Evolution of aurum arsenicum personality

Dr Vinod Kalmgera

Introduction
The prototype of the precious metals has always been gold. The normal earthly processes tend to eliminate the metallic state of existence, to destroy its lustre, permanence, malleability and firmness, through rust, weathering, oxidation and calcification, but they are powerless to do any of this to gold. The individual metals are deemed to be more or less precious according to the extent to which they retain the cosmic aspect of their nature. Gold, the most precious metal, simply cannot lose its cosmic aspect.

Paradoxically, although gold is rare and precious, it is widely prevalent. It appears everywhere, albeit in finest distribution. In the strata that can be chemically investigated with our present methods, it is present in the ninth decimal potency [1:109] or one part per 100,000,000. Seawater contains it in about the seventh decimal potency. Granite contains about one part in a million. The more silicic acid the rock contains, the richer it generally is in gold. Only a small part of all this gold is recoverable. Almost all of it serves only to ‘homoeopathize’ the earth with gold.

Gold enters readily into company with quartz and colours it delicately, although because of its own aristocratic nature it does not combine with it materially. Thus, there are veins of pure gold quartz ore. In its liking for silica’s relation to light and form, gold reveals its own kinship with the light. They form the ‘old’ gold formations.

Arsenic behaves as a transitional element between metals and metalloids. It actually has no shape and only exists as a kind of dust. It is in a constant state of decay and disintegration. For that reason, it is seldom encountered in nature as a compact mass, but always in small amounts as a by-product of metals such as gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.

CAUSATION
This remedy state seems created by unfortunate circumstances, very often in childhood, when a person’s need for love, attention and security is strongest. The child grew up in an environment that was perceived as insecure. Often this was created by an alcoholic father. Members of the family never knew when he would come home, what condition he would be in and what kind of trouble was waiting (Anxiety about others; Fear, something will happen). This created the Arsenicum state of insecurity and anxiety. In these cases, the Aurum state was probably caused by suppressed anger towards the father and shame and the guilty feeling that this situation frequently causes.

The Aurum Arsenicum state can also be created in an adult when a person lives for a long time in an insecure environment

It seems that an insecure life situation coupled with suppression of anger can create the depressed and anxious state of Aurum Arsenicum. The person has the typical Aurum depression where self-confidence and self-worth are greatly diminished, together with a strong feeling of guilt and self-reproach

ARSENICUM SYMPTOMS
From Arsenicum album comes dependency and insecurity together with the well-known anxiety state: the patient has fear of being alone, desire for company, anxiety about others, about trifles, on anticipation, about health and despair of recovery. Their anxiety creates strong internal restlessness where they have to move and the anxiety is ameliorated by motion. (Synthesis, mind, page 18: anxiety, motion amel). Like Arsenicum album and other remedies containing the Arsenicum element these individuals are often clinging and dependent on others, the prescriber included. Like Arsenicum album this remedy is fastidious.

AURUM SYMPTOMS
 In these cases, the Aurum part of the state is probably caused by the suppressed anger and hatred towards the father and the shame and the guilty feeling that this situation frequently causes. The individuals needing Aurum arsenicum all had a depressive state with Aurum metallicum characteristics. The patients that needed this remedy had in common deep suffering and deep pathology on the emotional plane.

In these cases, the patient had peculiar and characteristic symptoms both from Aurum metallicum and Arsenicum album seen together at the same time a depressed state with Aurum characteristics and an anxiety state with Arsenicum characteristics.

THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES

• It could be said that the main features of this remedy are depression with restlessness, particularly if the time of aggravation is during the night. The Aurum arsenicum case is tired and goes to sleep in order to relax and instead the restlessness supervenes and forces him to get up and pace up and down. There are depressing thoughts and an anxiety which make him feel that he has done something wrong. A guilty conscience is characteristic of this remedy. The Aur-ars. patient is one who is angry about himself and about others. He is critical of himself and constantly finding fault with others.
• He is a hard individual, hard with himself and others. He is hard working, precise, conscientious but without many feelings. His mental faculties are clear but the emotions are hardened, and in the same way the glands, the liver, etc. are also indurated. Sometimes he will be almost malicious in his conduct with others, and in the same way the hardened glands will sometimes become malignant. Malignancy and cancer run through this remedy.
• The lymphatic glands that have as their main action the purification of the organism do not function properly; they become hardened and retain toxins that poison the whole system. Anger and irritability prevail in the initial stages of this pathology, and later on evolve to the level of suicidal depression.
• Easily offended, the Aurum arsenicum patient is closed in upon himself, he often will not communicate with others, but is ready to criticise himself and others. Once he is angered, he becomes withdrawn and sulky and refuses to talk. He will think about the situation and will probably come to the conclusion that everything is his own fault; his anger at himself will then aggravate his physical symptomatology. It is an anger that turns inwards, it is self-destructive. He tends to reproach himself thinking he has done something wrong. If this continues, he finds himself in a state of depression with suicidal thoughts and impulses; during such time he will have the impulse to jump out of the window, particularly if he is in a state of grief. He grows weary of life and tends to a suicidal disposition, particularly during perspiration. This state is characterized by sadness in the evening, or sadness from suppressed menses. But Aurum arsenicum will not have the tendency to commit suicide to the same degree as Aurum metallicum.
• Sexually she or he is very active but soon his or her sexuality turns to deviations, she or he develops perverted desires. This sexuality is dominated by the mental faculties; thinking interferes with the sexual act; therefore, the sexual relationship becomes one that gives only physical and not emotional pleasure. Romance and the erotic element are missing. Such individuals give the impression that they are totally detached in a relationship, that they are not emotionally committed, and they exhibit an indifference to others bordering on hardness. But all along they can perform sexually, even committing sexual excesses. This remedy is one that fits the kind of state which comes about after the practice of excessive sexual perversions; sexual excesses, or excessive masturbation produce mental symptoms.
• Aurum arsenicum will suit a certain group of homosexuals, whose health has been undermined by repeated syphilitic infections. They are anaemic, they have an obstinate catarrh of the nose and hardening of the lymphatic glands; they suffer from guilt, they are perverted in their thinking and sexual practices. They are emotionally hardened and display a certain amount of malice.
• The remedy is an example of a certain contemporary group of people with syphilitic ancestry, where the disease has left its mark upon the deepest recesses of the human organism. You will notice a kind of stubbornness in certain ideas or principles, a kind of perverted thinking that borders on fanaticism. Their out of the way thinking will perhaps lead them to mental aberrations or insanity, often taking a religious turn. Religious fanatics, health fanatics, political fanatics, and over-conscientious types who develop goitre and exophthalmos can be classed under this remedy.
• This remedy makes the individual deviate from straight thinking. He plunges into little details; he is industrious but you feel as though something were wrong with the way he perceives things. You do not see the normal emotions and thoughts of a healthy individual, you see the thoughts and emotions of someone whose mental faculties and powers of understanding are perverted; not lack of clarity, but perversion. You see underneath all this behaviour, the insidious, destructive action of inherited or acquired syphilis.
• Contradiction is intolerable and will anger them so much as to cause real and severe symptomatology.
• Despair is another state characteristic of this remedy. Despair that he will never be well, that he will not even be well in the other world. His guilt leads him to fear condemnation and damnation. It is despair with anguish. These are truly complicated and many-faceted individuals.
• Sometimes fears prevails: fear in the night; in a crowd. Fear of death and of heart disease. The symptoms become worse when he thinks of them. Fear of people, and when alone.

The patient can have Aurum type suicidal thoughts, but more commonly the depression is expressed like this:

• The patient feels worthless, he may say or think: ‘It would be better if I were no longer on this planet, I have no mission, no usefulness on this earth, I feel like a burden to my family.

Other characteristics from Aurum Met. seen in patients cured by Aurum Arsenicum:

• The feeling that they will fail in their undertakings (Delusion, fail, everything, will).
• A great fear of failure and excessive sense of guilt (Delusion, wrong, has done).
• Also, sometimes, the feeling they have not done their work properly (Delusion, neglected his duty, he has).
• A depression with forsaken feeling the feeling that nobody cares about them anymore (Delusion, affection of friends, has lost).
• Depression amel. by music. The depression of Aurum and Aurum Arsenicum can be periodical.

From Arsenicum comes dependency and insecurity together with the well-known anxiety state: the patient has anxiety about others, about trifles, on anticipation, about health, despair of recovery. The anxiety creates internal restlessness where the patient has to move, and the anxiety is ameliorated by motion. Like Arsenicum this remedy is also fastidious.

In all cases where this remedy has acted successfully the patient had peculiar and characteristic symptoms from both Aurum and Arsenicum – a depressed state with Aurum characteristics together with the characteristic Arsenicum-anxiety – an Aurum- and Arsenicum state existing simultaneously. In some cases, we find traits of the Aurum constitution like excessive sense of duty and honour, very serious, perfectionism; in others it is more the patients way of thinking and feeling that indicates Aurum; an Aurum state, not an Aurum constitution.

To prescribe a combination remedy we can apply the following rule: When a combination of states is seen, and each of the two states can be confirmed by repertory rubrics and from the materia medica, the combination remedy covering both states will act successfully. And: ‘a specific keynote for the combined remedy always has to be present in order to prescribe it’.

An important aspect of this remedy is found in patients with a history of suppressed emotions – especially anger and grief. Often when this remedy is needed we have given Aurum-met, Ignatia or Nat-mur. before.

In most of the Aurum Arsenicum cases the chief complaints immediately told in the interview were anxiety and depressions. In other cases the psychological state was more hidden, the patient first telling about physical complaints like headache, fibrositis and rheumatism.

With regard to food cravings a desire for sweets, usually chocolate, is frequently seen. In only a few of these cases have I found the Arsenicum aversion to cold drinks. Aur-ars can be both warm or chilly, generally more on the chilly side. Usually these generalities are of little help, it’s the internal state with its characteristics that leads to the remedy.

This remedy like all other combination remedies has its own picture – the combination becomes more than just characteristics from Aurum and Arsenicum seen together. Aurum Arsenicum patient can be much more sensitive and sympathetic than its two components. This sensitivity comes from an underlying unresolved layer of grief, often needing Ignatia as the next remedy. However, many patients show the more selfish attitude from Arsenicum thinking: ‘glad it isn’t me’, when seeing others suffering and in trouble. A sensitivity towards and an avoidance of discords and quarrels are often found. The reason behind this is a great lack of self-confidence. They do not know what to say, how to express themselves. Sometimes they can defend others, but not themselves.

COMPARISON
In some of these cases I first prescribed Aurum or Arsenicum with temporary effect. Its fastidiousness can make this remedy look similar to Carcinosinum. The characteristic Aurum state of self-reproach and guilt can also be prominent in the Carcinosinum picture because both have a strong sense of duty and perfectionism. In Aurum duty and perfectionism have to do with work, in Carcinosinum it includes everything. Like Aurum and Carcinosinum this remedy can have ailments from suppressed anger. The Carcinosinum patients avoid confrontations out of their great need for peace and harmony. The main distinction with Aurum is that the Aur-ars patient is much more anxious than Aurum. In Aurum we often see a withdrawal from other people when feeling bad. Usually in Aurum Arsenicum (due to the Arsenicum element) the patient will have a desire for company.

The main distinction from Aurum metallicum is that the Aurum arsenicum patient is much more anxious than Aurum metallicum. Aurum muriaticum natronatum can be a difficult differential. Both remedies have a similar causation and the emotional picture has many similarities. The Aurum muriaticum natronatum state can have several causes included a dysfunctional and insecure family situation caused by alcohol. In my experience Aurum muriaticum natronatum is frequently indicated, where Aurum arsenicum seems to be a small remedy and therefore more rarely needed.

MIND RUBRICS AND THEIR MIASMS

PSORA	SYCOSIS	SYPHILIS
RESTLESS ANXIETY MIND – ANXIETY – daytime MIND – ANXIETY – conscience; anxiety of MIND – ANXIETY – fear; with MIND – ANXIETY – salvation, about	MIND – FEAR MIND – FEAR – evening MIND – FEAR – night MIND – FEAR – alone, of being MIND – FEAR – crowd, in a MIND – FEAR – death, of MIND – FEAR – evil; fear of MIND – FEAR – people; of MIND – CENSORIOUS	MIND – -CONTRADICTION AGGRAVATION MIND – -DESPAIR OF RECOVERY MIND – ANXIETY – night MIND – MENTAL EXERTION – agg. MIND – INSANITY, madness MIND – INSANITY, madness – drunkards, in MIND – INSANITY, madness – fanatics, of \MIND – INSANITY, madness – religious MIND – IRRESOLUTION, indecision MIND – IRRITABILITY – alternating with – cheerfulness MIND – IRRITABILITY – chill, during MIND – IRRITABILITY – spoken to, when MIND – LAMENTING MIND – LOATHING – life MIND – INDIFFERENCE, apathy – children, to her MIND – INDIFFERENCE, apathy – duties; to – domestic, MIND – HOMOSEXUALITY MIND – EXCITEMENT – chill – during MIND – FANATICISM MIND – FANCIES – absorbed in MIND – FANCIES – exaltation of MIND – DELUSIONS – animals MIND – DELUSIONS – fancy, illusions of MIND – DELUSIONS – head – no head; there were MIND – DELUSIONS – insulted, he is MIND – DELUSIONS – wrong – done wrong; he has MIND – DESPAIR MIND – DESPAIR – chill, during MIND – DESPAIR – pains, with the

REFERENCES

1. F—Concordant Materia Medica
2. F—Synoptic Materia Medica
3. Vithoulkas Materia Medica Viva
4. Synthesis Repertory

Dr Vinod Kalmgera
PG Scholar-Materia Medica Department
Govt.Homoeopathic Medical College And Hospital Bengaluru-79

Under Guidance Of
Dr. Ashok Kumar Dantkale.
Professor-Materia Medica Department
Govt.Homoeopathic Medical College And Hospital Bengaluru-79