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JONATHAN HARDY ¦
LAC HUMANUM | LAC LUPINUM
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
37
ADDICTION ¦
EATING | HEROIN
What other complaints do you have?
My spots! As a teenager I didn’t have many but now I am forty
and I am still struggling with them. I don’t remember how many
times I have been to my doctor! She always says it is “nothing,
nothing,” but it isn’t nothing! I have had it for twenty years
and it just does my head in!
Say more about how it affects you.
It really gets me down. The only time it has ever been clear
is with oral antibiotics, but you cannot take those forever. It
really annoys me. I can’t stand getting up in the morning. It
just affects how you feel.
How does it make you feel?
I feel ‘untidy’ for want of a better word. Yes, I don’t feel tidy.
Describe this feeling of it makes you untidy.
I don’t feel as polished as I would like to. I feel it lets me down.
Describe not polished.
It is just scruffy. You get up, you get dressed to go out or to go
to work, and you never feel 100% comfortable. You have got
faults which you are trying to cover up which generally makes
you feel worse anyway. But you feel you have to do something,
you just never feel 100% content with what you have done or
how you look. Untidy is the only word I can think of.
Tell me about your childhood please.
My mother had me when she was eighteen and my dad was
tweny, so they were very young. The one thing I couldn’t
stand about my mum is that she is just so untidy. I would
never bring my friends home because I used to be so embar-
rassed that she was so untidy. I always got on really well with
my dad – my dad was a typical dad, soft – he was the one
you went to when you needed something. Mum was more
moody. My parents split up and it was all very unpleasant
for 2 or 3 years.
What was that like?
It was very difficult. I saw my mum as the one at fault, I sup-
pose, so our relationship broke down quite badly. It used to
end up in complete shouting matches to the point that she
chucked me out a couple of times and I would go and stay with
friends. My mum has lots of problems, which has made it quite
difficult. That is why I could understand my dad; I thought she
was difficult to live with. I wouldn’t say we had a conventional
mother/daughter relationship.
What was it like?
I would phone my mum, but if you phone her you are on the
phone for over an hour. That is tough sometimes as well, you
don’t phone my mum and have a conversation, you phone my
mum and have a listen!
You know, we don’t have a lot of mother/daughter time at all.
She is hard work. It is almost like the roles are reversed; she
needs me as opposed to me needing her. My mum had lots
of bouts of depression; she would not get out of bed, so we
had to look after the kids and awful lot. I suppose that is why
I am not so close to my parents. “Mum’s in bed again” and
my dad wasn’t there.
Say more about this.
The worst thing was coming home and not knowing what you
were coming home to. I was obviously too young to understand
it. I couldn’t understand why she allowed my dad to come in
from working all day and he would have to cook the dinner.
I really, really resented her. She ended up in a mental hospital
two or three times and I was relieved.
What was the feeling like in childhood at that time?
It was just horrible.
Describe that more.
It was just scary, never knowing what was going on. You
were never feeling happy. It was horrible going from having
a nice house and money, to not. That was horrible, not from
a materialistic point of view but just from a comfort point of
view. A security point of view. It was just horrible.
ANALYSIS
Mammal themes
•
Compulsive eating
•
Lack of impulse control
•
Always hungry
•
“Mouth hungry”
•
Disturbed relationship with the mother
•
Role reversal with mother
•
Mother mentally ill
•
Expelled from home
•
Resentment of mother
•
Not secure
•
Scared in the home
Mammal source words
Content
Comfort
Soft
Comments:
Soft – she described her father as “a typical dad,
soft” – which is very unusual.
Which mammal? To answer this question we have to use what
is left in the case, meaning what data we have which is specific,
not indicating a more general level of differentiation like animal
or mammal.
What we have left is the peculiar aversion to untidiness. It is
remarkable how nearly every patient can tell us something
we have never heard before and I had certainly never heard
someone describe their spots as untidy. What is more, this aver-
sion to untidiness runs through the case because this was one
of the things which she disliked most about her mother. This
aversion to untidiness is the most peculiar and characteristic
feature in her case.
We have a number of beautiful provings of Lac humanum. The
proving by Jacqueline Houghton and Elisabeth Halahan brought
out the theme of untidiness as a black type symptom. It is a