. This shows that the girl had more control over her instincts, she was more in her real Self and less in the Observed Self.
Alize said that the remedy can cause such a chaos, that the vital force of the person is activated to heal. “As a biochemist I do not understand this, but from an energetic level it makes sense.”
The parents felt that the improvement was going too slow. Alize noted that in these cases 10M, 50M, etc. these higher potencies may need to be repeated, maybe even daily. In deep chronic cases this is appropriate. She asked the parents to continue with the treatment for two to three years.
In this case the girl was coming back into her age-appropriate behavior. If the problem is long-standing, then sometimes it takes a long time to recover. The more timid and shy a person is, the more they are living in the “Observed Self,” so we should think about those remedies for cases of this kind.
Case 2: Opium
Disembodiment: seen through underdevelopment on the instinctual level
A mother brought her three week-old infant to Alize on the way to the hospital. The baby girl was unreactive, gazing upwards and never looking to her mother. The infant did not connect with the mother or anyone else around her. Her mother was concerned and said that she was not eating well, and even had trouble swallowing milk or water. Ten days prior, the baby had been lively and moving. Now, as Alize observed the infant, she saw a total lack of reaction; when the mother brought a bottle of water to the baby’s mouth, it was very difficult for her to swallow even a little bit. Her mouth was very dry. As people approached the infant, she would just close her eyes. Her body was limp. The baby had trouble coughing, she became red, and her cough sounded like a scream. The mother became very scared if her baby coughed. The child’s respiration was quite high and she did not react to any stimuli. Sometimes she even just stopped breathing. Their doctor advised them to go to the hospital, because they did not know what to do. The infant was very sleepy, she didn’t cry, and had a vacant look. When a cold hand would touch the infant, she did not react. She could not swallow, could not fall asleep, and could not even keep her eyes open. The infant had not yet passed a stool, and was very dry. There was a disassociation and lack of reaction on all levels.
Analysis
Main symptom: Disassociation.
Rubrics:
Lack of reaction i.e. cannot look at mother; muscles do not respond; everything goes slowly
Cough, suffocating
Cough, cannot breathe
Plan: Opium 200C.
Follow-up: After 24 hours there was no action, and the next day Opium 1M was given. Within two to three hours there was a reaction, and the remedy was repeated two or three times over the next six months. The infant developed severe constipation, Opium LM1 was given, and the problem cleared immediately.
Follow-up at six months: Very strong muscles, arms moved lots. The child became very angry, turned purple from anger.
The case went from one opposite to the other: Lack of reaction to very fast [2] development. Her memory was now active. She was content with herself. When frightened, from a big noise, for example, the child behaved as if it was not there. She still disassociated immediately. Therefore, the case still called for Opium.
After three years the child is more normal, she is very intelligent, and has an excellent memory; a long-term case, reacting very well. Then severe constipation occurred. Alize gave Opium LM 2, LM3, etc. as physical symptoms came, then Opium 10M, etc., as mental/emotional symptoms and generalities showed up. There is a tendency to disassociate, which happens whenever she becomes ill, or if she is in a stressful situation. For example she will sit under a table, and not make contact with people around her.
Regarding dosing, Alize gives LM potencies three times, three days in a row, then stops when the remedy acts. She repeats the LM doses when a physical problem starts again.
Opium
Disassociation at fright; lose contact with surroundings.
Action of Opium: Fright
Reaction: Indifference
Opium has no boundaries: What they see is they.
Additional rubrics given for Opium:
Big eyes
Cares, alternating with acceleration of drowsiness
Delusion, there is another self. Not sure which personality conquers the other.
Dullness, sluggishness, difficulty thinking.
Excitable
Freedom, remarkable; in doing what needs to be done. Strong will, they don’t care.
Frightened easily, and indifference to feelings (Opium was given to soldiers going to war)
Loquacity when excited
Memory active, gigantic plans
Hyperactive
Fright, from sight of accident.
Indifference
Senses, dullness of
Stupefaction
Generalities; reaction, lack of
The underdevelopment on the instinctual level is very obvious in this case. A child in the first stages of life must rely on her instincts to develop simple modes of survival. As we see in this case, the marked lack of reaction shows a disembodiment, and the Opium helped bring this child back to her Self.
Case 3: Ferrum arsenicosum
Overdevelopment of will with underdeveloped emotions, seen through overreacting of the Embodied Self
A 16-month-old boy was very restless and did not want to listen or cooperate with his family members. He was the youngest of five boys and he was the most aggressive. He would hit and beat his older brother and shriek loudly. He was quarrelsome. The boy had eczema on his cheeks, elbows and knees. His face was very pale and he had swelling under the eyes. There was a history of asthma in the family. He was much too old for his age, and he is very alert. He would not tolerate any dirtiness and had to have his diaper changed right away. He was very allergic to milk and eggs. He had taken Tuberculinum, Mercurius, Medorrhinum, and Sulphur, prescribed by another good homeopath. His father looked tired and gaunt, the parents were totally exhausted, and this child needed to have constant attention.
We see that he was pushing his will too hard, and he had the disposition to contradict. Ferrum is about pushing the will, and people needing Ferrum can be obstinate and strong. The Arsenicum element shows obsessive behavior, and also being very fastidious. Both Ferrum and Arsenicum are aggravated from 1-3 AM. In this case we find many aspects of Ferrum, but there are also some elements of Arsenicum. Ferrum arsenicosum was given.
Analysis:
We can see that he has an overdeveloped will and intellect, seen through the vantage point of an overly embodied Self. When we look at cases involving eczema, it is important to understand that the skin may be overreacting and producing protection like armor. With Ferrum arsenicosum we see that both these elements fall in the third row of the periodic table with an emphasis on defense. Alize felt that this boy had to have his existential birth too soon, so he reacts with having to push his will too far. “You do what I want” is a way of saying my ME is bigger than your ME. This case is the opposite of that of the Opium child.
Why not Carcinosin? Because it is a nosode made from a disease; a disease is like a layer that is over you and overlaps the individual, and takes over. The disease is like a blanket over the deep-down simillimum. We have the waking and fastidiousness of Carcinosin, but importantly what is missing is the domination from the outside.
Mind; restlessness, nervousness
Mind; anger, irascibility; tendency; contradiction
Mind; quarrelsome
Respiration; asthmatic
Skin; eruptions; eczema
Skin; discoloration; pale.
Plan: Ferrum arsenicosum
Follow-up:
The child became less restless and he was able to sleep easier, there was also an improvement in his allergies. These positive changes made it easier for the mother to love and nurture her son, and with this the eruptions eventually disappeared.
Case 4: Thuja
Disembodiment and underdevelopment of will/intellect speaking from the Observed Self
A video case was shown of a 46 year-old woman with melanoma on her hand and fibroids in her uterus. She said, “I was in a big panic, physically I am strong, but not mentally. I started looking at my skin, obsessively thinking everything was malignant.”
When she went to the doctor with a bleeding melanoma he said she would survive it, but she felt suspicious of this. She went to a surgeon, and he said it was not serious, and she felt very suspicious. She began to tell the surgeon what to do. At this point she went from doctor to doctor in a panic, and felt that she never asked the right questions. She said, “The moment that doctor told me I had melanoma, I thought I would have to die. This is the solution for everything.” (She was smiling as she said this). She said, “When I am rational, of course I do not want to die, I feel terrible that I felt this way about myself.” (Her expression was the opposite of what was being said.) When she had her daughter, she felt that she now had a reason to live, but she was also worrying that if she died, her sister would have her husband and her children. “I had something my sister did not have. I did not have the right to have my husband and my child. I always have these kind of strange thoughts about HAVING to live, not about wanting to live.” She said, “It’s as if I am not ALLOWED to live.”
She had severe relations with her husband, and he thought that her panic over her melanoma was strange. She says, “I am very insecure, I am very suspicious as a person, I always think that people are conspiring against me.” She had a fear of failing and a delusion that she was under superhuman control. She said that she had been very depressed for six years. “My dilemma is do I die or do I live, do I wait for them to tell me what is wrong with me or do I ask?” She felt that within her body is living another body, and that she was always making mistakes. Her husband said that she was weak, and dominates her. She feels that this was all her mistake.
Regarding the patient’s background, growing up she did not know that her sister and she had different fathers, and she found this out in school during an exam. Her mother was evasive on the subject, and the patient felt as though she did not exist. She said she had an anxiety about not being allowed to exist, and felt others were always better and more important. “I always had to look after my sister, and felt that I am allowed to exist as long as I am there for my sister.”
She continued, “When I was in the world I would try to adapt to others, I was fixed on the idea that I had to be perfect, and I always had to be good to others. When you are not allowed to exist, you are not allowed to make mistakes.” She liked to go to the theatre and she liked to dance, but would not do this because she feared she would make a mistake. “When I had my two children I could not pay attention to my mother and sister, I could not care for them both, so I have not contacted them in five or six years. I feel there is something hard and heavy in my uterus. I have this feeling that I have to die, but I do not want to die.”
Analysis
The two central symptoms Alize used in this case were “conviction of death,” and the delusion that she could not exist.
Delusion, she is made of glass
Delusion, she cannot exist any longer
Delusion, of animals in abdomen
Delusion, divided into two parts
This is a classic Thuja case, showing the many delusions this type of individual may be under, causing a weakness and disembodiment of the Self. This showed Thuja on an acute and chronic level. There was a struggle here between the will and intellect, and many questions of living or dying. Thuja was very instrumental in bringing the fragments back together.
Follow-up, two months after taking Thuja: She said “My suspiciousness left immediately.” She became more conscious of her problem and said “I am stronger, I don’t know how to explain it.” She still felt a bit depressed, and did not have much social contact, but recently went to the fitness center and did not worry about what other people thought. The feeling was much easier and she could lose the thought of what others were thinking. She was breathing more into her abdomen, and the cramps in the abdomen were better, as was the pain with menses and ovulation. She said, “On the whole I can tell you I came much closer to my self.” And more, “I have the idea that I have a right to live.”
In conclusion, Alize stated that when treating the disordered Self, it is important to realize that healing can be achieved by homeopathy, but of equal importance is “learning from life.” With the true simillimum, a person comes into reality as she is now, not as she was in the past or how she will be in the future, thus coming into an embodiment of the Self. As mentioned earlier, an embodied Self perceives her needs, and her actions follow. Specifically, the Self can go from feeling or sensation, straight into function. There is easy definition of, and identification with, the Self in relationship to all others, allowing the freedom to love, contact and understand joyfully.
From the natural sciences of the Periodic Table of Elements and chaos theory, through the social scientific approach seen in human developmental stages leading to a full “embodiment of self,” Alize’s seminar gave us an in-depth psychological perspective. Her incorporation of natural science and psychology into homeopathy opens more windows into the mind and enriches our ability to prescribe further into healing the core pathology. Alize Timmerman truly is a great homeopath, and we feel fortunate that she has come to the U.S. to teach and contribute to our homeopathic knowledge.
By Lyn Snow, USA
