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After three well-documented cases of Doryphora, all of which developed satisfactorily, two encouraging conclusions emerged: it was clear that there were common elements among different members of the same family, and that the cases related to the known dynamics of the source in its natural environment. |
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In the family of beetles (Coleoptera) family members have a hard outer protective layer and a vulnerable inner body, reflecting their duality, with an emphasis on dark and light in the fireflies. Regarding the theme of metamorphosis — for maturation as well as for the species as a whole in its ecosystem — we have here a guide for prescribing beetle remedies. |
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We will now focus on Doryphora decemlineata, the Colorado potato beetle; I would also like to refer to my full presentation of the beetle family in my article in Homeopathic Links (Winter 2010, Vol. 23, pp. 1–5), which I refer to here. |
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| I will present here a Doryphora case that encompasses the central dynamics of this beetle, I will show some similarities with other beetle cases, and how this can be compared with beetles in general. |  |
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A 27-year-old engineer came to me with early psoriasis; she had an approximately 2.5 cm square patch on her shin that was scaling and left a purple-red, sore area. Better in the sun. |
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She has long suffered from asthma triggered by allergies or anxiety; she must wheeze and gets a tightness in the chest, the throat closes; worse after running or spinning. Her nose becomes blocked, she gets sore throats and swollen eyes. This reaction is triggered by cats, dust and pollen and is worse in the autumn. As a child she had chronic bronchitis, pneumonia and hair loss. |
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| Six years ago she had strange panic attacks; she felt flooded by high-pitched tones, faces stared at her, claws reached for her, tugging at her and paralysing her. She was terribly frightened, and her nerves were raw. | |
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She dreams of children or of herself jumping and then flying or floating. |
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At primary school she was very sensitive to the fears of other children, and in her middle school there were “mean bully kids and tomboys”. She was quiet and kept in the background, but eventually got pulled into the usual teenage drama. She was very interested in art and presented herself from her creative side. That also allowed her to avoid the bullying and fights. |
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| At university she drank too much and almost failed; she lived on rice, crab and beer, and experienced hair loss. She felt the imbalance between art and science, finding the latter too abstract and boring. She did everything she wanted and nothing she hated, but now she is stuck in her job. She had to give up her artistic ambitions to do work her artist-parents considered safer. | |
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When she does what her friends want instead of what she wants, she feels guilty. Since earning money she cares more for her family, who struggle a lot, but she is also trying to say “no” because she knows that the ability to say no is part of becoming an adult. When she was 8 years old and her parents separated, her mother and friends began to beg her for money, and she felt she had let them down. |
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She is attracted to unstable people, and considers herself stable, and she says: “I advise them, and then tell them to smarten up or to grow up.” At the moment her job is less demanding, so she can pursue her artistic ambitions on the side, and career, money and pleasure are in balance. One of her bosses is addicted and the other is “crazy”. She often uses words like “insane” and “crazy” when describing people around her. |
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Weekend excesses alternate with cleansing rituals. She gets dizzy and cold if she doesn't eat; she nearly fainted when she was vegetarian; she is somewhat anaemic. She gets headaches from changes in air pressure and from tension. The sun-poor winter drains her energy. She easily gets cold sores from dust, smoke and stress. |
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Hormonally she is stable as long as she takes the pill; otherwise her period drags on with severe cramps and premenstrual syndrome. She fears snakes, tornadoes and situations where she knows no one. She then senses a hostile mood and switches off; but she can also be very lively when engaged and having fun. She dreams of losing control. |
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| She wants to pursue a goal and stick with it, but she has learned to drop everything when it becomes boring. She had a three-year relationship with a young man; afterwards she had short interludes with men who were “players”; she did not hesitate to drop one of them and say: “Next please!” She can hardly tolerate her lazy, messy flatmate. | |
| Results and analysis: | |
| This case still needs to mature, but I feel that the remedy initially set in motion a marked change; various symptoms improved “almost incidentally”. The first consultation was about a year earlier. After three follow-ups the psoriasis had disappeared, but recurred six months later; she therefore returned for further consultations. The remedy was repeated, and the psoriasis steadily receded again; it is now almost gone. | |
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All the chaotic, aggressive, crazy, dark and demanding energies around her posed a challenge to changing; her psoriasis returned. The Solanaceae family can be well described with the above adjectives. It shows many of the common characteristics of the beetle family; it has to maintain order and stability amid the chaos of the Solanaceae. |
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This dynamic is reflected in the potato beetle in relation to its environment; it must develop a resistance to the Solanaceae's poison, as it needs them for its food and survival. In fireflies we also see a connection to drug addicts, but more as a possibility than as a conflict between light and shadow in the patient. |
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In a Doryphora case the patient, although still entangled in the light-dark conflict, is rather a survivor of poison attacks and must withstand toxicity. “Sepsis delirium” is an interesting and known rubric that also fits Doryphora in the transferred sense. |
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The same dynamic appears in my other two Doryphora cases in a similar way. The task is to turn a poisonous influence into a balance of dark and bright forces, and ultimately to deal with chaotic energies to their advantage and in harmony with their real purpose. |
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Another common aspect in all three cases was hypersensitivity to allergens and energies, shortness of breath and anxiety, which result, among other things, from oversensitivity to poisons. In our case a small but promising success was that she no longer experienced hangovers. In another case the patient drank almost to alcohol poisoning and then wanted to undergo a detoxification that proved too much for her. |
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In the third case the patient feared allergens and dark energies; she was seeking order and protection. She made connections to dead relatives who struggled to rise out of their shadow sides. She herself felt vulnerable as she detached from her dark side, but her timidity turned into courage, and she was able to withstand it, as in the first case. |
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| All three patients showed: sensitivity to energies; a sense of duty to themselves; they saw staring and threatening faces (perhaps the hydrophobic component of the remedy); stability against chaos; and loss of independence, or they were extremely independent to compensate for an unstable environment. One particularly characteristic aspect of all three cases is summed up by the patient in the third case when she says: “I wish I hadn't been drawn into all this madness in my life.” | |
| Common beetle features in all three cases were general improvement from sun and warmth, worse in the dark and cold, cold sores, a tuberculous discontent, industriousness, empathy, flight and escape, the need to mature or undergo a metamorphosis, and the duality: dark–light, hardness and protection – softness and vulnerability, intellectualism and creativity. Moreover, it is about going through the darkness to reach the light, and achieving balance through a successful metamorphosis, which in turn enables evolution in their environment – this is how beetles have survived for millennia. | |
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Our main Doryphora patient experienced relief through an interesting process. She no longer has problems saying “No!” to family handouts. She disposed of the “rubbish” her family and flatmate had brought into her flat, along with her own outer and inner cleansing, during which she vomited. |
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| She has decided that she wants to build a normal relationship with a steady boyfriend and no longer be crazy and addicted, and says: “If someone insults me, or there's no spark with him, I am finished. Destroyed, wiped out, broken.” Yet now everyone seeks her out, although she still feels a little like an outcast with her small remaining psoriasis spot. She is no longer receptive to gossip. | |
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By the third follow-up her cold sores and pressing headaches had also improved. The more sensible she became, the more chaotic the people who sought her advice became. But when she set firm boundaries with one, the others also stopped coming. She said: “I tell them they're crazy and to turn to someone else instead of tearing themselves apart.” |
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| She became aware of how much money she spends, and now draws up a household budget. By the fourth follow-up she had decided what she did not want in her job; she wanted to obtain her engineering diploma and open up opportunities that were good for her. Before making these decisions she felt some tension and suffered as before from concentration problems, but she is more convinced of what she is doing. She is more cautious with young men who only seek casual relationships and realises that she may herself behave casually. | |
| The above follow-ups took place roughly monthly; afterwards she returned after seven months and said her psoriasis had been gone for six months. When she experienced some chaos, the psoriasis recurred. She discovered that her flatmate was manic-depressive and had stopped his medication. But she coped well, took a clear stance, involved his mother, and found another flat. |  |
| She began a new relationship, but her boyfriend, who was under the influence of his drug-addicted boss, became increasingly drug-dependent. Her father was also drug-addicted. She gave her boyfriend an ultimatum, and he stopped taking drugs and quit his job. It was interesting that he gave her the same feeling his boss gave him: instability. She was not used to working things through, but she was willing to do so for him. He demanded that she not disclose everything and discuss it, but rather help him out of a hole. She tried to find a therapist, but then gave up because she thought it would be pointless. She was still prone to mood swings, mainly because she had stopped taking the pill a month earlier. | |
| At the same time her mother and sister became increasingly demanding and theatrical. All this came together, and her psoriasis reappeared. She felt she was losing control, as in her recurring dream of a junk car driving by itself and being involved in various accidents. She also had a dream in which she “forgot to study”, but managed by looking things up in a book and knowing all the answers. | |
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After receiving a few more doses of the remedy she is now happy in her new flat, which has a conservatory for guests and gives her the space she needs. Her boyfriend is looking for work but does not burden her with it. She herself seeks a more suitable job with her new qualification. And she has noticed how crazy and perfectionist her boss is, and realises that she used to be like that too; her own duality has become more conscious to her. |
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She feels more relaxed since taking the remedy and is less sensitive, including regarding her boyfriend. She senses when an issue is his and not hers, and no longer feels rejected. She can be fully a woman with him, expressing her feminine side, whereas in previous relationships she often took the masculine role and gave orders unemotionally. Her psoriasis has continued to improve and is almost gone. She has no more allergies, colds or asthma-like symptoms. Sometimes she is still nervous, but now she recognises it and deals with it more consciously. |
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I feel that this woman will experience further improvements if she continues as she has been. I hope these cases will contribute to the understanding of Doryphora and its 350,000 relatives. |
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Marty Begin lives and practices in Toronto, Canada. |
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| This article was published on www.interhomeopathy.org. | |
| Photos: shutterstock.com © Marianne Mayer - Fotolia.com |
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Category: Cases |
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