Dr Vaishnavi A.S
Argentum metallicum or silver is one of the transition metals occupying the 5th period and 11th group on the periodic table. It is a deep acting remedy which is often overlooked by the practitioner as a first choice, especially in prescriptions for chronic cases. This work is an attempt to elaborate the evolution of the argentum personality so that we are better equipped as physicians to identify them.
PERFORMANCE AND SHOW
Silver is a showy metal, a showpiece of human society. Similarly, the theme of the row 5 of the periodic table where argentum belongs is creativity, facing the new, performance and need of appreciation in what they do. This is justified from the position of silver adjacent to well known palladium which longs for appreciation as well. Also, as the metals get heavier, they move into deeper and deeper performance. Due to this, performance, show and appreciation becomes the core of these remedies.
FEELING
“I will be appreciated only if I perform, in order to maintain this position of success, I must keep up this standard in every creative venture or performance”.
If they are successful, and their performance is tested, then their feeling is “Am I good enough?” There is anxiety about maintaining their position, as any bad performance will bring them down from their successful position.
CHILDHOOD
This feeling arises out of a circumstance in their childhood were they were forced by their parents to be a performer. They would only be accepted if they demonstrated their intellect, skill, talents and brain power.
EARLY STAGES
They are sensitive, easily excited, their mind works perfectly well with acuteness, exhibiting extreme clarity. They are argumentative and intelligent. In this stage they need contact and need to talk to others. They do this with great ease and excitement, the mind seems overstimulated in a nice way, with cheerful and optimistic feelings, but at the same time a certain fragility.
- Vivacity
- Desire to, talk to someone
- Concentration active
- Exhilaration
ORATORS
Silence is golden, speech is silver. Interestingly, they either have great love for gold or total contempt for it, sometimes referring to it disparagingly as the “Yellow Metal”. There is a constant need to perform and show through expression, either through voice, intellect or writing. They are inclined to talk a lot and argue for themselves and others, and win over the opposition. They debate until there is loss of mental power and an inability to think. They see themselves as a weak person internally who will be attacked unless they defend themselves. They analyze things rationally and logically , and also present their arguments articulately which makes them good speakers and they are often quoted.
A good orator is one who is said to be silver-tongued. Coincidentally, under the Mouth section in Hering we find: “Tongue has a silver coating”
- Loquacity: changing quickly from one subject to the other.
- Inclined to laughter and joking
- Increased cheerfulness and disposition to talk.
Professions: artist, painter, sculptor, actor, writer, singer, musician, teacher, scientist, doctor, priest, bishop, medicine man, vicar, governor, secretary, representative, advertising agent, public relations, sportsperson, lawyer or salesman.
FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS
They are rather ambitious and like to receive compliments. They love to be admired for their talent and they enjoy showing what they have created. Their ambition can only be appeased when they are the best.
They want to create beautiful things and thus make a valuable contribution to the general culture. They search for inspiration in dreams and fantasies, in stories, fairy tales and myths. They are extremely imaginative. Their complaints usually start when they can’t express their creativity.
- Ideas, abundant, clearness of mind.
IMPATIENCE FOR PERFECTION
The Argentum subject lives in a state of perpetual agitation, always feeling driven, never having enough time for what they want to do or feels they ought to get done, wanting to get a job finished as soon as it begun, darting off with unnecessary precipitation to carry out an assignment, and generating an atmosphere of turbulence, tiring and exasperating to their entourages, whether at home or at work. They neither can bear inefficiency in others nor can they wait for an appointment.
AILMENTS FROM:
Symptoms of the mind appear as a result of mental exertion, as in the cases of students or scholars, business men, lawyers or accountants overexerting their mental faculties, onanism.
LATER STAGES
A change is apparent after some years, causing the Argentum metallicum case to develop a need for a kind of seclusion or isolation, unwilling to talk to anybody. A sense of fatigue of the mind sets in, where the effort needed to make it function properly is just more than can be managed. The mind would appear to have been overtired by constant excitement.
They cannot do it any longer and collapse, the voice is lost, power is gone, they can’t live up to the expectation any longer. Alteration of states between “I am a high performer” and “I am not good enough, I can’t perform anymore, I am useless.”
The intellectual faculties are disturbed. There is an inability to think and general mental weariness, due to which they become increasingly nervous and sensitive to their surroundings. There is sudden memory loss without being able to remember what they had been looking for. A moment’s pause is needed to rethink the whole process, after which memory returns.
Pain of one kind or another is generally a predominant symptom which naturally disturbs and distracts the thinker. This makes them resort to palliatives which are more or less inhibitors of brain activity. This further dulls the intellect. The patient is fatigued but sleep doesnt help. They feel worse after sleep in the mornings.
- Mental exertion aggravates.
- Frontal headache of businessmen.
- Head pain, from mental exertion.
- Vertigo, mental exertion aggravates.
- Forgetfulness
ANXIETY
Emotional disturbances are also as a result of control slipping because of increasing awareness that their reason (on which he prides himself) cannot be trusted. When they feel forced to perform, there is both anger and fright; which is shared with Argentum nitricum which has anxiety before performance. Similar to Arg-n.: fear of high places, fear of narrow places, fear of crowds, anticipation, but more reserved, far less impulsive, a kind of restrained haughtiness, and chilliness.
They are anxious about their health, but reserved in expression and attitude, as they
try to compensate for their lack of self-confidence with refined manners.
They seem soft and yielding, but there is a dictatorial side underneath [wanting to show their abilities] which is only expressed at home.
- Anxiety-singer, public speakers
TACITURNITY
Similarly, in society they are not inclined to talk. In social gatherings they remain quiet and do not participate in discussions. They have lost confidence; fear to talk foolishly and on occasion if pressed may both say and do foolish things. The very fact of talking and giving his case history in detail are taxing activities, and indeed brings about an aggravation of his condition. Their state of health is so precarious that the mind can easily become confused, or even dizzy or intoxicated, from small provocations, slight stress or minor fright. If compelled to answer he becomes dizzy, and feels strange all over, and has nervous shakes or shocks.
- Talk, indisposed to, desire to be silent, taciturn.
- Exertion, from mental, aggravates.
- Prostration of mind
- Work, mental, impossible.
- Prostration of mind, mental exhaustion, brain fag
- Mental exertion aggravates.
- Feeling of gloominess in the head, as if smoke were in the brain.
- As if stupid and hollow in the head.
- Delusion as if head were falling out of bed.
ONANISM
In the sexual sphere of this remedy, the general pattern of over excitation drives the young person to masturbation and is followed by depression. There is a sense that the pleasure and the release must be had immediately; there is no stamina, no real drive, but only the excitement and the pleasure, after which they feel exhausted and full of pains in the joints.
Men eventually become impotent, their genitalia seem to shrivel and they have no urge for sex. Eventually there is sexual adynamia with seminal emissions almost every night, but without erections, while in some cases there is atrophy of the penis. Due to the tiredness inherent to this remedy, women develop an aversion to sexual intercourse. Strong ailments from onanism.
- Atrophy of penis after orgasm
- Pollution’s, after masturbation
- Erection, wanting, with sexual desire
- Erection, wanting, stultified by sudden laxness of penis
- Pollution, without dreams
- Pollution, without erection
- Pollution, frequent
- Seminal emission almost every night.
- Sexual desire, diminished
- Sexual desire, increased, without erections
- Sexual desire, wanting
PATHOLOGY REFLECTED
Slowly, over time, the mind and body give up the struggle and go into deep-seated degeneration. The organs that they require for performance and show are the ones chiefly affected. They develop vocal cord nodules, and can hardly sing or speak. Their cartilages and condyles become thick and so they cannot move freely; the limbs feel powerless, become tired, weak and emaciated. Writer’s cramps is also an expression of an ailing Argentum metallicum.
Nutrition suffers, bodily weight goes down and the patient becomes thin and sickly with a worn out face, tired look, and weak voice, looking older than they are.
- Anger, from cough
- Anguish, clothing too tight when walking in open air
- Anxiety, about health
- Anxiety, health
- Anxiety, laryngitis
- Full of cares, worries, in laryngitis
INSANITY
In this failed state, they have no control over their mind, voice or movement, and can even do unaccountable things. Then they present with over excitement, with rapid talking, nonsensical prattling reaching a wild stage where they cannot be restrained, even hitting out and striking those around in a rage. A similar state of delirium can develop after fever, epilepsy, or severe pains. They lose their mental power and becomes almost insane.
- Confusion of mind during heat
- Excitement during pain.
- Fear, of apoplexy.
- Impulse to jump, after epilepsy
- Irritability, waking
- Rage, after convulsions
- Rage, during pain
- Striking, in epilepsy
ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPTS OF HAMERS THEORY: GERMAN NEW MEDICINE
We see that the main sphere of action of the remedy is articulations and their component elements, bones, cartilages, and ligaments. The biological conflict linked to the bones and joints is a severe self-devaluation conflict or loss of self-worth.
Self-devaluation is reflected on the elbow, when not able to perform in sports (tennis, squash), playing a musical instrument (violin, cello). If they are not able to keep up a performance in sports (having lost a game, being put on the reserve bench, humiliating remarks by an instructor, not performing up to our standards or the expectations of a coach, parent, or spouse), it causes difficulty in walking or climbing stairs thereby affecting the knee.
There maybe involuntary contractions of fingers, partial paralysis of forearm or writer’s cramp in Wrist, Hands, and Fingers caused by dexterity conflict due to failing a manual task or a poor manual performance. Those whose self-confidence relies predominantly on their manual achievements, whose occupation requires fine motor skills (surgeons, dental hygienist, jewelers) and finger dexterity (typing, needlework, playing a musical instrument such as the guitar or the piano) are more likely to suffer this type of self-devaluation conflict.
From the above, conclusions can be drawn that, Argentum metallicum is a striving performer, who wants to achieve and be praised by others and he does this as long as he abuses his organs and end up losing his ability to remain sane.
References:
- https://learninggnm.com/SBS/documents/sbs_index.html
- introduction to principles of homoeopathy by c.e wheeler
- materia medica viva by george vithoulkas
- vermeulen prisma materia medica
- homoeopathy and the elements by scholten
- the substance of homoeopathy by sankaran.r
- the soul of remedies by sankaran.r
- agitated argentums by farokh master
- structure-experience with the mineral kingdom by sankaran.r
- boerickes new manual of homoeopathic materia medica with repertory
Dr Vaishnavi A.S
Md Part 1Department Of Materia Medica
Government Homoepathic Medical College Bengaluru
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