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LAMIACEAE ¦ PIPERACEAE
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
ANGELIKA BOLTE, JÖRG WICHMANN ¦
PIPER METHYSTICUM: PIPER NIGRUM: TEUCRIUM SCORODONIUM
a flood of ideas. I've put on weight again, turned into a fatty.
I compensated with sweet stuff. Grass [marijuana] makes me
very creative. Then, I'm an actor.”
ANALYSIS
Andreas says he has extremely creative phases when he is on
drugs and can keep an entire bar full of people entertained
for hours on end with music, stories, and jokes. He loses all
his inhibitions and can keep going all night. In this state of
excess he needs a variety of drugs, always alcohol, and lots of
sex – and he likes describing this in detail. He is addicted to all
this stimulation and keeps going during the necessary phases
of work with the anticipation of the upcoming excesses. He,
however, repeatedly ends up in the opposite state, when the
drugs do not give him the expected kick or his mood tips over
into listlessness. Let us listen to what he has to say again:
Patient:
“Anticipation is so awesome, and then, I'm instantly in
a good mood. The best thing is the anticipation. (…) Cocaine
and then withdrawal, with the computer, sunk in my thoughts,
sexual ones. But it's not so great. I'm happy when it's over. It
becomes the focus of my life. I repress the feeling of addiction
but that's such hard work. I've got no desire to be with people,
I'm totally fixated on the job so I don't need to escape to my
friends. I rarely meet up with them. Alcohol was often the key
to the outside. It was getting drunk. It's no longer such great
fun for me, I can't get it up. So many years on drugs. Totally
love cooking now – then I'm in the flow. Make music and have
ideas for writing. I'm pressured from all sides. I've no get-up and
go. Then, I just do sit-ups, I'm such a doer. Always the biggest
anticipation with coke. Drugs are a reward. Cooking is a minor
relaxation, I let myself go there. Like anticipating Christmas. I
like stimuli, jumping from one thought to the next. Major unrest
in me. Focus then through work that calms my head down. It's
all broken inside me, inner anarchy. I'm very tense. I'd like to
look forward to something, that'd be so nice, but the attractions
don't reach me. I'm not there. Even as a child, I was in such a
state of mind. I'm very afraid of constriction, cramped rooms,
and tight situations. I need a lot of freedom.”
Comments and prescription:
I could say a great deal more
about how he describes the states he gets into, his ideas, sen-
sations, and complaints, always told with great intensity and
each time differently. It would be easy to convincingly justify
a whole series of remedies from this cornucopia. Cases with
an excess of information can sometimes be more difficult to
clarify than the very meager ones. What is the essence here?
For years, he had repeatedly received – along with a series of
incorrect prescriptions – Medorrhinum, various drug remedies,
and Cantharis, which helped him in particular situations but
without getting to the root of the problem. Finally, it became
clear that the key to his remedy was not the particular “what”
of his experiences but rather the actual addiction to all this
stimulation. The common factor is that he experiences these
stimuli in an intensely sensuous way: drinking, sex, cooking, at
times also sports, various drugs, being in the flow, over-working
– whatever it is, the main thing is to experience it intensely and
sensuously as a pleasure.
Lamiaceae:
the remedy family with this vital sensation is the
Lamiaceae (also known as the Labiatae), a large plant family
full of well-known spices and medicinal herbs (3,200 species
in 200 genuses). These include thyme, mint, basil, oregano,
marjoram, rosemary, and melissa. Their vital sensation consists
of the polarity between intense, vibratory excitation, cheerful-
ness, flood of ideas, garrulousness, liveliness, singing, pleasure
on the one hand, and on the other, a lack of excitability, lack
of reaction to impressions, and stupor. Here, however, it is not
about mental stimulation and ideas, as with the Rubiaceae,
but rather about physically experienced stimuli, pleasure in the
corporeal sense, a feeling of elation.
Prescription:
Teucrium scorodonium
Follow-up:
the miasm for Andreas, with his impulse to constantly
flee from one situation to the next, and his ceaseless inner
restlessness was the tubercular, hence the prescribed remedy
Teucrium scorodonium. Repeated over the course of a year,
this remedy helped him to overcome his drug abuse and to ex-
perience his sensuality in a less destructive fashion. His working
habits became more regular and he enjoyed greater success, less
frustration and more financial security, so that he was less prone
to fleeing into excess, as he used to in the past. The change of
behavior benefited him and helped him to become more stable.
Another indication of returning health was that the skin irrita-
tions due to eczema almost completely disappeared and he felt
far less tension in his musculoskeletal system.
Comparison of Lamiacae, Piperaceae, and Rubiaceae
showing their differences
Lamiacae
–
Desire for excitation (physical)
stupor, daze
Piperaceae
–
Desire for amusement (emotional)
boredom
Rubiaceae
–
Desire for stimulation (mental)
stupor, overexcitation
The anthroposophical perspective:
it is especially interesting
to contrast and compare the Piperaceae and Lamiaceae, under-
standing their fundamental differences – despite the obvious
similarities in their homeopathic vital sensation. Both are spices
with an influence on our temperature regulation, although in
very different and opposed ways.
According to the anthroposophic viewpoint, our ego develop-
ment is fundamentally based on our quality as warm-blooded
organisms, which is why the spices – which affect this – have
such an impact on the organization of our selves. The Piperaceae