Spectrum 2018 02 Reptiles

SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY

Bénédicte Echard

¦ Dendroaspis polylepis

REPTILES

Comments on casetaking:

This is the story of a 28-year-

old-man who phoned to say that he did not dare to leave his

home. “I am afraid of not being able to avoid giving in to acts

of violence.” He shuts himself in for the whole weekend and

watches porn films, and he resorts to masturbation at the least

problem, several times per day, without being able to break out

of this routine.

CASE: 28-year-old man, disturbed impulse control and

social behaviour

What the patient says:

“I break things that I like, both my

games and other people. I feel like expressing my irritability

towards others, and that often transforms into aggression. I

don’t want to have to knock someone out in order to be the

winner. I feel this violence and I have rotten ideas in my head.

AUTHOR ¦ Bénédicte Echard

SUMMARY:

A case of Dendroaspis polylepis demon-

strates the inner contradiction and duality of snake

remedies in an extreme form: on the one hand, feel-

ings of omnipotence, manipulative behaviour, aggres-

sion, loss of control, and violence; on the other hand,

a pronounced lack of self-confidence with feelings of

subservience and the inferiority of a victim. With the

Elapidae we find especially the themes of wounding

and injury.

KEYWORDS:

addiction, aggression, cutting,

Den-

droaspis polylepis

, duality, Elapidae, masturbation,

reptiles, snakes, violence

(Gesture: fist.) As soon as anything bothers me a bit, I grasp it

and crush it to a pulp. I ruminate about something and I attack

the person like this

(gesture: fist punching forward rapidly)

and I

make them KO. I destroy them but that does not bring me relief.

“I’m not in my body; what I feel in my head is a sort of defence

system. It takes the foreground and I don’t manage to control it.

“At the moment I stay at home because as soon as I am with

others I become paranoid. I drink too much and I smoke joints.

I isolate myself in my corner. If I’m in a place I don’t like, I won’t

participate socially. I’m quick to judge people, to fight, to slap

people.

(Gesture: hand hitting)

I don’t stop. At the same time,

I say to my friends ‘I’m sorry, I can’t control myself.’ When I am

well I am very tolerant, but in other situations I can’t stand losing

power; I can’t stand not being right or having my arguments

contradicted. When that happens in private, they don’t expect

it – everything is going well then suddenly ‘paf!’, I bite.

(Gesture:

hand slashing forward rapidly.)

“I feel like including all of humanity in its complexity. I am for

everything and against everything; I am made of opposition. I

like to contradict, to be in opposition. The human soul fasci-

nates me.”

Questions about physical complaints:

“I have a knot in my

belly ever since I was small. (

Gesture: fist, sound: ‘ffffrrrrou’

I am flat-footed. I have a terrible fear: as soon as there is a

possible addiction, I will have it.

“I am an artist inside, but I experience it as something shameful,

it is not worthy. I have a false self-confidence. On the outside

I radiate strength, but on the inside I am always afraid. I want

honesty.”

The triptych ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hierony-

mus Bosch shows hell on the right panel. The depiction

of physical, sexual, and mental violence corresponds to

the patient’s inner life in this case.

I WANT TO SLASH THEM TO BITS

Dendroaspis polylepis: alternating between orgies of violence and powerlessness