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SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
JONATHAN HARDY ¦
LAC HUMANUM | LAC LUPINUM
36
ADDICTION ¦
EATING | HEROIN
as well. In the unhealthy state there is an opposite experience
– of feeling dissatisfied, empty, worthless, having no value, no
confidence and expecting to fail.
Such a deeply pathological state is tailor-made to lead to addictive
behaviors – all of which are attempts to escape from one’s reality,
to not feel the deeply uncomfortable inner state.
Emotional immaturity:
Patients needing mammal remedies
often demonstrate emotional immaturity. They can be very
sensitive to reprimands and use expressions like “it makes me
feel like a child.” They are prone to emotional regression under
stress, retreating into a childish state and isolating themselves
or becoming excessively dependent on others.
They can feel inadequate, incompetent, and unable to succeed
in life. As a result their self-esteem is fragile and they easily
feel criticized, put down and looked down upon. They may
complain that they received no praise as a child – they felt re-
jected and abandoned emotionally. They can be self-conscious,
shy, blushing and have a downward gaze.
Parental and family relationships:
A common theme to be
found in Mammal cases is a disturbed relationship with a parent
or parents or with the family as a whole.
There can be a past history of poor bonding with the mother,
of feeling “not properly mothered” or of having to “mother
their mothers”.
There can be problems with bonding with the mother, and
the word bond is commonly heard in mammal cases. The lack
of deep connection with the mother is often expressed as
a kind of emptiness, often felt in the abdomen: a forsaken
feeling which is actually felt physically in the region of the
umbilicus.
There may have been fear of a parent, a feeling that the
parents were “cold” or never gave any physical affection or
touching. They may say they never felt a part of the family or
that they felt as if they had been adopted. There may have
been a strong desire to leave the family early or a feeling
that the family “worked better without them”.
There can be the compensation of clinging to a parent, al-
though sometimes the complaint may be that their parents
held on to them too much and they felt smothered. In all
cases it is apparent that the whole sphere of parenting and
nurturing has been experienced as unbalanced to one ex-
treme or the other.
Common childhood histories:
In mammal cases it is not
uncommon to learn that childhood was unhappy, especially
in relation to the behavior or mental health of one or other
parent. The mother may have been emotionally disturbed during
pregnancy or have had post-natal depression. The mother may
have been mentally ill or the father alcoholic.
A common story is that the individual compensated for the lack
of proper parenting in the home by developing a strong bond
with their grandmother. It is common to hear that the patient
felt a sibling was preferred to them.
Parenting:
Adults who need mammal remedies often feel very
strongly about being a parent – they love it too much. They
can overdo being a parent and smother their children through
an over-protective or needy relationship with them. They can
“mother” their partner or generally lose themselves too much
in the mothering role.
In some mammal cases, however, the opposite pole is manifest:
there can be a strong aversion to parenthood.
CASE 1: 40-year-old woman, chief complaints:
food addiction and acne
Casetaking
Why have you come to see me?
I have two main problems. One is my skin and the other is I just
cannot control my eating.
Tell me about your eating please.
I think I have an awful appetite. I kind of describe it as being
“mouth hungry.” You always have to be eating something.
At home I will always be looking for something little to eat.
I look to see if the kids have left some sweets or something.
I have just got to have something. I just eat all the time. I
think for a woman I have quite a large appetite. I don’t often
eat as much as my husband but I eat a lot more than other
girls I know.
Is there any time of the day or night you are especially
hungry?
No, not especially. It depends on what I have eaten during the
day. I don’t have specific times when I have got to eat.
Do you have any specific cravings?
Not. Not really.
If you don’t eat, does anything happen?
I get a bit irritable, I do get in a “hungry mood,” I know that.
Can you describe that hungry mood?
I am just grumpy. I don’t get a headache. I need some food.
It gets a little bit obsessive. I literally cannot do something
until I have eaten. I may be running late, I have to get the
kids and I am just parked in the drive and I have to go and
grab something. I know I am late but there is still that need
to go and grab something to eat before I go and get the
children. I think: “You shouldn’t be doing it, it should be the
other way around! I should go and get the children and not
worry about that!”
I couldn’t open a packet of biscuits and just have a couple –
no – I wouldn’t eat them all but I would get through half of
them easily, because they are there and I wouldn’t be able
to ignore them. I can’t ignore food it if it is there. It is a bit
of a compulsion but I have got to have it. I wish I was like
some people who eat to live and that is it, they are not really
interested in food.