By Jason-Aeric Huenecke
In 2005 a 74-year-old man came to me for homoeopathic treatment; his wife had recently died at the age of 54. At that time I did not yet know how much working with this patient would help me understand the role of homoeopathy in the resolution of transgenerational patterns. Transgenerational traumas leave traces in the family unit, energetic impressions that can manifest over generations in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Even if families do not speak openly about traumatic events from the past and fall silent – the trauma is always present. In this patient’s case I treated the grandfather — called ‘Pops’ — four of his daughters and four grandchildren over a period of ten years.
It is often the case that whole families come for treatment to a homoeopath. This gives us a very special insight into family systems. Nevertheless, our aim is to treat the individual person within the family unit. In the following synopsis I summarise the case examples of four family members who were all cured with the halogen Bromium. To this day I wonder whether I would have found the common thread in these cases had I not treated so many people from this family and thus been able to form such a comprehensive picture.
In homoeopathy we are urged by our great masters to approach our patients as unbiased observers, which is often not easy for us, because as human beings we tend to fit incomplete puzzle pieces into a bigger picture. Therefore we must be especially attentive and focus in our case taking on what the patient tells us himself or herself. If we do not do this, our prescription will not bring cure. For this reason we must learn to recognise what in a patient needs to be healed and which remedy is suitable for this.
Let us recall what Aristotle wrote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” In homoeopathy, excellence should be our highest goal.
In the present case the patient’s first consultation began with the words: “I am full of rage and depression. If I even think about my life I go into a cramp. I am nothing. I am a zero. Even though I never wanted children, I am the father of eight. I am the youngest of 13 siblings. My father was a violent alcoholic. I was a very, very anxious child and constantly intimidated by life and the situations life brings. Now my wife has left me (she died) and I have to manage the household completely on my own
, feed the cats and be there for the children. If I even think about it, I get hot.”
The patient’s main complaints were prostatitis, urinary urgency, recurrent cystitis and persistent sore throats. The patient’s father had been abandoned by his parents. He was sent alone from Germany to America to build a life in the new world and had made his way from New York to Minnesota. In this context we must note that children who have experienced terror need a particularly strong and reliable attachment to one caregiver. This patient’s fears of being punished if he were to speak openly about his father indicate that the depth of his trauma would only reveal itself slowly.
“I have a black heart. I am completely alone. Even as a child I was completely alone. My father was a monster, he was an alcoholic and brutal. To this day every night after sunset I have the feeling that he stands behind me and taunts me or will beat me. Sometimes I shout it out: ‘Go back to hell, Father!’ Now that my wife is no longer here, there is nobody to hold me.”
“I live with a dark cloud over my head. If I had the courage I would kill myself. Old age is like a punishment for me. When I think of my children I feel I have failed as a father. That too is a punishment. My whole life lies in ruins; I myself never touched a drop of alcohol and yet I have six alcoholic children. I am a complete failure, I have failed at everything: my parents, my wife and my children.”
The patient had worked as a coal worker for the railway. As a result he suffered from chronic asthma with a rattling, phlegmy cough.
“Life has made me hard. It has taken away any joy and left a pile of broken pieces. As a young man I was very empathetic. That is all gone, only apathy remains.”
Prescription:
On the basis of the symptoms described above the patient was given a single dose of Bromium C200, followed by Bromium C6 daily for a period of one year. After that he took Bromium C9 for another year and finally Bromium C12 daily for a further year. Slowly but surely the patient’s demeanour changed. His anger lessened, his hatred disappeared and within those three years he became a gentle and loving older man. The prostatitis and urinary urgency were cured, as was the cystitis. He initially still had bladder infections, which I treated each time with Bromium C200 (taken three times daily for three days). The asthma and the rattling cough also disappeared. Finally the almost ghostly presence of the deceased father vanished.
“One evening, I was just about to go to bed, I felt my father’s presence. He stood behind me. But this time I turned round and looked him straight in the eye. I did not shout at him, did not wish him to hell or beg him to go. I simply knew that he had done the best he could in his life…. I only said: ‘I know you did all you could.’ Then he seemed to dissolve into light.” (Bromium has the delusion that someone stands behind them. These people are also very quarrelsome.)
When the patient’s eldest daughter saw the profound changes in her father she too wanted homoeopathic treatment. She came for her first consultation in 2007 and was then 54 years old.
“I live a life full of rage. I drink secretly. I am a functioning alcoholic. I work in an office with a tyrannical boss whom I fear every day. I always carry the responsibility and carrying responsibility makes me tired. It is strange – I left home early to marry and have children and yet I only swapped one hell for another. My boss is exactly like my father. I don’t like conflicts, I don’t enjoy arguing. For my father I was the scapegoat. I would not allow him to harm my siblings. I protected them until they were old enough to defend themselves.”
I live in constant fear of being abused, or rather, I fear that my brothers or sisters might be abused.”
As the eldest of the eight siblings the patient had to bear the brunt of the father’s violence and depression. She compensated by overeating. At the age of 15 she was introduced to hard spirits by her paternal grandfather. In this family — as in most families — violence and abuse were not spoken about. The family functioned in order to survive.
“I remember exactly how ‘Pops’ gave me a glass of brandy when I was 15. I had never felt such relief before. My pain was gone. My grandfather drank so much brandy that it didn’t really stand out when I secretly took as much alcohol as I wanted. That’s how I became a secret drinker. The strange thing was that I thought the brandy made me invincible. Even when I got ever bigger, it gave me the feeling that I could finally stand up to my father. He was small and thin and I was his hefty daughter, heavy as a draft horse. Once I said to him: ‘Either you or me, you will never touch my brothers and sisters again.’ My mother demanded that he leave. He worked on the railway for a few months. Then he came back and was as brutal as before. He did not touch a drop of alcohol, and yet he hit. Whenever he entered a room, violence and hatred spread through it. Our life with him was utter hell and I was punished for every single decision I ever made.”
The eldest daughter’s main complaints were alcohol addiction, overweight, irritability, sleep disturbance and the abuse she had suffered as a child. For this woman it was incredibly hard to trust people who did not abuse her. Although her tyrannical boss did not physically abuse her, 
the tone of his communication and his domineering manner were all too familiar from her childhood.
Because of the family history (alcoholism) and the very present atmosphere of violence, quarrelling and abuse I prescribed Calcarea bromata C200 for the patient. For two years she came regularly every eight weeks and took Calcarea bromata C200 as a single dose. Afterwards she took Calcarea bromata C200 as needed, three times in succession at 12-hour intervals. The patient gradually stopped drinking and underwent a detoxification. She was able to free herself from her violent relationships and resigned after 20 years to start her own consulting company. The sleep disturbance resolved and the irritability disappeared. After the death of her mother the patient was able to build a healthy relationship with her father. She changed her eating habits, ate healthily and began exercising, which led to a significant reduction in her weight.
“I feel freed from my anger, my self-punishment through overeating and my hatred of myself. I no longer remain in unhealthy relationships, whether private or professional. Through homoeopathy I have learned to take responsibility for my own life.”
The family’s fourth daughter also came to me for treatment. In 2005 she was 48 years old.
“I am the invisible daughter. Even as a little girl I felt lost. I can remember pushing my younger siblings away, in a desperate attempt to get my mother’s attention. My mother always said to me: ‘Don’t be so selfish, darling.’ I just wanted to be loved. The hardest thing in our family was that I was so incredibly lonely. I lived in constant fear of violence and abuse. I don’t know where my mother was. With the birth of my younger sister she abandoned me. I watched my sister transform into an Amazon. She was absolutely fearless. None of us ever spoke about the violence in our family. I was never hit, but every blow that struck my sister also struck my soul. I felt responsible for all the problems in our family. To this day I hate any conflict.”
The patient had, since childhood, the following recurring dream:
“I sit on a train. I have no parents, I am all alone, lost; I am cold, afraid and feel dirty. I can remember thinking that I am just a small, dirty girl. In the dream I fight for my life.”
Throughout her life the patient had an insatiable craving for whole milk (or very creamy milk). I gave her Magnesium bromatum C200 because of the endless quarrels, self-reproach and great feelings of guilt. She felt guilty simply for being born. The dream revealed her inner state: She feels like an orphan, abandoned by her parents, particularly by her mother.
The patient’s main complaint was the feeling of abandonment and the constant struggle. In the last ten years the patient has completely turned her life around. At the age of 55 she dared for the first time to enter into a relationship with a man and to this day has a healthy, stable relationship, very different from any relationships she knew from her childhood. In 2010 she attended a seminar at the Hoffmann Institute and lives to this day in a happy relationship with her husband and his three children. “I never would have believed that one can have a healthy, happy family life.” She re-established contact with her now old father, who was no longer violent. “I no longer feel immediately attacked when I express a different opinion; I am no longer afraid of being punished for having a different view.” As a child she never had the opportunity to give expression to her dream, just like her father and siblings. Only through homoeopathic treatment did this voice come to expression. Patients who are often drawn to homoeopathy tend to be those who are rather mistrustful of purely verbal therapies and conventional medicine. For these people homoeopathy can be a real alternative to give voice to their trauma.
Several family members have been in treatment with me in recent years. One young patient is still in treatment and has not yet overcome her addiction and criminal behaviour. She came for her first consultation in 2010, not entirely voluntarily, as she had been caught shoplifting for the third time. At the time of her first consultation she was 16 years old. She reported: “I have this strong impulse to steal. I don’t know why. When I was eleven I started drinking. Vodka — you can’t smell it. I don’t know why I do it. I always do things that are wrong. Then I think: ‘Now you will be found out.’ My mum is quite quick-tempered; she is really mean. When she has that look — like flames — I know something is coming. But when I am in a shop and see something I really want, I get so angry at her. She once asked me whether I do all this to punish her because she was a bad mother. She asked me whether I hate her and don’t love her. I just thought: it’s not about you, Mum!”
The young woman could hardly sit still. She was constantly in motion, bouncing her crossed legs up and down with a nervousness I could feel at the other end of the room. She also suffered from asthma, much of it emotionally induced.
“I work in a housewares shop and have a great fear of knives. I am afraid that I will cut off my fingers, or stab my eyes. My mum once told me that Pops was chased through the whole house by his father with a knife! He must have been mad. Nobody talks about him. And if someone talks about him, they only ever speak of really creepy things. Sometimes, when I do these things, I think I am just like Pops’ father. When I think of him I see a devil before me, and then I have to think: ‘I am the great-granddaughter of a devil.’ That is really creepy. Then I get short of breath. Also, when I touch a knife I have this metallic taste in my mouth. I read in a book about vampires that this can mean that I am about to be attacked. It is so creepy and it scares me. I love vampire films. Sometimes I imagine at night that someone is behind me and then I am afraid it could be a vampire. This fear can trigger an asthma attack that lasts until midnight and I fall asleep from exhaustion.” (Here again is the Bromium delusion that someone stands behind them.)
The main complaints of this young woman included alcohol addiction, asthma, compulsive impulses and a feeling of abandonment. The remedy that helped her most was Mercurius bromatus C200 followed by Mercurius bromatus in LM potency. Because of her age, her many house arrests and clashes with the law it is difficult for the young woman to attend my practice regularly. As long as she takes the remedy she does well. However, there are recurring setbacks that take her off course for a while.
In my work with this family I repeatedly asked myself what might have happened if the great-grandfather had undergone homoeopathic treatment. Would these people’s lives have taken a different course? From many parts a picture of violence, alcoholism and trauma has emerged. The family is deeply syphilitic: outwardly it appears to function, but deep inside they must hide their suffering in the belief that there is something wrong with them, something dangerous. It is astonishing how much children love their parents, even when they are abandoned and abused by them.
The typical themes of Bromium – black or white, all or nothing as well as total splitting – are found in each of these case examples. Also the deep-seated feeling of punishment, living hell, restlessness and the desire to escape a boring reality becomes visible. Without exception every member of this family was brutally abused and heavily traumatised by the curse of the great-grandfather, Pops, which was never spoken about. Both grandfather and daughter shared the delusion that someone stood behind them.
All suffered from guilt feelings, remorse and were immediately quarrelsome, until they began their homoeopathic treatment.
Bromatum: guilt, restlessness, flight, passion, instinct, psychosis, punishments of all kinds.
Bromium: all or nothing, anger, asthma, depression, splitting, quickly overheated, prostatitis, urinary urgency, recurrent cystitis, persistent sore throats.
Calcarea bromata: concern for others’ opinions, sensitive to criticism, insecurity, shyness, fears, overweight, protection, responsibility, withdrawal.
Magnesium bromatum: pacifism, aggression, fear of loss, pain; the invisible child, lost, abandoned, fear of conflict, alone and abandoned, dirty, craving for milk and cream.
Mercurius bromatus: exaggeration, overreaction, split, enemies, theft, impulses, danger lurking everywhere, impulsivity, fear of knives.
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Photos: Shutterstock
Black heart; Ursa Major - 176018120
Beaten little girl; ambrozinio - 370311011
Category: Cases
Keywords: physical and psychological abuse in childhood; depression; anger, terror; alcoholism; overeating; irritability; overweight; sleep disturbances; feeling of abandonment; invisible; impulse to steal; fear of knives; criminal behaviour; guilt, punishment
Remedies: Bromium, Calcarea bromata; Magnesium bromatum, Mercurius bromatus
